weekends are soo hard!!! any tips?

I have no problem eating healthy and exercising monday thru friday. Once the weekend comes, I have such a hard time with staying on my diet. I end up going out to eat, and having drinks, and then Sundays I don't feel so hot from the beers, so I end up eating junk food, because it seems to help with the hangover.  It's so hard because I would rather not even go out, but I don't want to be a hermit either!!! Anyone got any suggestions?

I eat really light during the day on the weekends, that way when I do go out I have a bit extra that I can afford to eat or drink away.  Plus, I let myself go over my normal calorie allocation on the weekends.  Helps to keep me balanced when I can have a couple days to eat a bit more than normal.

I eat a little less/exercise a little more throughout the week, rather than trying to keep a constant daily caloric amount. For example. Mon.-Thursday I may average around 1300-1500 and I make sure I workout everyday, probably burn between 600-800 calories depending on the day, that way I can eat more on the weekends-mainly just Friday and Saturday for me, although yesterday was a bit messy too. Even still I try to workout at least 2 of those weekend days b/c it really helps. One of them I usually just shoot for maintenance calories (around 2400ish), because I found if I try to eat only a little and drink I end up binging. Also, after I drink I'm also hungrier the next day, oatmeal really fills me up with a piece of fruit in it. You can even have a double serving and a piece of fruit for about 400 calories which can save you alot in the long run. Soup is a good way to fill up also. Making sure I get my workouts in is really important though b/c that gives me alot more leeway.

I don't seem to have too much of a problem. I eat intuitively over the weekends, and don't stress. Watch my portion sizes and make sure stuff is balanced. Good practive for me for when I get to maintenance calories. But I am thinking that the 2 things that probably help me are:

A. I cook a lot on the weekends. I only have healthy things to cook with, and I enjoy doing this. I also sometimes get tired of cooking a little, so I just make sone quick, light stuff. I think many Sundays, I eat the lightest out of the whole week.

B. I plan to eat something that is not perfect every weekend. I don't stress over it.

C. I am in a group that weighs in monday . How is that for keeping you in line?

Stay at home and avoid potential diet-destroyers.

...What, thats what i do.

It works!

Go outside during the day on the weekend and go for a nice long walk, hike, or bikeride.  You'll be surprise how it burns those extra calories and keeps you busy/out of the kitchen.  Plus drink lots of water, it will help with that hangover.  Plus, cool fresh air always feels good when I'm hungover.  hee hee.

One thing that helps me is to make myself dinner at home, and then meet up with friends after for drinks.  That or decide exactly what I am going to eat before I even get to the restaurant.  

The weekends are hard for me too! I allow 1 cheat night a week and I choose Friday. On friday night I can eat whatever I want. I find myself struggling with the menu choices on saturday and sunday though. So I vow before I step foot into the restaurant to order something healthy. I ask myself "how are you gonna feel about yourself tommorow if you eat that?" It seems to work MOST of the time!

Can you make your weekend days maintenance days, meaning you eat maintenance calories instead of weight loss calories? You can still indulge but not go overboard, that way. I second the dinner-at-home then drinks-with-friends idea. Don't drink enough to get hung over  - stop when you're at the happy buzzed zone that doesn't lead to hangovers - and you will not only have limited your beer-calorie intake, but reduced your desire for junk food the next day!  It's always more fun when you get just drunk enough to be relaxed and happy and uninhibited, but not enough to actually get a hangover. Also for hangover prevention, drink a couple of glasses of water and take two aspirin before bed (after drinking), and make sure to alternate your beers with some water as well, because it's mostly the dehydration that causes the symptoms... Develop a sunday morning ritual that will help you stay on track- maybe brunch with friends at one of those fruit-heavy breakfast bistros where you can get light, healthy food? (Do they have those where you live?)

Try all the at-home hangover remedies like gatorade and aspirin etc.  because junk food is only helping your psyche, not your body, recover from the drinking.

Eat lightly regardless of whether you think you will be going out.  I learned the hard way that my friends will ALWAYS drag me to dinner 3 hours after I've had a huge lunch.