Many of us do really well during the week. We have our schedules from a weekday job or at least the kids are at school. It's easy to prepare lunches and snacks for throughout the day. We manage a little walk during lunch or before our day starts.

Then the weekend hits. We are faced with other people we don't normally see during the week. They have different habits than us. They like to eat the junk food we're trying to avoid. We wait for them to get moving so we can go.

We stay up late watching things we don't normally watch or go out and party.

So we indulge in their foods. We sit around waiting, if they don't want to move, neither will we. We've been so good all week, so we decide that a "cheat" day is in order.

But that doesn't work well, we come back to weigh in day and find that we haven't lost a ton of weight or even worse, we gained again! All we did was have high calorie snacks and sit around catching up on the tv for the week, it's not like we gave up completely, did we?

Why are the weekends so different than the schedule for the rest of the week? Is it because you're not around the foods that tempt you? Is it because you become as lazy as the rest of the household? Is it because you're stressed out because of what's going around at home?

What can you do to make your weekends work for you?

Perhaps you can manage a workout before anyone else is up? Perhaps you can manage to get the whole family to go for a walk, even if it's not at the pace you are used to during the week.

Can you manage to leave the "junk" food at the store? Can the other people hide their junk foods somewhere that you don't see them so you're not tempted? If you really feel the need to have some of those foods, measure them out and track them, just like you do every other thing during the week. Sure, you can indulge, but don't let it make you feel bad about it afterward.

What are the stresses? List them down and plan on how to work through them. If it's someone bombarding you with a lot of stuff, talk to them and see what will work mutually for the two of you. Have others help you with messes, planning and stuff to do. If you don't have to do it all, it will get done and you will have time to relax. Don't feel like you need to do it all or that it needs to be done perfectly, life isn't about perfection, it's about the enjoyment of the journey.

Don't forget that your body gets tired at the same time every day, whether we have to get up in the morning or not. Don't stay up way too late, a sleep schedule is necessary for the body to maintain itself. It's used to certain times and you can't really make up the time you miss when you don't go to bed at your normal time.

So plan for the weekend, just because your "normal" schedule is done for the week doesn't mean your week is done. Do the best you can for your health every day!