I moved to New York from London seven months ago, and it's been a culinary delight. Here, the food is great, the portions vast and the drinks delicious.
When your weekends consist of hungover snack binges and brunching, the weekdays require a bit more nutritional structure. Here's how to survive and thrive in the city of food without getting too fat for your Lululemons.
1. Drink water.
It fills you up, flushes you out, makes your skin glow and keeps your cells functioning at maximum capacity. I could elaborate, but just take my word for it and drink the damn stuff — as much of it as you can. Needing to pee numerous times throughout the day is a side effect, not an excuse.
2. A kale juice every now and then won't kill you.
If you know you're having Mexican for dinner, a juice for lunch isn't the worst idea. (Though if you last longer than a day on juice alone, you're a better woman than I am.)
3. Get off the subway a stop early and walk home.
I know it's cold and treacherously icy at the moment, but shivering also burns calories — a win-win!
4. Don't eat street food.
Just don't. I love a good pretzel, but turns out that the pretzels don't love my thighs.
5. Fill half of your plate with vegetables.
Even if the rest is filled with deep fried lard, you're off to a good start (but, don’t eat deep fried lard).
6. A little motivation: Sweat is fat dying.
So, sweat a little bit every day. I really don't care how, though I can think of few ways to do it that are more fun than others.
7. Weigh yourself.
Not obsessively, but just keep track of where your weight is. Speaking from experience, it's easy to wear leggings and avoid the scales for two months, then weigh yourself and see a number that you find truly frightening.
8. Eat a little bit of junk food every now and then.
If you know you're having cake on Saturday, you’ll find resisting dessert during the week to be much more doable. If you tell yourself that you’ll never have cake again, you are just factually incorrect.
9. The best, most important knowledge I can offer: Frozen yogurt is NOT calorie free.
Mini Oreos and brownies on top of your froyo ABSOLUTELY have calories and sugar and fat. Who knew?! This information hasn’t exactly rid me of my 16 Handles addiction, but make sure to exercise portion control (i.e. don’t go every day for four weeks between lunch and dinner… like I did last August).
10. Get a boyfriend.
The thought of him seeing you naked on a regular basis should help you exercise restraint to put down the second Cronut.
Disclaimer: all these rules go out the window as soon as you meet the peanut butter-chocolate combination — that does taste as great as skinny feels.
Top Photo Courtesy: We Heart It
