Need Advice on Facing the Weekends!!! Help!

I'm one of those that see Saturday as a day that I should reward myself for dieting and exercising all week.  It usually ends up that I go out and have lots of drinks (of course they are low calorie ones without sugary mixers, lol).  This is extremely defeating because I undo some of the good things that I do all week with this behaviour but it's difficult to shake the mindset that I deserve a day off.  I always feel so terrible on Sunday; bloated, tired, guilty.

Can someone advise on changing one's mindset about this kind of thing?  Thanks!!!!  I could really get my weight loss on track.  Btw, I'm about 5'9" and 184.  I want to get to 150.

Thanks!

Bring friends along and volunteer to be the designated driver.  You get to have one, maybe two, drinks then you need to switch to water or diet soda so you will be sober for the drive home!

Also, how about rewarding yourself  with healthy food.  Eat healthy but special - strawberries with just a touch of dark chocolate, shrimp, asparagus, a few pieces of sushi, starbucks sugar-free latte, whatever you enjoy but don't normally spend the money or effort to enjoy.

Go shopping and get a new shirt or jeans. 

Go to a movie.  Rent a movie.  Buy a movie.

Get a pedicure/manicure.

Get a massage.

Lots of ways to "reward" yourself without ruining your waistline!

I'm going to suggest that you make whatever it is you do during the week 'dieting' a lot more pleasant than it clearly is.   If your diet during the week means boring, nasty foods in small amounts that leave you feeling deprived and miserable... then you'll jump at the chance of a day off and a big old drink at the weekend.

What you eat to lose weight should be deliicious and satisfying..... even if it is lower in calories.  Exercises should make you feel good.  You should get to the weekend wanting to carry on with your normal healthy lifestyle because you're enjoying it so much - not itching to get back to your bad old habits.   Because what happens when you hit 150lbs?..... If you've not enjoyed how you got there, you'll go 100% back to normal and you'll be back to square one with your weight.

So commit to your new lifestyle.  Enjoy a weekend drink in moderation as part of that lifestyle and try to make the weeks a lot more fun.   But, above all, don't do anything to lose weight that you can't see yourself happily doing for the rest of your life.

Because I'm experiencing the same thing, I wonder if it is okay to have an increased calorie intake on the week-ends, but keep it below maintenance calories. For example, if 1,500 is our calorie goal, could we eat that Monday through Friday, and then up it to 2,000 on the week-ends?

Kmleela,

I think that that is smart.  I have about 1500 when dieting so on Saturday, I figure I'll have about 2200.  It's better than going hog wild and over 3000 or so.

:-)

Miztery: brilliant! When you hop on the scale on Monday (assuming you do), has your weight still gone down?

Actually I would never weigh myself that close to Saturday, more like Friday :)

It's just the day I started my diet and so I've kept with it.  Boy I feel a lot better about facing the weekend after all this great advice.

Miz

Ha! Maybe that's my problem...I jump on first thing Monday morning and expect to see great things. And then I'm so surprised when I don't...go figure!

read Naturally Thin by Bethenny Frankel. If you're anything like me (and it sounds like you are) then this book will really help you. i no longer see the weekend as a time to cheat, i just eat whatever i want during the entire week so that i never feel deprived.

One of the cool things about caloriecount is the weight log.  The graph really shows that I struggle on weekends.  My low point for the week is usually Friday mornings.  Then there is all that weekend socializing and eating out!  A few adult beverages are sometimes involved.  One thing I do is work out 6 days a week on average.  Currently I'm burning about 500 to 550 calories a day at the YMCA.  What this teaches me, is how hard you have to work to burn 500 calories.  For me, that's like 50 minutes on the treadmill at an incline.  What I think about, is how hard it is to work off 500 calories, and how easy it is to put that much in your mouth in like 5 minutes.  So it makes me very cautious at my last line of defense, what passes my mouth.  Alarms start going off in my head if I am eating or drinking too much.

Try making Monday your 'weigh-in' day instead of friday..this way you have a reason not to over-indulge on the weekends.

I schedule my work out differently. During the week, I schedule for light work out only e.g. 3 mile runs + one hour workout/day max. On Saturday, I'll schedule for a 10-15 mile run or a 50-80 mile bike ride. This makes me look forward to the long session on Saturday morning. Once I'm through with that, I'm usually in recovery period and am in no mood for hard partying that has negative impact.