Weekend Sabotage

4 Tips So The Weekend Doesn’t Sabotage Your Hard Work

One of the biggest obstacles I see clients face is the weekend. You might think that’s crazy because a lot of us live for the weekend; its our time to catch up on sleep and enjoy family. But the weekend for many of us also involves social functions, meals out, increase in alcohol and less time to work out. You may even have a name for this repeated self-sabotage known as “cheat days”. Truth is, these two days can have some pretty ugly effects on your overall efforts to lose weight, increase energy and other health goals.

Ever wonder why most fitness professionals say “don’t ever miss a Monday workout”? That’s because in addition to starting the week off right, so many of us wake up Monday feeling like a bloated puffer fish! When you work hard at something it can be frustrating to feel like you’re not gaining the results you deserve. Instead of treating the weekend like a well-deserved 2-day free-for-all, try to stop separating the week and weekend completely. Instead allow yourself time throughout the week to enjoy little things and check out these tips to stay on track.

1. Going out to eat? No problem. Check out the menu ahead of time. Don’t be side-swiped by a menu that overwhelms you. Most menus are available online & even include some helpful nutritional facts. When in doubt, choose grilled over fried and reach for complex carbs instead of simple carbs.(Examples sweet potato instead of white potatoes, brown rice instead of white rice etc.) Your effort will be well rewarded & you won’t feel like you ate a baby elephant come Monday.

2. Pre-Game it with a full, healthy meal. Having a couple drinks with some friends? To reduce the beer munchies while drinking, plan to eat a full well balanced meal beforehand. Did you know, when you start drinking alcohol your body switches all energy to remove the alcohol from your system? Unlike macros, (fat, carbs and protein) your body doesn’t utilize alcohol; therefore, it must work hard to remove it. That means your digestion is essentially put on “hold” while your body tries to burn off your alcohol. This does NOT mean to drink on an empty stomach or avoid eating if you didn’t get to eat prior. This is simply a suggestions to help curb your appetite while drinking. Remember to drink water in between each drink too. Think of it like flushing toxins.

3. Consider fun without the setbacks. Whaaaat? No booze? Did I really just say that? YES, yes I did. Drinking & eating out seems to be one of the biggest culprits to sabotaging weekly efforts, so why do we fill our weekends with it? Honestly, you probably don’t even try to. Every celebration, from holidays to kid’s 1^st birthday parties are usually accompanied with alcohol and food to clog your arteries. But ask yourself, is it worth it? I don’t know about you, but I’ve never had a sober experience watching others drink and think, “man, I wish I was having trouble formulating my sentences or making posts I won’t remember in the morning”. You might surprise yourself by enjoying your time with friends and choosing fun that doesn’t include alcohol. While a couple drinks can be enjoyed, if your weekends are continually surrounded by heavy drinking & eating out, you may not have to look far to see why you’re not reaching your goals.

4. Remember balance is key. Your diet shouldn’t restrict you from ever enjoying yourself. For this reason, I loathe the idea and fads associated with the word diet. Diets tend to set a negative stigma to restrict things we as humans love. No carbs, no chocolate, no beer, no sugar, um… no thank you? If you follow a restrictive diet and find it works for you, more power to you! But either way we can agree that we should limit the things that don’t directly benefit our well being. But it’s also important to not obsess over the things we try avoid. Allowing yourself a little bit of leniency throughout the week will help lessen the want or need to jump overboard every weekend. Just the idea of staying away from everything all week makes that impulse to “cheat” way more appealing by the weekend. Look at it like maintaining a balance everyday. Balance is everything.