A lot of my clients come to me with the following complaint:
“I am exercising, prepping clean meals for lunch and dinner throughout the week, avoiding alcohol and processed carbs, but I’m plateauing and the scales aren’t budging!”
Sound familiar? This is when I ask about how they spend their weekends. Because even the cleanest diet can be wrecked with weekend brunches, greasy game day food (especially here in the south!), or a few too many margaritas. I’m a firm believer in letting your hair down Saturday-Sunday, but going overboard can derail your weight loss efforts. Below are 5 super easy tweaks to continue making a dent in your weight loss goals all weekend long.
Indulge in the things you don’t normally have during the week, but only twice. Meet your girlfriends for drinks on Saturday and have pizza with your boyfriend on Sunday, but keep the rest of your meals nutritiously dense. DON’T enjoy brunch with mimosas on Saturday, followed by mexican for lunch, chinese takeout for dinner, and repeat the whole process on Sunday. Unfortunately, calories still count on weekends. So until some genius invents fat burning donuts, keep it to two cheat meals.
Weekends are a great time to get together with friends, but you don’t have to go to dinner or sit by the pool to be social. Plan a friend sweat sesh! Grab your girlfriends and try out a new fitness class, go for a hike, or try a new activity like stand-up paddle boarding. You’ll burn calories, bond with your friends, and not feel like a sloth afterwards.
If you are going out for dinner, check the menu ahead of time. Pick something healthy (think, lean meat or fish with plenty of vegetables), and don’t look at the menu when it arrives. Seeing all of the fattening food options will only make it harder to make the healthy choice when it’s your turn to order.
Complicated mixed drinks can pack a ton of calories and unnecessary sugar! They also go down too easy, so you’re likely to consume more alcohol, and in turn, have low willpower to make healthy food choices. Choose a clear liquor (my personal favorite is vodka), then add water or tonic, and fresh fruit (lime, orange, watermelon, etc). Sip slowly and be sure to drink a glass of water between drinks.
Sundays are the best day to hit the grocery store and prep clean meals for the week ahead. Let’s be honest, feeling hangry with a bad case of the Mondays come 5 PM typically means you’ll be picking food up or ordering in. So start your week off right and stock the pantry/fridge with the foods your body craves most. Stick to the perimeter of the grocery store to find the vegetables, fruits, nuts, lean meats and fish. Avoid the aisles packed with processed cookies, crackers, chips, sodas, etc.