We often like to think of weekends as our time off, not just from work but from our weight loss habits as well. It's super common for people to give themselves permission to overindulge and forget that the weekend is still a good chunk of the week. The truth is that if we’re letting ourselves off the hook on Saturdays and Sundays, we risk plateauing—or worse, gaining back the weight that we lost.

So in this episode, I’m discussing the ways in which we often sabotage our weight loss on the weekends, as well as how you can avoid turning the weekend into a total food or alcohol fest. Listen in as I share the most common reasons that many of us struggle on the weekend, questions you can ask yourself if you find yourself in that camp, and tips to avoid self-sabotage and set yourself up for success all week long.


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In Today's Episode, You'll Learn:

  • The reasons people struggle with the weekend when it comes to weight loss
  • How to overcome wanting the opposite of what you already have
  • Why it’s important to intentionally think about food every day
  • How to handle the weekends to support your weight loss
  • The questions to ask yourself to get through the weekend without overeating
  • How to avoid creating the result of overeating
  • Tips to set yourself up for success on the weekends

Featured In This Episode

Weekend-Overeating


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Read the Transcript Below:

Katrina Ubell:      You are listening to the Weight Loss for Busy Physicians podcast with Katrina Ubell, MD, episode number 186.

Welcome to Weight Loss for Busy Physicians, the podcast where busy doctors like you get the practical solutions and support you need to permanently lose the weight, so you can feel better and have the life you want. If you're looking to overcome your stress, eating and exhaustion, and move into freedom around food, you're in the right place.

Well, hey there, my friend, how are you? Welcome back to the podcast. I'm so glad to have you here with me. And if you are new here, this is a good one for you. This is a real, real good one that I'm excited to be sharing with you. I always get feedback from you guys, and every now and then I get someone who says, “Hey, just cut right to what you're going to talk about and teach about.” And then when I do that and don't share anything about what's going on for me, then I get emails from you guys saying, “Hey, I really miss it when you share about what's going on for you.” So I'm just going to share a little.

And what's top of mind right now is that my dog, who's laying next to me, really needs a bath because he stinks I've just discovered. He smells so bad. He doesn't look like he rolled in anything, but I think he must've rolled in something. He smells really bad. So he is sound asleep next to me. And that will be coming up for him very soon. Poor him, but much better for us. That's number one. Number two is my two sons were supposed to have golf lessons today with my husband. And so he was going to take my daughter too and they were going to go and do golfing and swim, and they're going to have a great time. And I was going to be alone in the house. And I was going to be able to record this for you.

And literally 30 minutes before they were supposed to leave, middle child gets a just excruciating bellyache. I honestly think it's all poop-related. As a pediatrician, I am not worried. Yeah, he had to stay home. So he's curled up in a ball upstairs on the bed with a puke bucket just in case. Poor guy. So anyway, it's still quiet around here. But there's a difference when you are really, really fully alone and you don't have any obligations, you're not responsible for anybody except yourself and when you seem to be alone, but you do know in the back corner of your mind that you've got somebody up there who may need you at any moment. I did tell him that if he needed me, he should just let me know.

I would stop recording. It's totally fine. Okay. One other thing that I want to mention to you, because it's just really been helping me and I've brought this up on some recent podcasts and I know just working with my clients so many of them are struggling with this, so I know that you are as well, so many of us just feel like we are in a funk right now. We're just going through it. Life seems just especially hard right now. There's all these changes. Right now as I'm recording this, everybody's finding out if their kids are going to be going back to school or not. And if they are, in what manifestation?

In fact, just this afternoon, I was reading an email from my son's soon to be high school and what the rules and regulations are going to be for that school. So for me, it feels like a little bit like a double whammy because it's learning a whole new school and also what we have to do with COVID guidelines and stuff. So I know we're going to figure it out and it's all going to be fine, but I just want to just, first of all, let you know that you are not alone if you've been struggling recently.

And for that, I just wanted to let you know what's really actually been helping me to turn things around a little bit, super randomly, I won't go into the details about how I found out about this, but someone that I know recommended Deepak Chopra's 21-Day Abundance Meditation. What he was saying is that he started doing this back in October and then every 21 days he just restarts again. So I suppose I haven't really spent a ton of time researching the background of it, but it sounds like it's kind of like just something you focus on for 21 days.

But he said that because he was doing that for let's say how many months, I mean like five months before COVID hit, that his experience of going through all this has been really so much better than most of the people that he knows, because he's been really training his brain to move away from scarcity and to move toward abundance. And I know that that's something that so many of you struggle with. I know it's something that is always something that I'm managing for myself. And so I thought, you know what? What the heck. I'll try it. And so I've been doing it for a few days now and I really, really like it. So maybe meditating is not for you and you don't want to check it out, that's totally cool.

If you want to try it out first, there's actually an YouTube some of the days meditations are free videos on YouTube. So not day one or day two, you can't get the whole thing, but like in the teens you can get it. So I think if you just search Deepak Chopra Abundance Meditation 21 Days, something like that, it's going to come up on YouTube and you can just try one out. They're about 15 minutes long. The whole thing is not meditation. He kind of talks to you a little bit about different ideas about abundance and an abundance mindset and then guides you through a meditation with a mantra and the mantra changes every time. And there's also what he calls the centering thought each time.

You're supposed to think about that thought and reflect on it. And what I've actually been doing is I've been finishing up and then taking this really beautiful journal that I own, that I always feel like I can't just put chicken scratch on this thing. This is a really beautiful leather-bound journal. And what I do is I write a full page just repeating the centering thought again and again. And for those of you who are Simpsons fans, yes, it does remind me of the opener to the Simpsons where Bart is always writing on the chalkboard whatever thing that he's gotten into trouble about. It does always bring that back to me. But I think it's just a good way of kind of solidifying that.

There's research that shows that when you write something down, you're much more likely to internalize it and remember it and that kind of thing. And it's just been a really nice thing to do. I find that I can tell a difference and that's cool, right? Love when we can tell a difference. So check that out if you're interested, Deepak Chopra 21 Day Abundance Meditation. And then finally, I just want to let you know that if you missed my last presentation of how to lose weight for the last time, I am going to be hosting a free encore presentation of it coming up here on Monday, August 17th and that's at 8:30 PM Eastern time, 5:30 PM Pacific.

To register, just go to katrinaubellmd.com/loseweight, L-O-S-E-W-E-I-G-H-T. So you're definitely not going to want to miss this. I won't be doing it again for a little while here. As you'll see with what we talk about today on weekend overeating, if you are confused in any way, shape or form about what you need to be doing to support your body properly so it can release extra weight that you have onboard, then you need to be coming to this presentation for sure. Even if you can't make it live, if you register, you'll still get the replay. But I do just want to mention that when you come live, I can answer your questions. It's so much better live. I know myself.

I always think, oh yeah, I'll just watch the replay, and then I just never watched the replay. It's just much, much better to attend live. So do your best to be able to come to that presentation live. Again, August 17th at 8:30 PM Eastern, 5:30 PM Pacific, katrinaubellmd.com/loseweight. Let's talk about weekends and weekend overeating. This is something that I see all the time with my clients. And so I always know that whatever we're working on in my Weight Loss for Doctors Only Program, that those of you who are listening are also struggling with. And so I want to spend a little time talking about the weekend. So in my mind, the weekend is not really that different, but I know for a lot of people it really is.

And I think that's one reason why I haven't until episode 186 actually done a podcast episode on this because it hasn't been something that I've struggled with too much, but I've helped so many of my clients with it that I really do feel like I have a good system in place for how to make the most of your weekends and how to not have it turned into just a total eating and possibly drinking fest. So the first thing we need to look at is why do people struggle with the weekends when it comes to their weight and their eating and possibly their drinking. And I want you to listen to these and think like, which of these am I? So some of us are too busy, right? We've got so much going on.

We are just running from thing to thing to thing. Now, right now in COVID time that may not be many of us who are dealing with that, might be more the opposite. But depending on when you listen to this, we might be past COVID and you might be going, “Yeah, no, we're totally over-scheduled again. We are running like crazy.” Also, depending on what your work schedule looks like or how you take call in the weekends or things like that, you might feel like you're too busy, or you might feel like between those obligations plus things you have to do at home, maybe with your family or other loved ones in your life, you just feel like you're too busy. I know a lot of people feel busier than ever right now.

Some people struggle because they don't have enough to do. They're not busy enough. They feel like, okay, well, now the weekend came and I should be doing some things, and I don't know what to do. And so what I usually do to entertain myself is I eat and maybe drink and watch TV and stuff like that. So that could be part of the reason you struggle. Another reason why people struggle with the weekend is wanting to relax, thinking, “Well, it's the weekend. I should be having some fun. I want to be resting and relaxing.” And we don't know how to do that if food and alcohol are not involved.

Another reason why people struggle is because they are either alone and wish they weren't, or they're not alone and they wish they were. I always find this so interesting because it's like whatever we have, we want the opposite of like. I know if I'm alone too much, I'm like, where are my people? But when my people around, I'm like, why can't I be alone? It's like always wanting whatever I don't have.

So if you are someone who is single, living alone, or for whatever reason, just not having many people around you, you might really struggle with just knowing what to do with yourself or just even being with yourself, or it might be the other way around where you have people around you all the time, but you're eating because you want to kind of escape the experience of having everyone there. And you really wish that you could be by herself and just have some peace. And then another reason why people struggle really often on the weekends is there is no plan. And even if there is a plan, often it's not a realistic plan. So they're thinking like, “Yes, I'm going to…” Have you done this? I've done this.

You have this weekend plan where it involves you doing three weeks worth of work in a day and a half and getting tons of rest and meal prepping for the week and running errands and doing all the things. There's just no possible way you're going to be able to get that done. So either you lack a plan at all, and you're just kind of winging it, flying by the seat of your pants, or whatever plan you have is not realistic and deep down you know you're not going to follow it. So that is a problem as well. I also find that people will have often a deeper underlying belief that they shouldn't have to think about it on the weekend, right? During the week, it's fine. It's okay. I can think about things.

I can plan things. I can make my lunch and bring it with me, or I can make sure we have what we need for dinner. But on the weekend I shouldn't have to think about it. But here's the thing, the result of you not thinking about it is a result you don't like, right? So you think I should have to think about it, but when you believe that thought, you create a result of overeating and maybe over drinking. And here's the thing, you are actually thinking about it because your brain is rarely without a thought. Sp you think, I shouldn't have to think about it, but you are still thinking about food.

What you're doing is you're just thinking thoughts and creating feelings that drive actions that create results you don't want. You're not managing what those thoughts are. You're just waiting to see what your brain pops up in that moment, and generally what your brain pops up is margarita sound like a good idea, right? Let's have nachos. That's generally what your brain will suggest to you if you aren't intentionally thinking about it. So I want you to consider questioning that thought, I shouldn't have to think about it or I don't want to have to think about it, because that belief is largely to blame for the problem that you create. So what do we do? How do we handle the weekends?

Well, the first thing you need to do is you need to understand what's going on there first. Because what a lot of us do is we have a you know what show of a weekend, and then Monday rolls around and we feel like junk. And then we're like, you know what? I'm just not going to do that again. But we don't even really know what that is. We don't even really know what we did, and we don't really know what the consequences are. So what I suggest you do if you struggle with the weekends is that you answer some of the questions I'm about to post to you. You can either just hit pause and jot these down for yourself. There are also always transcripts for all of these podcast episodes that you can find on the show notes page.

The way you can find that is just going to Kakatrinaubellmd.com/186. So just the episode number is always the way that you can find that specific episode. So then you'll see it written out and you can do it from there when you're doing your journaling. So here's the first question, what is the downside of how you currently approach weekends? What is the problem with how you currently approach weekends? You have to know what is the issue, what is the thing that you want to change. Why is what you're doing right now not working out for you? What is it that's happening that isn't good? And then why do you want to change how you approach your weekends?

Because if you deep down don't want to do it differently, then you're not going to, right? That's self-sabotage. Deep down we don't really want to do it, but we say that we should do it differently, and then each time we don't do it differently. So why do you want to change how you approach weekends? What would be the upside for you? What would be the benefit for you? Then what is the outcome that you want? How do you want to feel on Sunday night when you're going to bed? How do you want to feel on Monday morning when you wake up? When you're getting ready to go to work? Do you want to feel like, oh my God, I did it again. I slept like crap. I'm totally exhausted?

When am I going to learn that I can't drink like that? When am I going to learn that I can't eat like that? When am I going to stop eating in front of the TV before bed and actually go to bed at a proper time so I can feel rested? How do you want to feel? Do you want to feel like, you know what, that was an amazing weekend. I got stuff done. I rested. I feel actually quite good? You wake up Monday morning, you're like, all right, let's do this, Monday. Let's go. I'm ready. How do you want to feel? What is the outcome that you want? Next, what needs to happen for you to get that outcome? This is reverse engineering your weekends. So you start with the end in mind. Monday morning, you're going to wake up and how do you want to feel?

Sunday at the end of the night, how do you want to be feeling? What do you want to be thinking about your weekend and about yourself, right? Then that's the result that you've created. What are the actions you need to take over the weekend to create that result? How do you need to feel in order to take those actions, and what thoughts about your weekend and how you're going to spend that time make you feel that way so that you take those actions and you create those results? Now, as you're working that out, here's some more questions. Why are weekends different or special for you? What are your beliefs about weekends compared to weekdays?

What is it that you believe should happen on a weekend that you keep creating with the actions that you take? What are your thoughts about weekends and what they should be like? So when you start finding these answers, you start figuring out, okay, where are my real sticking points here? What is really the problem? Because you know it's not because food tastes good, right? And you know it's not just because alcohol tastes good or you want to take the edge off. It's so much more than that. So what is it really about? Now, I do want to let you know that I see this happening for a lot of people.

One of my clients will say, “You know what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to find something that is as good or better than food or alcohol to substitute for food or alcohol.” They're like, “Okay, I've just got to find something that I like better.” And my answer to that is don't bother. Okay? Because if your brain's best way it knows how to neutralize your emotions is to eat or drink alcohol, you're not going to find something better unless you want to start a new habit that's going to cause real problems for you, such as a heroin addiction. And I'm serious. I mean that. Yeah, you can probably find some things you like better, but you're not going to like the results of it better.

So instead of thinking, I've got to find that thing, what is that elusive thing that I can do that has me not eating or drinking that makes it so that I want to do that instead of eating or drinking? Maybe it is possible you might find that thing, but you probably won't. Your brain is always going to prefer to do food or alcohol because it's so easy. It's so consistent. It's so reliable. But I think thinking about it that way, I've got to find something as good or better, I don't think it's very useful. So it doesn't mean that you shouldn't look for new ways to approach your weekend or new things to do. It doesn't mean that at all.

It means that you set an intention to figure out how to make your weekends work for you instead of happening to you, right? How do you get your weekend to work for you instead of just being this thing, days that pass and just happen to you? What you will find is that having the long-term result that you're looking for makes not having the food or alcohol in the moment worth it. But there's a buy in process here. It takes some time for you to get that positive result and for you to practice this and to work this out. So you have to be bought in to the whole situation here. You've got to be figuring this out, working this out, and committed to solving this problem for yourself. You just try it one time.

It doesn't work. You're like, “Screw it all. I'm just going to go back to eating and drinking again.” You're obviously not going to make progress on that, right? So what you are doing is you're figuring it out. And even the answers to those questions might change as you spend more time working on this. You might really start figuring out, what is it about weekends? Why are these so hard for me? What do I make a couple of days off from work mean? Or what do I make it mean when everyone else has time off of work and I'm working and then I come home? Do I feel sorry for myself, then I eat because of that? I figured that's my reward for having to work when everyone else was off?

You've got to explore what that is. Now, while you're working this all out, here are some things to do. I suggest that you schedule your weekend. Now hear me out, because I know you're going to say you don't want to do that and you want to be really flowing and spontaneous. And you can be, but within a framework. So let me explain it to you and explain to you why we want to do this. This is what you do. You need to schedule your weekend time. Because how many times have you thought, oh yeah, that was the thing I wanted to do, and then time got away from me and I never got to it. And then you feel bad because now another week is going to go by and you didn't do it, right?

You schedule your time in advance. When you do this is up to you. I suggest that you do it latest Thursday night because the weekend starts on Friday, right? So first, look at the time. Look at the days, right? So Friday when work ends to Monday when work starts. What you want to do first is you're going to schedule your free time, your rest time, any naps you want to take, your overnight sleep, and anything else that is rejuvenating for you or is consistent with self-care for you. This includes time to do your thought work and to journal, time to read, time to play music or listen to music, time to exercise, go for a walk, meditate, stretch, et cetera.

Take as much as you think you'll need, want, and is possible. This can be adjusted over time as you find patterns. So what you'll find is you'll make an educated guess as to how much time you need for all of these things or how much will really rejuvenate you and help you to feel rested, and then you have to test it. Then you just have to see, how do I feel when I do that? And then you adjust it. Maybe you're like, you know what? That was a little overkill. My guess is it's going to be the other direction where you're going to be like, oh, I thought that was going to be enough and I really could have used more. But either way, you figure it out. You have all that planned on your calendar. Then you look at what else you already have scheduled on the calendar.

So you may not have that much right now, or again, if you're listening to this after COVID has settled down, you might have things like shows or events, parties, get togethers, sports games, kids, activities, things like that. You want to make sure that those are dialed in. Then you look at the time that's left and you then look at your to-do list. What you ask yourself on that to-do list, is what must be done this weekend? Meaning nobody else can do it, only you can do it, and it has a short deadline. It has to be done soon. That gets scheduled next.

Don't forget to plan in time to plan your food for the week if you are someone who does that and to make sure that you are doing whatever you need to do to get the food you need to support yourself for the next week into your possession. So if that is grocery shopping yourself, if that's ordering groceries in, doing curbside pick up, whatever you need to do, make sure that that goes on there too, unless somebody else does that for you. Next, fill in the rest of the time that you have left with more items from your to-do list. And then once the time is filled, then you're done. The rest of the list has to be dealt with another time.

And when you're thinking, well, how much time do I give myself, you take your best educated guess and then you get it done during that time. When it's time to do that thing, you're not sitting there thinking to yourself, well, but I really needed probably more time. And I don't know if this is going to be enough,” that's so much time wasted, right? You say, “You know what? I gave myself 30 minutes. Maybe I'll get it done, maybe I won't, but I'm going to do my darnedest to get this done as best as I can in 30 minutes.” You will surprise yourself. You can be much faster and more efficient than you think you can be if you just give yourself the chance to prove it to yourself. But also sometimes we miscount, right?

And that's totally okay. Then what you want to do is make note of that and schedule in the time for later when you're going to finish it up. So what about all the things that you still need to do? What about all the things that are still left on the list? So here is an important note, do not forget, when you get proper rest and self-care on the weekend, you can be so much more productive on the weekdays, and you get more of your to-do list done during the weekdays, so it doesn't bleed over into the weekend so much. So much of the reason why we push everything to the weekends is because during weekdays we feel like crap.

And part of the reason we feel like crap is because we're starting Monday morning not properly rested, not really setting ourselves up for success. Okay? So just test it and try it out and see what you find. So let's talk about the reasons why we struggle and address those specifically. So if you're someone who is too busy or you want more time alone, then I suggest having a look at what you have committed to. What can you say no to? I always think this is such a good way to think about it. If you had a terrible stomach flu or you had, God forbid, COVID, what would you cancel? Of all the things that are on your calendar, what would you cancel? And it's probably going to be most things.

So if those things are cancelable, then consider canceling some things in order to get the rest, get the self-care time that you need so you can set yourself up for success. If you're someone who feels like they have too much time on their hands, or you're alone more than you'd like to be and you want to do more, then I suggest brainstorming a list of things that you want to do or try. So often our brains just tell us, “I don't know what to do. I just don't know what else to do.” And so then the brain's like, “Oh, hey, I have an idea. Let's get a snack, right? Let's bake some cookies. Let's do something like that.”

What you need to do is when you're not in the moment, have a list going. I suggest you have it in your phone so that when you get some stroke of genius, some idea, you can go in really quickly into your notes app or Evernote or whatever you use to keep track of things like this, and you can then just keep a running list of things that you want to check out. You're not committing to doing anything, but maybe you want to just see what do you have in your area that does that. So many places now have online versions of things. You can work out with anybody now remotely, right? There are so many different things that you can try that are remote. So just keep a list and then you could start exploring that when the weekend comes.

So choose things, like I said, that you could do remotely. So no matter the state of the world, you have things to do, but also maybe some things that you would do in person. Maybe there's things you can do where you're socially distancing, or when things are in a situation where it's safe, you can do it in person, or you can also pivot to doing it remotely if needed and that works out as well. I think it's a good idea to try out some things that maybe give you some connection to a greater purpose, maybe like volunteering, maybe learning a new skill, or you can also find a community to connect with. And this can be an in person community, it can be online, but something that kind of connects you.

And this is why I love our master's community, which is the continuation program of the Weight Loss for Doctors Only Program I have, because we have this community that is very vibrant online. And when we're able to get together in person, we do that. And when we can't, it's totally okay because we can still do it virtually. So finding a community that you can connect with that really feels like something you belong to will be really, really helpful. And then be willing to just have it not work, right? Be willing to try some things and be like, “These are not my people.” And instead of thinking, nobody out there is my person, just going, oh, okay. I thought it was going to be this.

It turns out it's not. Maybe it's going to be the next thing. And you work on managing your mind so you can keep an open mind and keep trying other things, putting yourself out there. Now, if you want to relax or have fun on the weekends and you usually do that with food or alcohol, I suggest brainstorming a list of things that you find fun that aren't eating or drinking. And you may find that there's actually a ton of things and you just forget to do them. And when you remember, “Oh yeah, I totally love doing that. Why don't I do that? I should totally do that instead,” then you can get to work doing those things and playing that in on your weekend. But for some of us, the list is short, right?

We can't think of much. We're like, no, I think like eating and drinking are really the best things. That's the way to have fun and relax. And I just want you to know, if that is what comes up for you, that's totally okay. What's happening is that you're just out of practice with having fun. You need to try some new things with an open mind and explore some other things. You just have to remind yourself how to have fun. I always think of this. We never have to teach children how to have fun. Kids know how to have fun, but so many of us lose that skill of how to have fun as we go through our medical training, as we become adults.

We become very serious and heavy, literally and figuratively, and don't know how to have fun anymore. So I also want to remind you that activities or people aren't fun. What makes something fun or relaxing is the way you think about it. Your thoughts will create fun for you if you want to have fun. So this may take some practice to redevelop for you. If you go into something… If you're anything like me, I'll be going to go do something fun and my brain's telling me all the reasons why it was terrible idea, I should have stayed home, and I'm going to have a terrible time. That's default wiring in my brain. If that's not you, you are lucky. What I have to do is I have to say, “Or it might be fun.”

I have to counterbalance that thinking by suggesting to myself that it's just as likely that I might love this. And in fact, I'm sure I can find something fun. It's just my job to figure out what's fun about this, and then I'm directing my brain toward finding what the fun thing is. Now, once you figured out what works best for you with your weekend, then you might be able to add in a little flexibility. I do think that at first you should be strict and hold yourself to the times that you set, because this helps you to build up your relationship with yourself and it helps you to learn to be accountable to yourself.

When I say building your relationship with yourself, what I mean is when you say you're going to do something, you do it and you can trust yourself. You have integrity with yourself where you know that you've got your own back. For so many of us, we need to build up that skill again. This is why we plan food and then we eat it anyway. You have to know that it doesn't matter what happens around you or if anybody is supporting you. You're the person who supports yourself, and you build up evidence for that by doing things like this, planning out your time and then following through on it.

I also want to be really clear, do not create a plan for your weekend that you do not think you're going to follow. So if you think about it on a scale of one to 10, one being like you're really probably not going to follow this thing, 10 being 100% you're going to follow it, you should really be an eight or greater on your willingness to follow this plan and in your confidence in yourself that you're going to do it. I find for many of my clients they're like, “Well, this is what I should have as my plan,” but deep down they know they're not going to do it. They're like a two. They're like, “I'm not going to do this. I know I'm not going to do this. I want to be the person who will.

And maybe if I hope and wish and pray, that will happen, but of course, that's not how it works.” So if you set a plan and you're like, “I'm not willing to follow this,” then you got to go back and readjust. What's the problem there? Readjust it until you get to a place where you're at least an eight or better. And then what's going to happen is as you practice this, each weekend what you'll find is the best balance for you between productivity and rest, time with people who are important to you, time alone, whatever it is that you're needing. You're going to start figuring out, you know what? I've had a really crazy busy week, or I was on call a bunch, or I didn't sleep a lot during the week.

My weekend really needs to look more like this. But if my week was pretty light and it wasn't too much of a big deal, then I can kind of do it like this. All this wisdom comes from you practicing and being open to learning, experimenting, allowing it to not work out, to be able to then figure out what does work out. Now, with more and more practice, this just becomes how you do weekends. It's not this weird thing that you have to do anymore. It's what you do. It's how you roll. You look at your weekend.

You go, “You know what? I know that I function so much better when I take this time to do these things. What am I going to make sure those get done? All right. Boom. Scheduled. Nonnegotiable. Okay. What else do I need to get done and make sure that that's all booked?” Now, final note for you, final suggestion, when it comes to your food, I want to encourage you to try to lose weight on the weekends. This is a method of approaching anything that is a struggle. I like doing this on vacation as well. Now, before you start pushing back and going, “What? That's ridiculous. Ooh, I don't want to have to do that,” if you think about it, weekends are about two and a half days. That is a good chunk of your week.

So if you're “good” all week long and then you let yourself off the hook or kind of get a little slippery on things on the weekends, this is how you gain that weight back, and this is how you prove to yourself, oh, I can't lose weight. It's not possible for me. It's 100% possible for you when you get your brain straightened out. So here's what we do, I would suggest, just not knowing you, just as a guess, what if you focused on losing a half a pound over the weekend, meaning you went into the weekend with the intention of losing half a pound by Monday? If that was your goal for the weekend, how would you approach your eating and possibly your drinking? How would you support yourself better?

How would you set yourself up for success to make sure that that happened? Now, if your brain is telling you that it's impossible to lose weight on the weekend, just ponder this, would you be able to do it if I paid you $500,000 to do it? Two and a half days of following your plan even when you didn't want to in the moment? Yes. I'm pretty sure you would, right? If you're listening to this, you probably would. So then you know it's possible. You just have to want it, right? The reason it's possible is because you want $500,000 for two and a half days of eating a certain way. So you have to want it.

You have to want the result of being a half a pound down, and therefore it then being one step closer to true freedom around food and alcohol more than you want the instant gratification of eating whatever it is in the moment. So this is why you plan though, because in the beginning you're like, “No, I just want instant gratification,” and that primitive brain is just like, “Screw it all to hell. I just want what I want, and that's it.” You have to plan it and follow through and be uncomfortable knowing this is going to pay off in the long run. And I also want to mention, right, just because your goal was to lose a half pound over the weekend, doesn't mean that by Monday morning you're down 0.4 or 0.6.

My scale only does increments of 0.2. If you have 0.1, you can do 0.5. That's great. Then you would be able to see that, right? Sometimes the things that we do, we don't see the result of that for a few more days. Maybe that 0.5 goes down on Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday, but it's going down because of what we did on the weekend. So you have to do that thought work around. It's not like, well, I did these things and that means I deserve to see the scale down on Monday morning. You don't deserve anything. What you have to do is you have to wait and see. There are so many reasons why your weight might not be actually showing you that loss in that moment, that's why you have to look at the big picture.

So maybe it's a pound over the weekend. If you have a lot of weight to lose, you might really be able to lose a pound. Maybe it's less than that. Maybe you just want to try to be down 0.2. That's not what's so important. What's important is that you go into the weekend with the intention of losing weight. How do you approach your weekend when you're like, “This weekend and losing weight?” Very, very different. I think what most of us end up doing is we go into the week going, “Yes, weekdays, I'm going to lose some weight,” and then we go into the weekend and we're like, “Let's see what happens.” And when we go into it with that kind of a plan, we do see what happens.

Our limbic brain, our primitive brain takes over and does all the things to wreck the progress that you've made. So give this a try. Let me know what you think and how it's working for you. And one more time, if you'd like to get more specifics on how to lose weight for the last time, don't forget, Monday night, August 17th, 8:30 PM Eastern, 5:30 PM Pacific. It is free. Anybody can come. You can ask me questions, and this is where I'm going to teach you how to actually lose this weight even on the weekends. So to register, go to katrinaubellmd.com/loseweight, L-O-S-E-W-E-I-G-H-T. Have a wonderful, wonderful rest of your week, and I'll talk to you very soon. Take care. Bye bye.

Did you know that you can find a lot more help from me on my website? Go to katrinaubellmd.com and click on free resources.