Stop binging on the weekends
Most people think binging out on the weekend happens due to a lack of willpower, control, and discipline. The reality is you do have the discipline and willpower. Every day, you show up to things like work, family, and even your animals…when you're too restrictive each week, it will lead your body to crave more energy, your brain to work against you, and ultimately end in a binge.
Let me tell you a story about that and how it affected my journey. When I started my weight loss journey, I was told I had to only eat clean, whole foods from an influencer on Instagram. I didn’t know much, but the little bit that I did know was that chicken, rice, and broccoli seemed to be the things that people ate to lose weight. So that’s what I did; I started working out every day and eating only chicken, rice, and broccoli.
Three times a day…
When the weekend came, that's when I would end up smoking cannabis and getting the munchies. I would binge on all the foods I had restricted myself from all week. Which ultimately led me to consume 3-5k extra calories on the weekend. This continued for months when I first started my weight loss journey. I thought that I just lacked discipline and self-control.
So, I continued with the vicious cycle until I heard about this program called 75 Hard.
For those of you who don't know, 75 Hard is a mental toughness program designed to help you regain control of your life and build discipline, grit, confidence, and self-control. Seven daily tasks must be completed without any compromise.
The tasks include:
Two 45-minute workouts
Drink 1 gallon of water
Progress picture
Read ten pages of a nonfiction book
Follow a diet
No alcohol or cheat meals.
For 75 days, if you mess up, you start over from day 1. The first time I completed 75 Hard, I cultivated discipline, self-control, and grit. I lost over 30 pounds, and my outlook on life changed forever.
However, there was one problem.
I realized afterward that I never had the proper education about nutrients and macros. It was the part about the diet; you get to choose your diet, so I chose to adhere to the clean whole foods diet. Therefore, because of my lack of knowledge of nutrition and macros, I just ate chicken, rice, veggies, and fruits. Having been so restrictive for those 75 days, I decided to go out and have food that I had been craving since I had started.
This led to me binging out and eating a ton of food that made me feel horrible. Then, I beat myself up for three days and returned to the super restrictive diet.
When the weekend came around, I figured I'd allow myself to have something other than what was in my diet. I went to the local blueberry farm, where they had the best blueberry donuts on the face of the earth. I grabbed a box of 12 of them and got some ice cream, too. When I finished my ice cream, I allowed myself to have one donut and then went along with my day.
When I got home that night, the only thing on my mind was that I wanted another donut. So I went and had another donut and sat on the couch. After I finished the donut, I thought to myself. “If I’m going back on my diet tomorrow, I might as well have another one.” This cycle continued until all 12 donuts were gone. The next day I felt like absolute dog shit and got right back onto my diet.
Fast forward to the following weekend, and the same thing happened. I thought to myself, how am I going to solve this problem? My response was immediately to jump right back into 75 Hard because it worked once for 75 days. Then why wouldn't it work again?
So I did 75 Hard again and reached the lowest weight, 185 pounds. I was super happy with the program's results, mentally and physically. I had so much momentum that I entered Phase 1, the second part of the Live Hard program.
Phase-1 was 30 days, and Phase-1 is the same as 75 Hard, except that you had to complete three more daily tasks.
The three additional tasks are:
5-minute cold shower
Three critical tasks (explain this)
10 minutes of self-visualization
At the end of phase 1, I had completed 105 days without cheating on my super-restrictive diet.
To celebrate, I finally allowed myself to go and have something that wasn’t a part of my diet. It led to me binging out again.
I beat myself up about it for the next few days, and a realization came to me. I was binging out every time I was off the program because I had such an intense restriction for so long and not allowing myself to enjoy certain foods along the way. This changed my whole perspective of the program and what it was truly meant for.
Don’t do 75 Hard if you're trying to lose weight and break bad eating habits. There are much better programs for that out there. I’ve learned the hard way through trial and error but have overcome my binge eating disorder.
How was I able to do this?
Simply by not being so restrictive with my dieting throughout the week. I learned about flexible dieting and how to fit my favorite foods into my macros every week, which led to me not binging out and throwing all of my hard work out the window on the weekends.
I teach my clients this in The Fresh Hope for a Better YOU Program. Many of my clients struggled with binging out on the weekends, so we addressed the root of the problem. They were being too restrictive with their diets during the week.
The nutrition programs I can create for my clients allow them to eat their favorite foods throughout the week, ultimately leading to less binging and much more progress if you’re struggling with reaching the body of your dreams and becoming the best version of yourself.
You don’t have to do it alone.
I have created the Fresh Hope For a Better YOU program to help you overcome and stay accountable on your journey.
Always remember, there is a Fresh Hope For A Better YOU!"
Oliver
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