My friend’s husband is a serious barbecue-er. He has various oddly-shaped cooking devices and will smoke, poach, braise, brine and roast an amazing spread and then beg everyone to have ‘just one more mouthful’. Everything tastes amazing, not only the meat but the side dishes and salads as well (did I mention my friends are French?) and it’s pretty easy to eat so much that you blow your whole weekend’s calorie allowance and feel like rolling home and not eating for a month.

Every so often this is not a terrible thing – we visit these friends maybe twice a year. But other people like summer barbecues too and at this season festivities abound; it’s easy to find yourself overdoing it regularly and it will all start to add up.

You definitely don’t want to be the guest who’s picking at a salad in the corner while everyone else enjoys the goodies your host and hostess have laboured over, but you don’t need to roll home either. Here’s a few tips for keeping things under control:

1. Take along something healthy
If you know your friends will be serving up plenty of ribs and not too much lettuce, then take something along to tip the balance a little. Veggie sticks and hommus is dead easy, and won’t look like you’re trying to steal any thunder as far as fancy prep goes.

2. Skip the heavy nibbles
If you know there’s half a pig coming out of the roaster in an hour, you probably don’t need to be munching corn chips now. If you’re starving, have an apple (as my mum always used to say) or a carrot stick even. For the same reason, go easy on the bread. You’re here for the fancy stuff right – you can eat bread anytime.

3. Don’t have seconds
Ok, maybe a little bit of something that was truly awesome, but try not to keep refilling your plate. And save a little bit of space for dessert – it’s bound to be fab!

4. Balance alcohol with water
This is partly about calories, but partly just about feeling rubbish. If it’s a hot day, you may drink more than you meant to. Make every second glass water and you’ll feel much better for it.

5. Make allowances
Nobody’s kidding anyone – you’re probably going to be overdoing it, but you can balance things out a bit. This is not the time, for example, to start out with waffles, bacon and maple syrup for breakfast. Don’t just skip all the other meals for the day (or week) but give yourself a bit of room calorie-wise by planning for something small like fruit and yoghurt or vegetable soup. And for the next few days after the event, give your system a break and nurture it with a little extra healthy food.

Above all, don’t beat yourself up about it, and don’t leave yourself out of events just because you’re worried about sticking to your diet. Staying healthy is important, but friends and family and social events are too. And if you really feel you’ve gone a little too far, this article from Lisa will help you get back on track!

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