For most of us, weekends can be challenging.
Our normal work day routine is thrown out of the window and we’ve more access to food and drink. You might be at play centres with the kids, there’s all these temptations
If you plan to eat a little bit more this weekend, like most do, here’s a couple of tips. So in order to be losing weight, ideally you should be tracking your calories, and you should know what you’re deficit is for the day. I never recommend more than a 500 calorie deficit in the long run for sustainability, but that’s down to you.
If you know your numbers for a day, work them out for a week
I’m on 2300 at the minute, and that works out as 16,100 for the week. That’ll give me a steady pound a week weight loss. So what I would do is I would actually start tracking on a Saturday and a Sunday, when my calories are going to be a little bit higher.
Let’s say I have 2500 on the Saturday, 2500 on the Sunday, which is highly likely. Sometimes on a Sunday it can be more, because I have a big roast. I then deduct that from the 16,100 and divide the remainder by five, which will give me a calorie output for the week. Which then means I can bring it down in the week if I want to when I’m at work, I’m on my feet, et cetera, I can move a little bit more, less access to food.
I go into this in more detail and have some framing examples you can use in the video.
Here’s the complete transcript
Tregs: Cannot stress enough this year how much I want to tell you about weekends, how important they are. And I’m talking to myself as well here because this is something that I’ve had difficulties with in the past, but really kinda mastering it.
Because really guys, the weekend is absolute key. So I’m gonna give you a few tips for mastering your weekend to help keep you focused, I hope. I’ve been listening to a lot of audio this year which comes down to talking about discipline, consistency, mastering your weekends, et cetera, et cetera. And sabotage and things like that, because I think anyone can have a great plan. You can have the best plan in the world, access to the best coaching, nutrition in the world, but it comes down to this really. And I think that a lot of people get to the weekends and they’re kind of like, “Yeah I’ve had a good week, busy week, might be stressful.” And they’re looking to reward them with a food, excess alcohol, et cetera, et cetera. And look, if that’s your bag, fine, but most people that follow this page wanna lose weight, wanna get fit, wanna be a better version of themselves, wanna be healthier for their kids. And so I’m trying to help you with that
So weekends are difficult. Why are they difficult? Well there’s no work, so for me it’s like if you’ve got young kids there’s more stressors there on the weekend. Like being around kids can be challenging. I’ve got two boys, one’s an absolute angel, one will literally talk you into the ground. Like you spend a couple of hours with him and he’ll drive you into the pub. It’s just question after question after question. Great lad but he just drains you, you know? And I think a lot of parents will say the same with kids. And quite often you just think, “Ah sod it.”
And also as well you’ve got more access to food, more access to drink, you might be play centers with the kids, there’s all these temptations, you haven’t gotta get up for work. And I get that, and it’s very easy. But you see the thing is is like if you are on a kind of weight loss quest or a journey then it’s important to understand that you need to have a battle plan in place for the weekend. You can’t just fall into the weekend and expect it to all be good. Because you can have these great intentions on a Monday, you can have these great intentions on a Monday, but come Friday night when you’re tired and you’re stressed and all this, all that kinda stuff, where’s that?
So you need a plan and you need discipline. So try and give you some value for hopefully getting through your weekend. If you plan to eat a little bit more this weekend, like most do, here’s a couple of tips. So in order to be losing weight, ideally you should be tracking your calories, and you should know what you’re deficit is for the day. I never recommend more than a 500 calorie deficit in the long run for sustainability, but that’s down to you.
So if you know your numbers for a day, work them out for a week. So seven days. So I can relate this back to myself because I’m on 2300 at the minute, but that works out as 16,100 for the week. That’ll give me a steady pound a week weight loss. So what I would do is I would actually start tracking on a Saturday and a Sunday, when my calories are gonna be a little bit higher. So let’s say for example I was to have … Let’s say I have two and a half thousand on the Saturday, two and a half thousand on the Sunday, which is highly likely. Sometimes on a Sunday it can be more, because I have a big roast. I then deduct that from the 16,100 and divide the remainder by five, which will give me a calorie output for the week. Which then means I can bring it down in the week if I want to when I’m at work, I’m on my feet, et cetera, I can move a little bit more, less access to food.
So this might be something that you can do. So rather than treat the weekend as all bets are off, well don’t. If you know your numbers, start tracking tomorrow, and allow yourself some flexibility. You can have a little bit higher calories on a Saturday and Sunday as long as you know you’ve got to pull that back then Monday to Friday. Does this make sense?
Now, as well, a lot of people think that it’s the weekend, they do deserve treats, they do deserve this, that, and the other. Well I’m gonna try and reframe this slightly for you now. If you are really trying to lose weight, get fit, and get healthier, and you’re trying to stay off the booze or trying to stay off the takeaways and things like that, but that shit happens because you think well I need a reward. Well try and reframe it, so you actually deserve to wake up feeling good. You deserve to wake up with energy, you deserve to wake up and be happy and feeling great for your kids. You deserve to be the best version of yourself. If alcohol, excess junk food is gonna reduce your ability to feel good, then try and reframe it.
So I’m currently doing 90 days off the booze, I’m on day … what is it? 25th January. Feeling awesome. But the weekends can be tough. I’ll be honest, the big challenges haven’t come yet, I don’t find January too difficult, but they will come in February. But when I get to a Saturday night and if I kind of have this like oh you deserve a drink, you deserve a drink, you deserve a drink, I know that my logical brain, my thinking brain, my realistic mind, has told me I wanna do, I right now, wanna do 90 days off the beer. I’m telling you, I’ve told people.
But on a Saturday night I might be getting voices. That might be my chimp, call it your chimp, your subconscious, and it’s going, “Go on Tregs, have a beer. Have a beer, you deserve it, one or two won’t hurt.” But I’m telling you right now, my conscious mind says no beers for 90 days because I will feel amazing, I’ll get fitter, leaner, et cetera, et cetera. That’s what I wanna do.
So you know that it doesn’t matter how much rationale you have on a Monday morning you say, “I’m gonna do this.” Those voices are gonna come, so it’s about managing that. So I’ve read the Chimp Paradox by Dr Michael Peters, and talks about managing the chimp. Talks about managing that chimp, talking him down, talking him down. Because I know the feeling I get on a Sunday morning, waking up clear headed before my light workout, like is magical. It really is magical. And I’m not trying to preach or anything like that. But it’s better than those couple of beers. And I want you to kind of get into your mindset, is if you’re trying to achieve a goal, don’t get to Saturday night and go, “Oh fuck it, life’s too short.” Well yeah life is too short, it’s too short to go around feeling like shit. It’s too short to feel groggy, it’s too short to be thinking, “Oh fuck it I’ve blown it again and eaten shit on a Sunday.” Because you feel crap and miserable and starting again on a Monday. Okay?
So it’s too short to be going around feeling like shit. I want you to reframe this because it is hard. And I remember having a very interesting conversation with a client. A year ago I did six months off the booze, or two years ago. And it was … Morning Matthew, hope you’re good. And I had a really good interesting conversation. I said to my client, said, “Bill I feel like I’m missing out.” And I was just talking to him about it. And he said, “Yeah well you are missing out, you’re missing out on waking up on a Sunday feeling like shit, you’re missing out on hangovers, you’re missing out on the anxiety you get from drinking too much, you’re missing out on being snappy with the kids, you’re missing out on eating crap on a Sunday because you’re hungover.” And I was like wow, that really made sense.
So there are gonna be challenges, but if you truly wanna change, you need to master your weekends. And that’s when those voices are gonna come and they’re gonna be going, “Go on, you deserve it, you deserve it.” Well you also deserve to feel good.
So I want you to, when you get to this weekend, if you’re surrounded by junk food, alcohol, you need to make a choice. You can have those things, as long as you’re in a deficit, but are those things gonna take you closer to your goals or further away? And also, understand that one of the reasons I limit alcohol when I’m trying to get lean, or cut it out, is because alcohol is not necessarily totally bad for us in moderation, like anything, but it lessens my will power.
One of the biggest things I’ve always struggled with is discipline with my diet. Training, no problem, I’ll exercise everyday, I love it. But I will struggle with my diet, like we all do, with the food and the drink. If I have a couple of beers, I’m gonna overeat, that’s why I’m not drinking at the minute. So ask yourself that. Because you don’t have to cut out alcohol but if it lowers your inhibitions and makes you wanna overeat, then there’s a trouble there.
Now also as well, it is the weekend, you can eat. Hey Leroy, you good? Message Anthony Lee, I’ll get you back on members club, got the app coming at the end of the month. I thought you were already in there bud. Yep, message Anthony, let’s get you in there my friend. Okay? Get in there today.
So this weekend, it doesn’t mean that you still can’t enjoy nice food, what we label junk or things like that. You can enjoy those foods. And I wanna relate, again try and give you a little bit of value, last Sunday was my son’s fifth birthday party. And it was at a football center, and they do great pizza, my Mrs made a lovely cake, and I decided that I was gonna have some of that. I made a logical decision, I didn’t just fall head first into the pizza and the cake. So because I wanted to enjoy the social occasion, because it’s only my son’s birthday once a year. Got two boys, so two birthdays a year. I’m not gonna turn up with chicken and broccoli. What I did is I woke up on Sunday, I was fresh, no booze, and I decided to use pretty much all of my calories at that party, because I wanted to enjoy the food.
So what I did is I did my live workout, I then went to football training, which I get involved in with my sons. Did football training, only had a match. Had a protein bar and a protein shake on the way home, 500 calories tops. I had said I was gonna eat 2500 that day, that left me around about 2000 calories to have at the party. So I was able to eat five/six slices of pizza, couple of slices of cake, job done. But what I then did is rather than go, “Oh you’ve eaten junk now, you’ve blown it.” I knew I hadn’t because I’d been moving all day and broke even on my calories because I said, “Right that’s it.” I stopped at 4PM, no more food.
Even now, because the food I was eating was less nourishing, probably made me feel hungry again and even in fact I went to bed hungry that night, I was able to break even calories. And I weighed this week and I’m leaner again. And that was eating pizza and chocolate and chocolate cake on the weekend. Wasn’t optimal, wasn’t probably ideally the healthiest, but it was my son’s birthday, so I made those calories fit.
Well my son’s started trying to do a few little Ronaldo back flips and things like that.
So my message to you is this weekend guys, you could be in a deficit all week, but you mindlessly eat this weekend, you’re fucked. So my tips are start … know your numbers for seven days. Morning Kevin. Know your numbers for seven days, then start to track from tomorrow, which allows you to eat more on the weekend. You might wanna work it out that you can have 2500 calories Saturday, 2500 calories Sunday, and then 2000 Monday to Friday. You might even use a strategic intermittent fast one day in the week to bring those down. There’s all these things.
So you can eat more on the weekend. But also you can move more on the weekend because you’re not confined to a desk, you’re not chained to a chair. So you know, most of you guys watching are gonna have young kids. One of the biggest things is I’ve been telling a brand new client this week online, who was clearly eating too much on a Sunday, he loves his roast, will finish his kid’s too, just like me, because he’s greedy like me. And he won’t mind me saying this because we’re totally on the same page and you can see it when I was talking to him that I was on his level with the nutrition.
But he’d be starting the day with a full English as well, and I said, “Well you start the day with a full English, then have a roast, then finish your kids, then have desert, that’s 4000 calorie day. Now you can still have your roast, you can still finish a bit of your kids leftovers, but what we’re gonna need to do is we’re probably gonna need to skip that breakfast, because that’s just being greedy, and if you wanna lose weight you will have to impose some discipline and put some rules in place.”
So instead of having his full English he’s getting out with his kids and going for a massive long walk in the morning. So he’s doing a fasted walk, so he’s creating a deficit rather than sat on his arse eating a full English, and he is then being able to come in and sit down and enjoy that roast. Exactly what I do on a Sunday, exactly what I do on a Sunday. I get up, I do my live workout. Morning Lee, morning Nige. And I go and take my kids to football, we then go on a dog walk, and … Thank you very much Sean. We go on a dog walk, and then by the time we come in … My client’s just arrived.
By the time we come in from that, my dad does a Sunday dinner, he’s retired, he lives with us, that’s his thing, he likes doing a Sunday dinner for us. So by the time me and my Mrs, the kids and dog come in, at one o’clock, I will have trained, walked miles, and been involved in my kids football training. I’m sitting down and I’m enjoying that roast. I can have 1500 calories of roast, I can finish my kids, because I’ve created a massive deficit.
Because I’ve created a mass deficit that way. So you can still enjoy a roast, you don’t have to say no to potatoes, you don’t have to say no to Yorkshire pudding, you can even have a desert. But you need to factor in those calories on the weekend because you can … Don’t be that guy that is getting up in three/four months down the year and going, “Fuck, I’m starting again Monday, I’m starting again Monday.” You don’t need to start again Monday. Track over the weekend, start your tracking tomorrow, so that you can factor in higher calorie days Saturday and Sunday. Move more, and then you can bring those calories down a little bit in the week, and it’s just gonna give you balance. All right guys?
So look, you can still enjoy the weekend, you can still enjoy a beer, just know your numbers in the beer. Like I know my favorite drink, bottle of Corona, 138 calories. I know in a Guinness, 210 calories. But I know that when I drink those, my willpower is gonna be lowered and I will overeat, that’s the only reason I choose not to drink right now, because I’m trying to get as lean as I can in 90 days time. I’ve already said that’s when the seasons change, March 31st, light at night, and I’m rearranging my diary so I can play football with the kids most evening. So I’ve got these little things in place, and I’m working towards that.
So guys, master your weekends. You will need to impose some self discipline. Doesn’t mean you have to live off chicken and avocado and broccoli. You can enjoy a variety of food, just like I did at my son’s party last week. Whereas in the past I would have gone, “Oh shit I’ve eaten junk, I may as well just keep on eating late into the night and start again Monday.”
What’s in a whiskey? Yeah I’ve got a client who I’m training right now, she’s getting lean as fuck, that’s all she drinks is whiskey. And I think it’s about 60 calories a shot. So I think shots are less calorific. Not really a shot man apart from Baileys at Christmas and there’s like millions of calories in that. So guys, master your weekends, start tracking tomorrow, work out your calories for the entire week, and start deleting those numbers from tomorrow.
So again, if I’ve got 16,000 calories for the week, as an example, and I have 3000 calories Saturday, I have 3000 calories Sunday, I’ve got 10,000 calories left to be divided by five days. That gives me 2000 calories during the week, a day. It’s maths guys. So hopefully this will help. That’s me, I’m going in the gym, I’ve got a full day of coaching ahead. Hope you guys have a wonderful day, give us a like and a share, and I will talk to you soon. Keep trucking boys.
