Some people are not aware that every state has a Cooperative Extension system with offices and websites. These are wonderful resources for information about health, nutrition, food safety, food preservation and even recipes.

Often I find useful, research-based information to share with others on extension websites. Recently I found an article on helping to keep those calories down when attending many special summer events. I know that an occasional splurge here and there will not ruin my waistline, but it seems that the warmer months are an endless stream of exciting events to attend. Every week is a fair or festival—actually multiple choices.

I thoroughly enjoy all of these events, but it can be a real challenge to maintain a healthy weight faced with all the special “goodies” to eat. Alice Henneman, Extension Educator in Nebraska, calculated how far you would have to walk to burn off the calories from some typical fair foods:

• Corn dog: 4.5 miles

• Funnel cake: 3 miles

• Soft drink, 32 oz.: 2.5 miles

• Sno-cone: 2.5 miles

• Soft pretzel: 3 miles

• Fried candy bar on a stick: 4.5 miles

Fair foods are often large portions loaded with sugar and fat, so, chances are, we are not going to burn off the calories by just the walking we do around the fair. However, what fun would the fair be without indulging in some of these special treats?

Alice suggests ways to fit in favorite fair foods with a little planning:

• Quench your thirst with a small soft drink instead of the larger sizes. Better yet, buy or bring along bottled water. Save your fair-day calories for something else.

• Split foods among several people. For example, share a large funnel cake with friends. Everyone gets a taste, and no one gets overloaded!

• Plan times when you’ll sit down and eat, rather than graze your way from one end of the fair to the other. It’s hard to keep a handle on how much we’re eating when we’re walking, talking and eating at the same time.

• Limit yourself to one treat. Choose reasonable serving sizes of lower sugar and lower fat items for the rest your foods.

• Dress in comfortable shoes so you’re more likely to walk off some calories. Wear a pedometer and see how many steps you can take at the fair. One mile equals about 2,000 steps.

• Check out all the food booths before making your selections. Imagine you have a “calorie salary.” Enjoy the foods you like the most for your “salary.”

• Finally, if you do indulge a little too much, remember to return to a more balanced way of eating the next day. A day or two of overeating won’t affect our weight that much -- weeks of it will! Eating 100 extra calories daily can result in a 10 pound weight gain yearly.

Another strategy would be to do some extra physical activity to balance it out. We have to walk about one mile to burn 100 calories. Just realize we may need to do extra physical activity for several days to burn off the calories from multiple treats.

So, plan ahead, make conscious choices, and have a great time while also maintaining your health!

Websites: University of Nebraska-Lincoln - http://lancaster.unl.edu

Penn State Cooperative Extension – NorthamptonCounty - http://northampton.extension.psu.edu/