Ah, the weekend… that freeing feeling on Friday evening when you hit send on your last email for the week. You pat yourself on the back as you exit your office building. And you feel the biggest sense of accomplishment knowing you made it through another week alive. The world is our oyster on Friday nights. Sleep feels infinite, time has no meaning and we are able to press pause on all responsibility.
Yet, woven in the bliss of the weekend is the misery of losing all control of calorie consumption.
I spent this past weekend at an all inclusive resort in Mexico. Food and drinks flowed in unlimited amounts. Chips and chocolate at my finger tips all weekend. But, being there this weekend made me realize, all inclusive aside, I spend every weekend with an all-you-can-eat mentality. Being in Mexico isn’t any different than what I do every weekend with food. I get in as much as I can.
The frustrating part is that many of us, including myself, start each weekend with the best intentions. We check the brunch menu before we go to identify the healthiest option, we plan to meet a girlfriend at the gym and we even cancel dinner plans just because we are so intent on hunkering down and succeeding this weekend. But, once again, the best intentions turn into watching an E! Keeping Up With The Kardashians marathon with an order of general tso’s chicken, fried rice and a shrimp tempura roll.
Like the little engine that could, a weekend binge starts slowly. And there is no rhyme or reason for how the speed picks up so quickly. But, by Sunday we are speeding through calories so quickly we absolutely crash when our alarms go off Monday.
The weekends are hard, emotional and they lack structure. No matter how hard you try to eat like you do during the week, it’s hard not to wake up Monday morning and feel blah. We can talk for hours about the root causes of our weekend binges, but I don’t think that’s the best use of our time. Today I want to talk about how we can end the hours, even days, of wallowing in the damage we did. Mondays are hard enough and we just make them harder with the post-gorgefest mental abuse.
If you, like me, have ever made an over generalized dramatic claim about your weekend in some rendition of ” I gained at least 10 pounds this weekend” it’s time to set yourself free.
I can’t be sure, BUT I’m almost positive that you can’t gain 10 actual pounds in 72 actual hours. Sure we may feel like we gained 10 pounds. The scale may say we gained 10 pounds because carbohydrates hold onto so much water. But, when push comes to shove, the only thing weighing me down every Monday is my negative self-talk. That’s what’s making me feel like crap. Self loathing over a weekend binge weighs more than any calorie ever will. An order of general tso’s can only hang around for so long; however, the irrational anger lingering from a weekend of over-indulgence stays with me until at least Thursday.
It may take a glass of water and a day of healthy eating (NOT STARVING) to let go of any water weight you are holding onto from splurging on the weekend. But it takes one second to let go of any regret you feel.
You have to wake up and say that you are going to let this go simply because it’s way too heavy to carry! Send any self loathing back to bed. You have the choice to leave your house without it this am, light as a feather.
