Struggling on weekends!๐Ÿ˜ซ

Ive been doing this CICO way of lifecfor a long time off and on. I find that I am compliant during the week and then come Friday evening I decide to 'treat' myself to pizza and beer and that leads to an all out weekend binge party. Sunday vomes and I hang my head in shame...Monday arrives and I do it all over again! How do I break this cycle??

Replies

  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    I'm a lot more loose on weekends, but I don't let myself go off the rails. Friday night is usually pizza night with the wife and kids...I have 2 or 3 slices and call it a night, not the whole pizza. I also like drinking beer on the weekends which I don't do much of during the week. It all seems to come out in the wash for me unless i go nuts, which I don't. I'm also a lot more active on weekends as I have more time for exercise and other general activity with the family or doing things that need to be done around the house or property...I'm on my *kitten* very little on weekends.
  • HoneyBadger302
    HoneyBadger302 Posts: 2,070 Member
    I found an eating plan that worked better for me and my life than the traditional "5 small meals a day." I also don't deprive myself. If there's something I really want, I fit it in to my calories for the week. Pre-logging helps you determine how much you need to "plan ahead."

    Personally I can't put things off limits, and instead learned that I could be satisfied with a reasonable serving of the things I love.
  • StargazerB
    StargazerB Posts: 425 Member
    Have you tried prelogging your food for the weekend? Also it's ok to have a treat, maybe if you scheduled your treat you would be less likely to binge as you would know you have another one coming again soon.
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
    How about meal planning a few days in advance? I do 3 days or so, just in a notebook or app, what you plan to eat for each three meals and what you have on hand that will work for snacks. When I've written down that I'm going to have a vegetable stir fry and some gyoza, I've really no excuse to be all WHAT SHOULD I HAVE RIGHT NOW?
  • Running2Fit
    Running2Fit Posts: 702 Member
    Find other ways to treat yourself. I try to never use food as a reward because I want to break some of the emotional issues I've had with food in the past. If I want to treat myself I have a spa night or order a new book - anything but food.

    It also helped me to completely cut eating out for a month. After the month was over I wasn't as tempted to order take out.

    Oh and plan/buy everything you need for food for the weekend. It's harder to justify ordering food when you already paid money for food in the fridge.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    I'm a lot more loose on weekends, but I don't let myself go off the rails. Friday night is usually pizza night with the wife and kids...I have 2 or 3 slices and call it a night, not the whole pizza. I also like drinking beer on the weekends which I don't do much of during the week. It all seems to come out in the wash for me unless i go nuts, which I don't. I'm also a lot more active on weekends as I have more time for exercise and other general activity with the family or doing things that need to be done around the house or property...I'm on my *kitten* very little on weekends.

    Yup, I'm more active on the weekends too. Makes it easier to fit in higher calorie meals.

    @cartersmom06 I've also found it helpful to give my OH an extra slice of pizza instead of just splitting it with him, and having a large salad with it.
  • I find that planning active things that further my fitness goals or have to be up really early for gives me a solid reason to eat right on Friday and Saturday night.

    I'll plan things like a bike ride, an early morning fishing trip, dirtbiking, snowboarding - etc...these are things you want to be properly fueled and rested for.

    On weekends I'm not doing those things, I keep myself in check by reminding myself that Saturday and Sunday are the only days I get to wake up with 8+ hours of sleep and go straight to the gym - my best lifting sessions are the weekends because I'm best rested - I can go harder, heavier, and do more than during the work week...if I choose to go out drinking or something, I'm sacrificing my best training days of the week. I REALLY like lifting, so that provides a lot of motivation to stay on track. That might not work for someone else though.

    Another thing I remind myself of is that a night out at the bars is around $100 blown that could be put to much better use. This is not to say I don't cut loose, I just do it less than once a month.
  • MikePTY
    MikePTY Posts: 3,814 Member
    What do you normally eat during the week? Eating within your calorie goals shouldn't feel like a chore. You should eat food that you like but that are within your limits. That would make you less likely to feel like you need to "treat yourself."

    Also, I think if you do decide to eat something on Friday that causes you to go over your calorie limit, you just need to think of it as a one time thing specific to that day. It seems like if you get a little looser on Friday, you get in the mentality of "well I already failed, I might as well just do whatever I want," and that causes the weekend binges. Don't think of food and trying to meet a calorie goal as something we win or lose or that is worthy of shame, etc. If you eat something you don't think you should have, then just try not to eat that on the next meal, or the next day, etc. Or try to only have one slice of pizza instead of two.

    As an example, I had a really rough day on Friday, and it caused me to want to emotional eat. And I knew that it was something I was going to do. But instead of leaning into it hardcore, I gave myself permission to do it, but I still put a limit on it and made better choices. In the past, my go to emotional eating choice was a 3/4 pound triple bacon cheeseburger from Burger King. However, instead of getting that, I got the 1/2 pound, non-bacon cheeseburger from Wendy's. Was it a "good" choice? Certainly not. But it still saved me several hundred calories from my other choice. Sometimes we find ourselves in a situation where we need to choose between the least bad of two options, and that's okay. So try to make the best choices you can under your circumstances, even if they end up being not as ideal as you would like.
  • Cahgetsfit
    Cahgetsfit Posts: 1,912 Member
    I just budget more calories on friday/saturday. The belt is tighter during the week, then friday/saturday I allow a couple of hundred more. my weight loss is not fast (nowhere near fast) but at least this way I dont feel deprived and sad.

  • DaisyHamilton
    DaisyHamilton Posts: 575 Member
    Someone once posted here that the weekend (Fri-Sun) is 3/7 days of the week. That's HALF the week not being on track. Really put things into perspective for me.
    Also I still have pizza and drinks and whatnot, but am more careful in the mornings, and make sure to get some kind of exercise in before going out. Dominos has a flat bread pacific veggie and for half a Large, it's only 880cal. My usual dinner is around 700 so it's really not so bad.
  • Cahgetsfit
    Cahgetsfit Posts: 1,912 Member
    Oh yeah - on the weekend I also put into place another strategy which is different to my normal - I wait as long as I can before having breakfast, then I have a slightly bigger than normal breakfast (my normal is just under 400 cals, on weekend I bump it up to the 400-450 mark), then I have a solid lunch (again in the 500 region, which is more than my usual 2 lunches of 300 and 350-400 each) and that leaves me with more calories to play with for dinner which means I can fit pizza or whatever in there.
  • Spadhnik
    Spadhnik Posts: 130 Member
    I am working on my weekend habit of eating something every now and then so I know what you feel ๐Ÿ˜–

    Do you overeat while watching telly - I have chosen to watch, weight loss related documentaries

    Could you order smaller portion of pizza and beer - I still eat multiple snacks on weekend but they would much smaller portion of my old habit.

    Can you come home by walk - which will put you in healthy mindset.

    Set your weight in on weekend ๐Ÿ˜„ . You will probably eat less in fear of showing big number. I am mostly careful in eating and exercise before weigh in day.


    You will need to analyse yourself and find your own solution. There are great ideas from everyone to take inspiration ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿผ. All the best.
  • Hi there, I couldn't tell from your message if the pizza and drinks are at home or out with friends. No judgement either way -- it's just much harder to manage when you're trying to socialize and don't have any control over how the food is prepared.

    But if you're eating pizza at home, I like to get a frozen pizza -- a cheese Skinny Pizza is a good one -- and load it up with frozen veggies like broccoli, zucchini, carrots, squash and red peppers. You can usually find a mix like that in the frozen aisle. It's not the same as takeout for sure, but a much better choice. If you check labels, you can find a whole frozen pizza you can down for ~600 calories (or less) and have your pizza night without the guilt. (And bonus: no leftovers, so pizza night doesn't become pizza weekend.)
  • Oh, I also like to throw a skillet dinner together that might satisfy your pizza craving. Here's what I put in it:
    - 1 lb. fresh sliced mushrooms (like portabella)
    - 1 can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic & oregano - no salt added (I use Hunt's)
    - 2 - 1 lb. (16 oz.) bags frozen zucchini slices
    - 1 large jar of marinara sauce (look for something low sodium, low added sugar like The Silver Palate brand)
    - 4 links of chicken Italian Sausage, sliced (the Boar's Head is good)
    - 1/2 - 1 lb. (16 oz.) bag of frozen fajita veggies (onion, green and red bell peppers)
    - shredded 2% mozzarella or parmesan (or both!) cheese for the top

    Just get a big skillet, cook the frozen veggies and mushrooms until they are unfrozen and look a little cooked, drain out the excess water, add the tomatoes and sauce and sausage, and simmer covered until it all looks cooked. Top with the cheese. It's basically pizza without the crust, and around 300 calories a serving. (This is for ~5 people ... I like to dish out the extra and freeze it, take it out the night before and it's lunch at work.) And you can use fresh veggies. I like the frozen stuff because it's already chopped and I can have it on hand.
  • Danp
    Danp Posts: 1,561 Member
    Try making the Friday pizza and beer a part of your plan.

    It sounds to me like it's not the pizza and beer on a Friday night that's the problem and more the fact you're seeing the Friday pizza and beer as a "failure" and you think "Screw it. I've failed may as well just go nuts for the rest of the weekend".

    It's all the calories you're eating AFTER the Friday pizza and beer that's doing the real damage so plan to have Friday pizza and beer, then Successfully have Friday pizza and beer then you won't have anything to hang your head in shame about and can get on with your weekend without the all out weekend binge party.

    you can either save up some extra calories during the week for the splurge or keep things the way they are just accept that enjoying, say, an additional 700 calories of pizza and beer each Friday is going to slow your progress by about 1/5th of a pound per week and 1/5th of a pound per week slower weight loss isn't a huge price to pay to enjoy pizza and beer guilt free.
  • cartersmom06
    cartersmom06 Posts: 68 Member
    Thanks to everyone that posted! Alot of great tips! ๐Ÿ˜Š
  • amy19355
    amy19355 Posts: 805 Member
    Ive been doing this CICO way of lifecfor a long time off and on. I find that I am compliant during the week and then come Friday evening I decide to 'treat' myself to pizza and beer and that leads to an all out weekend binge party. Sunday vomes and I hang my head in shame...Monday arrives and I do it all over again! How do I break this cycle??

    Here is my idea for you to consider trying:

    Start with a decision that this next weekend coming up will be different.
    For example, wait til Saturday to treat yourself and feel good about about one less day than usual on an old habit you want to break.

    The following weekend, stick to the sat/sun party line but this time try to cut back on the beer and pizza by a pre-determined amount (1/3 to 1/2 less), and feel good the next day with less toxins lingering in your system.
  • cheryldumais
    cheryldumais Posts: 1,907 Member
    I have a similar issue. I stay up much later on weekends which seems to inevitably result in late night snacking. So I decided to eat very little early in the day so I could bank extra calories for the evening. I'm not into IF but I do find that I'm not quite as ravenous until I actually start eating each day. Sometimes I have no breakfast and then just a cup of soup or something similar for lunch. That seems to give me enough extra calories for my evening.
  • dulinh
    dulinh Posts: 99 Member
    There is a bunch of good advice here. One thing that I do is instead of trying to 'save up' enough calories Mon-Fri before the weekend is to 'repay' any extra calories I've eaten the Mon-Fri after the weekend. In other words, if I go over my calorie goal by 700 calories on the weekend I'll have to reduce my Mon-Fri calories by 700 the following week so that I can reach my average daily calorie goal. The app makes this really easy by using the average calories/day by week function - just move the week so that it ends on Friday. Thinking about it this way keeps me in check because I know if I go over by quite a few calories during the weekend I might have some awfully hungry days the following week. On the weekends where I don't go over I love having the 'extra' calories each day.
  • elisa123gal
    elisa123gal Posts: 4,324 Member
    well..the good news is you know how to maintain. I say this because my husband has done this since the beginning of summer. He loses all week long..gains it back on the weekend..and then loses it all by the next Friday. Rinse and repeat.
    I keep telling him if he could just get to his goal weight.. he could do this forever and maintain. He just can never get all the weight off and get to goal. ...and I am starting to think he never will.