Did I Eat That?- Snapping Back From a Long Weekend

Hey you! What it do?! Did you have a grrrrreat three-day weekend? Three-day weekends are the best! I feel like every weekend should be three days. Two days just isn’t enough and it doesn’t even out with the rest of the week. I mean who made up the work week anyway?! What yah-who said, “gee lets work our lives away for five days and then only have two days to relax.” IDIOT! On the other hand, long weekends, especially holiday weekends, can be the worst! When you’re really making an effort to dial in your diet and make positive changes in your nutrition you’re hit with a long holiday weekend. ::sigh:: It makes it so hard to stay on track.

Not so long ago these long weekends would cause such anxiety for me. I would internally panic about what I was going to eat when, what day I would have my cheat meal and the gym! OMG the gym, I would have to plan my entire weekend around that.

In recent years, I have gained a lot of control back over my body as opposed to my body controlling me. Long weekends still make me anxious but I brush it off for the most part. I would be lying if I said every food choice I made this past weekend didn’t weigh heavily on my mind. By Monday I was having eaters regret. And why? I’m not even quite sure. It’s not like I ate terrible. I had an extra dessert or two, I ate off schedule, ate too many nut based foods, Is that terrible? Is it worth beating myself up over? The answer is no. If you’re feeling this way or have ever felt this way after a holiday weekend you’re not alone.  Remember that a day or two of enjoying and extra dessert, an extra drink an extra serving is not a big deal if you look at nutrition as a lifelong endeavor. Then again, I also know what it’s like to break the clean eating cycle and feel like you’re losing control. I mean, let’s be honest, cupcakes are the bomb diggity wiggity and once you over indulge in sweet treats, even when using natural sugars like honey, it can be hard to resist having more. Dear dessert, you’re amazing an awful at the same time.

So, how do you get back on track Jennifer? That’s what you’re probably asking yourself. How do you overcome your sugar cravings and your diet becoming an overall shit show after a long weekend? I’m glad you asked! I’ll give you some insight on how I get back on track. There is hope, I promise! 

My biggest thing when I’m feeling…..ummm…fluffy. Yah, fluffy, let’s call it that, Is I need to eat my greens. For some reason getting back to basics and either drinking some green juice, having spinach in my breakfast or having a big salad makes me feel better about my life choices. It makes me feel like I’m guiding my body back to center. So, eat a big salad! You could include some lean protein to help keep you full but make sure you have lots of greens and veggies. The hubs and I went to Sweet Tomatoes on Monday for dinner and ate all the salad. It was delicious!

I also drink lots of water. Water is just wonderful! I feel like that should be there add campaign. Can’t you just see the commercials? It helps flush everything out. Not to mention it makes you feel full so you don’t over eat. On Sunday, we went over to Treasure Island to grab lunch and hang out at the beach for a little bit. I drank so much water waiting for our food to come that I could barely finish my salad and I only had a wing or two. My hydration was to the max and it kept me from consuming all of those extra calories.  

I also made sure to detox daily this past weekend by drinking warm lemon water with apple cider vinegar every morning. It’s gross for sure, but it also helps start up your metabolism, helps flush out harmful toxins and balances blood sugar. Check my Tips & Tricks board on Pinterest for more benefits of daily detox and apple cider vinegar.

Monday, I meal prepped. I know I have said this before but I can’t stress enough how helpful it is. When I prepare my meals, I feel more obligated to eat them and avoid other foods because I don’t want to waste.  Knowing that I had breakfast, snacks and lunch prepped for Tuesday upon my return to work helped me avoid grabbing any leftover sweets we had from the weekend. 

Then there is just putting myself in the right mind set. For me, if I fail at eating right, I fail hard! I go hard or go home which brings me back to binge eating. I don’t like going back to that place and feeling out of control so I have to make a conscious effort to bring myself away from self-sabotage. I take a few moments to mentally revisit why I consistently eat the way I do and how it makes me feel. I also remind myself that it isn’t the end of the world. One weekend of a relaxed diet did not cause me to gain 500lbs.  Nutrition is a journey much like fitness. Neither are destinations and are constant works in progress.

My biggest advice is to give yourself a break. Besides, stressing yourself out about what you ate or drank over the long weekend is only going to cause you to retain any weight gain you most likely didn’t have. Not to mention it will exacerbate your cravings for sweets! So just stop it! Be cool man..be cool. You got this, just start anew the next day.

So, tell me, now that the long weekend has passed and summer is pretty much here what are your fitness and nutrition goals? Or maybe you have a body image goal? I would love to see what you have in mind! Maybe I can be of some help! I have started counting macros. My goal is to improve my understanding and meal planning based on my macros which include protein, carbohydrates and fats. Right now, I am SUPER confused but I keep reading and learning every day.

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