Getting back on track after a bad week...

[Aleisha_Marie]

Hi, everyone! Tomorrow I'm going on a trip with my friend to her lake house...I know it's going to be a rough week, lol. I'll be doing a lot of swimming, but a LOT of bad eating! I've packed a few healthy snacks to take, but they'll go by fast..

My question is, what should I do after a week of bad eating and little exercise? Some articles say I should slowly get back on track, others say I should be super-duper diet restrictive D: I'd love to hear some advice!

[Laney]

I'd say the biggest thing when you're there is to say yes to more of the good stuff and no to the bad. You shouldn't try to overcompensate for an unhealthy week. Everyone deserves a break once and a while and as long as it isn't a permanent change you shouldn't get too worked up over it. Maybe add an extra hour or two if possible, but don't beat yourself up over it!

[Horsedog]

I'd say the biggest thing when you're there is to say yes to more of the good stuff and no to the bad. You shouldn't try to overcompensate for an unhealthy week. Everyone deserves a break once and a while and as long as it isn't a permanent change you shouldn't get too worked up over it. Maybe add an extra hour or two if possible, but don't beat yourself up over it!

^ This. Make the least bad choices you can, but still enjoy yourself! Then, when you're back, just get back into your routine, whatever that may be After a bad week (diet-wise), I do restrict calories a bit (decrease intake by about 250 per day) for the next week to compensate a bit. After all, you gotta pay the bill somehow

[Kirkor]

Also try skipping breakfast and doing other IF-type things to minimize your caloric surplus during the week. Bracketing the week with 24-hr fasts and keeping to a <10hr feeding window (10 is rec'd for women vs. 8 for guys) each day during the week would help a lot.

Keep protein up too.

[Lachy]

I'd recommend just going back to routine like nothing happened. A week isn't long, as far as exercise goes a week off is almost simply a deload week (a week where the exercise is performed but at a level without much exertion), so you should be able to go right back at your previous levels. As for diet, just continue with your old diet again, if it was working before. Any changes durring your week off will soon be negated.

I'd be wary of making a change to make up for the week, I like consistancy, and an extra deficit in calories, or an extra exercise session might be a bit much, or make me question what is/isn't working. A return to routine though is easy, it's what I did before and it worked, so it's what I'll do now and it will continue to work.

By the way, I just came back from a 3 week holiday last week. I eased a bit more into than I'm suggesting you do, by reducing my weights in the gym, but after 3 weeks of no lifting my muscles would have weakend. Getting back into the habbit of rising early has been the hardest part