Your weekend survival guide

Two days off work doesn't have to be your worst enemy. Follow our guide to making the most of your weekend without messing up your weight-loss plans.
From WW.com

Weekdays are a lot easier these days. The Monday-to-Friday routine keeps your eating and exercise plans on track, and by the end of the week you are feeling great.

Then, it's the weekend! But don't worry: With just a little care and attention, these two days can become bonuses rather than booby traps.

This is the time for smart strategies:

Plan your pleasure
If you know that the weekend may include a decadent brunch with friends and you're not looking to indulge in an extreme meal, book a table at a place that you know specializes in fruit platters and juices or luscious salads and grilled seafood. Schedule a couple of long leisurely walks, bike rides or swims. And don't think you've crashed if you find you've overdone it at breakfast and lunch was less than ideal. The cool thing about POINTS® is that you can shift them around — spend your weekly POINTS Allowance when something special comes up. And if you momentarily forget all about them, learn from your mishaps and focus on getting back on track. Give yourself an immediate health boost by being active. Hey, you could even earn some bonus activity POINTS.

Play "good cop" with yourself
Life's too short to beat yourself up. The weekend is a mini-vacation, so relax and pamper yourself, preferably in nonfood ways. Make the time now to spoil yourself with a long, hot bath, try on different outfits, catch up with friends or splurge on a new book or chunky glossy magazine to celebrate your break from work. If you need to, ask your spouse, family or friends to help out with babysitting so you can give yourself a well-earned hour or two alone. Keep your mind active — and your hands, too — so you don't mindlessly start snacking.

Seize the day
Leave town, take a hike, ride your bike, go fly a kite, goof off — just do something different. Take in a foreign movie, join a language class, read stories to your kids, visit grandma, dig in the garden. Use these two wonderful, precious days and make them count. Turn them into allies, not potential weight-watching assassins. Take an hour and make a list of all the things you can do — and would like to do — on the weekends and hang it beside your calendar. Each weekend, choose a couple of things from the list and do them.

Back on Track
Just in case you let yourself slip over the weekend, here are five things you can do on Monday to get yourself back on track.


1.Look in the mirror and be glad it is a new day. Every day is a fresh start with POINTS values.



2.Have a healthy breakfast.



3.Put on a happy face — take extra care with how you look.



4.Pack a balanced, POINTS values-friendly lunch.



5.Get in a walk at lunchtime, or spend a few minutes in the morning toning up your muscles.