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What sort of results would you expect to enjoy if you put in a good effort 48% of the time?

With your career? With your kids? In your relationship? Oh, and of course with your nutrition – for a 48% focus – your results would be… pretty average right?

A weekend of reckless eating is a guaranteed way to eradicate any progress you made during the week.

In todays show I’m weighing-in on: Reckless Weekend Eating, what’s it’s costing you and how to avoid it.

A normal weekend may start Friday night and last Saturday and Sunday. So, at 3 meals a day that’s 7/21 or ONE THIRD of your meals sacrificed to reckless weekend mode.

If you skip a meal that is NOT a good thing. 

It absolutely does NOT ‘cancel out’ the burger and fries you had after that skipped meal!

I believe, 1 skipped meal + 1 crap-o-la meal = 2 crap-o-la fuel for your body meals. Because each meal is a chance to GIVE your body great fuel.

Reckless weekend eating is already sounding pretty detrimental right?

However, a LOVELY LONG WEEKEND can account for 10/21 meals in reckless weekend mode. That equates to a MASSIVE 48% of meals at the mercy of your weekend guidelines.

It must be time for some weekend guidelines… first though, the intention to bring to YOUR weekend guidelines is to decide:

What will allow you to feel good about what you chose to eat on the weekend?

Not super-sickly-guilty-beached-whale-stuffed and not poor-me-life-is-miserable-restricted-and-deprived.

If Monday to Friday is all about the best quality fat blasting, muscle supporting, energy giving fuel… then the weekend is time to relax a little and indulge a bit while NOT sacrificing the hard work you’ve put into both your eating and your exercising during the week.

Your guidelines will be dependant on factors such as these 5:

1. How much you eat out.

=> even making the best choice on the menu eating out will very likely be greasier, saltier and bigger than the clean meal you cook yourself.

2. How much alcohol you drink.

=> there’s no avoiding it. Alcohol is easy to accumulate nutritionally void calories – YES, it’s lovely and relaxing And social AND a lot of fun… however the more you drink the more you’re going to need to be less relaxed with your weekend guidelines.

(in episode #010 I cover: How Much Can I Drink And Still Lose Weight?)

3. Whether you’re looking to lose fat or maintain your current body composition.

=> maintenance requires less work than fat loss… the good news is once you get to the land of maintenance – it’s less work!

Cheers to that right?

4. Perhaps, even how tough that current body composition is to maintain.

=> the bad news is… if you have a really tough ideal to maintain then that’s a fair bit of work too – how much do you want it?!!

I’m Cheers’ing with vodka, mineral, fresh lime not low carb beer!

5. Whether you exercise on the weekend or are less active.

=> so, it’s worth getting your exercise groove on over the weekend too… even if it’s just a whole lot of incidental exercise – everything counts.

That means a few times I’ll Cheers you with Shiraz too!

In all seriousness… 

Here’s a taste of my top 3 Weekend Guidelines:  

One: Zero refined carbs Monday to Friday relaxes to my fav refined carbs on the weekend.

=> For me that’s BREAD…. glorious bread.  For you it may be pasta or chocolate or whatever you most LOVE.

Two: Zero dairy Monday to Friday relaxes to cheese on the weekend. 

=> Not a whole block of brie or a tub of ice-cream just some ricotta and mozzarella here and there. If I felt like yogurt instead I’d enjoy it – however not a dairy-fest at every single weekend meal.

[Update: I no longer eat any dairy – however if I wanted plant-based dairy substitutes on the weekend I’d happily demolish them!]

Three: One fairly massive treat/cheat meal.  

=> The Glorious Cheat Meal deserves a show of it’s own. It got one in episode #047.

Those are my main weekend guidelines… 

They are semi relaxed because following the first 5 factors: I don’t eat out much, I do like to drink a fair bit, I’m looking to maintain, my ideal to maintain is fairly tough and I do still exercise on the weekend (both a structured weights session and incidental walking).

I still exercise on the weekend and I still steer clear of the absolute zero-quality-processed-crap-o-la just because it’s easier that way.

=> Exercising means exercising is easier.

=> Doing nothing makes doing nothing more likely.

=> Eating great food means I crave great food.

=> Eating crap-o-la makes me crave crap-o-la.

As with everything so far as my Body Gain approach I do what makes it EASIER for me long term.

That’s absolutely my advice to you too.

Todays action step is design your weekend guidelines. To be specific let’s start with 3. 3 simple guidelines that will allow you to feel good about what you chose to eat on the weekend.

That’s it for me today, big thanks to you for spending this time with me and I hope you can join me tomorrow for the Thursday Training show and, Bat Wing Free Zone: How To Tone Your Triceps. 

If you liked this you’ll also like:  What To Eat When Out And About:

If you’re yet to share the Healthification love – just click here to zip over to iTunes and leave an honest rating and review. It’d help me out big time. With gratitude, Kate.