The sweet summer sunshine, a cold one in hand, no sense of time, and scarfing down tasty BBQ food. Summer is here! The biggest holiday of the summer season is quickly approaching, which means overindulging is just around the corner. We’re not fans of a “no list” for food, so we try to lighten up recipes and nibble responsibly. Moderation is our game plan for potluck eating this summer. Since we know that side dishes tend to be the least healthy, yet make up nearly every dish at a gathering, we’re offering you a peek into our Pinterest plan for healthy sides, healthy snacks, AND ways to get your family moving together.

1) Fit Family Fun

No time to squeeze in fitness with the family coming over or holiday travel plans? Nonsense, include the whole fam damly! We adore this fitball idea from blogger, trainer and dietitian Kayla Colgrove. Played like “hot potato” this is a great hybrid activity with your digital device (for music) and a physical work out. Plus it’s so much fun that no one will even know they are exercising! We won’t tell if you won’t. 

This one is great for everyone and has a degree of luck AND strategy involved. You have probably done the “deck of cards workout” as seen on The Biggest Loser, with a bit of planning you can gamify this in a kid-and elder-friendly way! FitSticks!This pin saved by pinner Kim Mills says: “To motivate the kids to move more and focus on core strength, we came up with this game we call "Fit Sticks". Her system: Orange: Lower Body; Yellow: Abs; Green: Upper Body; Blue: Balance; Red: Advanced/Plyo (Reserved for Punishment); Purple: Rewards.

 2) Potluck Faves

No potluck is complete without a delish creamy dish like this SkinnyMom Broccoli Salad. She has redone a lovely family recipe from her Aunt and lightened it up without losing the taste. Instead of heavy, calorie rich mayo she uses a classic ranch yogurt dressing! Genius. Saves fat and calories while leaving behind the creamy salad guilt.

 A dish we are over the moon about trying is Sausage with Garlic Grilled Corn. It’s a recipe that can be made 100% on the grill and uses smoked turkey sausage instead of those fatty brats that you normally hear sizzling on the grillpan. As a bonus, it uses heart healthy olive oil instead of butter to dress the sweet corn. We think this would make for pretty delish leftovers wrapped up in a tortilla too.

3) 100 Calorie Healthy Snacks

Our pick for a potluck are the crowd pleasing No Bake Oatmeal Cookies, not only are they are a great pre-and post-workout food, they make everyone super duper happy. We would make one sub to the recipe that ReadySetEat has posted and tha tis to swap out regular peanut butter with reduced fat or natural peanut butter instead. Bonus: no oven is required to make these cookies which makes us feel cooler already.

If you want to balance out the sweet with something savory (and cheap), give Crunchy Roasted Chickpeas a shot. When roasted, chickpeas are nutty and filling, they also have a delightful crunch that is just like a much more calorie laden trail mix or potato chip but without that guilt. They add a ton of fiber to your tummy to keep you full longer. Lastly, you can flavor these ANY way you want. The Shefit kitchen loves taco seasoning on ours!

So now that we’ve removed the roadblocks to a healthier holiday weekend we hope you are able to relax and spend time with family and friends without worrying too much about “ruining” your spring of hard work. For all of our Shefit High Impact Sports Bra activity, fashion, recipe and family pinnable ideas head over to: https://www.pinterest.com/Shefit/