Weekend Planning

Wow, did this week ever go fast!  I can't believe it's Saturday already!  For those of us who are trying to lose weight, the fact that it's the weekend can be both good news and bad news. 

Weekends are always extra-challenging.  During the week, most of us are on some kind of a fairly predictable schedule, which makes staying on plan pretty easy.  Then the weekend hits and we spend two days on a totally different routine, and weekends are when many of us do most of our socializing.  For me, much of my socializing involves food - meeting friends for dinner; getting together for movies and, yep, snacks; family get-togethers which ALWAYS involve eating - a challenge for sure!  So what's a person to do?

PLAN and COMMIT. 

PLAN: Decide ahead of time how to handle the social situation.  Since I'm a people person and absolutely HATE to miss out on a good time, skipping these social events was out of the question for me, so I had to figure out how to survive them.  If we were going out for dinner, I'd save my lean & green for dinner and, when possible, check out the menu on line.  Deciding ahead of time what I was going to eat was really helpful!  I'd log the meal on "My Plan" (one of the Take Shape for Life "Support in Motion" tools) before I left and it helped to cement the plan in my mind.  If we were invited to someone's house for dinner, I'd offer to bring a salad :-).  If we were getting together for games or a movie, I made sure I brought a Medifast grab-and-go meal.  After a while, people got used to the fact that I was going to stay on plan, no matter what. 

COMMIT:  After you carefully plan, commit to following your plan!  It can be easy to be swayed by what other people are doing or eating.  That's why part of my plan was to check the restaurant's menu on line before we'd go out to eat.  I'd write down what I was going to eat and wouldn't even look at the menu.  When possible, I tried to be the first one to place my order so there wouldn't be any last-minute temptation to change what I planned when I'd hear what others were ordering.

One last thing:  nobody really cares what you eat - really!  Some of us have hesitated to stay on plan because we're worried about how what we eat or don't eat will impact someone else.  One of the things I learned is that others really don't care.  As long as you're comfortable with what you're doing and don't make a big deal out of it, neither will anyone else.

So, is this a busy weekend for you, or are you going to be able to kick back and relax?  Either way, are you carefully planning to make sure it's an on-plan weekend?

Plan, commit, then choose wisely :-)