Reply to a 'weekend binge' post

I just thought I'd keep this for future use because to me, a lot of this makes sense. It may sound like I'm condoning weekend over-eating, but it's really not that at all. Perhaps I wasn't succinct enough - but I'm such a passionate believer in 'mindset' being the root of so much of our behaviour, and for somebody who really 'seriously' overeats at weekends and diets the rest of the week (never ideal but it's vital to take these things one step at a time) I think that taking the stress out of a situation is key. So somebody asked a question on a weight loss site about over-eating at weekends and this was my reply .... I had a few lightbulb moments while typing it, which is why I've kept it for future reference:



I think part of the reason we (note, I say 'we' because I'm sure there are plenty of us lol) binge for the weekend is because we put ourselves under so much stress during the week - and socially, in our world, we've been brought up in a mental 'cycle' that weekends are for pigging out!! The whole Sunday lunch/dinner thing .... the Friday/Saturday night dinner and pub (or even no dinner just pub???) culture ... has tuned our brains into that cycle. Just like animals hibernate and their little brains know when to wake them up again, it's the same thing with us. Our brains are wired - with environmental health, of course - to work for 5 days and then let rip for the next 2!!!! Unfortunately, that's the way our culture works, with a few exceptions here and there - and I really believe that's why we have so much trouble at weekends! 


My own solution? Not to stress over it so much. I think that we stress so much that on Monday we're already thinking about what to do to make up for NEXT SATURDAY!! The binges would be a lot less if we gave ourselves PERMISSION to relax for that day. Instead of trying to think 'Oh, this is so so bad, I'm eating too much, I'm going to be paying for it all week' .... which leads automatically to 'Oh well, I've done it now so I might as well go for it bigtime and deal with it tomorrow!' ........  


If we give ourselves permission to relax and not count calories for one day a week I'm willing to bet we wouldn't eat half as much!! And it would be guilt-free, too! Put a bucket of biscuits in front of a child and tell him he shouldn't eat any (but not that he can't!)...................... and he's going to go nuts in half an hour and start stuffing down as many of them as he can!!  Put the same bucket in front of the child and tell him they'll be there all day and he can have as many as he wants - and chances are he'll have a couple, then go and play, come back in an hour and have another ...................  


So, my long-winded rambly answer to your question comes down to this:  stop feeling guilty about the weekend, stop 'dreading' the damage that hasn't yet happened but you've already convinced yourself that it will (!), give yourself a day 'off' on Saturday or Sunday - and I bet you'll eat half as much when you know you have full permission to eat anything and everything you want!


Less stressing, more living!