You can stop weekend overeating (and prevent it from ruining your diet). Follow the 5-step plan below to avoid undereating on the weekdays and overeating on Saturday and Sunday.
If overeating on weekend is ruining your progress, you need a plan to give you an advantage over them. Because folding your arms and hoping for the best won’t work!
While you’re in the moment, it may not register, but it will later. Without a strategy, you will always have two days of anxiety, weariness, and overwhelm every week.
And you know the worst part?
You will fear Monday morning because you already know what the scale is going to say.
So if your weekend overeating habits are stopping you from achieving your diet goals, don’t worry because all that is about to change. We’ll even start preparing for the weekend—NOW!
After all, you do wish to enter the weekend with a head start and have the right momentum to see you through. Right?
Then don’t wait till Friday to get started
Because Friday – or to be more specific – Friday evening determines what happens the whole weekend.
Overeating or overindulging on Friday puts you at risk of triggering the “what-the-heck effect.”
This slippery slope is what we are talking about:
If you have had a Friday evening that felt like a complete bust…
Like you let yourself down!.
Like you lost control.
And that’s when you say:
“What the heck….this weekend is a bust already. Maybe I should just eat anything I want and begin again on Monday.”
The good news is, with a little bit of planning, you can avoid all the disappointment, shame, and self-guilt that comes with weekend overeating.
Benjamin Franklin once said,
“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.”
So don’t worry about Saturday and Sunday. Instead, focus on Friday. Plan for what you will eat for dinner. You can even plan an indulgence, i.e., a glass of wine or a serving of chocolate ice cream, if you wish to have one.
The strategy is to make a decision today – when you are thinking clearly. So ask yourself these questions:
- What will you eat for dinner Friday night?
- Do you want to plan an indulgence? If yes, what will that be?
- Will you commit to scripting out your plan?
There are two kinds of people:
Those that have a plan and those that hope the best…
Which would you rather be?
Planning for Friday will give you an edge over the weekend and help set a new Saturday and Sunday pattern. Before we start talking about the weekend, there is one thing you must know and that’s where a lot of people fail.
The biggest weekend mistakes that lead to overeating and wrongful diet
One thing we have learned from our years of coaching clients is this:
If you make any of these three mistakes, Saturday and Sunday are going to be difficult for you. You will need a lot of willpower to get through.
But willpower is unreliable, so you cannot count on only that.
Thankfully, you won’t be needing it to the same degree if you plan for your weekend.
And that’s why we will be sharing with you the three biggest weekend slip-ups and providing tips on how to steer clear of these traps.
Weekend mistake #1: Your food shelves are empty
One weekend obstacle that most people overlook is: They are not loading up the fridge.
If you are like most people, you would have emptied your fridge by Saturday, and you are still two days away from your “grocery day.”
You are hungry, the shelves are empty, and there is no healthy snack or food around.
…but wait a sec, you have a few bites of your child’s leftovers and a lot of cookies in the pantry – you already know where this will end.
So why not just load up before Saturday?
Since you’ve already blown it today, you might as well graze your way through the evening.
“If you do not control your environment, it is going to control you.”
And it’s much easier to make healthy choices when you don’t need to get dressed and travel miles to the grocery store. You can try to kill the dragon or steer clear of it. But we would choose the latter.
Weekend mistake #2: You ruin the whole weekend…because of a single meal
Let’s assume it’s Saturday, and you will be meeting your friends for dinner. The odds are that you know how it will go…
They will keep offering you nachos, lava cake, and margaritas until you eventually have some. And to tell the truth, there is a part of you that wants it.
But there’s nothing wrong with feeling that way. And you don’t have to feel guilty about a Sunday night indulgence.
Because why not eat dinner with your friends? And why not have an indulgence once in a while? It’s part of being balanced, and for some people, that’s what will make them stay on their diet (unless it’s a keto diet). One meal is not the problem.
The problem arises when you realize your day won’t be perfect and decide not to care the whole day (or weekend). Don’t ruin your entire weekend just because of a meal.
Make the most of the 90% so that you can have the flexibility to enjoy the remaining 10%.
Weekend mistake #3: You don’t create time for fun
One of the secrets behind most of our successful clients is that they create time for fun.
No, they don’t hope to have fun. They don’t wait for it. They create time for it!
And there’s a big reason for this:
“The more fun an individual has, the less they rely on food to fill the void.”
A lot of people see food as their sole source of entertainment and fun, and they feel deprived and empty without it. Hence, they cling to food and sabotage their efforts because they are scared of what they are about to give up.
We say, don’t bother about what you’re giving up. Instead, focus on what you would be gaining. We know it’s not an easy thing to do. Research shows that the pain of losing is more felt than the pleasure of gaining.
However, the trick is not to deprive yourself or focus on the positive only – it is to do things that are entertaining and fun.
When you do this, you will find out that you are not actually losing anything. And that’s when you will feel the food’s grip on you waning. So ask yourself these questions:
- Will you create time for fun?
- Will you plan to do something fun?
Let’s take a little inspiration from Warren Buffett –
“It’s good to learn from your mistakes. It’s better to learn from other people’s mistakes.”
Now that you know the three biggest traps waiting for you this weekend to lead to overeating again, you can make an effective plan to steer clear of them.
***
It’s impossible not to make mistakes. It is not a matter of IF, but WHEN…
The important thing is how you respond. You can see a slip-up as a reason to start over again the next Monday, sacrificing an entire week of progress. Or you can learn from your mistakes, make the right changes, and get back on track.
***
The 5-step plan on how to stop weekend overeating
Yes, it’s possible to drop weight even on the weekend. You just need to take a new approach. Below is a simple plan to set yourself up for success and make your weekend works for you.
STEP #1: Begin at the finish line
It’s just like planning a vacation. The best plans don’t begin on Saturday….they start with Sunday night.
You don’t start searching for hotel rooms and travel tickets until you have decided where you wish to go.
The same is also true for weekends.
Begin with a goal. Your goal is something you want to achieve. So, let’s proceed to Sunday night and ask, how are you going to know your weekend was a success?
Examples:
- I created time for fun.
- I planned to have an indulgence and enjoyed it without feeling guilty.
- I scripted out a plan, stuck to it as much as possible, and discovered what to change next time.
Can you see that none of the examples above has to do with the scale? Numbers increase and decrease, particularly on weekends.
So, success is sticking to a plan and coming out better than before.
You are not going to see real change if you focus only on results. Instead, focus on change, and you will get results.
STEP #2: Work backward
One funny thing occurs when you start with the end in mind. You begin to play the weekend in reverse.
It’s easy to plan when you have decided where you wish to go and how you want to feel on Sunday night.
Now, you may feel like listing 1000 things you “could” do but no need. That will only add to your already long list of things to do.
Instead, select 3-5 tasks to do every day – and that’s that.
The strategy is to choose the actions that will make you feel great once you complete them. What are the 3-5 boxes you’ll have to tick every day to feel like you made progress on your diet?
Examples:
- Mid-way through my meals, I will stand up and see if I’m still hungry.
- After dinner, I will choose to enjoy fruit before considering dessert.
- When I’m having cravings, I will ask whether “I am hungry or trying to change how I’m feeling at that moment?”
STEP #3: Give your plan a reality check
Okay, you have a goal and a plan. But is it something you can do?
On a scale of 0 – 10: where “0” means there’s zero chance that the plan works and 10 means you are 100% sure you can do it…
Where would you rank your plan?
Change your plan if it falls below 8.
Although it’s okay to stretch yourself to do more, the goal is to have a doable plan – and to know you have the edge over the weekend overeating.
STEP #4: Forecast the future
What if you are playing a chess game and could see each move your opponent will make – even before they make their move? You would have a significant edge.
Well, you know what?
This weekend you are facing an excellent opponent. This opponent not only knows your weak points but also knows the right buttons to press and when to push them. As you can see, the only thing stopping you from winning the weekend overeating is – resistance.
Resistance is that demoralizing, self-sabotaging force informing you that it’s not a worthy thing to do, convincing you to halt, and drawing you back.
Resistance will tell you that:
- I will do it next Saturday.
- I cannot plan when I don’t know what I will be doing.
- What planning! I like to be spontaneous.
- Hey, it’s Sunday night.
- You only live once!
- The weekends are my time.
- But this is my one chance to relax.
Resistance will do all it can to stop you.
*But you have got an edge*
You already know what resistance will do. You are aware of all its tricks and that means you have the upper hand. So when resistance tries to convince you that it’s not worth it – How are you going to respond?
STEP #5: Commit to the plan
As Peter Drucker said –
“Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes… but no plans.”
You’ve got a plan – You know what the traps are – You also know how to handle resistance.
But until you make a commitment, you are just hoping for the best.
A commitment is a choice.
So will you choose to be “better than before” this weekend? That you are okay committing mistakes because they let you know what to change?
Your weekend is an entirely blank slate. What are you going to do with it?
What to do next?
If you are trying hard to stop weekend overeating or if you know the right thing to do but can’t do it, you can finally commit to your diet (even on the weekend) with our one-on-one coaching.
Contact us at BioIntelligent Wellness for a complimentary consultation to learn how easy your weekends can be when you have an experienced coach guiding you, ensuring that you are ready to make the right changes, and helping you stick to the plan.
