With the New Year already here, many of us have renewed our gym memberships and sworn off beer in hopes of achieving our weight loss resolutions.  However, you might be able to keep your whistle wet and your waistline slim, so before you empty the keg take a look at my Top Tips for Losing Weight While Also Enjoying your favorite Brews:

1.) Pay Attention To What You Eat, Especially When Out Drinking Beer With Friends! It’s easy to order that nacho platter, the creamy artichoke dip, and a plate of wings when at a bar with some buddies, but try to keep your intake minimal – if any at all – and order something healthy for the main course. If possible, get a salad instead of fries with a burger or sandwich. And be sure to avoid those bacon-cheese-sour cream potato skins!

2.) Exercise. It’s that simple, seriously. Do whatever you can – even if it’s just power walking a few blocks.  Work toward building up strength and endurance. I prefer jogging, but who knows what the weather’s going to be like so if the climate isn’t cooperating, get up and just do anything that gets the heart pumping – treadmill, stationary bike, bicycle riding or any variety of sport activities. Heck, plug in your kid’s Kinect and just move for half an hour to start. A recent study revealed that an overwhelming 25 percent of the country – that’s a quarter of all Americans – get no exercise whatsoever, not even going for a walk. Don’t be that person.

3.) Eat Well.  McDonald’s is off the list, just don’t do it to yourself. The same goes for similar fast “food” venues. Avoid the sweets aisle at the grocery store, and limit things fried and empty calorie junk.

4.) Eat Less. We’re not auditioning for Man (or Woman) vs. Food , if that’s your resolution, you’re reading the wrong article. By following the above two steps, the stomach should start to naturally shrink which means in turn you will become full with less, which will make it easier to shed those extra pounds. That’s the whole point of dieting anyway, right?

5.) Discipline Yourself The Day After Drinking. Don’t was the day in bed, watching ESPN and eating a bag of chips. Hit the gym, go on a run or play a pickup game. Get up and get out and do some exercise! This is how to get and stay trim while drinking beer.

If you make excuses, put it off until tomorrow, chances are you won’t do it tomorrow. Or the day after that. Or the next day either. This is how you get out of shape.

Always stay disciplined in your workouts and maintain consistency. More than likely, after you’re done you’ll be much better than when you started.

BONUS TIP: Enter a 10K with a few friends (they have 5K runs, as well, and this is a good place to start if you’re new to them). These events are not only a blast, but also very social as well as good for a morning’s work out.  Even better, getting in shape to actually do the 10K requires a few weeks of build-up exercise, which is usually more fun to do with a workout partner. And afterwards, you’ll all want to stay in 10K shape.  So next year we’ll finally have to come up with a new resolution.

Best of luck!

-K