If you’re struggling to find a good balance between reaching your gym goals and enjoying yourself when you go out, then you’re in the right place. It’s possible to have a balanced lifestyle and not let yourself get too carried away and forget to live and enjoy your life. So, we’re here with some simple tips to help you still achieve what you want to in terms of the gym while making great memories with friends and loved ones!

Try To Be Flexible With Your Gym Schedule

Our first tip is to try to be flexible with your gym schedule. While you’ll likely want to do a certain amount of exercise each week, you don’t want to miss out on the chance to do fun things with your friends and family because you’re going to be in the gym. Instead, at the start of the week, consider what you’ve got on and then you can plan your routine around that. For example, perhaps you train your legs on a Wednesday evening, but your friends want to head out for a birthday meal. Why not get up a bit earlier and go in the morning, or change your rest day up? Your results won’t be affected by mixing up your routine slightly, so bear this in mind. 

Consider Your Drinks Choices

A really easy way to go out and enjoy yourself without it impacting your gym progress is to consider your drink choices! By making small and simple swaps, you can significantly decrease your calorie intake for the evening. For example, if you go out and drink beers all evening and say you have 6 pints, this can rack up 1,200 calories. Swap this out for vodka, lime and soda, and you can nearly halve it, with 6 drinks for 600 calories. The same goes with wine, with a large glass having around 225 calories, compared to 100 in vodka and Coke Zero.

However, if you don’t go out much, then a night of eating or drinking whatever you want isn’t going to have an impact on your overall progress! If it becomes a habit with every weekend involving a lot of drinking and eating, then it can add up, but enjoying yourself without restriction is also important for a healthy balance between the gym and having fun. 

Read: Unsung Heroes: How the Right Gear Boosts Your Workout

Encourage Healthy Activities With Friends

Rather than going out all the time and drinking with your friends, why not encourage some healthier activities for you to spend time together while also feeling good? You could meet up at the gym for a swim and sauna, perhaps you go for a dog walk, go on a bike ride together, go to a yoga class; or play some tennis. If drinking isn’t your preferred activity, speak to your family and friends and let them know you’d like to do some different things. Perhaps instead of a weekend full of nights out in a city, head to the countryside to stay in a cottage, spend time together and do wholesome activities! It can be so refreshing to do something different and still have a great time with your friends. 

Don’t Restrict Yourself Before Or After Going Out

Something important to ensure that you can enjoy yourself and not impact your progress is to not restrict yourself before or after you go out. If you’re planning on going out for food and drinks and think that if you just don’t eat before, it’ll all balance out, this isn’t very healthy. To meet your goals, remember that one night won’t make a difference and instead, eat normally before and after you go out. 

Make sure you hit your macro goals, like eating enough protein, drinking enough water and then just enjoy yourself when you’re out. This is especially important if you’re spending a long time drinking, like throwing on your festival outfits and dancing the night away, to make sure you don’t get too drunk! 

Rethink How You View Exercise 

Something else that can help you find a healthy balance between working out and going out is to rethink how you view exercise. Exercise is all about moving your body to remain healthy, so doesn’t need to look a certain way all the time. Say your friends invite you out for a countryside walk but you really want to get to the gym. 

You can get so many benefits, both mentally and physically, from spending time outside with your friends and family, and sometimes your body will benefit from a break from your usual routine. As we mentioned earlier, be flexible with your schedule, and you can always do your favourite gym activities another day, then benefit from everything the fresh air can bring to your life.

Final Thoughts

Finding a healthy balance between socialising, drinking and going to the gym can come with a lot of trial and error, but that’s all a part of life. While it’s important to stay healthy, you shouldn’t let that get to the point where you are restricting and pulling yourself away from plans all because of progress at the gym. They are both healthy for your mental health so grab that going-out dress and go find a festival outfit or two for the summer and have fun. Just make sure the next day you are back in the gym.