If you’re good during the week, it’s okay to be bad on the weekends, right? Your weekend behavior may be sabotaging your hard work — like exercise, eating right, and living healthy — during the week.
Here are some tips to help keep your weekends healthy AND rewarding.
- Entertaining requires eating, right? Wrong! Plan an activity between meals so you can see your friends and be social without involving food. Eating with friends can make a person eat up to fifty percent more than they would alone.
- A tough week deserves a weekend splurge, right? Right — just splurge wisely. Make your splurge something that’s really worth it, like a fancy dessert at your favorite café instead of a handful of stale cookies that you didn’t enjoy anyway. Or treat yourself to an activity like a movie or massage.
- The weekend is time to kick back and relax, right? Right — just relax wisely. Boredom isn’t relaxing, so don’t just plop yourself on the couch or sleep the weekend away. Try meditation, yoga, or a long walk instead. Impose a limit on your couch time, so you don’t go overboard. Even better — add relaxation time into the week so you aren’t so drained for the weekend.
- You don’t have to get up for work, so you can indulge in that cocktail, right? Try having a drink with dinner, instead. If you drink before dinner, you might be tempted to drink WITH dinner, too. It can be very easy to go overboard! And too many drinks can make it harder to make healthy food choices. And make your drinks count — drink something you really enjoy.
- I have too much to do this weekend. Be flexible and adaptable. Prioritize. Shuffle your meals and snacks so you have fuel for your body without needing to hit the drive through. Plan your errands so you can get them done as quickly and easily as possible.