How to Fix the Weekend Binge Spiral | Burnaby Personal Training

[Josko]
Welcome back to the Kraken Power podcast. We’re your hosts Josko and Brandon and in today’s episode We’re gonna be talking about the thing that ruins the most transformations. It is the weekend bitch It’s how you ruin five days of progress in just two nights.

[Brandon]
Let’s dive in Welcome back to the Kraken Power podcast So, I don’t know if you can speak for yourself But I can definitely speak for myself and I have been part of this weekend binge Strategy and thinking that it wasn’t doing that much damage to me in my younger days. I would you know weight lift Monday through Friday do jiu-jitsu multiple times a day. I’d be running and Through the weekend. It would be the complete opposite I would spend time out with friends and our main kind of venture for hanging out was Drinking every weekend and partying and thinking that because I did so much work Monday through Friday and how hard I worked those two days didn’t really matter too much and What it kind of led to was seeing this up and down and undulating of my progress where I didn’t really go anywhere Like if I looked at my stats, I looked at my weight over time It remained relatively the same even though I was trying to bulk even though I wanted to perform better I wasn’t really performing better because I always had to recover so much after that weekend. I’m basically starting off at ground zero.

So Why do you think that is and this is very common amongst other other clients?

[Josko]
Yeah, I think there’s this psychology behind it where it’s you have a lot of FOMO happening you know, there’s social pressures and I think with the combination of those two things makes you want to go back to drinking in your old habits and just like having fun because it was just this fear of missing out and the reality is that you’re not missing out that much when your goals are more important than people and Also, the reality is that you can’t out Monday like a bad weekend, you know You can’t just work your ass off throughout the entire week Lose it all in the weekend and then be like Monday. Everything’s gonna go back to normal It just doesn’t happen. What you need to do is you need to outsmart yourself and understand that it’s like, okay The weekend is coming. I tend to do this and so I tend to fall off fall off track and so these are the things that I need to do in the strategies that I need to implement for me to prevent myself from Losing progress and whether that means, you know, not going out with your friends or whatever it is But you need to do something about it. So yeah in regards to the psychology I think that there is you know, you people have like all-or-nothing Mindsets where they’re either on their diet or they’re off their diet and then they also restrict far more than they’re actually meant mentally capable of restricting and then as soon as some social pressure happens a Birthday the weekend for a lot of people or like a graduation or a new job or whatever it is There’s always something there’s always something all throughout the entire year then all of a sudden it’s triggers this emotional release to want to just say like fuck it and Then they end up falling off for the entire weekend And then you trick yourself into thinking thinking that you can just outwork it, you know Like it’s like but I’m good throughout the entire week. So this is okay when in reality is It’s not and you’re like you’re pretty much losing all of your progress because you didn’t sleep Well, you did you drank too much you ate like crap and then yeah, you’re you’re also a human because the reality is like, you know Science doesn’t change because you’re motivated on Monday, you know

[Brandon]
Your body doesn’t even really know what a weekend is or the construct of what a week is Yeah, just knows you go five days of treating your body like a temple and then two days of treating it like crap

[Josko]
Yeah, well in your body’s opinion, it’s probably just seven days of treating your body like crap, you know, cuz I’m like Seven days like the next five days just recovering from that.

[Brandon]
You know, what the funny thing is about this kind of type of Psychology is I feel like it actually lends itself into people who are a little bit more consistent in their workout habits so for instance in Myself, right? I would always be like, ah, don’t worry about it on the weekend because I’m always gonna get back on the train on Monday yeah, right and so that almost kind of like helped me keep this endless cycle of making progress and then regressing making progress and Regressing because I would always Consistently like oh, I’ll get back into it on Monday, but consistently yo-yoing up and down with what I actually wanted to achieve

[Josko]
Yeah, you’re tricking yourself. You’re tricking yourself and there’s actually damage that happens from you doing that It’s not like you’re fixing any of the problems like you’re damaging yourself Psychologically because you’re working so hard like you think you’re working so hard But then you’re not seeing any results and then also like if your body doesn’t recover like let’s say for example You’re working out all week You know, you’re just putting your body through the wringer your you said you do jiu-jitsu you do you do workouts and all of that Right, and then all of a sudden on the weekend, you’re getting like three hours of sleep. You’re you’re drinking you’re overeating Whatever it is, like you actually don’t recover at all and then you’re prolonging that so it actually it’s damaging your body and in two Ways because working out is only good for you if you can recover from it if you can’t recover then it’s just damaging your body

[Brandon]
Totally that’s like where all the adaptations are made and I think what actually snapped me out of this cycle was Tracking my data. So I did see that my aura ring like my heart rate variability would crash After a weekend like this and not only just crash for the weekend But those stats would take about like two weeks for it to actually fully recover of me being back on my plan So if it took me two weeks in length to actually get back to where I was at baseline If I were to just like throw another weekend in the following weekend I’m just like further putting myself into that hole each and every weekend.

[Josko]
Mm-hmm. So what’s the strategic way to fix this? What do you think is the the what kind of strategy do you implement for the weekend?

[Brandon]
So It depends, you know for clients what I’ll always advise for them and I was like, hey can you just like string together a few weekends just to try to see if we can make some progress and A lot of the time if you track the data and you start seeing that progress It is a different kind of feedback loop that you’re positively reinforcing, right? Rather than getting that emotional release from binging on the weekend. And so I always ask my clients I was like, hey can you string together like four or six weekends where we just stay on plan and just like see how you feel and take note Of that.

I think that’s a very good first step. Do you have any other kind of suggestions?

[Josko]
Yeah, I think there’s also just strategically planning your weekend as well So like let’s say for example, you really like going out with your buddies and watching UFC Like do you really need to have like 10 drinks every single time you go out? Probably not you could probably get away with one or two and then do you really need to go? Like to your buddy’s house UFC finishes at 10 o’clock and then do you need to do you need to really stay like an extra? Like three hours or can you just like stay an extra half hour and just go home and be like, hey guys It’s done. You can go home. So, you know, it’s strategically planning like understanding I was like, okay I I work my ass off for this entire week like What can I do to still be able to get my eight hours of sleep? Still be able to stay down and not wake up hungover Not a wake up like five pounds heavier from overeating like eating like seven slice of pizza You know, you have to strategically plan your weekends and understand what your boundaries are So I guess a big thing that you have to do is set some boundaries

[Brandon]
totally, and I think those boundaries come from that FOMO that you mentioned earlier in the episode and One really good mindset mindset shift that we make for our clients is hey Are you hanging out with your friends to hang out with your friends? Are you hanging out with your friends to get drunk and binge or get that emotional release from? External chemicals essentially So if you’re hanging out with your friends to hang out with your friends then hang out with your friends Enjoy that time. It doesn’t necessarily have to be with Drinking or eating foods that you wouldn’t normally be a part of your plan, right? Like you said if you’re gonna go and watch UFC Fill your cup up with watching the UFC. Yeah. Yeah.

[Josko]
Yeah, you can watch UFC by yourself if you really if it’s true It’s like if you really just would like watching UFC. Why aren’t you just watching it at home? It’s like oh, it’s because you want to hang out with your friends. Okay, so then you want to hang out with your friends? Like why are you drinking? Why are you adding in like pizzas and stuff, right? And so it breaks it down and it goes like, okay, I don’t actually like watching you see that much I don’t really like hanging out with my friends that much or I like I do But like the reality is like I like overeating and I like drinking, you know And that’s why I’m doing this. So we’re just saying lose all your friends Yeah, I think that is sometimes that is that is something that some people have to seriously consider

[Brandon]
I mean there were a lot of friends when I was in these cycles that I don’t really see anymore Because I just don’t associate myself with that kind of activity as much

[Josko]
Yeah And that goes back to just you know You have to become like to be the person you want to be you have to become the person who you want to be You know You have to actually become that person Does like let’s say you want to get shredded you want to have a six-pack like does that person go out every single weekend and get? Probably not You know Let’s say if you wanted to like if you wanted to be an artist like it’s like does that person spend their weekends going out? Or is that person spend their weekends painting, you know spends their weekends painting So you have to do those things and become that person who who you want to be? Yeah, like I just you want six-pack abs. You have to live the six-pack ab lifestyle. Exactly Yeah, and a lot of people just don’t understand that it’s like you can’t you can’t just do it for part-time Like four or five times a week and then on the weekend just go all nuts, right?

[Brandon]
Do you think that’s part of seeing people on social media who like have it all like they’re like ripped six-pack abs partying Lamborghinis and such

[Josko]
I’ve seen YouTube videos where those guys kind of describe how they’re able to do it and it’s way harder than you think and way Harder on their body than you think so A lot of them of course are on steroids and then a lot of them also they end up doing like let’s say they end up Doing crazy amount of food and alcohol over the weekend. They also Starve isn’t themselves like literally starve themselves all throughout the week So just so they can have that social media lifestyle and it is so hard on your body and people just don’t see it You know, it’s like this guy’s like training three hours a day and then on top of that He’s taking steroids and on top of that He’s eating like 1,300 calories all week just so he can have those like three days And then unfortunately these guys have heart attacks early and die. Yeah, exactly. That’s in pieces So yeah, exactly. This is like if you guys don’t know who that is, but this is like the perfect example of that He’s like he had this party lifestyle He was jacked and shredded and they end up dying at like 22 or something And it was because he was doing a ton of steroids that people didn’t see on the outside and originally they just saw this Motivated guy who’s been working out all the time and I want that lifestyle like ladies love them and stuff, right?

[Brandon]
It’s just not the reality so for the audience out there What can they implement today in regards to fixing this endless cycle?

[Josko]
Okay, so you have to look at what you’re doing this weekend What is the plan right and then always ask yourself like am I hanging out with my friends? Am I hanging out to drink am I hanging out to watch you see like what is the answer and then just do that thing? That you’re doing it for you know, so like let’s say for example We So hard for me to think of the like anything other than the UFC example is because that was me You know, it was you it was like I was using UFC as a scapegoat But let’s say for example, you’re going out to a dinner with a bunch of friends. Okay, so it’s let’s say it’s a birthday at Cactus Club Okay, so you’re you’re going out with your friends. Are you going out with your friends because your friends birthday? Yes, are you going out with your friends to party and drink? No, I’m going out because it’s my friend’s birthday Are you going out because to Cactus Club because you want to like have like appetizers and you want to have steak and you want? To have all that stuff. No, I’m going out for my friend’s birthday. Okay, so then let’s make it about your friend’s birthday Go get them a gift spend the money on that and then after the restaurant get a steak get no appetizers drink some water and then Go home, you know, like why do you have you can you can stay out a little bit later with them celebrate with them? Maybe have one one shot, you know as a celebration, but just understand the reality now if you’re asking yourself It’s like okay. I’m doing this because I want to go get drunk, right? It’s like sure. That’s totally fine, too but just understand that you will lose five days of progress or more sorry two weeks of progress and Probably more if you do it again the next week So like when was the last time you did this was it last week? Was it the week before was it four weeks ago? Was it six months ago, you know the longer it was since the last time you did it the more you can probably get away With you know, it’s like I don’t mind losing that progress But if you’re gonna be doing this every single weekend It’s like you’re gonna be just pushing your goals further and further away from you every single time. So You just be very strategic with your weekend And if that means that the answer is like no, I’m not gonna go at this weekend. That’s totally fine you can say no and you can be that person who starts saying no to and then you can start to see like who Which one of your friends or family members actually care about your goals, you know, or you can just say you’re sick That’s an option too.

[Brandon]
You don’t have to tell them the truth You can just lie totally and so if I get what you’re trying to say is you actually have to come to terms with What you intend to do that weekend? Yeah, but let’s say we do have a slip-up here Like what can people do to maybe go through that introspective process to ensure that it doesn’t happen the following weekend So that it doesn’t happen again the following weekend what so but that is that like that’s like associating shame with it, right?

[Josko]
It’s like are you shameful of what you did on the weekend?

[Brandon]
I think a little bit of shame is okay, if it stops you from doing yeah, exactly

[Josko]
Yeah So if you feel shameful at the end of your binge weekend Then that should be your biggest signal that you should not be doing that, you know

[Brandon]
Yeah, I think a lot of people try to avoid shame But if you kind of like lean into it and you say like, okay Why do I feel this shame a lot of it is because you went in with a plan you didn’t follow the plan And so you feel bad

[Josko]
Yeah, or you like let’s say you have goals that you’re trying to accomplish But then whatever you did is not aligning with that, right?

[Brandon]
And so it’s okay to feel the shame But you should use this almost as fuel to the fire to recorrect for the following weekend.

[Josko]
Yeah, exactly. Yeah Yeah, so you should always just be like really like looking at Introspectively, but always treating yourself as like some kind of video game player a video game character You are playing the character and just understanding like you’re damaging your character.

[Brandon]
You gotta build those stats Yeah, exactly gave give more HP.

[Josko]
Yeah, exactly But hopefully that gives you guys a good idea of how how to manage the weekend binges Because a lot of people go through this especially people who are already, you know Really good at doing fitness for the most part or just like focusing on their health and they just have like this one last little piece of the puzzle to fix because You can’t you can’t keep doing that over the weekend just like ruining all your progress and all of your hard work

[Brandon]
totally and hopping on your goals and like I said earlier like if you have a hard time getting started with this like Find a time where you can mark off three to four or four to six weeks where you can just like Test it and just see where you go I will guarantee you start to feel better and you’ll start to feel better about what you can accomplish Which will roll on to you doing this more often than not.

[Josko]
All right. Hope you guys like that We’ll see you in the next episode.

[Brandon]
See ya