How To Stop Weekend Blow Outs
Some weekends I go out for breakfast and coffee or dinner and drinks, and most days (scrap that - every day) I eat ice-cream or chocolate. Pretty standard. Not only that but I am still hitting my body comp goals.
So why is it that the most common thing I hear from new clients is that they find it easy to maintain a good healthy diet and relationship with food during the week, but when it comes to the weekend they fail to hit their goals? What is it that I am doing differently to most of the population?
The problem with those who can’t stick to their goals at the weekend is they take the ‘80/20’ rule way too literally. The rule that says be good and eat well 80% of the time, but treat yourself and relax for the remaining 20%. The key word being ‘time’, because the problem is a lot of damage can be done in 20% of your time.
Let’s look at a scenario….you are good Monday - Friday lunchtime and eat according to a plan, eating around 1,600 calories a day, but then Friday night comes and it’s time for you to relax - your 20%. You might eat a pizza, have a couple of drinks, some chocolate, go out for breakfast .. whatever it may be .. kidding yourself that you can still hit your goals because of this 80/20 rule. So let’s look at some nutrition stats to see how that works out:
Friday Dinner:
Dominos BBQ Pizza: 1,256 Cals
Saturday Brekkie:
1 Slice Banana Bread: 457 Cals
Cappuccino: 205 Cals
Saturday Dinner:
2x Corona: 296cal
Chicken Salad: 400 Cals
Half a Tub of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream: 535 Cals
You get the picture… and if you don’t let me spell it out. It would mean that over the course of 24 hours, without even including lunch or any snacks you have consumed 3,150 Calories - basically 2 whole days worth of food you were eating during the week; and that’s not even including Sunday. By the end of the weekend you could easily have consumed the entire calories you ate between Monday - Friday while you were ‘being good’.
This mentality is the biggest cause of failure I see in ‘diets’ because the problem with this rule is it has no guidance, no tracking and no way of measuring if what you are doing is actually working. And this means people tend to go way over what they are estimating they are consuming. They key to making the 80/80 rule work effectively is apply it to what you eat (not to time) and most importantly do it while still tracking, measuring and making sacrifices where necessary.
For me eating ‘good’ 80% of the time would be eating my usual diet of meats and veggies for example, and 20% allowing myself some chocolate, ice-cream or dessert every night within moderation. The main difference is I don’t base this on ‘time (and try and scoff my face with as much food as I can during this time pretending the calories don’t count), and I also make sacrifices elsewhere in the day to make sure I don’t go over and therefore sabotage my goals.
I also don’t go totally off routine at weekends, still have food prepped and keep to a structured way of eating. Sundays I get up, walk and go for a swim followed by breakfast at home or out, but I still have lunch, dinner and my usual snacks as opposed to having a huge breakfast and then not eating for the rest of the day (trust me - been there, done that!). Keeping a routine and structure is by far one of the easiest ways to stay on track and also letting go of the weekend mentality that weekends are about ‘treating’ yourself because you have been good all week. If you view the 80/20 rule differently and stop feeling so restricted during the week and start eating foods you enjoy so you don’t feel the need to binge on weekends.
You would be better off increasing your total calories across the whole week and eating the same number of calories every day (you could then fit in having a block of chocolate everyday and still achieve your goals - gasp!) than you would hoarding all your calories to the weekend and then feeling out of control and rubbish by the end of it.
So this weekend just be a little more aware of what you are eating and a little more conscious of how it affects your goals. Ask yourself - is this helping or hindering my goals? And next time you finish the weekend you should be feeling better than when you started - both physically and mentally.