Summer is here! Warm weather, pool parties and the smell of meat cooking on the grill makes summer truly the best time of year! With summer comes cookouts and BBQs, filled with watermelon, chips, high carb breads, sugary drinks and other sweets. To help you stick with your low carb lifestyle and still have a good time at these parties, we have put together a list of 8 helpful tips to help you survive!
1. BRING YOUR OWN BUNS!
The most common foods served at any cookout has to be hamburgers and hotdogs. What comes with these delicious grilled meats are usually high carb, junky buns. Yes, you can opt to skip the bun, but why deprive yourself?!
LC Foods provides fresh baked solutions for this dilemma! How about bringing your own low carb rolls? You can even bring extra to share! Try our Fresh Baked Hamburger Rolls, Low Carb Slider Rolls or Fresh Baked Hot Dog Rolls, delivered right to your doorstep.
2. KNOW YOUR FRUITS
Avoid fruits high in sugar such as grapes, bananas, kiwis or cherries and look for fruit lower in sugar such as blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries. Download our free low carb pocket guide HERE to help you decide which fruits to skip and which fruits to indulge! Also, check out our Summer Produce Guide.
3. DRINKING ALCOHOL
This can be a hard task to accomplish, especially when everyone else is drinking, but if you can limit or avoid alcoholic beverages altogether, you can save yourself from consuming more carbs than you intended! If you do have a drink, go for a low carb beer such as Budweiser Select 55 with only 1.9g carbs, Michelob Ultra with 2.6g carbs per bottle. Miller Lite is also another good option coming in at 3.2g carbs. If wine is an option, choose a dry wine, as these tend to be lower in sugar averaging in at around 3.5g carbs per 5oz. Most spirits are low or no carb, but beware of mixers! Choose seltzers, which often contain no carbs at all, but stay away from soft drinks, fruit juices and tonic water. Cheers!
4. BRING YOUR OWN CONDIMENTS
Condiments such as conventional ketchup and relish are loaded with sugar. Make or buy your own and bring them along! Most grocery stores now carry sugar free condiments.
5. SAY NO TO SUGARY DRINKS
1 can of soda packs 33g of sugar or high fructose corn syrup and diet soda is packed with harmful artificial sweeteners. Drink seltzer water and flavor it with fresh berries for a delicious and fruity low carb drink!
6. STAY HYDRATED
Drink lots of water! This will help you reduce your carbohydrate cravings and keep you hydrated in the hot summer weather! Water will also fill you up, keeping you from that second or third helping.
7. BRING YOUR OWN BAKED GOODS
LC Foods offers party-friendly baked goods from brownies to cookies. If you bring a low carb dessert to the party, there is sure to be a dessert there you can eat…Yours! Check out all of our baked goods HERE!
8. SAY NO TO PASTA OR POTATO SALADS
These salads are extremely high in carbs! Opt for a green salad, make a pasta salad with our Low Carb Pasta or substitute cauliflower or turnips for potatoes! We even created several low carb pasta salad recipes for you to use!