How do I stop the weekend binge eating cycle?
cartersmom06
Posts: 68 Member
Hi everyone! I'm an active myfitnesspal user that is pretty quiet, but I frequently visit the forums for inspirational stories and advice! I am at awe at some of the progress of people on here and how dedicated they are on their way to living healthy fulfilling lives!
My problem is that I do pretty well during the week staying within my calorie range and eating healthy, but come the weekend my mind tells me that its okay to "treat myself", and then I end up binge eating on junk and booze for two days straight. This has become a vicious cycle, and one that I want to desperately end. Its a huge roller coaster ride that I want off!
Has anyone else ever broke this cycle? How did you do it? Any tips?
Every Sunday I feel like a failure...please help!
My problem is that I do pretty well during the week staying within my calorie range and eating healthy, but come the weekend my mind tells me that its okay to "treat myself", and then I end up binge eating on junk and booze for two days straight. This has become a vicious cycle, and one that I want to desperately end. Its a huge roller coaster ride that I want off!
Has anyone else ever broke this cycle? How did you do it? Any tips?
Every Sunday I feel like a failure...please help!
2
Replies
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Find an activity that keeps you busy. Do something that does not revolve around junk and booze. I like to get in a long run on Sunday, and it is the only day of the week I can fit it in. If my weekend revolved around junk and booze, that would make my run miserable! If the weather is nice, get outside. Go to a park, zoo, whatever. Call a friend and go walk the malls or something.8
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I do stay pretty active. I have a 10 year old so we do get out for skating, hikes etc. Its the evening that gets me! For example, Friday night we went skating with friends and then went for ice cream afterwards. I had a mini blizzard and my son didn't finish his, so I didn't want it to go to waste so I finished it! Then on Saturday I had a girls night with chinese food, chocolate, munchies and wine! Then today I was craving chips, so I ate a whole lot of munchie mix! Its winter here and running isn't an option! I would break my neck with all the ice around!0
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Today being an exception because it's game day (go steelers) I stopped drinking alcohol except on occasions like today, friend gatherings, going out. It seemed I lost all willpower after a few drinks especially if eating/drinking at home too often.
I know some folks cut 50-100 calories during the week and add them to the weekend so they can still remain in their deficit. I've done this on occasion as well.
The other thing I will say is I stopped labeling food or occasions to eat a bit more as "treats". I treat myself everyday to foods I like within my calorie goal and with overall nutrition in mind. This helped me not be overly restrictive to the point I want to overeat something later.
Hope some of this helps!
Best.8 -
Thanks leanjogreen for the great tips!
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Sounds like you need to plan food better on weekend, but sometimes you just have to put the food down and walk away3
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I know I do, its a mind thing to me...weekend=treats...I have to get that weekend reward cycle out of my head, and its easier said than done!1
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As hard as it is I plan my meals through the weekend like every other day. I try to get up and go to bed at the same time I do during the week and keep a similar workout schedule. Kinda takes the fun out of weekends right now, but until I have better discipline, it seems to work for me.9
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I went skiing yesterday and today. I'm really not a morning person and everyone says you need to be there by 9 am to get a parking spot on the weekends. It's more than an hour's drive. So I skipped breakfast to sleep a little longer. Adding and driving took up about five hours, time I didn't spend around tempting food.
It's not the skiing, it's the doing something you love.2 -
Its also a good idea to eat a healthy meal before you go out to a restaurant. Even though you may be at a restaurant, it doesn't mean you can't make the healthiest choices. At the Chinese restaurant, ask for steamed veggies, get one of the lighter dishes. Don't take any leftovers home with you and immediately cut the portion in half and either give it to others or box it up. Before you go to any place where there is going to be food, drink a bunch of water 15 minutes before to let your brain get the full signal. It all boils down to making the healthiest choices given the situation. I also tend to do a big workout early morning on Sat and Sun just to give me some room for the day calorie wise. I have lost over 200 lbs and kept it off. You can read my post here
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10506038/800-days-logging-mfp-and-207lbs-lost-exercise-has-become-ingrained-in-my-dna-and-i-love-it/p1?new=14 -
If you would like to friend me for support feel free!2
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One thing that helped me to stop the weekend overindulgence was to set my weigh-in day for Monday. I only weighed once a week on Monday, so I knew that all the crazy weekend crap was going to show on the scale and then I'd have a mountain to climb all week to get back to where I had hoped to be.
If you're not already doing it, log everything you put in your mouth. See where your calories are really taking you. Make a commitment to yourself to make YOU a priority for ONE WEEK. Decide to stay under your calorie goal for an entire 7 days (including the weekend) and prove to yourself you can do it. Celebrate with something non-food related. A new workout top or a pedicure. Then repeat. Once you do this for a couple weeks, you'll get in the swing of it and you'll stop cheating on yourself. Sometimes I pre-log for the whole day and try and stick to my plan, including snacks.
I spend almost every Sunday doing meal prep and meal planning for the coming week. It's a fun day where I get to try new recipes and fill my fridge with healthy stuff for me and my husband to eat. There are a lot of threads on MFP about meal planning, so check them out along with the success stories.
You can have a fun evening with friends, Chinese food and wine without going crazy. Look at the menu in advance and decide what you will order. You can order stir fry without all added junk (sugar, cornstarch, MSG, sweet & sour) and have a lower calorie, lower sodium Chinese meal. I do it all the time. Chicken broccoli or happy family with 1/2 cup of rice. Take some home for lunch the next day. Just because a combo plate has enough for 4 people doesn't mean you have to eat that much. Order an entree instead of a combo or split something with a friend. Maybe only do this kind of thing once a month instead of every weekend.
For munchies, try some air-popped popcorn with a little butter and salt. You can eat a lot of that for much lower calories than chips or munchies. Lots of low-cal ideas for snacks - celery with laughing cow cheese or a little peanut butter, cucumber slices with hummus, a boiled egg, low-fat string cheese.
And last advice, but not least - Quit eating your kid's leftover food! Been there, done that and had the saddlebags to prove it. You're not saving the world's hungry children by eating his leftover ice cream. Tell him to toss it out and don't even touch it.
Good luck - you can do this if you want!4 -
Story of my diet LIFE! All good on the weekdays and debauchery on the weekends. Following this thread for sure. I'm thinking though, that you most likely put a lot of thought and planning into your weekdays (if you are like me) but sort of let the weekends "happen" and assume you'll stay on track. I think for people like us, the weekend may require the most planning and attention of all. Consider sitting down on Wednesday, like you would on Sunday, and plan a 3 day meal plan that includes reasonable "treats" that you can genuinely look forward to. Plan the meals around it to accommodate a few more calories than normal. Plan even a meal out perhaps. As for those ladies nights...ugh...all I have to say there is remember that ladies nights will be there when you are where you want to be too. Take time off or be stricter. This is all what I tell myself anyway5
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Perhaps you're being too restrictive with the foods you enjoy during the week? Figure out how many calories of "treats" you consume during a normal weekend, reduce that number to an amount that fits into your weekly calorie goal, and spread those treats out throughout the week.
Once you reach your goal weight, moderation will become a fact of life, so you might as well start working on that skill now.7 -
Hahaha RaeBeeBaby...thank you so much for the great advice! Yes, I must try to stop eating my son's leftover's!! Your tips are great! I don't even want to step on the scale tommorow knowing the damage I have caused! I did finish the weekend with a healthy meal tonight...chicken breast with lots of veggies and olive oil/lemon on the side!
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Thanks CoreyEHart! Great advice for sure!0
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One of the things I am working toward, more or less successfully, is changing the way I view treats and saving those indulgences for special days, i.e. birthdays, weddings, work celebrations, that sort of thing. That way, I am less inclined to reward myself with food. As another poster mentioned, rewarding myself with non-food items. Posting religiously here, weighing in on Mondays helps, too. I also have a little calendar that is within view whenever I am on the couch. I do a quick note for my workouts there, C for cardio, S for strength, A for abs, other stuff like Yoga or the March yesterday. Having that 24/7 visual cue reminds me not to blow an otherwise well-disciplined day. Changing long-held behaviors is a process, so be gentle with yourself.2
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What works for me is everytime I think I am hungry, I drink 2 cups of water, fast. I wait, and usually it takes the hunger trigger away. Then before I eat anything, I drink 2 cups of water. Yes, I visit the restroom often, but it works for me, especially on the weekends.2
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Thank you citygirl3133 and CafeRacer808 for taking the time to help me out! Great words of wisdom!!0
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I know exactly how you feel. I have always struggled with this as well. I got off the bandwagon, and just started logging again 2 weeks ago. This time I have made my weekly weigh-in on Monday. I have also logged EVERYTHING I eat in. My diary is open, and so that has held me more accountable. In the past I would binge on the weekends, and not log anything. For me the key is just recording everything I put in my mouth. I still have gone over on the weekends a bit, but not nearly as much. I am looking for friends, so feel free to befriend me, and good luck!2
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Agree with what a lot of people have said: plan, work in treats, don't eat stuff you don't actually want (your kid's leftovers), plan restaurant meals...also, if you have 'treats' around the house (I'm assuming when you say munchies, you mean the brand), open the bag when it comes hope and weigh it into single servings. Seal it up, only have one. I'll do this with pretzels, Cheez Its, etc...makes it harder to just munch from the package.
I've been trying to prelog, too, maybe it helps, maybe it doesn't...I don't always eat what I prelogged...sometimes we change things up, but I try to stick to it mostly.
I plan my meals a week (or sometimes a month, when I'm being compulsive) in advance, shop once a week (we cook day-to-day, not organized or efficient enough to do it all in one). I keep a lot of fresh fruit and veg around that I like to snack on and not much junk (though I buy chips in single serve packages for the occasional desperate-for-chips moments).1 -
I don't have a total grip on this either, but I have been working on it. I find on the especially challenging weekends and/or I get to a Friday night and for whatever reason I am just HANGRY, this is particularly helpful: I let myself eat the things I would like to eat, and eat until I am full, but I weigh and measure everything. Popcorn, wine, ice cream, chocolate...it all goes on the scale before it goes in my mouth. I find this allows me to eat until I am full and satisfied without the guilt, because I make choices about whether to keep eating or not, and how much, instead of just putting myself on autopilot. I may go over my calories a bit with this technique, but it's way less than if I just said screw it and washed a bag of chips down with a pint of ice cream! Lol It also seems to put the brakes on my urge to binge away the rest of the weekend.
I second the don't eat the kids' leftovers. I always do better when I stick to this religiously & it always does me in when I don't follow it.
For girls nights I try to plan what I'm going to eat ahead of time and pace myself throughout the event - try to estimate however much alcohol or food you think you'll be comfortable with ahead of time and pre-log it. Then while you are out, you can enjoy that stuff guilt free because you've already planned for it.
You can do this. Keep working at it.3 -
cartersmom06 wrote: »Hi everyone! I'm an active myfitnesspal user that is pretty quiet, but I frequently visit the forums for inspirational stories and advice! I am at awe at some of the progress of people on here and how dedicated they are on their way to living healthy fulfilling lives!
My problem is that I do pretty well during the week staying within my calorie range and eating healthy, but come the weekend my mind tells me that its okay to "treat myself", and then I end up binge eating on junk and booze for two days straight. This has become a vicious cycle, and one that I want to desperately end. Its a huge roller coaster ride that I want off!
Has anyone else ever broke this cycle? How did you do it? Any tips?
Every Sunday I feel like a failure...please help!
This also happens in just about all gyms. Monday and Tuesday are crowded, Wednesday it tapers down a bit and by Friday, only the SERIOUS ones show up. You'll get a busy Saturday morning, but the rest of the weekend, gyms are pretty sparsely populated. That's just how people treat their week to week ritual. So change it.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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Another little tip would be if you are going to gave a splurge meal, do it at breakfast or lunch so you're not going to bed with a heavy meal in your stomach and you can adjust your meals for the rest of the day to help stay in your limits.3
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Maybe treat yourself on the weekends a bit but earn the calories by working out2
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1. Are you restricting too much during the week?
2. Food is neither good nir bad. Weight loss is not moralistic. You are not "good" during the week and "bad" when you eat more than you need to.
3. Try this: for a week, pre-log everything you eat in a day, either that morning or the night before. Start your log with a piece of chocolate - a square of Dove, for example; you don't need to eat it for breakfast (unless you want to, I suppose), then build tbe rest of your calories (or macros, whichever) around that one piece of chocolate. When you do eat it - and this is important - enjoy every second of it, and acknowledge that you're going to have another piece tomorrow .
It takes time to get out of the "I can't have that because it's bad" mindset; eating it on a regular basis helps get rid of the "forbidden food " aspect. Additionally, pre-logging and planning your day around something makes you conscious of the fact that you have control over what you eat.4 -
Make yourself work off the calories. So, get to the gym and do extra cardio for an hour each day until you make up the calories you ate. As you work them off .. your mind makes the connection that over doing it means more work later. You'll either rethink the overeating.. or if you do.. you will know you can work off the calories and stay on track.2
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I'd back the pre-logging as well. I always feel really prepared during the week, know what I am going to eat when, and then Fri evening turns up and suddenly I have no plan for saturday/sunday. Getting better now I have smoothies for breakfasts at the weekend before going to to the gym. But even though Sunday is food prep day for the week, Saturday lunch and tea can still turn into a 'binge'. I try and look back on the week and realise that I have 'spare' calories and it isn't a 'bad' thing to eat more food.1
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You need to re-think what the weekend should mean to you.
I think you're regarding the weekends as a time to do the opposite of the work week. If the work week is full of structure (planned eating, activity, etc.), then the opposite is not thinking about what you are eating, sitting around, etc.
You may have to re-think what "treating yourself" means. Apparently it to you it means eating in an unhealthy way. Time to re-think that.
Weekends are the downfall of many people here. The lack of structure and the tendency towards treating through food can be a killer combo.
My advice: start structuring your weekend more. No, wait--don't panic, this can be fun! Decide ahead of time what sort of activities you'll be doing. Figure out what workouts will be involved...take a walk, do your 30 on the elliptical, go biking with friends, etc. Weekends are a great time to get more movement in.
Try to choose different "treats"...it's better to treat yourself with a trip to the go-cart track, or beach, or whatever than getting out the Ben & Jerry's.1 -
I have recently changed my meal planning cycle. I used to grocery shop on the weekends and create a meal plan starting on Monday morning. Recently I started using online grocery ordering, so I order on Thursday, pick up on Friday, and my meal plan for the week starts on Saturday morning. This is been a huge help to me in managing how I eat on the weekends.3
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I find if i log what i am going to eat before i eat then i am less likely to add stuff, particularly if its dinner and i have to complete my diary before i eat lol. I have trouble sometimes on weekends and do great all week too. It is really hard2
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