19 Food-Free Friend Dates

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I don’t know about you, but for me, getting together with friends usually revolves around “doing lunch” or going out for dinner. So a few weeks ago, when I was trying to think of some good alternatives, I pinged the Losing It Facebook group.

And boy, did they deliver! No surprise, of course, the Losing It community has already conspired on such projects as The Salad Post (which also helped to engender Lettuce Is For Rabbits: 7 Non-Leafy Salad Fixin’s), not to mention coming to the rescue when the cyber-dog ate my Losing It homework.

So without further ado, here are 19 friend-date ideas. Sure, some of them could involve consuming calories, but none of them have to. Well, except maybe karaoke. For that I’m going to need a drink (or four).

• Amy said her go-to is tea & knitting. I can smell the coffee shop now… who’s in?
• Donna and Katie both suggested walking or running. Olivia took that a step further with some favourite routes including downtown/Byward Market, Dow’s Lake, or along the Rideau Canal. And Kerry pointed out that museum dates are great for walking around.
• Taking a fitness class together was also on both Donna’s & Katie’s lists. Katie mentioned kickboxing – I’ll bet that would be a riot with a friend.
• Katie also mentioned scrapbooking dates. I’ll have to admit I’ve never done this! I should. I have boxes of stuff waiting for memory books for my girls. Not to mention that I, er, still haven’t put my wedding photos into an album .
• And pedicure dates! What an awesome idea! Katie and Maranda both had these on their list (and now I do, too!).
• Jenn sparked a huge conversation over her book club that doesn’t involve a book. Some non-food activities that it does involve include: bingo, making jewelry, zumba class, makeup lessons, and painting pottery.
• That discussion reminded me of something I haven’t done in a while: get together to play boardgames.
• Pam had some great ideas too: from cards/poker nights to hikes in the gatineaus and indoor rock climbing.
• And last, but certainly not least – Olivia suggested karaoke. I refer you to my earlier comment on this

So it’s settled, then. For the next Losing It meetup we can walk from Dow’s Lake to downtown (along the canal), soothe the tired tootsies with a pedicure before putting them up while we sip tea & knit… then the next weekend we can hook up to scrapbook the photos .

What are your favourite food-free friend dates?

Sasha is an Ottawa mom and blogger who only occasionally writes about herself in the third person. She blogs about losing a few things (weight is just one of them) at Sasha Loses It, and about everything else in her Rambling Notebook. You can also find her ~ far too frequently ~ on Twitter at @sasharambles.

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