Last year, I made a deal with myself.

If I went to every Eagles game, I would become an Eagles fan and leave my Giants loyalty behind.

Mariana and I went to every game. That part, we followed through on.

But along with the football came a lot of drinking, a lot of eating whatever was around, and a whole collection of habits that didn’t feel like us the rest of the week.

We had fun. I’m glad we experienced it together.

But going into this season, we had to ask ourselves: Do we want to do all of that again, or do we just want to go watch football?

Because those are two different commitments.

When the game comes with a whole extra routine

You get to the stadium, and the food and drinks are everywhere.

Pizza. Fries. Another drink. Something else because you’re walking past it, somebody’s getting it, or you’ve decided that’s just what you do at a game.

Before you know it, the game has become an entire day of choices you weren’t planning to make.

And when you’re going every week there’s a home game, that starts becoming a regular part of your lifestyle.

As a personal trainer, I spend a lot of time talking about consistency. I had to look at my own routine and admit that our version of game day wasn’t lining up with how we wanted to live.

We didn’t want to stop going.

We wanted to change how we went.

The people beside us gave us an idea

This year, the people we sit with don’t drink.

We started noticing that they brought their own food and snacks, too.

They were enjoying the game, hanging out, and having a good time without making every trip to the stadium revolve around concessions.

And I thought, “Why aren’t we doing that?”

Sometimes you don’t need a whole new plan. You just need to look at somebody beside you and realize there’s another way to do something.

So Mariana and I started making a few changes.

We eat before the game. We bring snacks. We plan a dinner we’re excited about afterward.

Simple stuff. But it has changed the experience for us.

We’re enjoying the games more

That’s the part I didn’t expect.

I thought we were changing the food and drinking. But we ended up changing how much we enjoyed being there.

We’re paying attention to the game. We’re enjoying each other’s company. And we’re spending less time deciding what to eat or drink next.

We might still get popcorn. We might have a nonalcoholic spritzer.

But now those things are choices we actually want to make, rather than part of an automatic routine.

We can enjoy the atmosphere without ordering everything that comes with it.

And having a nice dinner planned afterward gives us something else to look forward to together.

How we plan a healthier Eagles game day

If you’re trying to enjoy football season without feeling like your routine disappears every weekend, here’s what’s working for us.

Eat before you leave

We have a meal before heading to the stadium.

That way, we’re walking in ready to watch football instead of hungry enough to buy the first thing we see.

It also means we can be more selective. If we want something there, we can decide whether we actually want it.

Pack snacks you’ll enjoy

We bring things like dried peaches, other dried fruit, and nuts.

Pack an amount that works for you, and choose food you’ll actually want to eat. Bringing a snack you hate isn’t much of a plan.

For Eagles games at Lincoln Financial Field, the stadium currently allows food wrapped in clear plastic. Its clear-bag options include bags no larger than 12 × 6 × 12 inches or a one-gallon clear freezer bag. Check the official stadium policy before you pack.

Make a plan for after the game

We plan dinner afterward, and that has become part of our day together.

It takes away that feeling that we need to eat everything at the stadium because we haven’t thought about what comes next.

We know we’re going somewhere we want to eat. We can enjoy the game and look forward to dinner.

Decide what you want to drink ahead of time

For us, taking alcohol out of the experience has been a good change.

A nonalcoholic drink still lets us have something festive in our hands if we want it. We don’t feel like we’re missing the moment.

You can cheer, yell, celebrate, and get completely invested in a game without drinking through it.

Handle your priorities before kickoff

If you planned to work out that day, make room for it before you leave. Get your meal together. Pack your bag. Figure out dinner.

Basically, get your shit done.

A little preparation makes it easier to relax once you’re there. You’ve already taken care of yourself, and now you get to enjoy the day.

Pizza wasn’t the whole problem. Our pattern was.

If you’ve read my post about cheat meals, you know I eat pizza.

So this isn’t me pretending one order of fries is going to undo your entire fitness routine.

What I’m talking about is the pattern Mariana and I had fallen into: drinking, eating whatever was available, and treating every game like our usual habits had to go out the window.

We realized we didn’t actually enjoy all of that as much as we enjoyed being at the game together.

That was useful to learn.

Now we can keep the part we love and make different choices about the rest.

Same stadium. Different experience.

We’re going to every Eagles game again this year.

We’re still excited to be there. We’re still surrounded by the noise, the fans, and everything that makes game day what it is.

But we’ve found our own way to do it.

Eat before. Bring a few snacks. Enjoy something at the stadium if we want it. Have a good dinner afterward.

For me, Brandon RaSean, that’s part of making fitness work in real life. It has to fit into football season, time with my wife, and the things we want to go out and do.

We didn’t need less football. We needed a better game-day routine.