Any dieter can have a bad day, week or weekend. What separates the successful weight losers from the less successful ones is their ability to quickly pick themselves up, dust themselves off and refocus.
Successful weight losers know that the path to long-term weight loss is not always a straight line. In fact, more often than not it can be a bumpy road – one filled with detours and jagged paths that range from overdoing it at holiday time or indulging over a long weekend.
As we close another year, this is an important time to set yourself up for a successful path to long-term weight loss. Learning how to quickly come back after a bad weekend is in order.
Here are some tips to guide you:
1. Look at the big picture. Nutrition experts know that the quality of your diet is not set in stone from one meal, one day or one weekend. Instead, your diet quality is made of many choices that occur over weeks and months. You need to remember that if you’re coming off of a weekend where you made some bad food choices, you can start the week by making some healthier food choices. A long-term healthy weight loss program is not about having to be perfect all the time; it’s about balancing out the worse days with some better ones. And, as time goes on and you gain more control, you’ll see that overall you will have better days – and weekends.
2. Take baby steps. Come Monday… that’s the time to start taking those baby steps that will remind you that you are not ready to throw in the towel. It’s also not a day to skip meals as a way to start cutting calories. Skipping meals only sets you up for low energy and intense hunger – and that can lead to a diet disaster. Instead, eat breakfast Monday morning, make time to eat regular meals and snacks, make sure to eat some nutritious and low-calorie fresh fruit and veggies and stay hydrated by drinking lots of water. You may not be in the mood for a full workout but do commit to accumulating at least 30 minutes of brisk walking during your day’s routine. Brisk walking is good as an energy and mood booster.
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3. Start tracking. You may be scared to get on that scale after a bad weekend. The truth is the sooner you weight yourself, the sooner you can have a reality check. If your weight is up a bit, that’s just a good reminder that you need to start following the strategies for your personality type. Hearty Portioners may want to measure their foods for a few days while Steady Snackers may want to go back to tracking their snack calories. Couch Champions may want to start wearing their pedometers again while Rain Check Athletes may want to start scheduling workout appointments with themselves in their calendars.
4. Ask for help. Sometimes you may need help processing what happened this past weekend when you lost control. Reaching out to a buddy or a Diet.com expert will remind you that you don’t need to go it alone. More than likely your buddy or expert will be able to help shed light on the weekend and where you lost control. Did you not have a plan in place before going to the party? Were you with some friends who tend to sabotage your best efforts? Did you actually not do as bad as you thought? Remember, the goal isn’t to be picture perfect. You can be at a party and enjoy a moderate portion of a favorite treat without feeling like you’ve blown your diet.
I hope these four tips will help you the next time you have a bad weekend and need help re-focusing. |
