The dreaded weekends

During the week I can stay in control of what I eat, how often I eat, when I exercise, etc. On the weekends, it seems that all of those standards go away because of the lack of options. For example, if I go over to my in-laws house on Sunday we will eat an enormous meal that, while delicious, is not very healthy or nutritious. What have all of you done to:

(1) Stay on track with your progress that you have made during the week, and

(2) Not upset, offend, or single yourself out as a “health nut” for not eating as much as everyone else.

I am trying to break some past habits and I think that my family and in-laws are going to not be so supportive because of their lack of fitness and nutrition. Any answers?

I have the same problem jotun, and i dont think we’re alone. During the week, it’s pretty easy to pack a healthy lunch, and prepare a healthy dinner after work. however, every sunday morning, i head to the grandparents’ house and eat the most fattening and calorie packed meal. It’s hard to just have a salad while everyone else has fried foods and such. I’m always afraid i’ll offend someone, but i can’t exactly throw an entire week’s work away with one horrible meal. my family isn’t so concerned with diet, most of them are overweight, and none of them excercise. i suppose we just have to explain that we’re on a strict regiment (perhaps mandated by a doctor) that doesn’t allow unhealthy food. If being fit was easy, i suppose everyone would do it.

Weekends are tough… these are the strategies I use:

If we are going out, I scan the restaurant websites ahead of time to plan what I can eat there. I also try to have a protein shake before we go out to fill me up, or order a large starter salad to start with so I am fairly full by the time the entree arrives. I try to only eat 50% of what they give me…their portions are waaay to big… and I don’t ever do take out (no matter how much it costs).

If we need fast food… I go to subway and get 6” roasted chicken/turkey breast on whole wheat and pile on the veggies.

If we are going to a house, I offer to bring a dish or two. If its family, I bring my own food but I bring enough to share. This way it encourages my family to eat healthier and gives me some choices. If you don’t want to tell them about your strict regiment you could always say you’re allergic :D

If we go to the movies, I allow myself a small popcorn to share with my wife and have a diet pepsi.

As for my workouts I spend one day with no gym…but as much active ‘rest’ as I can do…walking, playing with the kids, go to the zoo/park. The other day I try to get in one good workout (usually cardio for me).

I find it helpful to splurge everynow and then. Mostly, because if I dont, I will go insane. However, the next day I do a little extra to work it off.

I think it is ok to have a big unhealthy meal every now and then. It is something to look forward to, and motivation to work out longer.

I always eat ice cream and pizza on the weekends. Not too much, but enough to enjoy and get it out of my system.

Jotun, it’s very important to have splurge meals. But eating too much out of guilt or fear of offending or of being made fun of goes against the very idea (of the joy) of splurging. Don’t sabotage a very good strategy of portion control out of fear of offending your family! Enlist them in supporting your choices, even ask for a doggie bag to take home the extra goodies for another day. It’s your body and what you choose to put in it as as your reward for a week of discipline is your choice alone. I basically eat whatever I want: I have one, sometimes 2 brownies a day but they’re 80 calorie brownies I make at home. And I rarely miss a nutrition target, all thanks to portion control. They may make fun of you at first but they’ll be asking you for advice when they see how skinny you are as the weeks go by!

I learned a lot from observing my skinny cousins when my aunt bought a giant box of delicious Italian pastries. I fell into the trap of explaining “Oh, no really, I can’t. I’m watching my weight.”

Suicide in an Italian family. Everyone argued and protested that these were the BEST pastries and I shouldn’t deprive myself.

Meanwhile, my two cousins (90 pounds soaking wet) made a huge fuss over the pastries, oohing, and aahing and admiring. Then when no one was watching, they split one between them and even then barely finished it.

I’m finding it works a lot better to express your desires gently as food preferences, rather than to bring up your health reasons. So at a friend’s house, I’ll take a small portion of pot roast and say, oh your salad looks delicious…I’ll have some more of that please! When your plate is full, people rarely comment on your taking a small portion of the unhealthy stuff. If they do, I say, “OMG it’s delicious, but let me finish this first before I have seconds.” Then when it’s time for seconds, I say, “I’m stuffed but it was SO good.”

The best thing that has helped me this past 2 months is weighing on both Friday and Monday. Monday is my official weigh date, but weighing on Friday “keeps me honest” over the weekend. And it works. This past weekend I had an extremely busy weekend (sushi and orchestra on friday, movie and niece birthday party on saturday, and an allday motorcycle ride on sunday ending at a nascar speedway with catered steakhouse food) so it was really hard to eat right. I did the best I could and the end result was that on Friday I was down 2 pounds from Monday and by the time the weekend was over, my official weigh in had me at only having lost .6 pounds for the week. While that is still good, healthy weight loss, it was re-motivating for me and I have hit it extra hard this week.

Oh yeah and “Hey everyone come see how good I look”.

:P Love the avatar.

Portion control! My family loves it greasy, fried, and buttered…. Not healthy at all. But, I can eat a small portion of fried fish or chicken and pile on the salad or veggies. It gives the illusion of a very full plate and doesn’t insult them.

Of course, controlling portions is the key; you have to have control over what you’re ingesting and so many people lack that control. So, maybe it should be called portion challenging? ;-)

But, it’s your health! If a healthy decision insults someone and they can’t understand why you are making that decision, that’s really on them. Don’t allow someone to bully or guilt you into doing something that isn’t healthy or against your lifestyle/goals.