Hi everyone,

I am mostly a lurker in the area of the forum, but I have a question.

How do you deal with weekends?

During the week I am good. I have a schedule. I have my set wake up time, set breakfast, I take lunch to work with me, I have my exercise scheduled in and it's all fine and dandy.

But then Friday night rolls around and suddenly I am off the wagon: drinking, going out to dinner, sleeping in instead of waking up and getting my workout in etc. By Monday morning, I've undone what I worked so hard to accomplish the week before.

What strategies or suggestions do you guys have for dealing with the weekends?

That's been one of my biggest problems so far. You're absolutely right, it's much harder to keep to your diet and exercise routine when you're not really on a set schedule. Of course, who wants to schedule your weekend like your weekdays (isn't that what weekends are all about?). I don't have any solid advice for you, though. What I'm learning is that I have to force myself to go to the gym either Saturday or Sunday and keep track of what I'm eating even if I'm sleeping in and doing other weekendy things. The drinking is also an issue, since I generally try and only drink on the weekends. I don't know what to tell you other than to pay as much attention to your eating and exercise habits as you do during the week, but don't beat yourself up too badly if you have a couple drinks or go out to dinner as long as you make reasonably sensible choices. For example: the gigantic rum and cokes I had yesterday? Not a good plan.

eating too much - and when I am on set - eating too much. bad bad bad - and I am desperately trying to keep to 1500 cals - how do you do it?
(but I do notice I get a lot fuller quicker) (I think I was stressing this week too, and buying food for my crew was bad - I tried to be healthy - but they want bad for them food! urg!)
B

What I do is basically plan for the weekend to be bad. If I know that Saturday night I'll be having a gigantic meal or Friday night I'll be going to a party and drinking, I'll be more careful throughout the week so that it balances out overall calorie-wise. I also go to the gym Fridays after I get home (which keeps me from going crazy on Friday because I don't want to undo all that work) and Sunday morning (which makes me feel better about having gone crazy Saturday night)!

I do not deal well with weekends. This one was particularly bad. I just sent my trainer friend an email asking her to keep me accountable for what I eat. i will be sending her a report twice a week so that I will think about whether I I want to eat everything I do since I will have to tell her! She's really supportive and this seems like the only way I can be accountable. I find at work I care about what others see me eat and I'm distracted but at home alone I get into a funk. I exercise regularly but my eating is terrible on the weekends. I honestly avoid going to bars because of the added calories that drinking comes with (not to mention the drunken eating). So while my goal is to lose weight right now, I try to stick to healthy activities.

Maybe we should start a weekend accountability thread on here for everyone who has a hard time on the weekends?

I actually don't have too much issue with weekends, normally. However, if I go to visit my mom or dad, look out! They always take me out for dinner, which is nice, but also very high-calorie. And if I'm staying over, particularly at Mom's, we always go for coffee and breakfast in the morning (by coffee, I mean Starbucks with its oodles of sugar and calories).

Maybe we *should* do a weekend accountability thread? I wouldn't need it much normally, but gods I'd be grateful for it on visit weekends!

WELL-- I try to keep really good track-- if I had that big breakfast-- then after it's logged into my fitday, I work around it-- however, like last night when I gorged myself on mexican dip and wine, it doesn't always work out. I think the biggest thing for me is making sure I get my protien in the morning, because it eliminates my day-time snacking, keeping up on my water, and taking time to figure out if I'm full--

I have a very difficult time with weekends as well. This past weekend was the worst. I don't have a problem fitting my exercise in, but I do have a HUGE problem eating healthy and making wise decisions. Even though I do work out, it kind of just evens things out and does not help me with weight loss. I need to learn to be more disciplined in this area. I am glad to see that I am not the only one who feels this way!

I try and plan as many meals as I can on the weekend. If I know I am going to be doing something like going out to dinner with my sister then I will try and plan for a lighter day. I also have been going up to the library to meet friends for studying on the weekend so I have to get out of my apartment (away from food) and I walk there so I get some exercise in.

I would be in for the weekend accountablility thread (I normally start the weekday meal planning threads) but I know in the past no one has participated when we started them. But if people are insterested I would really like it

Ugh, week-ends! I'm usually alone at home on top of it, and preparing for my exams (yes, all year long), which is an open invitation to the munchies. Besides, one Saturday out of two, I go to a pen&paper RPG sessions, and there's always snacks a-plenty there. Oh the drudgery.

What I try to do is to keep some kind of schedule. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but I've found out it's the best I could do. I need to write down things such as "Sunday, get up at 8, drink, go running at 8:30, eat at 9:30, start doing homework at 10, sart making lunch at 12:30", etc. It's silly, but it helps keeping that piece of paper under my nose while studying. The week-ends during which I'm "good" are usually those for which I've written down a schedule. If I don't do that, it all goes down the train pretty quickly.

Currently, at least, the weather is nice, so if I need a break (to read a good book, for instance), I just take my book to the park with a bottle of water and no money -- to avoid buying a Sundae on my way there. It helps.

Of course, I don't have much of a social life apart from the RPG stuff and a couple of evenings to the movies with friends, but that's the bane of the student who needs to prepare 3 years in advance for a competitive exam. ^^

I also have a hard time with the weekends. However, I have gotten better. My friends love to go out and eat. I just tell them certain places that I can not eat at... which the only place I really can't eat at is chinese bc, their is pretty much nothing I can eat there bc of all of the MSG. Then when we decide where we are going to eat I plan what I'm going to order before we even go, I don't even look at the menu so I'm not tempted. There are healthy choices at most restaurants. The hard part is making the right choice because you have all of the yummy food right in your face, but you get used to it after a while.

I'm the same way. Plan plan plan during the week and then BAM! The best way for me to deal with it is to try to keep my same schedule. Wake up at the same time, eat meals around the same time, etc. Sleeping late and only having two meals (lunch and dinner) can really throw me off, so I try to wake up early and eat breakfast!

I am so glad to hear that I am not the only one that does HORRIBLE on weekends. This past weekend I was at a wedding and had a blast drinking and dancing all night. Then Sunday I was hungover and feeling awful, so I snacked on anything and everything I could find around the house. It's like I was trying to make myself feel better by eating "comfort" foods, but I really felt worse because of the guilt of overeating. I haven't even gotten on the scale this week, because I know it will be BAD. I guess all I can really do is get back on my diet/workout schedule and try to better next weekend...

Oh dear. Weekends are totally my downfall. Friends are wanting to drag me away from my "gross healthy food" to go out and pig out on fast food for all meals of the day. I find that what really helps is writing down what I plan to eat for the day and keeping it near the computer while I'm surfing the net or working on school stuff, and just continually reminding myself I need to keep my schedule like during the weekdays. On work days I have my food journal sitting in from of me all day so I can't avoid it so I try to keep it near as possible on weekends too. One way to convince myself to exercise is to say ok, you can only go shopping like you want to later if you get up and go for a quick run in the morning. And to remind myself, I will have my workout clothes sitting near my apartment door so I will have to see them. Hehe.

Yeah, weekends are no good for me.
Although I've gotten better about saying "I'm not actually hungry" when going to restaurants to my friends. I generally get a side of something tasty, or a half side, (even better) and water. It's not great, but better than pigging out on a whole meal.