Happy Cinco De Mayo

I’ll be honest that Mexican food is my favorite type of food! Guacamole, chips, salsa, tacos, fajitas and of course we can’t forget Margaritas!!!  But, lets be totally honest.  Every one of those is far from clean eating and living a healthy lifestyle.  Sodium galore and way more servings and grams of carbs that anyone should eat in an entire day! Then you add on even 1 drink and you are over in your sugar and an additional carb for the day!  So there truly isn’t a way to have a festive Mexican meal without setting yourself back.  BUT, when it comes to balance and the 80-20 rule here is what I say!

You should allow yourself at least 1 meal per week that you enjoy!  You exercise proper portion size and you are mindful of what you want to spend your calories on but you ENJOY it without guilt.  Because you know that the other 6 days out of the week you are going to be on track!  

So here is what I typically do!  I skip the chips and guacamole.  Unless you want chips then a good option is the “food should taste good” tortilla chips. 

Make your own guacamole because it’s super easy to make and tastes great.
Just mash up some avocados, red onion, garlic, cilantro, add in some chopped tomatoes, salt and pepper and enjoy!!!  

For the main dish.  I pick and choose between the taco shell, the black beans or rice.  But all 3 of those are carb overload.  I usually go with a 1/2 yellow container of black beans and 1/2 of rice and 1 taco shell so it’s only 2 yellows! Then, I do 1 drink which is another yellow so I really only killed it with 3 yellows that day!  I also have zero other carbs during the day, I sorta save it up for that meal.  If you want more than 1 taco or fajita then just do it without the shell.

Those are my tips to surviving cinco de mayo without crushing your goals.  oh and lastly, don’t get on the scale the next morning!  No matter how hard you try, Mexican food has sodium.  You will retain water, feel a little puffy so keep guzzling water and get back on track the next day!  When you decide to have a cheat meal always do your workout that day.  I never schedule a cheat meal and rest day together.  It’s just a mindset thing and I like to break even!  

So Matt and I love Mexican food and we put together a menu and/or options for you! We have found some really really tasty recipes that do the trick for us.

Check them out and you can even stop and pick up a few things today for your own cinco de mayo party at home with your family!

This is right from the 21 Day Fix Extreme Nutrition Guide.  If you want to even skip the taco shell you can do lettuce wraps which actually are pretty darn tasty!
Here are 21 day fix Chicken Fajitas

My absolute hands down favorite is the pork Carnitas!  They are just melt in your mouth awesomeness!