It’s Monday and you’ve sabotaged your diet over the weekend by eating all your favourite foods and now feel guilty and annoyed with yourself.
It’s a vicious cycle, you’re ‘good’ Monday to Thursday, everything is on point but as soon as Friday comes it’s party time and the ‘diet’ goes out of the window. Maybe this is one of the reasons why you’re not making as much progress with your weight loss as you’d like because 3 out of 7 days you have been over eating? Would you feel the need to over indulge at the weekend if your diet and lifestyle was enjoyable and realistic? Eating ‘clean’ but living out of Tupperware everyday is not the most enjoyable way to eat, it’s little wonder people go off the rails at the weekend.
Was it the alcohol and kebab on the Saturday night that did the damage? Or was the ‘Netflix and chill’ which often results in:
Less movement = Less calories expended
Comfort food = More calories consumed.
Feelings = de-motivated, guilt, lethargic
It’s more so the mindset of ‘i have blown it, might aswel start Monday’, not the actual Saturday over indulgence. Learn to enjoy the occasion, then get back on track the next day. It’s how you react, not the evening of indulgence.
When it comes to losing weight sustainably, it’s so much more than following a meal plan and hoping you stick to it.
Psychological – 1 day out of 7 won’t stop you from making progress, its all part of a sustainable lifestyle. Just get back on track the next day. You will make a lot more progress that way, instead of ‘eating clean’ for weeks, being miserable, risking burnout and losing motivation for achieving your goal., plus the process is more enjoyable
Habits- Find activities and low calorie alternatives that you enjoy. Expending more calories and consuming less calories with then start to become a habit. For example walking the dog for 30 mins every day and swopping semi skimmed milk you use in your tea/cereals to almond milk you can create a calorie deficit of up to a 1000 calories of the week.
Compromise – What compromises are you going to make? 2 course meal instead of 3 ? 3 pints instead of 6? Gin instead of beer? Almond milk instead of semi skimmed. Whatever it is, learn to compromise.
Seeing the bigger picture – Being able to get your head around the fact that one event won’t decide your weight loss, but an accumulative effect of poor decisions will. Learning how you react after enjoying a social occasion for example will allow you to have a good time, be guilt free and enjoy the weight loss journey and improve adherence. Whats the point in losing weight, for you to feel miserable and feel worse about yourself.
If you are able to compromise, create good habits and a lifestyle you enjoy, getting back on track will be second nature. If you had a chicken broccoli everyday, i understand why you would yoyo diet and but it doesn’t have to be this way.