4 Simple Steps to Get Back on Track After a Holiday Week-End

Sometimes you have the best intentions during a three day holiday week-end.  You swear you’ll eat small portions, even when you’re offered the most succulent barbecue meals— and swear even more that you’ll exercise instead of sleeping in.  AND you'll avoid alcohol.  (Go you!)

See:  Why Alcohol Can Prevent You From Losing Weight

But there you are Tuesday morning: feeling guilty, slightly ill and bloated from all the over-eating. 

Now what you do?  The way I see it, you’ve got only one choice:  get back on track as quickly as possible!  Here are four ways to get back on track with your weight loss plan after a long holiday week-end.

1)  Ditch the guilt.

Despite your best intentions, you didn’t stick to your diet plan.  That's OKAY.  You need to ditch any guilt you feel and stop beating yourself up about it.  Feeling guilty about overindulging is wasted energy.  Spend that energy doing something productive instead.

See:  44 Ways to Boost Your Mood, Improve Your Energy and Lose Weight
 

2) Dump the extra food.

If there is extra food around the house from the holiday week-end, dump it.  Why keep unhealthy, calorie-laden food around to tempt you?  Better that the food goes in the garbage than on your hips or belly, right?

See:  5 Weight Loss Friendly Snacks You Will Love
 

3) Review or reset your goals.

Sometimes overindulging happens because you either lost sight of your goals or have set your goals too high.  A goal of “I’m never going to eat cookies again” may be too strict for you and cause you to overindulge, using a holiday week-end as an excuse to ditch your diet plan.

On the other hand, there's nothing wrong with overindulging once in a while.  It can give you clarity on your goals (see my point up above).  It can also be reminder of how good your body feels when you're eating right for your body compared to when you don't eat right for your body.  For me, I feel tired, bloated, my stomach is upset.  I'm sluggish, and it's difficult to get going Tuesday morning after along weekend.  
 

Read More:  How to Set a Weight Loss Goal
 

4) Eat your favorite healthy meal and do your favorite workout. 

You’re only one healthy meal and one workout away from getting back on track.  If you need the extra incentive, why not cook your favorite healthy meal (for me, it’s salmon!) and do your favorite workout—and blast your favorite music while doing it.

If you overindulged over the long holiday week-end, chances are the “damage” is not as bad as you think.  You might find you weigh more than usual, but that doesn't mean you gained fat.  What likely happened is you ate a lot of carbs.  When that happens you retain more water.  Give it a few days of back to regular eating and you'll be right back on track.


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