If there's one thing most people struggle with as they start to make positive changes to their health and fitness, it's sticking with their healthy eating plan over the weekend.
During the week, you're on the mark. You're eating healthily, preparing your meals, hitting the gym and so forth. As soon as the weekend comes, however, it's a whole different story.
You sleep in, get up to a cup of coffee and a more elaborate weekend breakfast, and then treat yourself to lunch out with friends. By the time dinner rolls around, you're already off the wagon, so to speak, so figure you might as well just indulge in a delicious but not-so-nutritious dinner as well.
The problem? Often, you can do enough damage over the course of a weekend it completely derails your progress. The trick then is figuring out how you can stick to your healthy eating plan, so this doesn't happen in the first place.
Let's look at a few quick tips to get you started...
1. Set Weekend Goals.
First, don't let your weekend pass by without a goal of some sort. Whether this is to hit the gym (which you normally don't do!) or focus on eating eight servings of vegetables on Saturday, set, at least, one goal you can focus on for the weekend ahead.A goal will help to keep you focused and on track. You want the same determination for the weekend as you have during your weekdays. So, approach it in a similar manner.
2. Build In Leeway For Some Flexibility.
First, don't let your Next, know there's nothing wrong with a small treat on the weekends. Perhaps you want a small scoop of ice cream or a slice of pizza. In the right context, those can be okay.First, you need to build leeway in with your calorie intake. Meaning cut back on a few previous meals so you have wiggle room to indulge in the first place. You can either cut back on meals earlier in the day, or do so in the days leading up to the weekend.
Second, be sure to pair the food you plan to eat with a source of lean protein to help keep your blood sugar stable. The food itself may already come with protein (such as pizza), so then you won't need to worry. But, if your food choice is sugar-dense, you'll want to get some protein in there as well.
3. Try New Healthy Recipes.
Finally, consider trying new healthier recipes over the weekend as well. One reason many people fall off the bandwagon during this time is because they want to try something new. As such, they are naturally led to foods not included in their healthy eating plan.Focus on creating healthy but new recipes and you'll get variety without falling off your diet.
There you have three quick tips to help make eating healthier on the weekends easier. What do you do to ensure you aren't falling off the bandwagon?
Please come back on Monday after you try the new behaviour and let us know how it works for you.
Happy Friday and have a Healthy Weekend.
