Tuesday Tip: Weekend woes 😬

This is an extremely common pattern I see in my clients, and myself. Weekdays are often “ok” calorie wise or even good, and then weekends it goes a bit off track. A common pattern is as follows:

• Super restrictive eating during the week (1200 cals or below)
• Cutting out everything you ‘enjoy’ to meet those low calories
• Resulting in low energy, fatigue, hunger, cravings and resentment.
• Ineffective workouts as energy levels are low
  Then the weekend hits:
• Willpower is low and because you’ve been ‘good’ all week you indulge without restraint
• Brunches, take aways, meals out, drinks, food-centred social events etc tend to occur and you don’t bother calorie counting.
• You also snack on everything you’ve been craving all week.
• End result – massively over your calories over those 1-3 days
• This pushes your weekly calorie average up and halts progress
• You wake up on Monday feeling rubbish, like a failure and end up being more restrictive the following week.
• And it continues….

How do you resolve this?
For starters view your week as a whole and consider the average calories over the whole week. Avoid being too restrictive on weekdays but recognise you’ll want more calories in your budget to spend at the weekend. So save some calories on weekdays (100-150 per day). You’ll head into the weekend feeling less miserable and better able to exercise some control. Plan the weekends – reduce some of the indulgences but factor in some of the things you enjoy. Plan ahead for restaurant meals, drinks etc using those extra calories you’ve saved.

So it’s two pronged – eat a little more during the week, eat a little less at the weekends. Track your weekends rather than viewing them as a free pass. Consistency is key!

Happy Tuesday 🤗
Xx