Hi friends!

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July weekend. I don’t know about you, but my weekend was chock full of food and drinks. My food and alcohol consumption has definitely leaned more heavily toward the indulgent side than it did the moderate side over the past few days. Something tells me I might not be the only one?

Here’s a quick rundown of the things I ate/drank:

Friday Night
Whole Foods salad bar, two beers, a few cheese and crackers

Saturday
Breakfast burrito on a whole wheat wrap, chickpea salad and a peach for lunch, cornbread, cup of clam chowder, one big stuffed clam, steamers, three beers.

Sunday
Toast with sunflower seed butter and a banana, waffles with berries for breakfast and two slices of bacon, nuts, a lot of pita chips with my festive salsa, some buffalo chicken dip on Tostito chips, a cheeseburger on the full bun, half a chicken and veggie kabob (this kabob was the biggest I’ve ever seen!), a scoop of bean salad, a scoop of pasta salad, 2 mini cupcakes, three beers.

Monday
Scrambled eggs, edamame, 1 sushi roll, 1 glass of sangria, 1 beer, half a lobster roll, a couple of French fries, a few wheat thins with hummus, some grapes, grilled chicken, corn on the cob, caprese salad, 2 mini cupcakes, 2 cookies.

I’m sure I forgot to name a few things!

In hindsight, perhaps I could have skipped the wrap or toast for breakfast on the days I knew I would be either out to eat or attending a BBQ later in the day. Maybe I didn’t have to have that third beer instead of two while I was out, and maybe I didn’t need to have any at all while just hanging on the couch Friday night. Perhaps I could have called it quits at one mini cupcake or even just a bite of one cookie last night. But I didn’t. And I’ll be perfectly honest with you: I just don’t care enough to dwell on what I could have done differently or beat myself up about it today. Sure, I will acknowledge that I ate and drank more than usual because it’s important to be honest with ourselves, but that’s about it. I’ll acknowledge it and move right along with my day-to-day.

There are probably a lot of articles being shared this week about what foods to avoid after an overindulgence, how to get back on track after eating too much on a holiday weekend, the best ways to do damage control, and all that jazz, but I’m going to share a different spin on this topic today. Here are the five things I recommend avoiding after an overindulgent weekend, none of which are a food or beverage item!

Five Things to Avoid After an Indulgent Weekend

1. Detoxes

You might feel tempted to do some type of seven-day detox or three-day juice cleanse, but trust me, you don’t need to do this! Just know that your liver and kidneys will do just fine at the whole cleanse thing without the need to fast or drink some strange concoction. Whenever I’m feeling a bit bloated or like I’m carrying some extra water weight after eating and drinking more than usual, I avoid gimmicky detoxes and instead turn toward real foods that have naturally detoxifying qualities. My friend Lauren posted a great list of options on her Facebook page this morning, but some of my go to options include water with lemon, greens, tea, avocado, berries, asparagus, and chicken.

Pictured: My summer fruit and barley salad with lemon vinaigrette

2. Deprivation

Another thing I avoid after an indulgent weekend is deprivation. It can be easy after eating and drinking too much to declare that you aren’t going to eat another cupcake for a whole month or not have another drink for x amount of days, but I know that whenever I make this kind of statement, it makes me want the items I am avoiding even more. For example, if I tell myself no wine for three weeks, all I want is a glass of wine. So just like I avoid any weird detoxes or cleanses, I avoid declaring myself on a diet, and I avoid depriving myself. I’ll definitely cool it on alcohol, sweets, and really salty stuff for a few days after being indulgent, but if it happens, it happens. My approach to food is non-deprivation, 100% of the time, so you won’t find me restricting myself, even after a bunch of holiday treats.

3. Overexercising

Gah! I see so much of this one, and maybe it gets me fired up because I see a former version of myself here, but the whole “I’m going to do extra workouts this week so I can work off all the extra calories” thing? It doesn’t work. There’s more in-depth science behind this, but just know that you would have to work out for a really, really, REALLY long time to negate all the calories typically consumed during an indulgent weekend. Of course there is nothing like getting a few good sweat sessions in immediately following an overindulgence (often times the extra calories fuel an awesome lift for me!), but I don’t purposely schedule extra workouts in anymore. If my body craves more movement than my initial workout, I’ll choose a walk instead.

4. Regret 

Like I mentioned above, I just don’t care enough to dwell on what I could have done differently. No harping or regret here! I had a lot of together time with my husband this week, and I consider what I ate worth it because we had fun spending time together. For example, on Saturday we took a day trip up to Marblehead and spent a few hours at the beach before exploring the historic and scenic downtown area near Fort Sewall. We have both been craving a good seafood meal, and we had so much fun trying out a new to us restaurant (The Barnacle), eating that much desired seafood, and sipping beers on an outdoor patio with a gorgeous view. Focusing on that is more important to me than choosing to harp on too much cornbread. What’s the point? Perspective, people!

5. Negative Self Talk 

Finally, I avoid negative self talk. This one goes hand in hand with the whole no regret or harping thing, but I am not about to call myself a failure or beat myself up about what I consumed over the weekend. I’m also not about to call myself fat or throw in the towel on my usual healthy lifestyle. I know that my physique hasn’t changed one bit just because of one weekend out of many. It’s not like this kind of eating is a regular occurrence for me! It definitely doesn’t happen every weekend, so in the grand scheme it’s really no biggie. Shaming be gone.

I hope these five things help give you some perspective on things, especially if you had a 4th of July weekend like mine. I know this mindset stuff takes time and that sometimes it can feel like a lot of work to approach food and fitness in this way, but remember that #stressfreefitness is always what will be successful for the long-term… not the stuff that feels hard, makes us feel bad about ourselves, and that we don’t enjoy doing.

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