Weekend Survival Tips

Good morning! I hope you're having a great (and on-plan) Saturday!

Weekends are challenging for a lot of us, so careful planning is essential if we want to stay on plan. Some Saturdays give us a chance to relax and catch our breath, while other Saturdays are jam-packed with errands and projects that we just don't have time for during the week. Either way, don't let the change in schedule trip you up!

If you're going to be running errands much of the day, make sure you have a couple of crunch bars with you. You don't want to be away from home and hungry, because if that happens you're on-plan choices are extremely limited. If you're going to be busy with house or yard projects all day, you may find yourself too busy to even think about eating, until hunger overtakes you. If necessary, set an alarm to make sure you don't forget to eat.

We often go out to dinner with friends on Saturday nights, so when I was on the Take Shape for Life/Medifast 5&1 plan, I really had to plan what I was going to eat. Our friends were really good about letting us pick the restaurant, so I made sure we went someplace where I could get grilled, baked or broiled meat and a salad or steamed vegetable. We avoided most ethnic restaurants (my choice) because I wanted to avoid temptation if at all possible. We always had a great meal and a good time with our friends and I never felt deprived.

One of the things I did every weekend when I was on 5&1 was mix up my Medifast meals just a bit. During my work week, my menu was the same every day: a shake, oatmeal, soup, bar, lean & green, and either pudding, hot cocoa or cappuccino for my last meal of the day. Each day I would have a different flavor of shake, oatmeal, etc. and I never had the same thing two days in a row, but it was always the same food at the same time. On Saturdays I'd have MF scrambled eggs, oatmeal pancakes, oatmeal muffins, soup bread, Medifast pizza - something different. That really helped me from getting bored and made me look forward to the weekends.

My encouragement to you today is to hang in there and not let any weekend activity cause you to go off plan. It may take a bit of extra planning, but I promise you that when you're at goal, you won't regret taking the time this weekend :-).