Balancing healthy eating and living at the weekend

We’ve all done it, eating a diet of lettuce leaves and apple slices before a big weekend full of meals out and one too many cocktails. The warped cycle of being ‘good’ by nibbling on carrots during the week for substance ahead of a ‘bad’ weekend full of over-indulgence is one that we can all get stuck in, which can not only be damaging for our bodies but our minds too.

The truth is that we should all be striving for a balance. The old 80/20 rule is a firm favourite of the SourcedBox team; eat natural, nourishing foods 80% of the time and allow yourself to enjoy less nourishing foods the other 20% of the time.

All sounds pretty straight forward, but how do we actually put it into practice?

Get Researching

A lot of us don’t actually know what we should be eating and how different foods impact our bodies. For instance, did you know that starting your day with protein will keep you fuller for longer throughout the day? Or that the more sugar you eat, the more you will crave it? Or that eating some fruits after meals will make it harder for your body to digest?

There are so many brilliant resources online and offline that will give you the lowdown on how to shape your diet so that you are getting the most from your foods. Time spent on understanding your nutrition is time well spent.

Get To Know Your Body

You could be deficient in minerals and vitamins and not even know it. You can download the VITL app for free to see which nutrients you might be lacking and what foods you can eat to get back into balance. 

It’s also useful to do an analysis of how much food you should be eating, the amount of food you need varies depending on your weight, height and activity levels. You may be unknowingly over or under eating which could be damaging your overall wellbeing and quality of life. This can be easily checked out by your GP or a by doing a quick test online.  

Get Experimenting

Are you a creature of habit, constantly remaking the same meals? This could be the reason why you’re reaching straight for the junk when it gets to the weekend and who can blame you? After a week of limp salads, anybody would be craving some flavour.

The good news is that nourishing food can be both healthy and delicious. In an age where healthy living is cool, there are a ton of blogs, Pinterest boards and recipe books crammed full of healthy meals. Give them a go and discover a whole new range of meals to enjoy.

And if like most people, it’s healthy snacks that you struggle with, SourcedBox is a great solution. We take away the stress of spending hours in the supermarket reading labels and curate a monthly box full of tried and tested healthy, natural snacks for you and deliver it to your home or office. Try it out with this exclusive offer for 50% off our February box by entering the code VITL50 at checkout. (Make sure to hit "apply"!)

Get Planning

After learning about how to fuel your body properly in an enjoyable way, get planning. If you know you’ve got a birthday at the weekend it makes sense to balance out the rest of your week. Prep a couple of nourishing meals that you can easily grab on the go, this will enable you to stay satisfied all week long and stop you from stuffing yourself with birthday cake at the weekend.  

If you’re meeting friends for brunch at the weekend, pick a spot that serves balanced meals. A quick search online will give you a list of the best places to visit. Eating out doesn’t have to mean unhealthy foods, there are lots of restaurants serving healthy meals and with avocado on toast being such a huge food trend, you can guarantee to see this green goodness popping up on most menus.

Relax

And our final tip, relax! If you’ve had a weekend of birthday cake and cocktails, don’t panic and definitely don’t punish yourself by eating way less than required on Monday. The trick is to keep yourself full and satisfied with delicious, healthy foods and enjoy treats occasionally. The more you eat to nourish your body, the more you will naturally eat the foods your body needs.