What is it about the weekends that makes it nearly impossible to stick to our healthy eating/exercise/mentality plans? I’m really good at sticking to a routine and schedule throughout the week; I continue to maintain my nutrition, fitness and mentality with after-care plans (my word, not theirs) from my time utilizing the program. For example, my family eats most meals at home during the week or picks take-out high in protein and low in white flour/white sugar. I also work-out regularly and try to do so at the same time of day so it becomes part of my routine. Finally, I continuously use tools I learned like ways to de-stress, ways to handle certain triggering situations, and ways to monitor my negative thoughts. Overall, I would say during the week I usually have things under control…
Until the weekend comes. What is it about the weekend?! My husband and I have two children and like most children, they come with a never-ending list of activities and demands! We often end up in social situations where we are eating out or eating at someone else’s house. It can be awkward when I am turning down another mom’s home-made meal or take-out pizza because I don’t want to eat most of what she made/ordered. My kids in general are going to be consuming many foods that are not on my preferred eating plan (ie chocolate chip pancakes or the blue box of mac and cheese) which can be tempting. We as a family try to be active over the weekend but some weekends are so busy we don’t end up carving out work-out or even just activity time. Overall, even if you do not have young children, I’m sure you can agree that weekends can become a challenge to stick to even the best set plans.
And sometimes it’s not just the plans that change during the weekend, it’s the mentality… “I want a break” or “It’s just one meal.” I’ve also thought to myself “Well I was good all week” or “I deserve this, it’s been a long week.” The number of ways we can think ourselves into getting off track and going back to eating everything we want are too numerous to list.
So what do I do? Before Optimally Balanced, I gave in… I basically ate so poorly most weekends that it absolutely ruined any healthy habits during the week. But now, I really strive for moderation and awareness. I still try to schedule in my exercise sessions at least one of the two weekend days as a non-negotiable with my family (as does my husband). I also encourage the family to be active as a group which is both fun and sets a good example for my kids. Food wise I am still a work in progress! I mentally prepare for the weekend on Friday and think about how I will handle the events on our schedule and plan which strategies to use. Optimally Balanced has multiple classes on how to handle weekends, social events and other similar topics because mentally and physically this is such a big hurdle for so many of us. Sometimes my nutritional choices go as planned and sometimes I still end up over-indulging. I also try to assess how I handled situations after they occurred or at least do a weekend over-view on Sunday night. But either way, I don’t let any bad choices continue into Monday morning.
