Weekends Might Be Ruining Your Diet
Weekends might be ruining your diet. There I said it. If you love to eat and drink and let loose on Saturday and Sunday, stop reading now. What I am about to say is going to hit home. Get ready to read some hard truths below and prepare to take a look at your current weekend choices. I’m about to tell you that if you are kicking ass during the week at living and eating healthy, once Friday at 5pm rolls in, you might be sabotaging your good work in the prior days. Let’s talk about some of the issues.
Your Rosé is Full of Sugar
Like, full of it. DAMN. According to Wine Folly there are 35-120 grams per liter of sugar per glass of sweet wine, including Rosé. Girls, that’s anywhere from 20-60+ carbs per glass. That’s way too many empty carbs to be consuming. A can of Coke has 39 grams, so it’s like you sitting down and drinking a regular Coke or four in one day. What can you drink instead? Drink Dry Wines like Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Chardonnay. Those types of wines have little to no residual sugar (fruit sugars in wine grapes). Avoid Moscato, Port and other dessert wines as they have the highest amount of sugar. Be on the lookout, cheaper wine producers might add granulated sugar or corn syrup so it’s best to spend $15 or more on your wine if you can swing it.
Margarita Drinkers, Check This Out!
Enjoy an occasional margarita while noshing on chips and salsa? You may want to think twice. Your large 32-ounce glass might be tasty, but you will be consuming 600 calories, no fat, 120 grams of carbohydrate and no protein. According to the USDA, on a 2,000 calorie diet, a single margarita is half your daily intake of carbs. Frozen margaritas are not terribly high in sodium at 88 milligrams per 32-ounce serving, but sugar content is super high at 156 grams. Not okay. What can your drink instead? A skinny margarita made with tequila, agave, lime and sea salt.
Drinking Allows You to Eat Taco Bell and Other Fast Food
Have you ever asked your Uber driver to swing you through Taco Bell or What-A-Burger at 2am? Yeah. It’s a brilliant idea at the time, right? Well, one grilled stuffed burrito, a taco, and a soda later and you have just added 1,250 calories to your day (I looked it up). Maybe you just drank at home with friends and made a super healthy, organic frozen pizza by Amy’s? Yep +900 calories. Ladies, those calories are added on top of the drinking and then the rest of the food you consumed earlier that day. What are some options if you are hungry at 2am? Get home and find some hummus and raw almonds to munch on. Not the same as a cheese fest, but your body will thank you tomorrow.
Sleep is Compromised
Weekends might be ruining your diet or your health with compromised sleep. According to the SleepFoundation.org, Adults 26-64 should be sleeping seven to nine hours a night. If I am partying until 2am, my kids are definitely still going to get up at 6am (that’s just how my life works). So, there is no hope and I spend the next two days trying to recover from my lack of sleep and my awful headache. Guess what else happens? I don’t workout. Does this sound familiar to you? Okay so what plan can you create to avoid sleep deprivation? Negotiate with your husband the night before your event to insure that one of you gets a full night’s sleep. The early riser is relieved of all evening duties and gets to go to bed super early the next night. Fair?
Weekends Might Be Ruining Your Diet Because…Hangovers
Remember when you were 20 years old and you could go out six nights a week and then be in class at 8:30 with full makeup and hair. WTH? After a weekend night of partying, these days there is no makeup for at least 24 hours and no one is leaving the house. Let’s also talk about the nausea, vomiting, headache, soreness, and bad mood. When this happens to me, my nutrition is totally messed up. I don’t move my body and there is zero meditation or prayer; I’m literally in survival mode. What can you do to avoid the hangover? Don’t drink so much by alternating a glass of water between each drink. Also, you better use UBER! Don’t risk your life or the life of someone else.
Final Perspective on Weekends
Weekends might be ruining your diet or your weight loss plan as a whole. Drinking alcohol temporarily stops our body from burning fat. Our body can’t store calories from alcohol the way it stores food. That means our metabolic system prioritizes getting rid of alcohol first, and whatever we ate prior to drinking will get stored as fat. Think night sweats, crazy amounts of urine, and maybe even diarrhea. That’s our body purging alcohol. Alcohol decreases fat burn in the belly, hence why we often hear about getting a “beer belly.” As we age, what we drink and how much we drink matters.
My Best Suggestion to Keep Things Reasonable
If you are planning to attend a social event, eat very clean leading up to the engagement. Make sure you have a balanced plate of plant-based carbs, whole grains, protein, and healthy fat. Don’t leave for your event with an empty stomach to avoid overeating or consuming too much alcohol. Alternate your alcoholic beverage with water. There is nothing wrong with drinking responsibly and celebrating life. Now by simply having this knowledge and awareness, we can stay in control of our body and what goes in it. Let’s not let one night of folly undo all of the hard work from the days past.