Struggling with unstructured weekends

skinnytacular

Hello everyone! I'm really struggling with weekends. Anyone have any great tips for staying on track with sensible eating habits?

I do really well on weekdays where there's a lot of structure and routine to my day (and for which I shop, cook and prepare in advance), but I seems to have a pattern of binge eating on weekends, and, really, alcohol isn't even a factor. Anyone else struggle with this? Do you have any tried and true strategies that work for you?

Edited to add: and I'm not talking about "splurging" on the weekend where I deliberately plan to have a splurge meal that I've saved up for, but more bingeing or mindlessly grazing and feeling out of control.

L1zardQueen

I bank some calories for the weekend.

quiksylver296

I eat up to maintenance calories on the weekend.

skinnytacular

I guess my issue isn't necessarily that I'm using up points or calories--I don't mind deliberately splurging--I'm more talking about out of control bingeing because my structure and routine is not in place. (ETA: sorry I wasn't clear about that. I edited that into the OP.)

L1zardQueen

Have you set your calorie goal to lose too high? Do you eat your exercise calories back?

NorthCascades

Go hiking.

skinnytacular

Good question. No, I don't eat my exercise calories back... I'm usually right on track or out of WW weeklies by the time I hit the weekend though.

4legsRbetterthan2

pre-log food - if you are going out to a restaurant with friends pick put and log food ahead of time. Log other stuff before you eat it so you face the decision before you make it, not after

Womona

Keep logging! I used to get lackadaisical on weekends, especially with tidbits and apps at parties, or restaurant meals. Then of course my weight would be up on Monday. Do the best you can. Logging on weekends really helped me combat the “weekend gain-back”.

L1zardQueen

Why don’t you eat exercise calories back? I would be chewing my arm off.

skinnytacular

I do pretty well on the dining out "splurges" that I've planned for. I always look at menus online in advance and make pretty good choices. It's when I'm hanging around the house doing laundry and chores and prepping meals for the week, etc. that I struggle with.

lorrpb

Keep low calorie items in the house to graze on. Get rid of the hi cal and addictive stuff. Drink water before you eat anything and wait 15 min.

skinnytacular

I wish I could go hiking--how to fit that in between the sports fundraiser on Fri, the book group, martial arts and kids birthday party on Sat, youth group, and youth football on Sunday... Not to mention chores and laundry and grocery shopping...

Bedazzled35

I plan my weekends too. I add in (a lot of) alcohol for Friday night and a bigger breakfast/brunch on Saturday to deal with the post drinking munchies using calories I've banked during the week. Otherwise my food and mealtimes are just as structured as during the week. If I allowed myself to be unstructured for 2 days out of 7 I could easily undo my deficit

cwolfman13

I'm on the go a lot on weekends. I sit behind a desk most of the day all week...weekends are my time to get outside and play. I can get out for a few hours and do some trail riding on my mountain bike...or go for a longer road ride...or go hiking with the family...or go rock climbing...or spend the afternoon working on the yard and landscaping, etc...

A couple benefits of this...1) I'm active and moving more and therefore expending more energy (calories) than I would on a typical weekday; 2) I'm busy and not sitting around the house bored and using food as a cure for my boredom.

skinnytacular

Lots of great ideas in here, everyone. Keep going, if you can. Maybe I need to allow/plan for an increased level of splurge on the weekends over and above my dining out.

As far as getting rid of the hi-cal and addictive stuff, I have a young child who needs to put weight on, and he's a picky eater, so we (unfortunately) keep some high cal stuff around for him. I try to keep it somewhat out of sight, but I know it's there, if you know what I mean I can usually stay out of it during the week, but on weekends I find myself in his food and snacks.

I wonder if I need some equally appealing "splurge-worthy" but still somewhat healthy snacks on hand. Maybe snacks that are higher in calories/points than my regular weekday snacks, but better than salami, pizza or meat-sticks, cheez-its, or Dove bars.

Anyone have some good ideas for appealing snacks? So, maybe not the super healthy cheese-sticks, yogurt, nuts, cottage cheese, fresh fruit and fresh veggies, hummus, edamame, popcorn that I might eat during the week, but something that's a level up splurge-wise? Does that make any sense?

quiksylver296

I don't eat breakfast on the weekends. Just brunch and dinner. That gives me more calories to play with at each meal.

skinnytacular

Cwolfman--I am super busy on weekends (I may have mischaracterized that in some of my responses saying I binged while I was hanging around the house, which is true. But I'm not idle--I have a young child! I think I got 8000 steps this weekend just doing chores--I stopped counting at 8000 because I took my pedometer off so I could wash what I was wearing and now I can't find it!) Here's a snapshot of this past weekend: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/44222581/#Comment_44222581 And I left a few things off, like church, my child's baseball game, taking my kid for a haircut, and attending my WW meeting. The child's birthday party was in the pool and I was also in the pool playing games with the kids.

skinnytacular

Ooops. I see I missed a couple of posts, probably cross-posted.

I don't eat my fitness points because WW suggests you don't (of course you can, but it's not their recommendation), but maybe I should, eh?

And, yeah, I do slack on tracking on weekends. It's easy to track during the week because I'm at my desk and it's part of my routine. But maybe I'd better step up the tracking. Great point.

Also, I've just thought of something as I was listing above all of the fattening things we keep around the house for my child. It's all not only fattening, but high in sodium. I follow a pretty low-sodium diet (doctor's orders). It's easy to do during the week as I just don't have that stuff around the office. But we do have it at home for my child. I think I might be craving sodium which is why I can't stop once I start.

skinnytacular

Oh boy, although it's certainly tempting, I'd better not skip breakfast. I swear that's what keeps the wheels on the bus. This weekend I had coffee mug eggs on the run on Sunday and a nice frittata with spring greens at the cafe for book group on Saturday. Plus coffee with skim milk.

kiddycat73

I try to follow the same (or as close as possible) eating schedule as I do during the week. Usually everything is a bit later in the day (like breakfast is at 9 rather than 7) but basically eating at the same intervals throughout the day. If I don’t, I’ll do exactly what you described. I also pre log my meals a week in advance...I do that for grocery shopping purposes, but it also helps keep me on track by knowing what I’m going to eat ahead of time.