Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting

Hooray it’s the weekend!

I’m not even able to fake being fake. My definition of “weekend” is always a little bit skewed because of my job as a nurse, on hospital shift time.  I could turn a Tuesday and Wednesday evening into a “Go-Out-To-Dinner-And-Come-Home-And-Have-A-Few-Glasses-Of-Wine” night, because that was my weekend. 

Weekend is a very powerful word in our culture.  Thousands of songs have been written about Friday Night, Saturday, Saturday Night, and the Weekend. Why? Because it’s the socially acceptable time for us to let loose, have fun, see our friends, engage in ruckus behavior, stay up late, go out to dinner, and SOCIALIZE.  Many of us work all week, or we shuttle the kids back and forth all week, or we work and shuttle the kids back and forth all week.  We are moving from task to task, deadline to deadline.  But then, the magical Friday evening arrives, and our deadlines fade away.  The texts start coming in around 2:00 pm – “What you guys up to tonight?” How do you respond in a text, “I’m washing out my Gladware, cooking some more brussel sprouts because I ate the last 4 lbs in 2 days, drinking my 7^th liter of water, and watching ‘Wicked Tuna’?”  The only thing better than Friday night is – Yay, Saturday!!  But this weekend feels a whole lot different for me, as I’m sure it has for you – unless you had your cheat meal.  Even if you did, you still have to face the rest of the weekend. 

My Facebook feed is blowing up with pictures of the Happy Hour-ers.  People are having Margaritas in Canton, Grey Goose at Morton’s, beer in a garage next to a cool car, and Cabernet in someone’s beautifully decorated kitchen.  Yes, it bothered me to see shenanigans taking place without me, because fun and shenanigans tend to go hand in hand.  But, my social life this past week has been different.  I’ve had great, productive conversations with people who share the same goal and are encountering the same struggles as me.  My social life, while not as interesting on Facebook, is in the comraderie at Crossfit, texts and emails I receive from friends telling me they are also eating clean, sharing of vegetable grilling secrets with the Wegmans produce guy, and vibrant conversations about eating Paleo at work.  Instead of focusing on what others are doing while you’re on your own mission, choose to look at your bright side (The Killers wrote a song about that.)

Bottles of wine do not have nutritional labels on them.  Why? Because once you finish the first glass, you don’t give a crap what’s in it, or what it does to your waistline.  I realized that my Friday night did NOT include 625 empty calories of red wine, fueled by 19 grams of carbohydrates.  It did not include the wings that I love so much from the Black Hog, that are fried in some vat of oil, or worse.  It did not include Mexican dip or chips.  I spared my waistline at least 1500 calories of impulsive decisions, solely because I committed to this challenge.  I’m not saying this type of party binge night will never happen again, but it won’t in the next 24 days. 

So it naturally follows that my Saturday morning follows a sound slumber, a solid 7 ½ hours before my alarm went off at 5 am.  I’m prepared for work.  I won’t be hitting the breakfast buffet in the cafeteria to soak up the sins of last night.  I don’t have a pounding headache and I’m not popping Excedrin.  I do have dry mouth, but it’s because my mouth is anticipating the ton of water it will be drinking over the next several hours.  I’m going to work refreshed, energetic, and nutritionally prepared.  My meals are packaged, my water bottle is full, and I’m ready. 

The weather is supposed to be beautiful, so get out and soak up some Vitamin D.  If you’re watching the playoffs game, plan your social gathering wisely.  If this is your cheat, plan on it, and set your limits.  A cheat meal is a cheat meal, but you don’t want to undo all the progress you’ve made by catching the Hail Mary and going out big. Stay strong, do NOT forget the reasons you chose to do this for yourself, and keep those trying to tempt you away from your goal at a healthy distance for now.  Don’t be talked into something that would have sounded like a really stupid idea on Wednesday morning.  It will be soon be Sunday night, and you will be dancing in your kitchen as you snap the lids on your Rubbermaid containers because you DID it, for an entire week, and you are cautiously optimistic about the positive results you are already experiencing.  I’m going to PUSH through.  Are you?