Monday morning through Friday evening you sailed smoothly! You drank a bunch of water, and you prioritized lean protein and vegetables all week.
You’re proud of yourself, you should be!
It’s a good thing the weekend is starting. We don’t have to think about work for the next couple of days. It’s time to relax. 
But, should we relax our training and nutrition? How much damage could two days do? It’s only a few meals … and the difficulty in eating healthy successfully, Monday-Friday afternoon, intuitively tells you that you couldn’t possibly offset all the benefits you gained. Right?
READ – 6 Steps to Help Take you From “Gymtimidated” to “Gympressive”
Unfortunately, this isn’t true. We find that many, many people derail a great week of eating through poor weekend choices. In some cases, a whole week of good behavior can be undone in just a few meals!!
Here are 7 simple strategies to survive the weekend while trying to lose fat.
- Eat more throughout the week– What? Eat more? Yes, a huge mistake that we see a lot of our members make is starving themselves Monday-Friday. Eating a little bit more food throughout the week may feel less torturous, which can increase your confidence in following a sound calorie count into the weekend and decrease the chances of bingeing. That said, focus more on whole foods and/or minimally processed foods when trying to do this.
- Workout – This doesn’t have to be a grueling 50-60 minute training session. Try to get something done. Break a sweat. Doing something simply for 10-20 min. is still way better than nothing!
- Intermittent Fasting– This isn’t for everyone. But some people, myself included, have had great success in decreasing weekend calories when you don’t eat the majority of the day. From personal experience, we would generally say not to fast for more than 12 hours as more than that seems to increase hunger drastically over time.
- Water– Drink water between each drink or every 2 drinks. It makes you less likely to make a fool of yourself by getting too drunk! Try drinking 16 oz. of water right before a weekend meal as well.
- Protein/Vegetables– Eat vegetables first on the appetizer table/menu. Try to fill up on them as much as you can. Order a lean protein meal if you’re out to dinner. It’s not a huge taste sacrifice. Get vegetables on the side instead of french fries.
- Minimize or Illegalize Dessert- If you’re like me, you struggle to consume dessert-type foods in moderation. Therefore, they must not exist for you on most days. If you want something sweet, fruit can fill this void.
- Don’t Have it in the House– Trying to avoid tempting foods when you’re out socializing is hard enough. Having it in your house 24/7 is harder. Get rid of the junk, and replace it with other stuff that might not taste as perfect as a mega stuffed oreo or giant peanut butter cup (so good, drool …) but will help you achieve your fat loss goals.
Each coach at Pratt Performance Systems has a slightly different approach as to what works for them concerning diet/food/weekends etc. A massive benefit that our members have is direct access to all the coaches as a general resource to help them with everyday solutions to weight loss and staying healthy. View our website for more information: prattperformance.com
