How To Overcome The Weekend

You've had such a solid week haven't you.

Three - four awesome workouts, stuck to your meal plan, drank plenty of water, and even avoided the weeknight glass of wine!

You go Glenn Coco (hopefully some of you understand my reference here).

Now it's Friday and it's time to party!

But not so fast... what about all that work you just put in?

You're three double IPA's, a bottle of wine, or a few old fashioned's away from flying off the rails here!

Don't let your weekend derail your progress

But remember! - *smarter not harder*

What do I mean by that? Well... I mean you can still enjoy your weekend AND eat and drink whatever you want.

What... How is this possible? Everything in moderation.

At the end of the day everything comes down to calorie intake. Yes, making healthy and intelligent food decisions is very important for your overall health and I'm not saying you should go out drinking and eating pizza every day but c'mon, LIVE A LITTLE BIT.

1 lb of body fat is equivalent to 3,500 calories. Thus you need to burn (or not consume) roughly 500 calories per day in order to lose 1 lb per week.

That's 52 lbs in a year! But for every week there is that pesky weekend...

So let's strategize a little bit shall we?

If your basal metabolic rate (BMR - the amount of calories you need to eat per day to maintain your current weight) is 2,000 calories per day, then in order to lose 1 lb per week you need to be in a 500 calorie deficit on a daily basis by either burning those calories with cardio and/or weight lifting, or restricting caloric intake.

This is easy during the week right? Because you're on a schedule.

Wake up, eat, go to school or work, distract your stomach performing whatever task it is that you do, eat, return to said task, eat a snac

k, go to the gym, drink your protein shake, return home, eat, and sleep. Yea?

Likely no such thing on the weekends. SO!

Here are my 5 tips to maintaining a "healthy" weekend lifestyle:

1. Get yourself on an eating schedule. Pretend it's a weekday... just for a minute... what times do you normally eat? 7, 11, 3, and 6? Great. Try your best to maintain that over the weekend. Doesn't matter what the food is.

2. Portion sizes - I said you could eat whatever you wanted not how ever much of whatever you wanted. Keep your portion sizes small.

Restaurant dining? Order the small.

Out on the boat? Pack small zip lock bags of chip, salsa, etc. Don't bring the whole bag.

Going for a hike? Let's be real... eat whatever... that's a lot of calorie burn if you're headed up Mansfield for the day.

Utilize small plates at home and DON'T GET A SECOND HELPING!

3. Cook your meals ahead of time - Just like during the week, if you do weekend meal prep for two breakfast meals, two lunches, and two dinners and then add a few drinks and some snacks you'll be doing great!

4. Ditch the heavy booze - Drink clear spirits (no sugary mixed drinks), white wine, or light beer.

5. Add cardiovascular exercise to your weekend routine - Do you know you're going to a BBQ and are going to slam back tons of food? Fine. Just make sure you wake up early and add that extra hour or two of cardio to ensure that you balance things out.

Fitness, weight loss, and a healthy lifestyle do not mean you need to cut out everything you've ever enjoyed... It means making small sacrifices which over time add up to big gains!

If you are the type of person that can say, "Yes, I'm going to eat super clean, work out 6 days per week, cut out all alcohol, count every calorie I consume, and obsess over every aspect of my physique and fitness" and be able to commit to it long term, fantastic! You are a seriously strong willed person and I truly admire your drive, self-discipline, and commitment to your personal health.

For everyone else, don't feel bad about the fact that maybe you only lost 0.5 lbs this week because your weekend got out of hand. Weight loss is a marathon, not a sprint. If you try to cut out everything all at once, you'll never make it.

Enjoy the weekend everyone! If you have any questions shoot me an e-mail. I'm headed into surgery Monday so I won't be back for a while.

SEE YOU SOON!

-Lucas