I have been banging my head against the wall lately.  I workout all of the time, eat healthy but haven’t been able to lose any real weight.  I had a little bit of an AHA! moment when I read a post by Lonie of Eat Train Live.  It was all about the weekend and how in just three days you can completely derail all of the hard work you have put in during the week.

Here’s what she had to say:

Many of us feel like the weekend is a free pass when it comes to healthy eating.
ETL #FunFact: 3 days of junk can easily add up to a pound of weight…multiply this by the number of weekends in a year and you know what you have…You have to go buy new pants!!!!  3500 calories=one pound of body weight.

A few things you may innocently indulge in and the caloric impact:

• Two slices of Pizza and 1/2 bottle of wine = 975 calories
• Typical fast food burger and fries (no supersized liquid sugar beverage included) = 1,300 calories
• A large popcorn, without butter = 1,030 calories (Don’t even get me started on the fat and sodium!!)

One weekend = 3300 calories with just a few innocent indulgences. On the flip side if you burn 500 calories a day over what you consume in 7 days you can lose a pound per week.

This got me thinking a lot about my weekends and how one night out with the girls followed by a hangover curing  big brunch can easily add up.  Lonie goes further to explain that you also don’t have to be a gym rat to achieve success.  Consistent healthy eating teamed up with an hour long scenic bike ride (which burns 500 calories) or a brisk walk for 90 minutes (also 500 cals burned) is a recipe for success.

Another thing I’ve learned for Lonie is eating healthy doesn’t have to be bland and boring.  As you can see from these photos of the food created by Lonie and her team at Eat Train Live, healthy food that fits in with your calories or macros can be delicious and pretty!

Thanks for the tips Lonie and the photos Ryan!