Q: Gina I tend to struggle on the weekends with staying on track with my program. My goal is to conquer my weekends. Do you have any suggestions or tips?
A: Great question and this is so common! One reason weekends are so difficult is because most of us fall out of our regular daily routines. People go out to eat a lot more often over the weekend, and there are often
parties and other social gatherings that often times don’t include the healthiest food choices. Sound familiar?
You can still have fun without sabotaging all your hard work. The key is to find that balance between effective, so you get good results, and enjoyable so that you’ll stick with it in the long-run and still allow yourself to live and have fun! The balance of “effective/enjoyable” is key!
Following are some good tips and strategies for the weekend. Keep it with you – in the car, on your fridge, in your purse – wherever you go.
1.) Keep a water bottle with you. This will serve as a good reminder to continue drinking water and will help you stay hydrated, prevent you from becoming too hungry, as well as help you resist the temptation to reach for a sugary snack, loaded high glycemic carby snack or something you just grab on the go!
2.) Set some “weekend specific” goals that you’d like to accomplish, such as three cardio sessions for at least 30 minutes each.
3.) If you plan on being on the go, put together some healthy snacks in convenient places, such as the glove compartment of your car, your purse, or gym bag. Cut up vegetables and put them in zip lock bags. (love jicima, radishes, celery, cucumbers for on the go!) You might also put some peanut butter, almonds, healthy protein bars (such as the Quest) with you also!
This way you’ll always have a healthy, convenient snack ready to eat whenever you start to feel hungry. This also helps to keep energy level up, your metabolism working efficiently, and will help you from getting so
hungry that you lose control and make unwise food choices later in the day.
4.) Load up on vegetables first. At almost every social gathering there are vegetable trays and other veggie options. Eat a good size portion of these first before you tackle the main course!
As I’ve always stressed, you can’t go wrong with vegetables and if you eat these first and/or make sure they make up a large section of your plate, you’ll do better because you will feel full. You can not go wrong with veggies and as I always say, have at them, they are FREE on my plans!
There are more pointers and tips but those should get you started and on your way to accomplishing your weekend goals! You can do it!
