Struggling with the Weekends

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  • thirstyflea
    thirstyflea Posts: 114 Member
    My best tip is to just log all that cr*p!!

    I do...and whilst it hasn't stopped me eating and drinking goodies at the weekends, I think it has helped me eat smaller portions of those naughty choices and also choose low calorie booze! :-)

    I think it is helping me change my mindset as I start to remember how many calories that pizza was last week....etc etc! I dont believe we should deny ourselves the pleasure of foods we love, it's that age old saying "everything in moderation"

    Once you start to be honest with yourself and confess all in the food diary, you will make small changes without even hardly noticing! :-)

    I totally agree with this ^ Log everything anyway!

    And find someone in your life to help hold you accountable. I used to be horrible at weekends, but I was being held accountable (by my trainer), and started eating better on weekends because I didn't want to hear about all the bad stuff I ate or drank over the weekend. And eventually, I found my self not cutting back on my social life at all, but making better decisions on everything I would eat or drink. Sure, I'll still splurge on pizza or some other junk food, but when I enter it in MFP and see the red numbers... hey, *kitten* happens and we should treat ourselves sometimes, then get right back on track!
  • lilncbrat
    lilncbrat Posts: 56 Member
    NAT you are so not alone here. What has worked for me in the past is planning every meal. I make three meals a day when the family is always together and they are not DOWN with a plate full of veggies. I love beer, so I save some of my calories through the week, by not meeting my limit and I allow myself to eat like a normal person (watching portions closely) on the weekends. It was very pretty here this weekend, and I have a super active family and we decided to put a new deck on our house. I made breakfast but lunch was a sandwich and then I was too tired to cook dinner when we were done. I know every beer that I drink, that I will have to pay for that FIRST. (Your body during exercise will burn the alcohol before it will fat. That knowledge will keep you accountable.) This will stall your weight loss, in fact, this weekend I gained because we ate out all 3 nights because we were busy in the yard. It's not always like that, but YOU know what your triggers are and that is so major. You can't be too hard on yourself. I have given myself permission on Saturdays to NOT work out as long as I am not sitting on my butt. If it's raining, or cold, I hit the DVD collection of workouts. I usually pick one that is FUN. I wish you luck, very much, but don't be so dang hard on yourself. Modify your behaviour a little at a time and you will eventually get to your goal. While I know your struggle, I am so glad I am not the only one who wakes up on Monday morning with boxing gloves on to give myself a inner beating.
  • lilncbrat
    lilncbrat Posts: 56 Member
    I struggle with the same problem and used to worry about it quite a bit. I try to log everything the best I can even if the result won't be pretty and then get right back on track Monday morning. I still fit in my pants so it's going ok.

    Some people try to use Monday as their weigh in day to help keep them on track a little more during the weekends. I found that didn't really help much and just ended up being more discouraging sometimes.

    That's really good advice. I am switching my weigh in to Friday!
  • loadsandloads
    loadsandloads Posts: 353 Member
    It's so nice to know this is a "big" club!! I'm struggling too. Glad to get some great ideas here!

    We can do this!
  • lhgalant
    lhgalant Posts: 101 Member
    When my husband & I first started getting back on track together back in August 2012, we hit the gym hard & stuck to our diet all week long, but on the weekend, we cheated like crazy. I've never had a problem sticking to the diet on Friday nights b/c we weigh in on Saturday mornings and I just know that eating poorly or drinking alcohol will wash away a weeks' worth of hard work for the next morning. with that came a big change. We used to ALWAYS eat out at the same mexican restuarant every Friday night. So, we just quit going on Friday's and left that for Saturday nights. Then after months of cheating all weekend long, we decided to start including Friday evenings into our gym schedule. Afterall, if we aren't going to cheat, why be tempted with the free time? So we filled it with gym time. Just recently we've really started committing to hitting the gym on Saturday mornings, too. This helps us b/c by getting a workout in, we are more conscious of our food decisions for the day. We still like to have a "cheat meal" on Saturday evenings. And that meal isn't always a "bad" meal as much as it's just a BIG meal. And, we've been trying to stay active on Sundays recently too. We usually use that day to get the kids & dogs out of the house and on a trail or something. So, my advice to you would be to just start adding small changes to your weekend routing to help incorporate a healthier lifestyle & healthier choices.
  • Jhs1987
    Jhs1987 Posts: 40 Member
    You are so not alone on this! I know that I am always going to want to have some beers on the weekends, and probably some not great food. I do log everything, or as close as I can get (I can't always remember exactly how many beers/how much popcorn, etc.) I try to keep it close to my goals, but doesn't always happen. A few things I have done that seem to work for me:

    1.) Weigh myself every Friday morning. If it's good I have more motivation to try and keep on track over the weekend and not ruin it, if it's bad I know I've got more work to do. Motivation either way.
    2.) More activity. I always workout Saturday morning, try to do more than I have time to do during the week to try and offset some of the calories. Also get other activities in like grocery shopping and cleaning that help as well.
    3.) I "save" some calories for the weekend. I generally do not eat back my exercise calories during the week, so I have a calorie deficit going into the weekend. This seems to work out ok for me. I generally look at my net calories for the week.

    Hope this helps! If you want to add me as a friend my food and exercise diary is open and you can look at it and see that I drink beer every weekend, but am still losing! :)
  • askeates
    askeates Posts: 1,490 Member
    I was just thinking this very same thing this morning... No matter how hard I try the weekends just really seem to throw me off!!!! I am always running and maybe that is my issue... who knows, I just know I need to figure out how to fix it!

    My issue with the weekends however is to actually eat... at least at work, I have a regimented schedule, so I know by 7 I am having my breakfast, by 9 I have my mid-morning snack, by 11:30 I have my lunch, around 2ish my mid-afternoon snack. Dinner is never a struggle because even on the weekends the kids want to eat ;)

    You would think that a woman as large as I am would NEED to eat, but as long as I get my first cup of coffee, I'm good for hours before needing to eat. Often times my son (18) will get up and ask if I have eaten yet and that reminds me ~lol~ I feed the baby her breakfast, even give the dogs their morning chow... I just don't think of myself!

    Now here is the funny part... on the weekends I forget to eat, and am rarely even hungry. During the week, if I miss even a snack I am ravenous! How crazy is that one??
  • gardendolly
    gardendolly Posts: 125 Member
    Weekends are my problem too. I log everything and don't beat myself up over how many calories I have gone over!! Over time I am finding myself trying to be more active at the weekends to give me more calories to play with. Takeouts are slowly moving towards a monthly treat rather than every weekend.

    As someone said earlier, you can accept that weight loss will be slower (but will still happen), and make small changes over time so you don't feel you are missing out.
  • angelh1908
    angelh1908 Posts: 175 Member
    I struggle with the same problem and used to worry about it quite a bit. I try to log everything the best I can even if the result won't be pretty and then get right back on track Monday morning. I still fit in my pants so it's going ok.

    Some people try to use Monday as their weigh in day to help keep them on track a little more during the weekends. I found that didn't really help much and just ended up being more discouraging sometimes.
    Monday weigh ins actually help me stay focused better on the weekends. I'm so "nervous" about what the scale may say on Monday morning, until it makes me want to stay within my calorie limits and/or make smarter food choices on the weekends. Fridays I don't worry about so much, but Saturday and Sunday, I make it a point to stay on track. I've been successful with it thus far.
  • Lauradeabreu27
    Lauradeabreu27 Posts: 4
    Ugh I have the same issues. Mon - Friday I work out like a mad woman but come 5pm on Friday my head turns off and I slack a lot!! I need to get with logging and watching what I eat on the weekends too.
  • RunningRichelle
    RunningRichelle Posts: 346 Member
    I've actually gotten REALLY good at going out/hanging with my ladies and still staying in goal! Like everyone on here has already said, it's about logging every bit of every little thing that goes into my mouth!

    Not only do I have to be honest about it, it really does help me eat less. And when my friends ask me what I'm doing, I just straight up tell them that I want my bod bikini-ready by Memorial Day and NO I am not eating a second round of treats or whatever might be the temptation of the evening.

    Also, I pre-plan my nights in my head, and log them accordingly. For example, I knew I would be drinking Saturday for St. Pat's.. so instead of joining the BF for boozing at noon, I went shopping with a friend instead and scored some super-cute dresses. Then went and joined at five, with a plan in place to have 4 drinks and 4 drinks only. 4 Sweet Tea vodka and water's are plenty enough for me to have a good time, and run me about 330 calories. So I make the room in my calorie budget by working out earlier in the day and BAM, mission accomplished!

    Another good tactic that I haven't had to use in a long time is to do an extra workout the following day if I over-indulge. For example if I do go back for a second round of treats, or decide to do some extra shots/eat food I didn't plan on, then I hit it extra hard the next day. This is sufficiently painful that I stopped overdoing it realllll quick, lol!!

    Hope this stuff is helpful :-)
  • natmckn
    natmckn Posts: 48 Member
    Friday is HERE!!!! I've already logged what I know I'll be eating tonight as well as my planned workout to hold myself accountable. I'm determined to stay on track this weekend! Good luck to everyone! :):)
  • bluecrush1203
    bluecrush1203 Posts: 22 Member
    I'm the same way! At the beginning of the year I decided I was only going to drink once a month or so, instead of 1-3 times a week, and it certainly helped! I was always really good Mon-Thurs and would often lose 2-3lbs, I'd gain it right back on the weekend. I used to drink, then mindlessly munch on fried bar food. Then in the morning I'd be too hungover to work out and I'd want MORE fried food. . Also, logging on the weekends has helped a lot, too. I used to just say "screw it" and not log, but seeing it in front of me, even if I go over, really keeps me accountable. I know if I do want to go out to dinner or have a few drinks, I need to have a longer workout and try to hold back some more calories during breakfast and lunch. Good luck to you!
    I am so with you on this one. I do great all week. But on the weekends, if I can't quite remember how many drinks exactly I had, I certainly am not going to try to log them. Surely, Patron shots are low cal ! (haha) And then, to nurse a hangover, I eat whatever sounds comforting, which is never ever very healthy. I'm too embarrased to tell friends and family that I can't eat their food at parties, because I feel like the only one who has to watch their weight. As far as pounds go, I've been losing 4lbs, gaining 2, losing 4, gaining 2. It's a vicious cycle....

    That is EXACTLY what I'm going through!! I think it's time for me to *grow up* and drink less. I was so hungover from St. Patty's day festivities, and you just feel AWFUL. Log, log, and exercise.

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