Are You a Weekend Food Bender?

It’s the weekend!  The work week is over and it’s time to hang with friends.  What are you doing this weekend?  The local winery is having live music, drinks and fun.  There is birthday celebration.  Oh yeah, don’t forget girls night out!  But wait, you are trying to lose weight and don’t want to break that good streak you have going. Does this sound like you every Friday night?

All week you managed to eat healthy and avoid binge eating or drinking alcohol.  Then the weekend comes and you are consumed with guilt because you want to have good time but avoid destroying your goals.  What can you do? 

The number one thing to do that will help you stay on task with your goals is KEEP WRITING in your food journal!  Write down everything you eat and drink.  Include alcoholic beverages and if you can’t remember then there is a big problem.  Write down your daily goal each morning especially on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  If binge eating/drinking is your problem then I would focus on a goal according to this issue.  Also another question you might ask yourself; are my friends making me fat?  I don’t mean literally but if the activities you do together revolve around food and drinking you might need to make some changes. 

Drinking more than one alcoholic drink can increase your likelihood of consuming extra calories.   Your inhibitions are down and you become more social and less aware.  Wine is a little more health friendly for someone trying to lose weight.  You can make wine go a little further if you ask for it to be mixed with Seltzer water.  This turns your drink into a spritzer.  Mixed drinks are the enemy; they contain higher sugar contents.  Beer typically adds 150 calories to your day as well as the extra carbs.

If you are attending a party make a healthy appetizer.  Providing your own food will allow you to eat and avoid guilt.   In addition when I attend a party or dinner I try to consume a protein shake with some fruit.  This will help me feel much fuller and I won’t eat very much.  If you eat out, box up half of your food before eating.  Boxing up your food will help decrease the calories you eat.  Most dinners out are 2-3 servings so you can see there are a lot of extra calories. 

If it is girls night out find an activity to do.  How about a girls day out; indoor rock climbing, Sky Zone, duck pen bowling, mani/pedi anything that doesn’t involve food. 

Try to keep your normal sleep schedule.  A lot of times we sleep-in over the weekend and miss breakfast.  When I oversleep I always start my day with breakfast.  Plus consuming at least 32 ounces of water because by this time I’m dehydrated.  Try to avoid eating breakfast out because the extra calories will kill your goals.  Don’t kid yourself if you exercise really hard over the weekend and the run to your local breakfast diner.  I guarantee you will consume more calories then you ever burned off. 

There are many ways to avoid weekend benders but you need to take a good look at what you are doing.