Weekends: The Fat Loss Death Valley

It’s very common when you start on an exercise and nutrition program that the weekends are often the last and hardest challenge you conquer.  And that’s if you do conquer it.  For many people, the weekends always seem to be the Achilles heel to achieving compliance.  Its often three things that get in the way: time, lack of schedule, and increased temptation.  So to combat those three, I’ve got three potential solutions that can help you once and for all conquer the weekends.

Potential Solution #1: To overcome the perceived lack of time, for starters you must re-read your goal.  Just this past weekend my partner, Nedah was determined to conquer the weekend obstacles with food.  She was very successful in her efforts.   She is always so busy on the weekend that she would often not eat until she was starving, then eat anything she could find.  The problem wasn’t lack  of time, it was lack of priorities.  Sure we are all busy and want to get as much done as possible every day all day, but we have to also remember what our goals mean to us.  So what Nedah did was write down her goal on a post it note and kept it in her pocket.  All weekend she kept it in her pocket and when she was presented with a challenging situation, she pulled the sheet of paper out of her pocket and held it tightly in her hand to help remind her of her goal and the importance of her goal.  Not only did it help her avoid unsupportive food choices, but it also trained her mind to get her workouts in and to eat supportively.  It refocused her thoughts.

Potential Solution #2: The lack of schedule often can be the biggest culprit of a non-compliant weekend.  All week you are on a specific time schedule that when the weekends come around, no schedule puts you way off track with food and exercise.  So what do you do?  Well one thing that has worked for me as well as many of my clients is to set a timer or alarm.  Use a watch or alarm clock and set the timer for three hours to go off to remind you to eat again.  Then reset it after you have a meal or snack for another three hours.  As for exercise, block off the time you normally exercise during the week so that you can stay consistent with that time.  What these two actions will also do is put your mind in the right place to reinforce the schedule you have done all week and also set your mind right to make smart nutritional choices.

Potential Solution #3: Increased temptation is most likely the hardest because it always is present and often even more present on the weekends.  Do you have to overcome all temptation?  No, of course not, but be very careful because giving in once can lead to many more.  Your best bet is to pick one situation where you plan to have a ‘cheat ‘ meal and make the rest of the weekend supportive. The key is to plan ahead, and if you do that and stick to your plan and don’t fall into rationalizing or other people’s rationalizations for you, you will be just fine.  One added tip on this is to understand that people will try until they are blue in the face to get you to forget your goals, even to the point of insulting you. 

You must remember that whatever they say has much more to do with them and how they feel about their own actions than it has to do with what you are doing.  Be proud of yourself and what you are working on.  You are the select few.  Attack your challenges with potential solutions, like the weekends and you will see dramatic changes in your body and your thought process that will position you for success.