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In this episode we get into the topic of weekdays vs. weekends and whether or not weekend habits might be the culprit of why you're not seeing progress. We'll go over strategies on how to moderate consistently while still enjoying social outings and foods you love. Let's dive in!
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Hi, my name is Brady and I'm a longtime fitness professional and Midwest girl turned mountain living hiking addict. In combining my knowledge of fitness and passion for hiking, I've helped hundreds of women get lean and strong for the trails. Think of this as your one stop shop for both education and inspiration on all things female wellness, trail talk and adventure. Hiking, female metabolism, motherhood, nutrition, travel and fitness are all topics you'll hear discussed here. If you are outdoorsy and active, looking to level up your health, unlock your potential, and become inspired to live your most vibrant life, you're in the right place. You're listening to the fit for Hiking podcast. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the fit for Hiking podcast. This is your host, Brady, and today we are going to be talking through the topic of weekends versus weekdays in terms of fitness progress, nutrition, and whether or not weekends may be kind of derailing your fitness progress. And I apologize in advance. I'm a little bit under the weather. My voice is not 100% at this point, but we're going to get through it anyway. Um, so I have been a fitness coach and personal trainer now for 11 years, working in the industry in various settings. Um, I spent many, many years working in person and in the last three years of transitioned more to the online coaching platform. And now I have Mountain Metabolic Coaching, which I am the owner of. Um, and I would say in my time working over these past 11 years in the industry, this is one of the top culprits for lack of progress and clients I've worked with over the years and in my own personal experience for many years. This topic of weekend eating. Um, so during my 20s, a little bit of backstory. I was still working on my relationship with food, alcohol, exercise, and I really struggled with moderating over the weekends. I thought if I was strict enough Monday through Thursday that I could kind of let loose and still see progress. However, I was not only not seeing progress, but over the years I was actually slowly gaining weight and felt very inflamed despite About exercising six times a week. I was actually six days a week, and many times I was actually doing two days. Plus I was on my feet all day teaching workout classes during that stage of life. And this was like in my early 20s, right? So ideally, I should have really been like thriving in my health with everything that I was doing, all the effort I was putting forth with my workout, consistency. There was never a time when I wasn't consistent in my workouts, so I knew it wasn't, oh, I'm just not active enough. I mean, I was extremely active, but something was out of whack, clearly, because I was slowly gaining weight to the point where I hit my highest weight when I was about 27 and I was just completely out of loss, I felt like, what is wrong with me? That I can help other people in their fitness pursuits? But I'm struggling here with my relationship with food and with with weekend eating, and with seeing my own weight loss or leaning out. Um, so it caused me to eventually just really get honest with myself about my all or nothing approach with nutrition. And I knew I needed to really examine my relationship with food ultimately. So here's how you kind of know when it might be time for you to examine whether or not weekends are really derailing your progress, because this might not be an issue for you, but here are some indicators that you might have an issue with weekend eating, and this might actually be something that you want to look at if you're not seeing progress. So number one would be that you're just frustrated and feeling stuck despite being very consistent with your workout routine. So I'm talking like five, you know, 3 to 5 days a week consistently. It's not like, oh, you do it for a few weeks and then you're off for a few weeks. Like, no, you are on it. You are working out consistently at least three times a week, and yet you're still gaining weight or not losing weight or not seeing the progress that you want to see. Number two is that you're very social on weekends and have a lot of events going on, like you're always out and about. You have a lot of things where you're eating and drinking socially. Um, number three is that there's a noticeable difference in your mentality with food and drinks on weekends versus weekdays, or you just know, like you eat and drink way more on the weekends. Um, like you are introspective enough to see that that's the case. Number four, you're consuming large amounts of alcohol several weekends a month. So this is a tricky one because sometimes people don't think that they're really drinking that much. But then when you actually get honest with yourself and you say, okay, I have three drinks on Friday, five drinks on Saturday, another four drinks on Sunday for Sunday fun day, and then maybe you even have a few drinks during the week two. That's actually a lot of alcohol on a weekly basis. And those calories really, really add up. Not to mention the calories that you might eat when you're getting the munchies while you're drinking, or if you're hung over the next day. Um, so if you're having several weekends a month where you are like kind of getting drunk or just drinking in excess, or you're drinking all day on a weekend day, um, this might apply to you. Uh, number five, you get the feeling that you're starting over every single Monday. Um, that's a frustrating feeling. I'm totally been there. So if you are relating to any of those five indicators, that weakens might be a struggle point for you or derailing progress. Then let's talk about where to start. If you know that this is a problem area for you, and maybe you're just realizing it and you're like, oh gosh, this is definitely something that I need to work on. I'm realizing that now. Um, and if that's the case, then let's get into it. Okay. So number one is to keep track of calorie intake during just a typical week of your life. Okay, so don't pick like a week where you have nothing going on socially. Use this opportunity to really be honest and introspective. So see, on a typical week of social events, you have drinks going on. Maybe you have friends in town, you have a concert. Um, and then you have a few like normal days where you're just going to work, going home, cooking, doing your thing. Um, track all of it. Track all those days of the week and the weekend and include every little thing that's crucial, because when we kind of, like, leave a few things out, we are selective with what we track. We're really not being honest with our total intake. Um, and the whole point of this is to see some honest data so that we can make some adjustments. Right. So see if there's a pretty big discrepancy between your weekdays and your weekends, like if you're having, you know, maybe 1500 to 2000 calories on a typical weekday and on the weekends, you're upwards of 2500 to 3000 calories. That's a pretty big discrepancy. Okay. Um, so look at the numbers and then use that data to adjust and move forward. It's really hard to know where we're struggling or where we need to adjust without looking at the numbers. So even if you're like, oh, I just don't want to track, I feel like that's so unhealthy. Yes, it might be unhealthy for you to do long term, but I'm talking about a week here, okay. Use this opportunity to just reflect on this information and then make some adjustments. Um, number two is to then look at where the calories are going. So if you notice a big discrepancy, look at your weekends and say, like, is it because I'm eating out a lot? Is it alcohol? Is it mindless snacking? Is it like bingeing? Type of deal? Um, pinpoint the struggle areas and start to make a plan for moderating. You don't need to cut out all your socializing, all of your restaurants, all of your drinks, all of your snacks. However, moderating is going to be crucial. Like, you can't not adjust anything if you want to see changes, right? So you just got to look at where can I pull back if it's alcohol, that's the issue. Maybe you make a plan of action of, okay, I'm only going to drink one day a week, and that's going to drastically knock down my drink intake for the week. Or maybe it's a two drink limit, two days out of the weekend or something like that. Um, number three, if you notice that you tend to have an all or nothing approach with certain foods or alcohol during the week versus weekends, maybe try to start incorporating some of those foods during the week in small amounts. And this might seem counterintuitive, but this can actually be so helpful if you are someone who just like, feels this restriction. And so then on the weekends you go all out because you're like, oh my gosh, I've been so deprived during the week that now I'm going to have an entire pint of ice cream in one sitting, or I'm going to have an entire bottle of wine by myself or whatever it might be. That's your struggle point. Um, incorporating small amounts of that thing for yourself during the week can tend to have this effect where you no longer feel like you have to go all out on the weekends because that's your one window of opportunity. Like it's like the cheat meal mindset, which is just so messed up because then we tend to just have this kind of like toxic relationship with food where we're either being really good or we're quote unquote cheating. And I really think that that's an unhealthy approach to take. This is something that actually was very instrumental in my own weight loss journey. I personally have lost £25, um, over the last five years. Most of that weight loss occurred in the first year or two year and a half. However, I've continued to kind of lean out from there, minus my pregnancies where I gained weight. But then I always have gotten back down to a leaner place afterward. Um, so I feel like it's been a journey these past five years, and this has been a really big thing for me personally that has helped me see progress in the whole like, weekend overeating thing. I definitely used to be someone who would be perfect, quote unquote, with my nutrition Monday through Thursday, and then on the weekends I would honestly kind of binge. I don't I don't think I realized that that's what I was doing at the time. But now I look back and I was going out and having lots of high calorie cocktails and drinks on the weekends. You know, I was in my 20s. That was fun. I was like in a new city for a while. Um, and then I typically was just eating whatever I wanted. And then Monday I felt so guilty and like, puffy and blah. And then I would, like, majorly pull back and restrict, um, and so once I started just trying to actually eat the things that I wanted to eat that I was craving during the week in small amounts. So letting myself have some chocolate every day, letting myself have ice cream available to me if I wanted to have a couple spoonfuls or a bowl. Um, and then just really looking at like my total calorie intake for the day, instead of obsessing over eating clean or being perfect in my diet for four days out of the week. Um, that really helped me no longer feel this need to then go off the rails on the weekends. My weekdays and weekends started to then look very similar. There wasn't this big discrepancy. I wasn't overeating by a thousand calories on Friday, Saturday, Sunday anymore because I no longer felt like I was having to swing between being perfect and then like, letting loose. So to speak. Um, so if this is something that you struggle with, then I would say start by easing in and having, uh, the thing that you're craving, maybe the thing that you feel like you go overboard with on the weekends. Incorporate that into your week and know that this is not going to be perfect. You might still struggle with, like, maybe binging on it every now and then during the week. It's going to be a process because you're working on your long term relationship with food right now. Okay, that's what this is. But it is a very crucial step to having more moderate weekends and just finding that overall balance. I no longer feel like on Mondays I'm starting over, or that I, like, have undone all of my progress from the previous week. And that is such a nice feeling. I just eat the same seven days a week. Yes, I might go out to eat a little extra on the weekends, but I'm not overdoing it. I'm not having everything on the drink menu or feeling like I have to get an appetizer, a big entree, a dessert, and three cocktails because I never let myself let loose. Right? So the mindset is different and that informs my decisions. Um. Um, in gaining some perspective. So let's just look at this from a numbers perspective if you're a numbers person. So if you're overeating three out of seven days per week, that's equivalent to scoring a 57% out of 100% for the week. Okay. That's the failing grade, right? So you might think like, oh, I'm so good Monday through Thursday or even even Monday through Friday. And maybe you just have two days a week where you're, you know, overeating. But still, if you look at the numbers, you're not going to see a whole lot of progress if you're only giving 57% effort in regards to nutrition compliance. Right. You can't expect A-plus results when you're giving an F, a D, or a C in effort. So looking at more numbers, £1 of fat is equivalent to 3500 calories. Okay. So just kind of using that for context here. Say you're eating in a 250 calorie deficit four days per week. So you know what your maintenance is. You're eating in a 250 calorie deficit. You're tracking Monday through Thursday. So you've created a thousand calorie deficit, right? By the time you get to Thursday night. But then let's say that you're eating in a 500 calorie surplus the other three days over the weekend. That means at the end of the week, you've actually cancelled out your deficit and ended up in a 500 calorie surplus for the week. So not only are you not actually in a deficit, even though you're quote unquote dieting Monday through Thursday, but this is why some people slowly gain weight over time despite saying, oh, I'm dieting. So I don't understand why this isn't working. Think about it. If you're in a 500 calorie surplus every week for seven weeks, that's £1 of fat that you've gained. So that's easily several pounds throughout the year that you're gaining. And that's exactly what was happening to me. I felt like I was being so restrictive, but when I actually looked at my weekends, I was eating enough of a surplus to cancel out any dieting efforts, any deficit that I had created. Monday through Thursday. So you're kind of really doing yourself dirty here because one, you're not making progress, but two, you feel like you're dieting because you're in a deficit more than half the week, but then you're undoing your efforts. So it's kind of this like frivolous little cycle that you find yourself in where you're on this hamster wheel of, of feeling mentally restricted, feeling like you're dieting year round, but you're still gaining weight because you're not actually in the deficit that you think you're in. And this is such a common occurrence. And I hear so many women say like, oh, I'm not I'm not seeing weight loss, even though I'm in a deficit, even though I'm dieting. And this is probably a big reason why. And obviously it's not the case for everybody. Some people actually are in a very frustrating place of of feeling like they're in a deficit, and maybe they are actually in a deficit and struggling to see changes. However, I would say more often than not, probably 90 to 95% of the time, we're just not accurately tracking our calorie intake, or we are way underestimating our intake and not tracking it all. Or we're letting weekends and events and holidays and circumstances completely dictate our nutrition. Okay. Um, I hope that kind of the numbers perspective is helpful because that was really eye opening for me. Um, our next one is to know that if you're serious about achieving a certain goal of getting leaner, using the weekends as a free for all just really isn't an option anymore. Like a little bit of tough love. It's not an option. Yes, you can still enjoy your weekends. Yes, you can still go out to eat. You can still have drinks, you can still have wine, you can still have candy, chocolate, you know, whatever it is that is kind of like your thing that you enjoy, but you cannot have all of these things in excess every single weekend and still expect to see the progress that you want to see. Um, this is going to really just keep you spinning your wheels for years, potentially. I mean, some people truly do this for like decades, and it's very frustrating. Thankfully, I broke this pattern for myself after. I mean, it was still like a good five years that I was doing this. I would say from like 22 to 27, I really, really struggled with this. And it wasn't until I got a grip on my weekends and moderating my intake seven days a week, that I actually have been able to get lean and stay lean. And I don't find it hard to stay lean anymore. Like, I find it actually very easy, and I'm just in a place of flow and ease with Maintaining my current body composition. Um, okay, so here are some small tips for weekend success if you just want some practical application here. So a couple of the little things that you can implement. One is when you're eating out, just go ahead and get a box. When you order and box up maybe like one third and a half them you typically our portions, especially if you're listening to this um, in the United States, our portions are crazy. And also when you're eating out, you have to factor in the fact that they probably have been cooking that meal in a ton of butter and oil, which is just naturally going to increase the overall fat content and calories by quite a bit. So even if you feel like it should be a relatively healthy meal, if it doesn't actually provide the nutrition breakdown, then I would just go ahead and box up about half of the meal, um, and save it for later. Then you get two meals out of the one, and you're also way less likely to have a massively overconsumption type of meal. Um, our next one is to set a drink limit for yourself each week and and really just stick to it. Like, obviously easier said than done. But if alcohol is a big thing for you and you find that you are having on average, like, you know, ten plus drinks a week. This is something you're probably going to need to scale back on if you are not seeing progress in the gym. Yes, you can have a few drinks a week and still see progress. However, if you're having a large, large quantity of drinks every single week, it is going to make it harder to stay in a calorie deficit, um, without cutting back. So setting a drink limit for yourself. Maybe you say I'm only going to have two drinks during the week and 2 to 4 drinks on the weekend, or something like that. Um, and that just brings down your average. Being honest with yourself is the first step. Like, am I having too much on the weekends or just in the week overall? And how can I realistically scale back on this? Number three is to stay active on the weekends too. So even if this isn't like formal workouts, you're not going to the gym. Find ways to incorporate movement into your socialization, your activities with friends. So things like hiking, skiing, snowshoeing, biking, climbing, just going for walks as a family, um, outdoor playdates, if you're kiddos, swimming, um, going to the park, things like that. Finding ways to stay active even if it doesn't feel like a formal workout. Just increasing your non exercise activity output on the weekends. Um, instead of just being sedentary and going out to eat and going to bars, look for ways to get some healthy activity in. This is not only going to improve your physical health, but also your mental health. Like we are just mentally healthier when we're doing more than just sitting around and eating and drinking. Um, especially in the winter. Like, I know this is trickier in the winter. And I get it. I live in Colorado, we get so much snow and I'm actually not a big skier. Um, but I've had to find ways to get creative so I can still get outside. So for me, I've looked at snowshoeing. I do that quite a bit, as well as cross-country skiing because I don't love downhill skiing. Um, and just getting out for like, walks with spikes on, um, forcing myself to get outside even when I don't feel like it. You could. Even if you don't want to do something outside, you could meet up with friends for a fun workout class on a Saturday, and then go get brunch together. Or just meeting up for a long walk with somebody that you want to catch up with. There are so many ways that you can sneak this into your weekends. Um, the next tip is to aim for protein at every meal on the weekends. Um, this is something that we should be doing all week. You know, if you have these awesome habits during the weekdays, let them bleed over to the weekend. Don't treat your weekdays and weekends as such separate events. Right. Just continue doing the same things. And if you're going out to eat, then you're more likely to choose an option that's protein dense and isn't just this like cheat meal, quote unquote. Um, this is going to help you build, to go out to eat and do social things while still keeping healthy habits at the forefront of your mind, and not just treating it like a free for all. The next one is to remember the one big or unhealthy meal. Doesn't mean that you should just throw in the towel on the entire weekend. This is such a common mentality that we tend to have. So say Friday night you go out and you have too much to drink, or you have this massive meal and you just feel so bloated and yucky and like, oh my gosh, I totally ruined my whole weekend. Like I overate. I feel so gross about myself. So then what do you do then? You just say, screw it, I already ruined my whole weekend. I'll start again Monday, right? That is such a common thing that we say and do. Um, but it's kind of like having a glass that breaks in the kitchen. So you decide to break all your other glasses, or you get a flat tire on the side of the road, so you decide to slash the other three tires, right? That's literally what we're doing to ourselves. It makes no sense. Like all we can do when that happens is just keep going to fix what we need to fix and keep going, um, and make our next meal Our next decision as healthy as possible, because one meal of overeating by maybe 500 calories is not actually going to do that much damage in the grand scheme of a week or a month. But if you then let that turn into overeating by 500 calories the next day and the next day, then yes, that can potentially kind of change the outcome of your week, right? So think about it from a numbers standpoint. One meal is not going to overthrow all your progress, but when you let that one meal then bleed into the next meal and the next meal and the next meal and the next meal, then yes, we're looking at a little bit more damage done. Okay. So that's why this whole all or nothing or like I've already ruined everything. So screw the whole weekend. I'll start Monday. Mentality is so destructive to our progress. All right. Final tip here is to just enlist accountability. Sometimes it takes having an outside source of accountability to break patterns that were stuck in. I know it's tempting to just be like, oh, I'll just have my husband. Hold me accountable, or my girlfriend or my roommate or whatever. It's really unlikely that it's going to be actually a successful form of accountability, because that person's too close to you. They're never going to really hold you accountable. They're likely to be the one with you. And you're like, oh, should we, like, get another bottle of wine? Or should we, you know, go ahead and do this thing that might not be so great for your health. Um, so having an outside source, someone who you are actually investing in, keeping you accountable so that you put something down on the line and they are your professional coach, it's going to make a bigger difference than just asking like your friend to loosely hold you accountable. Um, also, I do feel like it's just true. When we pay, we pay attention. I've noticed this in like different things that I've invested in as far as like coaching from a business standpoint, even like if I've just downloaded this like free Guide to Something or joined a free group or whatever, I'm so much less likely to pay attention to what's happening because I haven't put anything on the line. I haven't invested anything. It's cost me nothing. So. Right. I'm not probably going to, like, actually care that much. In the same way, when I invest big time in something like I've, I've invested in some pretty hefty, uh, fitness coaching programs before for myself, for my business development. And it, like, hurt a little bit financially. And I was scared. I was like, oh my gosh, I really like I need to give my all to this because I'm putting a lot into it. And so I'm not going to pay this and then not actually do the stuff. Right. Like, what a waste. Um, similar when we invest in our fitness or our health, like if you have something that's just free or it's five bucks a month, you're way less likely to feel like held accountable to that thing. But if you are paying for a coach and you're actually investing in your health in a serious way, you're so much more likely to actually show up and do the things. It's just how we're more wired. Our brains are just weird like that. Um, so accountability might be kind of that final thing for you. To tip you over the point where you actually get to the point of breaking some patterns that are frustrating and holding you back. And that's what we have coaching for like that is what we do with mountain metabolic coaching. And along those lines, we do still have our podcast listener discount for two more days. Okay. So this kind of goes away on November 1st. Um, so just a few more days. So if you are a listener and you are interested in coaching, now's the time to apply. Check the show notes for that application link. And um, you can take advantage of that discount until November 1st. Um, so I hope that this episode has been enlightening and helpful if you are struggling with your weekends currently. Um, thanks so much for listening, guys. If you have topics that you are just really itching to hear about, questions that you have, points of confusion around your fitness, your nutrition, hiking, outdoors, motherhood, whatever it is, we cover it all here. So send me a message at the fit underscore for hiking Instagram page. I would love to connect with you and hear what you would like to see on the show. Hear what you're enjoying. Um, any feedback is really, really welcomed. Thanks so much for listening and I will chat with you in the next episode. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the fit for hiking podcast. As always, I hope it leaves you feeling inspired and informed on how to take your health and adventure into your own hands. For more content like this, be sure to follow along with my daily posts at Ponytail Underscore. On a trail that's ponytail underscore on a trail. You can also stay up to date on my new episodes being released at Fit Underscore for hiking, and find more free resources at Pony Tail on a trail.com. Happy and healthy trails.