What would happen if we treated the weekends like weekdays and the weekdays like weekends?
Healthy weeks; wild weekends
A few weekends ago (I forget which one to reference) I cooked meals at home, didn’t go out to eat, got in some good workouts, didn’t have any parties, and basically just acted like it was a weekday. By Sunday night I felt like it was the healthiest weekend I’d had in a while. This got me thinking….I am a big fan of the squiggly line effect of weight maintenance, which I think in general leads to healthy weekdays and a more relaxed attitude on the weekends.
But what would happen if we treated the weekends like weekdays and the weekdays like weekends?
I don’t mean go crazy five days a week and eat really well only two. But what if your week was more evenly balanced day after day, say, treat on Monday, healthy Tuesday/Wednesday, dessert and wine on Thursday, healthy Friday/Saturday, splurge Sunday….would you end up healthier and feeling less deprived than if you were five days on and two days off? Studies have shown that deprivation leads to overcompensation, so if you approached the weekdays with a more open attitude, would your weekends naturally be healthier?
I think I have gradually been doing this as I’ve become more of an intuitive eater. I’ll have a glass of wine on a Tuesday or go out to dinner on a Thursday and hopefully naturally balance that out by staying in and cooking on a Friday night. The days feel more equal to me than they once did.
Leftover pizza and salad for lunch. A good example of a weekend food (Belmont Pizza) eaten in a healthy context : )
And a yummy tofu, bok choy and rice dish! A Cook Smarts recipe.
Make sure to practice writing your letters this weekend! I bought several of these wipe-clean workbooks, and M loves writing in them. (Also, still TBD if he’s a lefty like his mommy!)
What do your typical weekends look like?
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog says
Mmm, your tofu and bok choy rice looks delicious!
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
[email protected] says
I try to have some treats during the week so I don’t go all out all weekend. I’m a lefty too and am always watching my little guy to see if he is going to be one but I can’t tell yet,but I hope so!
Christina @ montessoriishmom.com says
I generally eat mostly the same on the weekends, plus maybe one meal out and beer or wine :). I go grocery shopping on Fridays and I think that helps because there is plenty of good healthy food in the house!
KathEats says
That is smart advice! I usually go Sunday and have the opposite problem!
Tonya says
great idea! I’ll have to try shopping on Fridays right after work.
Marty says
He looks comfortable using his left hand, and by this point should have a dominant hand. What I did with my kids was always set the crayon, marker, pen, etc down in front of them right in the middle. That way they had to reach for it, and they would naturally reach with their dominant hand. Turns out that while my husband and I are both lefties, both of the kids are righties!
Nancy says
I’m not at my goal weight just yet, so while I’m still losing I find that sticking to 90/10 clean eating gets me better results. I was just talking to my nutritionist yesterday about learning to find that balance and to filter the inner, always-critical voice that is always begging for treats as well as the one that berates me for having a treat or skipping a workout. She reassured me that over time the voices will quiet down but never go silent, and that in time I’ll have the confidence to trust my commitment and actions more than I do now. I really look forward to getting to the point where I can treat every day more or less the same, and allow a little more flexibility day-to-day and without that inner voice judging me for it 🙂
KathEats says
She is right!
Jill says
Our weekends and week nights are fairly similar these days. We started a “no buy” theme in January, which includes not dining out. Weirdly (because we LOVE dining out), we don’t actually miss it. I’m buying more varied groceries so we can make more interesting and fun meals at home. Thanks to Pinterest and food blogs, there’s never a shortage of ideas. We always put out fresh veggies (and sometimes cut up fruit) before meals and the kids happily dive into that before the ‘meat and potato’ (or fish and wholegrain brown rice) part of the meal – we do this daily, not just throughout the week. We share custody of our 9 year old with my husband’s ex, and if we haven’t got him for an upcoming weekend, we make a point to have a ‘games night’ with him during the week, where he stays up a bit later and gets his butt kicked at Ticket to Ride or Settlers of Catan (Junior) 😉 That’s always a fun mid-week treat, and while we sometimes have snacks as part of the evening, we aim for stuff like roasted chickpeas, sliced apples, or a little dish of cashews. We do try to keep the focus on healthier choices most of the time, and not fall into the “It’s Friday!!!” mindset. I find this helpful because then if I feel like a glass of wine on a Wednesday night, I don’t think “oh, but I ate all that junk on the weekend…”
KathEats says
Love all of this!
Linda @ The Fitty says
Have you ever tried browned butter? It tastes so much better than regular! 🙂
Amy says
The weekends are definitely more celebratory and relaxed than the busy work week but I’m feeling good about our current way of handling this. We grocery shop Friday evenings at Whole Foods and the hot bar/salad bar is our dinner “out”, plus I make a huge green salad to reward myself with for lunch after Saturday’s workout! Lastly, what’s been working, is I spend a few hours doing snack/meal prep for the follwing week on Sunday. This makes it easy for all of us (kids too)to have healthy “grab ‘n go” things for the week! Inevitably more treats happen on weekends!
KathEats says
I do think doing your grocery shopping on Friday or Saturday makes a Sunday prep day so much more realistic. It is hard to go grocery shopping and do prep day all in one day. Great ideas!
Izzy | pinch of delight says
All this food looks amazing! x
Izzy |http://www.pinchofdelight.com
Carrie (This Fit Chick) says
I LOVE sunny side up! That’s the way I always order them 🙂
My weekends are a mix of fun, work and relaxation! I do meal prep, groceries and blog work on Sundays, but Saturdays are my day for being out and having fun!
Melissa says
My weekends are typically spent running errands, shopping, catching up on reading, TV shows and movies, sometimes going to the movie theater, cooking/baking!
Faith says
On the weekends, we typically eat at restaurants for dinner on Saturdays, & lunch on Sundays. I do think that an evenly balanced week is best!
I like those wipe-clean workbooks! I am going to purchase one for our little one.
Chelsea says
I work Monday-Friday at a clinic and my boyfriend is a paramedic with crazy hours so there is no rhyme or reason to nights we go out for dinner or have cocktails–typically when we’re both free! Makes me not hinge on going crazy on the weekends, so I try to balance things out by the day.
Jolene (www.everydayfoodie.ca) says
My husband and I rarely go out to eat on the weekends (actually, not much at all any time unless we’re out of town). We often stay in on weekends and play music and hang out in the kitchen together cooking, and dancing. Sometimes we’ll plan themed weekends of cooking, where we’ll make nothing but Indian food from Friday evening – Sunday evening, or nothing but Korean, or Mexican, or whatever. We also love to have dinner guests. Last night we had another couple over for a Southern meal.
Kelsey @ So Much Life says
Interesting! I love seeing your photos of lunch, because it reminds me what a healthy portion should usually look like. And I’d say I’ve been doing the same with my weekdays as I’ve been wedding planning…it’s pretty common for me to have a glass of wine on the weekdays, but then sometimes I won’t even drink at al on weekends! (Sundays are for meal prep and grocery shopping, so that often ends up being my healthiest day.)
Thanks as always for the healthy eating inspiration, Kath!
Taryn says
I still try and eat healthy during the weeks, and “cheat” on Saturdays. I think it just works for me during this phase of life. But the concept of a more “even” way of eating is intriguing to me. Great post!