You are on a fat loss mission and you’ve started well. You’re 3 weeks in and you’ve started to see some changes in body shape and some movement on the scales. But,
you have a big social event coming up in two weeks, all of your friends are going to be there who, you haven’t seen for ages. You know it is going to be an indulgent night, you want to enjoy yourself but, equally, you don’t want to waste all of the hard work you’ve put in so far. How do you continue to achieve weight loss while having a social life?
Sound familiar?
Well the good news is you don’t have to. You can stay on track with a little bit of forward planning.
First of all, get out your diary and highlight any events over the coming weeks and months that could be the stumbling block on your fat loss journey. Then, follow the 4-point guide below to keep you on track:
1. Lower your calorie consumption
Lower your calorie consumption for the days leading up to the event. This will provide you with a buffer for the over consumption that is likely to occur at the event. Therefore, over the course of week your average calorie intake should be in-line with your daily target
Weekly calorie consumption diagram
2. Increase daily step count
Increase daily step count for the days leading up to the event, because let’s face it, the day after, when you are hungover, step count is likely to be low.
3. Remove temptation foods
Remove “temptation” foods from the kitchen that you will likely want to devour in your hungover state. Then, re-stock the kitchen with good, wholesome, high protein and high fibre food to eat instead.
4. Prioritize recovery after the event
Alcohol is a diuretic, which means it promotes water loss through urine, it is therefore important to rehydrate and aid recovery, after all you don’t want your hangover to last more than a day, you want to bounce back and carry on where you left off.
How much water should you drink? We recommend circa 1L of water for every 25kg of bodyweight.
My personal hangover cure is to drink 200ml coconut water before bed. The potassium in coconut water helps retain water and restore electrolyte balance in the body.
The important message here is that you do not need to wait for the “perfect time” to start your fat loss journey. Situations will always pop up and challenge your progress. You need to be adaptive and learn how to best manage these situations to stay on track.
This is the key to long term sustainable and enjoyable fat loss.
If you have any questions about this blog post please feel free to get in contact.
