Being a nutritionist, people seem to assume that I only ever eat healthy food and drink water. Well, I am the same as everyone else, I like to enjoy myself, and I did on my birthday. No I didn't get 'wasted', but I had a few drinks, some birthday cake, just the usual stuff. Is that one night of neglecting my diet going to ruin my goals? make me fat? make my body get rid of some muscle mass? NO!!
If you try and stick to your diet while at your birthday or a wedding, saying no to cake, unhealthy food and booze, you're not exactly going to be enjoying yourself are you. Your friends will be having a good time, and you will be worrying too much about not eating and drinking certain things. Whereas if you 'let your hair down' and have a good time (don't go crazy) then you won't be stressing, you will enjoy yourself, and you are not going to wreck your diet from an evening of 'cheating'. It's not like what you eat and drink is permanent, you can burn off it off after.
I'm not going to lie, I did feel a bit 'guilty' after my birthday evening, but end of the day, I enjoyed myself, had fun, and I'm back to working out and eating healthy as usual. While being healthy and keeping fit is important (I know that to some people, fitness is everything) but there are more important things in life, and I'm sure you will regret it if you don't join in the fun at special occasions, or not even bother going because you don't want to get tempted with bad food and alcohol.
So, to very quickly sum up - celebrating a birthday, wedding, or any other occasion, will NOT wreck your fitness goals.
Lee Gregory Fitness
