Ep #74: Weekends 2.0 – How to Handle Weekend Overeating

You are listening to the Weight Loss for Successful Women podcast with Shannan Christiansen episode number 74. Welcome to Weight Loss for Successful Women, a podcast for women who are ready to break the diet cycle and end their struggle with weight for good. Here’s your host, fortune 100 executive, and certified life coach, Shannan Christiansen.

Hello Love. So happy to be back with you. Of course I’m excited about today’s show. Are you overeating on the weekends? I know, I get this question so much. I get it from ladies who are in Transform and ladies who are not in Transform. Do you find that you do so good during the week, and then everything goes out the window on the weekend or days that you have off?  Well, you will not want to miss today’s show because I am doing weekends 2.0.

But first, I want to give a listener shout out. And this is where I read a review of the podcast every week. And this week’s listener shout out is to Loni Horn. She says, join Transform and change your life. No matter how far along you are in your weight loss journey, Shannan’s program will work for you. It’s about changing your mindset, loving yourself, no matter what your weight. I noticed a free five-day challenge in late July of 2020 on Facebook with Shannan and signed up. I was hesitant about joining at first due to financial cost, but it was well worth the sacrifice to get my life back on track. Shannan’s story resonated with me on many levels. I believe the program she designed works because it’s not about the weight, but it’s about changing yourself from the inside out, transforming your mindset to become like a beautiful butterfly. I had crawled along like a caterpillar for so long searching for a place to belong. I hibernated in my cocoon to shelter my true self from facing the world around me. The thing that struck me first about Shannan was the love that she gave to others was genuine. You could see it in her eyes. It was never about the money. She knew my name and reached out personally if I asked for help. Shannan’s easy to relate to because she struggled with weight issues herself and has designed a complete program and is continually updating the program to meet your needs. The program is flexible and you can always go back and replay episodes or read the Transform material online any time of the day. The guided materials will walk you through the program at your own pace. There’s a strong community of women and mentors that you can reach out to. They’ve had similar struggles and reach out with love and kindness. They lift your spirits up and cry with you when you go through difficult times. I know Shannan is a busy executive in her own right, but she cared enough about me and the other ladies to take time to coach us and record podcasts with life-changing information. I’ve lost 25 pounds so far with Transform. My goal is to get down to my goal weight of 140 pounds by my 10th wedding anniversary in September. What has it cost you and your own health by not changing? How much money has it cost you to buffer your feelings with food? Show up for yourself. Don’t define who you are by the number on the scale. Transform yourself and be your own boss. Get your voice back. Love yourself.

Loni, oh my goodness. You can read this review because it’s so good. It’s on bflycoaching.com/podcast. Loni, I appreciate it so much. You know, I love her words and they’re so kind, they’re too kind to me honestly, because really the ladies of Transform, they do their own work and yes, I share my experience and give them tools, but I am so proud of each one of them, and so proud of you Loni. And I just love you ladies so much. I appreciate this review. And again ladies, if you’re listening to this show, please rate it and review the show. It does help reach other ladies who are struggling with the diet rollercoaster.

So ladies, I am so excited for this week coming up. So in 2021, I’ve added something to Transform and it’s a monthly workshop. This is where I take a topic that my ladies are struggling with and we go deep, and it’s interactive where, you know, we’re all on a call together. This month it’s all about body image and self-love. And I can not wait to teach it. See, we believe that when we lose the weight, that’s when we’ll do this work, the self-love, the body image work. That we’ll love ourselves later, but later never comes. And if we do lose weight and we haven’t done this work of learning to love our bodies and love ourselves, we end up sabotaging our success and gaining it back. Learning to love yourself and your body, I believe it’s the best work you’ll ever do, really, truly, and honestly. It’s the best work I’ve ever done. It’s increased my capacity to love myself and then to also love others.

So in today’s show, I want to go a little deeper on weekends. I see so many ladies struggle on weekends. I get asked, how can I do better on weekends all the time. In episode 22, I talk about weekends and how getting more joy and pleasure during the week will help you not “save it all up for the weekends.” And we also have thoughts around rest and how rest equals overeating.

But I want to go a level deeper today. When I was younger, like school age, I started to learn there was work and there was play. School was work. Summers were play. School was work. Weekends were play. I tied work with a negative thought like, I have to, and play with a positive thought like, I can’t wait for it.

So as adults, many of us work outside or inside of the home, and so weeks became about work, and the thought, I have to, and weekends became about the thought, I can’t wait for it. So for me, when I was on the diet roller coaster, if I was on a diet, then during the week I would restrict, I would follow my plan. It was “work I had to do.” Then by Friday, I started having the thoughts, I can’t wait for it, I can’t wait to relax, I can’t wait to sleep in, I can’t wait to do what I want to do, including eating all the things.

These are thoughts that just roam around in our subconscious. We have learned that the week is work and the weekends are play. We will be good during the week, and we will be bad during the weekends. Just sit with this for a moment because your mind right now is probably exploding. We have been taught this since we were five. Work is hard. Work is something we have to do. We have to endure it. Play is fun. It’s freedom. I can’t wait for it.

Sunday nights, we start to dread Monday. We start thinking about all the things we need to do during the week and counting down the days until Friday. If you want to stop overeating on weekends, you have to one, get really honest about your thoughts about the week versus the weekends. What is your programming? What do you believe about work versus play? And two, you have to start believing new things about work versus play. You have to begin practicing a new thought about weekends.

I practice the thought, I love work. What can I do that is fun, creative? How can I use my talents today? I practice that during the week and the weekend. Then you have to find the thought that is causing you to overeat on the weekends. For me it was, rest equals overeating. I wanted the release. It was kind of like all week I was hustling. You ladies know what I’m talking about, right? Doing all the things, working, getting my to-do list done, and it was like building up all this steam inside of me, like a pressure cooker.

And then on the weekends I just let it all out, including my pants. I’m just kidding. I mean, not really. This thought that rest equals overeating kept me overeating on the weekends, or anytime I had more time to rest, like vacations or weeks off. You could have the thought that weekends equal pleasure, the week equals work. That might be the thought that you need to change.

Or it could be, I don’t have a routine on the weekend, so I’m not in control. And when I’m not in control, I eat all the things. Or it could be, I’ve worked so hard this week and I’ve been so good, I can have my cheat day. Love, there is no cheat day. Every day you can eat what you want. You can eat pizza and cookies on a Tuesday. You get to decide. This is what work is all about. Finding those beliefs that we’ve had since we were young, then practicing new beliefs, beliefs that serve us.

So to recap, get honest about your thoughts on work versus play. Can work be play? I think so. I love work. What if work was freedom. And then find the thought or set of beliefs that you’re thinking that is causing you to overeat on the weekends and then decide what you want to practice thinking. No shoulds or have to’s required.

So the transformational questions are, What are your beliefs about work versus play? And number two, What do you want to believe about work versus play?

And if you need help implementing the tools that I teach and go deeper on this work, I invite you to check out Transform Weight Loss Program. This program is based on three elements, coaching community, and a weight loss course. This program will help you implement the tools so you can live your best life in a body you love. Go to bflycoaching.com/join.

So much love. See you next week. Bye for now.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Weight Loss for Successful Women. If you love what you heard today and want to learn more, come on over to bflycoaching.com. See you next week.