Happy hour calories adding up quickly, does this sound familiar? It’s one thing to talk about it and acknowledge that it is happening, but the question I always get is what are you supposed to do about it? It is a happy, feel-good time in your day and you’re not sure that you want to change… now what? This would be a great time to get out of the all-or-nothing mentality! You do not have to give up all pleasures and goodbye happy hour… you may just have to limit some pleasures or be smarter with your choices.

Cheese and crackers can add up fast in calories, an ounce of cheese (or one nice slice), can be anywhere from 80-120 calories! If you are doing multiple slices and then putting it on some carby crackers, this could be a detrimental snack to have just hours before hitting the couch or bed time (the way I look at this, is the evening is when all activity stops and there is no further chance to burn off our treats). What about the wine? Has your glass grown as much as mine?! I love nothing more than holding a huge goblet in my hand, the old wine glasses look like kiddie cups! When you say you are having a glass or two of wine, are you actually having 2-3 glasses of wine? I challenge you to measure out your snack choices as well as beverages… yep get out a measuring cup and see if you are drinking 5 ounces of wine (which is a serving) or are you closer to 10 ounces. See if you are having 1 ounce of cheese or 4 ounces. One serving of crackers or 3 servings. I believe strongly in knowledge is power and especially when it comes to food and beverage choices. Our portions have grown so much over the years, to visually assess what looks like a good portion can be highly inaccurate. I strongly recommend breaking out the measuring cups and spoons to fully understand portion size.

So what is a responsible portion size at my happy hour? As your dietitian and wine loving mate, I will describe a portion size of cheese and crackers, but more importantly give you some other ideas for a new and improved pairings with your cocktail.

Take out your pen and I’m going to throw some ideas at you:

Option 1 for the “don’t touch my cheese and crackers” crew – measure out 5oz of wine or 12 ounces of beer or 1.5oz of hard alcohol (these are equivalent to 1 serving per alcoholic beverage).  Now measure out an ounce or two of cheese (sometimes it is nice to get the pre-sliced cheese so you do not have to do the guess-work). Finally, measure out a portion of crackers (look on the back of the package, typically 4-16 crackers is a portion depending on your variety).  Now the fun part, the knowledge component that will give you the power to change.

Food Choice

Calorie Content

5 oz of Pinot Noir

120 calories

1-2 oz of sharp cheddar cheese

110-220 calories

1 serving of Wheat Thins (16 pieces)

140 calories

Grand Total of 370-480 calories (this is enough calories for a small dinner)

I’m not saying you can’t have this, I just want you aware of where your calories are coming from because it might give you motivation to make some changes … you could shave off a couple hundred calories if you chose vegetables instead of crackers or reduced your cheese serving.

Option 2 for the “I am willing to change my choices, I just do not know how” crew – hmmm, hmmm, hmmm… where do I start? I am going to start sounding like an alcoholic, but let’s start with your beverage. First we talked about measuring your portion size and now we should mention your choices. Choosing a light beer over a full strength will typically save you at least 30-50 calories. If you mix anything with hard alcohol, make sure your mixer does not have any additional calories (did you know that tonic water is the equivalent of a regular soda?! Choose diet tonic water to get your calorie-free mixer).  You can make your wine portion go further if you would be willing to try a spritzer! What is a wine spritzer you say? You would take red or white wine and mix with club soda (calorie free mixer)… you can double your portion size without doubling the calories!

Now let’s talk food. If you can eliminate your carb and calorie filled crackers and switch them out with a non-starchy dipping vegetable (i.e. carrots, celery, pepper slices), we just saved ourselves 100 calories. I do not know about you, but I am a dipper, so I would absolutely need something to go with my vegetables. Typically people think about Ranch with vegetables, which would be fine, however aim for a light ranch. The different varieties of hummus are a fabulous choice! I have also been stocking my refrigerator with the 100 calories packs of guacamole. I am not trying to give you a conclusive list of options, but here are a few to give us a breakdown of calories for our new and improved happy hour!

Food Choice

Calorie Content

10 oz of White Wine Spritzer

120 calories

1 cup of red and orange pepper slices

40 calories

Roasted Garlic Hummus (2-4 Tbsp)

70-140 calories

Grand Total of 230-300 calories (awww, much better)

Option 3 for the “I am having a drink because that is what everyone else is doing” crew-  we all do it, we get sucked into situations and habits because of our friends or spouse or honestly, just out of plain habit! Have you ever said to yourself “I didn’t even want that glass of wine, why did I just do that”? If you do not care about the alcoholic beverage, lets work on putting a fun glass of calorie free options in your hands. If you are like me, you might like visuals… an elegant glass or something that fizzes or something that may have a little more taste than water (I struggle to just order water when the whole table is getting beverages). One of my favorite suggestions is diet tonic water with a slice of lime… it is much more fizzy and tasteful than club soda… but club soda with lime works as well (all calorie free!). I would personally put my diet tonic water in a huge wine glass, however you may choose whatever suits your fancy! Let’s look at calories if we omit the alcohol:

Food Choice

Calorie Content

12 oz of diet tonic water with lime

0 calories

1 cup of red and orange pepper slices

40 calories

Roasted Garlic Hummus (2-4 Tbsp)

70-140 calories

Grand Total of 110-180 calories (best option yet)

Now we are talking! There are always better options as we just demonstrated, it always goes back to knowing what we PERSONALLY are willing to change! I’m going to move away from food for a moment and get into fitness talk… but before I do I just want to encourage you to not only look at Happy Hours this way! You can break down your whole days worth of eating and see where you would be willing to make changes! You might be surprised what you are doing out of habit versus true wants!

Ok, so What about Movement?

I cannot just talk about food with my retired group because I have seen two side of the coin with movement and fitness.

The retired person who has started making exercise classes, walking groups, tennis/golfing, running after grandchildren their new profession  OR

The retired person who accidentally stopped moving as much because they no longer had too!! Books, lunch groups, rocking grandbabies and knitting are what call your name (you have found your happy spot… not hitting the pavement.)

I am not saying that it is quite this black or white with movement, however one thing I can promise is that if you put a fitbit or any activity tracker on a retired person you are either going to see 10,000 steps plus OR individuals that barely hit 2,000 steps unless they are putting in extra efforts. This is one of the first things I request now with my clients (as mentioned previously), I encourage an activity tracker so that we can assess a baseline of movement. This can be quite scary because once we are aware of the number, then we have no choice but to talk about it. You can no longer convince yourself that a day at the park with the grandkids counts as your whole weeks worth of movement.

So just like with food, knowledge is power with our movement as well. Get a baseline of where you are with movement. Try to look at that number without judgement… it is not pitiful, it’s not lazy it’s not whatever ill thought might come to your mind and that’s why you might be terrified to see a number in the first place. It in fact is just a number and insight into an area that might need some tweaking. This might be a good time to re-listen to Episode 21: Finding Your Fitness Personality – we can find happiness within movement, the key (just like food) is where you willing to make your changes.

Journal Questions:

1. Did you fit into a specific category when we are talking about happy hours? (Don’t touch my cheese and crackers, I am willing to change my choices, I just do not know how, I am having a drink because that is what everyone else is doing.). Elaborate on your feelings around happy hour?

2. Do you feel like you are not retired, however nibbling? What was your main takeaway from the information above?

3. What kind of movement do you see yourself (or if you are too young for this chapter, your parents) doing in a week?

Goal setting will always be part of your homework. Once a week write down your focus or goals for the week. Every Friday reassess them, tweak them or change them to fit your needs. It’s “Your journey, your way”.

Links:

Lindsey House:

www.healthaccountabilitycoach.com

www.facebook.com/houselifestyles

Direction Not Perfection, Accountability and Coaching from your Wine-loving Dietitian

https://braughlerbooks.com/store/books/direction-not-perfection