How often do you say to yourself, “I’ll get back on my diet Monday!”?

Losing weight during the work week seems to be fairly easy. The structure helps keep surprises that involve food to a minimum. It’s easier to isolate and/or insulate yourself from the food cues that trigger hunger pangs that can’t be ignored.

Week days everything is planned. You’re all set with your workweek reduced calorie breakfasts and lunches. Even if it becomes necessary to get takeout for dinner you call to order from the office. Then you can run in and grab the food on your way avoiding the temptation of ordering in the restaurant while smelling the smells, gazing at the menu and feeling under the gun to order something.

Weekdays may go down something like this:

• Eat a low-cal , high protein breakfast (at home or on the way to work.)
• Immerse yourself in your tasks.
• Stay out of the break room where there are temptations out in plain sight.
• Lunch is a brown bag affair brought from home or some vegetables and Greek yogurt kept stashed in the office fridge.
• Immerse yourself in your tasks until it’s time to go home.
• Feed the family – cook a meal or bring home takeout- and enjoy (?) a frozen diet dinner entree for yourself.
• REPEAT FOR 4 MORE DAYS

Then comes the weekend. You don’t have to rush out the door  You don’t even have to rush out of bed. Breakfast gets skipped and things fall apart from here.

The structure that keeps you on track during the workweek isn’t there and without the structure your adherence to your weight loss plan falls apart.

Being in your house encourages you to graze throughout the day  little bites here, tastes there seem harmless enough but if you were to add up the calories you might be shocked.

Dining out on weekends is tricky too. All week you have structure that keeps you from having to think about your choices. You just “do the things you need to do,” to lose weight. The restrictions you voluntarily put into place to support weight loss feel oppressive on weekends  the mindset becomes, “I’ll get back on track Monday.”

While it’s a good strategy to give yourself a little slack, a black and white thought pattern can more than undo any progress. The weekends “off” can override the weekdays when you’re “on.”

Making the weekends work for weight loss isn’t just about a plan for the weekend. You’ll need to alter your weekday plan as well. Put some flexibility into the week so that you don’t need to completely break free from your plan on the weekends.

You can get through you’re weekends while making weight loss progress by always thinking about where you’re going. Roadblocks and detours are part of the journey, but knowing where you’re going ensures you’ll get there! Weekends may throw more challenges in your way, but none will be able to stop you when you’re determined to get to goal!

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