One thing we hear quite often from our friends, family and members is that they are successful with their nutrition from Monday to Friday, but as soon as the weekend rolls round, all bets are off and before they know it, a cheat meal becomes a cheat day, and a cheat day turns into a cheat weekend, undoing all the hard work and progress they made during the week.
Having seen first hand how common this is we thought we'd share some tips from a recent article we came across from Precision Nutrition, and knowing busy you guys are so we've tried our best to keep it short and summarise them for you 🙂
#1 Aim for 'good enough', not 'perfect'.
If you sit down for lunch with your friends and they don’t offer the healthy options that you'd normally have during the week, try your best not to fall into the all-or-nothing approach.
Instead of saying, “Screw it,” and going all out, take a second a remember that you don't need to be perfect and just try to aim for a little bit better. You can still have the burger, but maybe substitute greens for chips, or order a water instead of a milkshake.
#2 Ditch the food rules.
Do’s and Don’ts take up an awful lot of mental space and energy, and aren’t really that helpful when it comes to building a healthy relationship with food.
Let's say for example you have a 'no-carbs' rule, and your watching the Euro's with your friends who have a ordered pizza and are having a few beers, how would you respond?
Most of us could hold out for a while, but eventually we’d give in and grab a slice. However, someone who's obsessed with food rules might try to rationalise having several slices, and then knock a few beers back, because they’ve “already blown their diet anyway so what’s the difference?”
But as harsh as it sounds, the difference here is several thousand calories.
It’s ok to have pizza. It’s OK to have a beer or two. Enjoy them, but don't overeat, and let hunger be your guide, not food rules. Eat because you want to not because you can.
#3 Give up on 'cheat days'.
Not giving yourself permission to eat whatever you want during the week can sometimes lead to overeating and binging on the weekend. If you have a scarcity mindset during the week, the opposite of scarcity is abundance. Let's say for example, you fancy a desert on a Tuesday night, but decide to save it for the weekend.
Then when the weekend rolls round, having felt that you missed out on Tuesday, maybe that one desert will turn into a whole cheat day.
Whereas, maybe if you had allowed yourself to enjoy a desert on the Tuesday, maybe you wouldn't have felt the need for a cheat day.
So feel free to have that dessert on Tuesday night if you’re hungry and in the mood for it. You may find that this more balanced approach works better for you in the long run.
#4 Own your choices.
We really try to encourage people to stop turning food choices into moral decisions. There’s no good or bad; there are simply decisions to make. Own them and move on. Don’t punish yourself, and don’t pat yourself on the back, either.
The problem with moralising food choices is that 'good' behaviours make you feel like you've earned the right to have something 'bad' or 'naughty' later, and making a 'bad' choice makes you feel guilty and feeling the need to make up for that bad choice by restricting later, which then leads to overeating again in the not to distant future.
Neither of which is good for your relationship with food, and can really undermine your health and fitness goals.
Going back to that previous example of turning down dessert on Tuesday night because you want to “be good” or “behave,” the boomerang effect might be eating a whole tub of ice cream on Saturday night because you were 'good' during the week, and can also make you feel bad after.
If you do make a decision to eat a whole tub of ice cream, own it and move on. Start the next day with a clean slate, don't try to make up for it, just move on.
#5 Stop rationalising.
If you have an excuse every time you make an unhealthy food choice, it’s going to be very difficult to identify the actual reason you’re overeating.
Writing off every overindulgence with an excuse (I was busy, stressed, traveling or on holiday) turns you into a victim of circumstance and takes away your sense of control.
What if, instead of finding an excuse, you stopped each time and thought, “Why am I doing this?”
You may discover the root cause of your overeating and regain your power over it.
We hope these tips help you enjoy your weekends with better control over your decisions.
Have fun. Be safe. Indulge if you want to. Just be sure to consciously make that decision, own it, stop trying to be perfect, and stop making excuses.
And always, if you'd like any help, please feel free to reach out, we're always here for you.