Staying Healthy During Football Season: Tailgate & Game Day Tips

Football season is here!! And with it comes tailgates, watch parties, and endless snacks. In this episode, I share practical, realistic strategies to enjoy the games without derailing your health goals. From balancing all of the yummy food and drinks with your health goals, you’ll learn how to navigate game day food, drinks, and social gatherings without the guilt.

Whether you’re at a tailgate, hosting a watch party, or just cheering from the couch, this episode will help you stay on track while still having fun. Say goodbye to the all-or-nothing mindset and hello to enjoying football season with confidence.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• How to eat before a tailgate or party so you don’t arrive starving.
• Smart ways to enjoy your favorite game day foods without overdoing it.
• Simple strategies to pair carbs with protein and manage cravings.
• Tips for staying hydrated and mindful with alcohol.
• How to bounce back after overindulging without guilt.
• Ways to focus on the fun of the game instead of obsessing over food.

Who This Episode Is For:

• Anyone who struggles with food choices during football season.
• Women looking to break the all-or-nothing mindset around indulgences.
• Tailgaters, party hosts, and game-day snackers who want healthier strategies.

Listen and learn how to enjoy football season without guilt while still staying on track with your health goals!

💌 Connect With Laura:

1. Website: Health Coach for Teachers & Busy, Working Women
2. Instagram: LAURA B. | Teacher turned Health Coach | Podcaster🎙️ (@laura.b.healthy) • Instagram photos and videos
3. TikTok: Laura B. | Health Coach (@laura.b.healthy) | TikTok

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hey ladies, welcome back to another episode of the Isn't She Powerful podcast. I am so excited to have you here today. I'm going to be talking about football season. If you follow me on Instagram or TikTok, you know that every single Sunday I post a healthier football watching appetizer on those two platforms. I've been doing it for the past two years and it was something that seemed to get a lot of engagement. A lot of people really liked it and so I've stuck with it. My husband is the most annoying person when it comes to football. I love him to death. and actually in my wedding vows to him I put in there I vow to love you through football season because he can be exhausting when it comes to football and like he wants to watch he doesn't just watch the game that has his team in it that he pulls for he wants to watch every single game for the entire weekend so Thursday night all day Saturday all day Sunday Monday night and it can be very exhausting for me on my end of it and so I tried to schedule things around it I tried to schedule and schedule some of my work calls during that time. I have tried to make it a little bit more exciting, and that's one of the reasons why I started doing the Healthier Football Watching Appetizers, was because I just needed something to kind of help keep me in it, because we just sit around all day on Saturdays and Sundays, and I'm like, jeez, I just need something to do. I just need something to do. And a lot of times, we all turn to food when we're feeling that boredom, when we're like, oh my gosh, I've been sitting around all day. I need something to do. That means that we just go grab a snack out of the pantry something like that, something quick, easy, chips or something that is just easy to grab and that's not always in alignment with the health goals that we have for ourselves. And so whether you're somebody who has a life similar to mine or your husband is like a diehard Cowboys fan or whatever it is, I don't know why I say Cowboys, but whether he's like a diehard fan of your team and so he's always going to be sitting in front of the TV watching that game, maybe he invites friends over, maybe you guys are going to the games, maybe you just need some ways to not let that day in this time of year be one of those things that just pulls you away from the goals that you have. I want this episode to kind of just serve as a platform of information for you where you can be like, okay, I just want you to take one or two of the things that I share in this episode. One or two of these things is what's going to stand out to you the most. And so just take one or two of these things, run with them during this football season, and allow these things to help keep you on track a little bit more. I'm going to be talking today, sharing just like some more practical things and also some mindset shifts. So I'm excited to get to have this conversation with you and I'm ready to dig into it. So let's go. Welcome to the Isn't She Powerful podcast. I'm your host, Laura B, health coach, educator, and founder of the Be Healthy Lifestyle. I'm here to bring you all the health education and motivation so that you can sign off each week feeling equipped and and empowered to tackle all of your health goals. Come along with me as I teach you the basics of healthy living so that you can have everyone in your life saying, isn't she powerful? The idea for this episode actually came up recently. One of the girls that's in the most recent round of Seismic Shift was saying that it was going to be a challenging day and she was going to be leaning on our group chat for a little bit of support and accountability because she had a party going on at her house for the first opening weekend of football season. And so she was like, I know I'm going to be struggling during that time. And so I'm going to lean on this group a little bit more. And I was thinking, what are some things that I do to help keep me on track and some other things that work, not just for like football parties but just parties in general when there's like uh you know a community table where everybody just kind of picks you grab one chip with dip over here you grab one weenie with i call them weenies some people call them hot dogs my husband thinks it's weird that i call them weenies anyway a hot dog with barbecue sauce on it or whatever you know you grab the little things and you're just kind of grazing and picking at stuff um and that can make it hard to stay on track when that's going on so one is accountability have some kind of accountability and that's why groups like seismic shift my group coaching program are so beneficial but I also just want to reassure you that this one day this one game this one situation is not gonna make or break your progress it can if you allow it to if you are going to a tailgate on Saturday for a college team and then you let that Saturday turn into a Sunday and then you know you spend the whole weekend feeling that bad about what you did and and just going all in on eating all of this junk food because you already messed up. So you might as well just finish off the weekend and you can restart on Monday. If you allow it to become something that sets you back, then it will. But if you just remind yourself, this is one day, it's one game, it's one situation, it might not be perfect and that's a-okay. It doesn't have to be perfect. I can keep going. I can keep showing up. And whether that mean that you do one or two things during this tailgate and some of the other things, they kind of fall to the side. Or whether that mean, you know what, Saturday is a day and Sunday I'm gonna get right back into my healthy habits it can look different for every single person it doesn't have to look the same and it doesn't have to mean that you have to completely derail completely go off the deep end and then start back over again later there is no starting over it's just continuing okay so I want you to really remind yourself that you're there to have fun and if you're sitting there you know beating yourself up over I shouldn't be eating this oh my gosh this is so fun from my health goals. Oh my gosh, the scale is going to go up tomorrow. If you're like beating yourself up the whole time, then it's just not enjoyable. These days and these times and these times with friends and all this, it's meant to be fine. That's why all of this started in the first place. And so allow it to be fine. And if that means that, you know, you do one or two things that help keep you in alignment on the day and the rest is a wash, then okay. If that makes you feel good, then do that. If that means that the whole day is a wash and the next day you start over and you continue you on with your health goals on Sunday, okay, let it be that way. But it doesn't have to be this like super rigid thing where you're not even having fun. You're so obsessed with what you are or aren't eating. You're so obsessed with I can't eat that, I shouldn't eat that, or you're feeling guilty over the things that you are eating. Just allow yourself to have some fun and remind yourself that it's just this one day, okay? So I want to share with you some like I guess practical tips, some like tangible do these, do this type things. that are going to really be beneficial during these parties, tailgates, whatever it might look for you. And honestly, most of the time it's just me and my husband at home. And so even though we're not going to a party or getting together with a bunch of people, I still apply these things and I still do these things. So even if it's just you and one other person, or even if it's just you sitting at home, these things apply the same. So the first one is if you're going to a party or you're having people over, make sure that you eat something before you go. A lot of times what I see people do is they like to save up their calories and it just does not work that way. Okay so skipping meals before going to a situation like this where you're going to be surrounded by a lot of food is going to lead to a lot of food noise when you get there because you're on the way there or you're 30 minutes out from people arriving to your house and you're starting to get really hungry and you're just going to be munching either while you're waiting maybe on the way or as soon as that food is available, you're going to start eating a lot of food really fast. So not only does it backfire, but also our bodies are digesting the food constantly, right? Like you eat the food, it goes into your body, it digests it, and then there's space again. So there is no like, I'm saving room for dessert. I'm saving room for this. That's not how it works. And so just eat before you go. I promise you, you're going to be in such a better headspace. You're going to have so much more control around the food and whether that mean that you eat breakfast yes I want you to eat breakfast on these days before you go do this or whether that mean that maybe you have a snack an hour before or 30 minutes before this party tailgate get-together thing and maybe that thing that meal or snack is something that is in alignment with your goals you have something that has some protein some fiber to it that's gonna make sure that you are feeling really good it's gonna fuel you for success and then you can go and enjoy some of this other stuff that maybe is isn't directly in alignment with your goals. So please, number one thing, is stop trying to save up. It doesn't work. That's not logical. It's not really how your body works at all. So stop trying to save up before you go and make room for more food. Maybe even bring a healthier dish with you. That's why I started making the Healthier Football Watching appetizers, because I want you to have these options of things that you can take that are still delicious food, but are still also in alignment with your goals. So maybe if you're going to a party, going to a tailgate, you go scroll. It's easier on TikTok if you have a TikTok. Go over to my TikTok and look at the top of the page. There's a little gray button and it says healthier appetizers or healthier football foods or something like that. You'll see it up there. It says something about football in it and you click on that one and then you'll see it's like 25 things that I've made at this point, 25 different videos and options for you of healthier football watching foods, okay? So maybe you take one of those with you or you plan to make sure that one of those are at this party so that you have something that's not just like a veggie tray because sure you know you might like the veggie tray but the veggie tray is gonna get boring whenever you're tempted by all of this other stuff that's a lot more exciting to eat and so bring something that still is exciting to eat but also isn't gonna stray too far from alignment with your goals If you're on a weight loss journey, you're going to want to hear this. Weight loss does not have to mean restriction and endless tracking of all of your calories and all of your macros. In my free weight loss guide, I share the exact portion sizes that you should be following that work for weight loss, and I give you easy recipes that use those exact portion sizes. You'll walk away knowing how to build healthy, well-balanced meals that actually keep you full, make you feel satisfied, and get you moving towards your weight loss goals. You can download it right now using the link in the show notes. The next thing to be really intentional about when it comes to the eating is not having carbs alone. So not just eating a plate of chips or something like that, making sure that you're pairing them with something. So the reason that this is important is because of our blood sugar balancing. And if we end up getting imbalanced blood sugar, it's harmful to our bodies in a lot of ways. If you're on a weight loss journey, our weight loss completely stalls whenever our blood sugar is imbalanced. And so if you get this huge blood sugar spike from eating carbs on an empty stomach, stomach, then it's going to lead to not having any weight loss success at all for that particular day. It's not like that's going to last for weeks and weeks or anything like that. But it's possible to lose weight on days like this if you are intentional and have a little bit of flexibility with how you're approaching what you're doing when it comes to these games. And so making sure that you're pairing your carbs with something really helps that blood sugar. And when you do that, that helps get rid of your cravings as well. And so if you're eating carbs on an empty stomach that spikes the blood sugar and when the blood sugar then drops that leads to you wanting more of that food even if you're not hungry you're still going to feel the sensation of wanting to eat more carbs wanting to eat sugar you're still going to feel those sensations because your blood sugar is dropping and so making sure that you're pairing those carbs with a protein is going to really help to avoid that so if you're just having nachos or chips add some kind of protein like chicken or black beans or cheese if that's something that you can have to help keep your blood sugar stable and keep those cravings down. This next one is probably one that I find the most beneficial and most important and that is to not graze but to get a plate and actually put your food on the plate rather than just sitting here grabbing a chip out of the bowl, grabbing this, grabbing that and it's just like kind of picking at stuff. The reason that's bad for quite a few reasons but number one is that it's really hard for us to gauge how much food we've eaten if we're just grazing and our bodies it takes time for our stomach to communicate with our brain to let us know that we're getting full and so our eyes do that for us a lot faster than our stomachs can do that for us okay so if we are eating eating eating your stomach is gonna take a little bit of time to recognize that you're getting full but your eyes can see okay she's eating about this much food she's probably gonna be getting full soon so you're gonna start to feel the sensation of getting full before you your stomach even tells you to get full, if that makes sense. Your eyes communicate with you faster than your stomach will. And so if you are grazing and you're just picking at stuff and your eyes can never fully see, oh, this is about how much food she's eaten, then you're not gonna get that sensation of getting full and probably until it's a little bit too late. So what I always say to do is to get a plate, fill it up with about the amount of food that you think, this is how much food it would normally take on a normal day for me to feel full. Even if when you look at that plate, you're like oh my gosh this is nothing healthy this is nothing that's in alignment with my goals that's fine get the amount of food because sometimes your goals can fluctuate okay so it's you know and this is what the advice that I was telling one of the girls that's in my group coaching program is your goal on a normal day might be I'm gonna eat this amount of protein I'm gonna have veggies this amount of times and it's a lot more specific and a lot more complex of a goal but on a day like this maybe your goal is simply I'm just not gonna overeat and it doesn't really matter what the foods are but as long as you're not overeating in some way you're still staying in alignment with the health goals that you have for yourself so your goals might fluctuate on a day like this they might become a little bit more bare minimum than they are on some of the more normal days that you're going through day to day and that's okay but putting your food on your plate really does help you to not overeat quite as much and it helps you just feel a little bit more more in control and satisfied as you're eating if you're somebody who enjoys alcohol beverages and that's something that goes on whenever you're with your friends or whenever you're watching a football game or whatever that might look like for you if that is something that you're going to be doing that's okay I'm never going to tell you that you can't have alcohol or sweets or anything like that if that's what makes you feel good then do those things what I recommend though is that you alternate between the alcoholic beverage and a water so drink your one beer your one whatever you drink the alcoholic beverage one glass of wine whatever it might look like for you and then you have a water or seltzer or something like that and then you can have another beer or wine or whatever it is and then you go back to a water and have a glass of water or a bottle of water or whatever feels good for you but alternating between those two things is going to help with your fullness it's going to help with your energy levels it's going to help with making sure that you feel good the next day and you're going to feel hydrated throughout the day and through into the next day as well so switch switching between those two things like alternating between those two things is something to do if you are going to be drinking alcohol you don't have to to cut that out but also if you are alternating between the two you're probably going to end up drinking less alcohol anyway which is all in all a good thing and then finally incorporating some kind of movement too so you know if you're going to a game you're probably going to be walking to and from the stadium or something like that if not what I always like to do is have my have the tailgate food have the appetizer at home have our lunch or whatever it might look like and then I just kind of go on a walk sometimes I get up and clean the kitchen if I'm just at home and it's just me and Shane I'll get up and clean as I'm watching the game or he's watching the game I'll get up and do stuff around the house just to get my body moving so I'm not just sitting around the entire day incorporating some kind of movement is a really great habit to get into you know it could be something like tossing the football back and forth or playing outside especially as the weather is starting to get so much nicer go out and do something in the yard or something like that if you have that Oh, and I do want to say this when it comes to food. Put the food on your plate that you know you're going to enjoy and enjoy that food. And if it's not something you know you're going to enjoy, just skip on it. You don't have to eat it just because it's there. I think sometimes we get so tied to, well, this is the tailgate food. Like this is what you're supposed to eat at a tailgate. Well, if you don't enjoy that food, don't eat it. And that applies to an everyday situation. There's a lot of times where, you know, I've been, I've finished a meal and I'm like, oh, I could use something sweet. I go and look and there's nothing in there that we have that I'm like, yeah, this sounds really good to me. So I skip on it. I'm not just going to eat it to eat it. I'm going to make sure that it's something that I enjoy. And if I do find that it is something that I enjoy, then I'm going to enjoy it. I'm not going to beat myself up. I'm not going to feel guilty over it. I'm going to eat the food. I'm going to enjoy it. And then I'm going to move on with my life. So I want to just reemphasize here that healthy living, your health goals and all the things that you're working for in your health journey those things can coexist with living a fun lifestyle spending time with your friends you one does not have to come at the expense of the other so many times we get caught up in thinking I can't go do that because I'm trying to be healthy or I can't be healthy because I'm gonna go do that thing I have to wait until after this for me to be able to get healthy there's too much going on right now there's this and that and all this other stuff I don't feel like I have the time for it I can't commit to it whatever it's all excuses right we you have the time you have the ability and it is possible for these things to coexist. And so accept that, live with that, figure out a way to make that possible for you. You have my permission, you have your own permission, you have permission from everybody listening to this podcast with you to enjoy this football season guilt-free, and there are plenty of ways to do it. Head over to my Instagram and TikTok, find the recipes there, find ways to incorporate those things, and just enjoy your season, your time with your friends and your family. If you are are going to a lot of football parties this year or you know somebody who could benefit from listening to this information, it would mean a lot to me if you would share this episode with them. Just give them a quick share of the episode. Say, this made me think of you or something that feels good for you. That would really mean a lot to me. It really helps the podcast grow. And it would also feel so, I always feel so good whenever somebody's listening to a podcast and they send it to me and they're like, this made me think of you. I feel like it's such a simple way to say like, hey, I care about you. You know, it feels like, wow, they thought of me when they listen to this and that just always feels really good to hear that people are thinking of you so I always find it as a nice compliment whenever somebody sends me a podcast episode so it would mean a lot to me if you would do that for somebody else thank you all for listening to this episode and if there's anything that you need throughout this football season you know how to find me on both social media platforms I cannot wait to talk to you again on Friday I'm going to be sharing with you some tips about how to scroll less so make sure that you're subscribed to the podcast so that you get notifications when that episode comes live, as well as all of the others hereafter. I love you all, and I will see you very soon. Thank you so much. I can't wait to see you again next week. And always remember, the more you know, the more you grow.