If you are on a diet, you may find that it’s far easier to be ‘good’ during the week than at weekends, and long for some time off from the diet. All you know about nutrition, however, traditionally tells you that you cannot take a break from safeguarding your wellness and wellbeing, and this causes you to plod on even through the weekends, often making yourself miserable in the process.
This same kind of philosophy also is one of the main reasons that many people postpone dieting. If you’ve ever put off starting a diet because there’s going to be a special event or celebration, then you know what we’re talking about! The ‘I’ll start next week’ mentality is rife, and can be one of the reasons that people find their weight starting to snowball.
Strangely enough, however, researchers have found that having a system where you bank ‘bonus points’ for depriving yourself of treats and then allow yourself a treat with your points later is actually a sensible one.
This does not mean, however, that you can have a huge slab of chocolate cake on a Sunday night just because you feel like it, but it could mean that you can have that slab of chocolate cake at some point, when you’ve earned it. It could also help with your overall relationship to food, if some foods are not ‘banned’ but are just only allowed on certain days when you have put in the hard graft to earn them.
The people who are most likely to lose weight and to keep it off are those whose calorie intake varies a lot between the weekends and the weekdays. These are the people who keep their calorie intake to a minimum during the week and then allow themselves to have a bit more flexibility at the weekend and really enjoy their food.
