The weekend is here, as is the holiday season with tons of wonderful food and drinks at many social gatherings. What do you do? Get anxious and completely avoid social situations for fear of falling way off plan? Give up your journey to a healthier lifestyle because you may have an all or nothing mentality? Or do you face the challenge head on and determine your plan of action? I would personally choose the latter!
The weekend is not a licence to forgo everything you have worked so hard for during the week but it’s also not a time where you need to be anxious about how you will navigate social situations. Planning a night out with the girls? Sounds like it will be fun! So what do you do?
Decide in advance where you are going to go for dinner. Take a look at that restaurant’s menu (most places have their menu online). Choose what you will have for dinner, including a dessert should you wish to. Determine the calories and macronutrients (protein, carbs and fats) for the foods you have chosen to eat (My Fitness Pal is a great tool to help you determine and calculate the calories and macros for several hundred food items). Knowing your total calorie and macronutrient requirements for the day, work backwards; subtract the calories and macros of your chosen dinner from your daily requirement. With the remaining calories and macros, fill your day with whole healthful foods so you don’t feel like you’ve steered way off the tracks.
Another strategy is to use a free meal. If you have remained 100% on plan all week, choose to have a free meal with no guilt and no shame. Choose wisely as far as portion size is concerned and enjoy!
There is absolutely no reason why we should “sacrifice” absolutely everything in life to achieve our ideal physique. A flexible dieting strategy will win out every time. Yes it will certainly take time to learn it, adjust to it and master it, but I can promise you this, once you do, you will forever be free from dieting in the old school traditional sense.
Lori