Blog Post

Controlling Your Diet At Weekends

richard watson • Nov 29, 2017

How to stop Bingeing at weekends

Dieting that works

The weekend is the time when we all get relaxed, and maybe a little too relaxed with our diets, but it's important to realize that you can still enjoy yourself and keep on track by making a few slight adjustments.


During the week, it is much easier to maintain a healthier lifestyle because you slip into a routine that you get used to and many of us are on autopilot – gym, work, eat, sleep, repeat; but the weekend is a different animal altogether.

The problem is that on the weekend, the textbook simply goes out the window. It’s the weekend!

You’ve been waiting all week to cheat, but what you need to realize is that you’re doing more harm than good.

Being proactive about your health and making every day count means that you need to iron out all of the creases, and when it comes to your diet and training that normally means prioritizing the weekend and stopping yourself from bingeing.

Cut Out Cheat Days

There’s a myth in the diet world that has since become a reality, and it is derailing people left, right, and centre as they try to maintain a perfect balance between what they know they have to eat, and what they want to eat.

Cheat days were introduced so that people on restrictive diets could have one day a week where they eat whatever they want without a guilty conscience and afterwards they’d be able to face another week of restriction with an incentive. But this is not the right way to do things.

What needs to be cut out, along with refined carbs and sweets, are cheat days themselves. They’re counterproductive and don’t let you get into a way of eating that is conducive to you either building muscle or losing weight because throughout the rest of the day you’re just waiting to cheat. And cheat days, normally taking place on the weekend, can easily become cheat weekends before you know it.

Weekend treats

Don’t Be Too Restrictive During the Week

A restrictive diet is something that many people who want to lose weight go on, and over a short period of time it really does work. You should see rapid weight loss and may even feel more energized, but this is only because you are limiting the amount of calories that your body is used to by a long way.

And that’s all that restrictive diets are good for – short term results. It is almost impossible to keep that up for your entire life and after a while, that restriction can do more harm than good. You’ll find yourself desperately craving the foods that you have cut out and coercing yourself into trying out the cheat day method where you binge and, as a result, ruin your diet.

Another way of looking at dieting is not from the uber-restrictive perspective. Rather, the best course of action is to eat foods that you enjoy and stick to a healthy way of eating that you can keep up for your entire life. Don’t think of it as a diet, but a way of eating that doesn’t restrict foods that are going to push you over the edge and slowly introduce healthier options into your food choices – it’s a marathon, not a sprint, and you want long term success.

dieting

Make Meals That You Like

What you might find when you adjust your diet is that your food options and meal options actually expand because you are opening yourself up to eating more types of food that you wouldn’t normally have eaten. For instance, instead of ordering your usual burger or greasy breakfast on the weekend after a night out, you should look at healthier options and find out what tickles your tastebuds.

Instead of lazing around and eating pizza in front of the television all weekend, claiming your own cheat-day-parlay, take the time during the weekend to learn how to cook, and explore what foods excite you.

By making your health and your diet entertaining, you’ll be adding another layer that will keep you on track. And you’ll have something to do on the weekend that doesn’t involve being unhealthy because we all know what idle hands mean when it comes to our decision making.

Stay Active on Weekends

And while we’re at it, you don’t only have to fill your weekends cooking for yourself and learning more about making healthy food great tasting, but with active adventures as well. The problem with the weekend is that you aren’t stuck in an office or busy with clients all day, but finally have some time to relax – too much time!

Instead of lazing about, why not try something that you have never tried before like abseiling or hiking, or even fill your mornings will a power gym session or a jog around your neighbourhood. The weekend offers so many possibilities because if you aren’t working or busy with other commitments then you don’t have the same time constraints as you do during the week.

The weekend is the time for experiences and these experiences can not only be fun, but a way for you to bond with the people closest to you. Being active with friends will encourage you all to get into a groove where you feel good about the way that you enjoyed your weekend and will prepare you for the work-week ahead.

exercise at weekends

Avoid the “Big Night Out”

Lastly, the main criminal for everyone when it comes to the weekend is alcohol, and it is robbing you of valuable time spent in the gym and eating right leading up to the weekend. We all like to have fun in our own way and enjoy ourselves the way we like to enjoy ourselves, but alcohol is harmful to our health and diets.

This is not to say that you should cut it out completely if you drink it. Again, you shouldn’t restrict yourself from the things that you enjoy, but you should keep in mind that everything should be done in moderation.

Cutting down on your alcohol consumption and late nights on the weekend will mean that you get the most out of your training and healthy eating. A hangover only means two things: sitting in bed, inactive, watching series and poor food choices. It’s impossible to keep on track if you’re spending all weekend nursing a hangover from another bender, so look after yourself out there. There’s nothing wrong with socialising and going out and having fun, but if your diet is your main focus then be responsible when doing just that.

Sports Therapist Richard Watson

Richard Watson

Sports Therapist

Richard is a leading sports therapist in the Coventry and Warwickshire area, he has worked at the Olympic and Paralympic games 2012 treating the many athletes competing. Richard has been involved in many major sporting projects including treating and training a team that took on an accent of Everest. He currently runs his own Sports Therapy company providing local athletes with sports massage and personal training.
by richard watson 27 Mar, 2023
Getting knee pain and are unable to continue with your sport? Maybe it's an ACL injury, learn more about what an ACL is, length of recovery and how to return back to sport.
by richard watson 08 Aug, 2022
As one of sports most physically grueling disciplines, nutrition plays a huge part in cycling success at all levels, from fighting fatigue to supporting recovery. The intensity and effort required in cycling demands a nutritional programme that provides energy, power and stamina to succeed. Whilst distances and workloads vary, the common factor with any cycling discipline is that your body must produce the power and intensity to reach the finish line as quickly as possible.
female strength training with Apache Brave
by richard watson 01 Oct, 2020
Benefits of strength training for women? A greater rate of fat loss! Not to mention other factors such as curves, greater calorie expenditure, better quality sleep, increased energy and more.
Free fitness workouts to beat isolation during Covid-19 virus
by Richard Watson 24 Mar, 2020
It's vital that we keep fit and healthy during the Covid-19 virus. Our personally designed fitness workouts you can follow a 3 week plan that keeps you fit and strong.
by richard watson 30 Aug, 2019
MAF training not only results in you training faster at a lower heart rate but it also helps develop lots of other systems in the body. No more fast and furious workouts, discover how to train a safer and less injury risk way.
by richard watson 14 Nov, 2018
We use the Cooper 1.5 mile run test during our Personal Training routines to evaluate your fitness, this gives us and you a valuable benchmark and guide to your fitness, why not test yourself and discover your fitness level.
by richard watson 02 Oct, 2018
For athletes who run on a regular basis, it is important to provide the body with all the essential nutrients it requires to promote such physiological functions and improve fitness.
by richard watson 19 Sept, 2018
We understand that every one of us is different, and a ‘one size fits all’ approach just won’t do. So, we’ve designed a healthy, sustainable and evidence-based guide filled with tips to help you efficiently and safely get the look you want.
by richard watson 14 Aug, 2018
Do you want to build muscle fast with proven results? German Volume Training is your answer; 6 weeks of this intense workout will see you gain the muscle mass you've been looking for, be warned it requires dedication.
Plyometric training the benefits
by richard watson 05 Jun, 2018
Plyometric exercises can be crucial for people who want to improve their strength and explosive power, as well as athletes who play sports that require quick bursts of pace, for instance. If you want bigger and stronger muscles then...
More posts
Share by: