Let’s face it. Winter is a season when the vacation calories tend to add up quickly. Luscious bisques, gingerbread and steamy, cold-weather cocktails stand ready to derail our diet plans at every turn. While you may not want to keep too close an eye on your calorie consumption during your vacation, there are some simple ways you can shave off a few. Whether you use that extra wiggle room to work in that post-dinner cheesecake is entirely up to you.
• Sipping: Choosing your mixer carefully is one way to save calories while sipping your favorite spirit. Tomato juice for example, allows for a tasty mixed vodka drink with far fewer calories than an orange juice equivalent. Similarly, remembering to ask for diet tonic water instead of regular with your gin is a slimming choice. If the venue you’re visiting doesn’t carry diet tonic water, consider replacing it altogether with soda water. Skipping the mixer completely is another winning way to watch your waistline. Bourbon, infused vodkas and red wine are all options you can use with this strategy. The fact that they are meant to be sipped and enjoyed slowly means thrift is naturally built in to the experience.
• Supper: There’s nothing wrong with ordering a memory-making entrée on a trip, but there’s belt room to be carved out with disciplined choices for the first course. Skipping the deep-fried appetizer in favor of a cup of the vegetable soup or a small house salad can take the hunger pains off just as well.
I’ll be the first to admit I could be more consistent with this myself. At a recent date dinner with my husband at P.F. Chang’s, however, I transcended my obsession with their fried green beans and opted for the steamed edamame instead. I have no idea if I’ll be so disciplined next time, but I felt good about making the choice in the moment. Other options for vacation-worthy dining include opting for the sorbet instead of the ice cream, the baked potato instead of the fries, and ordering your salad dressing on the side.
• Snacks: Because we travel a great deal with our dog, we tend to snack a fair bit in the room rather than find a pet-friendly happy hour at the end of a long day on the highway. Grabbing a tub of hummus or guacamole to pair with a package of pre-washed green beans and some ridged carrot slices gives us a satisfying treat without the calories from potato chips.
We’ve also shaved calories by opting for mini pretzels over flavored crackers, packing pitted dates and grabbing packages of almonds and walnuts from the baking aisle of the nearest grocery store to our hotel. Don’t get me wrong. We do go out fairly often for late afternoon snacks. However, when both time and energy are in short supply it pays to have a few basic food strategies in your repertoire.
Myscha Theriault / Tribune News Service