Posted on November 15, 2015 by Jenny Cromack

Monday is often the day most people dread however we make it an important day. At motive8 North, you can often hear Jenny talking to her clients’ about ‘magic Monday’….the day ‘I’m going to start my diet’, the day ‘I’ll stop drinking’, the day ‘I’ll get up early and get to the gym to kickstart my fitness regime’.

For a large percentage of people, weekends are seen as a chance to let their hair down and rebel against their weekday routine. Don’t get me wrong I LOVE my weekends, however if your wanting to keep on top of your fitness goals you need to stay focused and not throw it all away on the weekend or you will end up in a vicious circle and never hit your ultimate goals!

The weekend, for many starts, on a Thursday or Friday with a few cheeky drinks after work, and can run through until Sunday with having a roast or a treat as you watch TV.  That accounts for at least 2 1/2 days of your 7 day week, so you can see this can easily scupper hitting those fitness goals. Here are some top tips to survive the weekend and ensure that weekends are not sabotaging your fitness goal efforts.
Plan Your Weekend

For many people who live for the weekend and enjoy cramming as much as possible into their days off it is important to ensure that you have your meals planned so you’re not left dashing about with nothing to eat.. this can soon leave you vulnerable and reaching for the nearest convenience food to feed the hunger.

Don’t Over Sleep

After a long week, a lie in is what many people look forward to. But be cautious to not lie in for too long as this will disturb your routine and slow down your metabolism. If you over sleep if can have a knock on effect and make getting up and maintaining routine through the week harder. You are better off ensuring you have the same amount of sleep and keep a good routine consistently throughout the week.

Food Shop For The Weekened

By Friday many cupboards look quite bare and you make do with what you have in over the weekend and this can often lead to eating unhealthy and dialing a takeway. Do your food shopping mid week to ensure you have enough fresh food to last the weekend and stay healthy.

Sunday = Prep Day!

Schedule a couple of  hours on a Sunday to prep your lunches and evening meals for the following week. Spend some time flipping through recipe books with a coffee and nice breakfast on Sunday morning looking for ideas and inspiration to make your meals interesting.  I like to bulk make meals and freeze them as it saves so much time mid week and is quite a satisfying feeling knowing that everything is made for the week!

Get Out & Be Acyive

Ideally you want to be getting at least one training session in during the weekend and for many this is an opportunity to do stuff they really enjoy but don’t have the time to do on week days such as getting out for a long run, bike ride or ramble in the countryside. Getting out and being active can put a really positive spin on what could have been a lazy day!

Plan Your ‘Treats’

It’s easy to get caught up in the ‘cheat meal’ idea, it is important to be human and enjoy ourselves but its equally as important to be disciplined and in control of our long term goals. If you go out and have a glass of wine or a beer with dinner then make sure your meal is healthy and log it in your food diary that way you can be accountable for what your eating and drinking.

Keep Your Food Diary On A Weekend

Our most successful client’s keep a food diary  even on the weekends, just because its the weekend doesn’t mean that its doesn’t count. If you put weight on or are not hitting your targets you need to know why. Having the opportunity to look back at your diet and see what you can improve is important to your success.
Weekends are there to be enjoyed but you have to realise that its something that if you want to achieve your fitness goals you have to be wise and realise that you still have to be focused and work hard during the weekend. Have a ‘treat’ by all means but don’t spend all weekend treating yourself.