3 Ways To Prevent Weekend Overeating From Sabotaging Your Goals

Are you ‘good’ all week? Perhaps you have a treat at the weekend…then start back with the ‘goodness’ again on Monday? A quick Monday morning jump on the scales to check your progress…only to find that your weight loss is non existent. But you’ve been SO good… apart from Friday’s takeaway… Saturday’s brunch and a Sunday roast that is… but it’s the weekend! Say hello to the weekend saboteur. Here, we share 3 ways to precent weekend overeating from sabotaging your goals.

Mondays. Ugh. Not only are they the ONLY day to start a diet (we think there is a rule about this somewhere) but Monday also signifies the end of the weekend. You know… that glittering Friday oasis that you stare at longingly from across the gaping chasm that is Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

How do your weekends shape up? Do you see them as a reward for a hard week? Is the weekend a time to indulge for you? If so you might be interested in how indulging at weekends can really set us back on our fitness goals.

Weekends add up

If you count up all the weekend days in a month (counting Friday, Saturday & Sunday) it’s about 12 days, which is almost HALF OF THE MONTH. So taking time off your diet on the weekends means you’re literally taking off 50% of the time, which isn’t ideal if you have a goal set to lose weight or get in shape.

As every overeater knows, the joy of runaway indulgence comes with consequences.

You feel physically uncomfortable, bloated, perhaps even sick to your stomach. Mentally, you feel crappy. Guilty. Regretful. Maybe angry at yourself. Or just angry in general.

And while weight fluctuation is inevitable when you’re trying to get in shape, if you want to stay healthy and fit, or make fitness and health a permanent part of your lifestyle, then weekend overeating can sabotage your goals.

Aside from the obvious extra body fat or stalled performance, there’s other unwanted stuff.

Like your joints hurt because of inflammation from last night’s junk food. Or you’re too full to run properly. Or you lie awake in bed with meat sweats, huffing in small breaths around the food-baby in your belly.

Here are 3 Weekend Warrior moves that will help turn this behaviour around.

3 Weekend Warrior moves

1. Aim for ‘good enough’ instead of ‘perfect’

At New You HQ we consistently beat the drum about consuming 4 packs and 4 litres of water (4×4). And while that is the most effective way to amazing weight loss and you might follow it to a tee… there will be times when it’s a lot harder than others and you will inevitably eat something not included in your New You Plan. Now this…. this point is pivotal. This can be the turning point. You can think think ‘sod it… I have ruined it all now anyway…’ and proceed to eat your way through the confectionary aisle at the supermarket. Or you can put the wrapper down. Have a glass of water and climb straight back onto the New You 4×4 horse.

Let’s look at the logic of it. If you have a blip and eat something that’s not in New You packaging, the likelihood of those calories impacting on your weight loss over the course of the week and your New You journey is slim…the calories will even out. However, if you adopt the ‘sod it’ attitude and continue to eat excessively – this behaviour becomes a pattern. Solution number one to being a weekend warrior is that if perfect falls off the table, you will simply pick it up and place it back… not chop up the table, set fire to it and use it to toast marshmallows.

2. Own your choices

To successfully become a weekend warrior, you need to own your choices. That means when you decide to commit to the New You Plan you are dedicated to achieving results. How often do you ever barter with yourself? Make deals, trades or swaps related to food?

‘Okay, I’ll turn down dessert today… but I’m going to definitely have 3 courses at the weekend and might just eat the whole cake’

In this mindset, one ‘good deed’ gives you license to ‘be bad’ elsewhere. These trades rarely pay off — they usually just amount to a lot of mental gymnastics that help you avoid making tough decisions and help you justify overeating. Look, we’re all adults here. Trading off ‘good’ and ‘bad’ is what we did as children.  There is no ‘good’ and ‘bad’. There’s no prison warden holding the keys.

When you own your choices, such as committing to The New You Plan for a certain period of time, it reinforces that you are in control. No one is making you do this plan. You are making the decisions and choosing to be healthy. Once you experience this mind shift it won’t matter if it’s the weekend or not. In the end, own your choices: don’t moralise them. You’re free to eat and drink anything you want. You choose your behaviour. Just remember that different choices produce different outcomes. What outcome do you really want?

3. Stop rationalising and ask yourself why you want to overeat at the weekend

Weekends present all sorts of comfortable justifications for coming off plan. It could be anything: You were busy. Or maybe you had nothing going on. You were travelling. Or maybe you were at home. You had to work. Or you had no work to do. You had family/social meals. Or maybe you ate alone. Any excuse will do. But busyness, boredom, travel, work, or family dinners don’t inherently cause overeating. People eat or drink too much in lots of different situations. Their explanation as to why it’s justified simply matches whatever happens to be going on at the time. The only way to break this cycle? By stopping the justification for overeating and asking yourself why you are really overeating.

Sometimes, you’ll want to eat rubbish. And too much of it. That’s normal.

Instead of falling back on the tired victim of circumstance narrative, take the opportunity to ask yourself what’s really going on. Are you bored? Stressed? Sad? Happy? Do this over and over and over, and you’ll start to see some patterns. That’s your pot of gold. That’s your opportunity to change overeating behaviour at any time, not just weekends — and do something else to address those emotions instead of eating everything in the cupboards.

At The New You Plan, we are committed to helping our customers change unhealthy habits around food. We know these behaviours you see – we have skipped along hand in hand with them ourselves. We know that for many of our customers following a Total Food Replacement Plan such as The New You Plan can help break the weekend binge cycle for good and help create a healthier, happier you.

For more information on how to get started, click here.

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