"Cheers to spending an extra 40 minutes on a Spin bike this week!"

Let’s all have a “come to Jesus” (or in my case, Moses) moment here and get real for a minute. Have you ever really thought about how many calories you consume in a single night of fun?

We all know that drinking adds extra calories. I mean, how many times have we heard someone tell us “If you want to lose weight, cut out alcohol”? But let’s face it, for a lot of us, that is pretty much asking us to give up going to college.

So what do we do? We make up for our weekend activities by making cuts in our week day diets.  But much like we underestimate how many shoes we have in our closest when debating a new purchase of totally adorable must-have-them-now sparkly pumps, we also tend to underestimate how much we’re actually drinking/eating on the weekends. We factor in our estimated calories in a very sober state, often forgetting what happens when we transition from sober to, well, not so much.

– Are you thinking about all those extra beers you drank when everyone decided to play flip-cup?

– Do you think about the gallon of Gatorade you chugged after you downed nearly a bottle of tequila?

– Do you even remember the small pizza you ate when you got home…in bed… as your roommates force-fed you water?

Yes, we’ve all been there and we all know what it’s like to drink/eat more than we anticipated and then be frustrated when it shows in the scale the following week. So here is some drink for thought: If you don’t want to pack on the extra pounds in college, you gotta be realistic about how much you’re really going to drink/eat on your nights out and make up for those extra calories somewhere else during the week.

Let me break it all down for ya and offer some healthy ways to offset that “MOST EPIC SATURDAY NIGHT, EVER!”

I’ll be honest. I drink 5 or more alcoholic beverages 3 to 4 nights a week. One might think I have a drinking problem, but I’d like to think it’s normal college behavior. Wouldn’t you? I mean, it’s my senior year. I don’t have class on Friday. I’m living it up. I should party every chance I get because, sadly my college career is coming to an end.

Okay so back to the point. My favorite jeans — the ones I love love love — have become quite snug. To the point where I just don’t think I should even try to wear them anymore. I don’t want to be one of those girls who can barely walk her jeans are so tight, nor do I want to sport a “muffin top.” So I’ve put them to rest … for the time being.

But what boggles my mind is that I haven’t been eating badly on a consistent basis. Come to think of it, I eat really well and I exercise like 5 days a week. So in an attempt to explain my weight gain, I started couting calories. Even beer, wine and mixed drink calories. Ya know what I learned? I’ve been sucking down between 2,000 and 3,000 liquid calories a week! Um, that’s disgusting.

I’m sorry to be the bearer of such terrible news. But it’s the truth. The thing is, I’m enjoying my social life and I think I’ll wait til I’m done with college to make any serious lifestyle changes. So I’m gonna keep on drinkin.’