HOW HEALTHY ARE YOUR WEEKEND PLANS?

Weekends unite everyone! We all wait for the downtime to arrive like a parched Earth waiting for rain. Having taken the beating from an entire week’s strict schedules and deadlines, finally comes the time to loosen up and unwind from the mundane. So what do we do? We sleep in late, skip a meal so we can eat more at the restaurant or outlet we have been craving for, spend three hours sitting watching a movie while munching on popcorn, grab drinks with friends late in the night, give in to feeling too lazy to workout and basically before you realize it, Monday comes knocking at the door. If you are someone who works hard all week making conscious steps forward towards a healthier and more stable life but this is what your weekend plans look like, then you have basically recalled all that effort for the sake of temporary fun and junk food.

If you think about what makes a weekend plan truly gratifying, it comes down to experiences that leave your mind and body recharged and rejuvenated. Trying something new, different from the norm and challenging at the same time can give you the boost to take on the next week’s work with a fresh mind. But often people get confused when planning their weekends. The most common is how we lose control over what we eat. Loosening the reins on a strict diet is totally valid but not equivalent to throwing it out of the window. That is unfortunately what most of us end up doing subconsciously. For example, a bowling session where you play a couple of rounds and grab a beer with some(probably fried) appetizers can easily consume up to five hours of your time. All this while you expended maybe 100 odd calories and gained yourself 1000! Such habits, if underseen, can have adverse long-term effects on your health and life.

To keep that from happening, it all comes down to creating an active lifestyle and scoping the right kind of activities to include in your weekend plan. The closer these are to nature, the more meaningful it becomes for not just you but the world in general. So here are a few options for you to try to make your weekend plans healthier –

1) Spend a weekend at a camping site or cottage farm that offers locally produced organic food. You will instantly feel the difference between fresh wholesome meals made from scratch using homegrown ingredients as opposed to the frozen food you have become so accustomed to thanks to every fast food joint. It will also drive home the point that healthy does not mean less tasty, and keep you motivated to stay on track. What would be even better is to go for an adventure program with your family. You can spend some quality bonding time together while engaging in thrilling activities and keeping health in check.

2) There is simple math to calories: You need to burn more calories than you intake. Find yourself an activity that requires you to burn enough calories for you to consume to your stomach’s(and not heart’s) content. Think of an endurance-building trek or a high-intensity day of rock climbing or a day lined with games that keep you on your toes. These experiences require full-body engagement and will tire you out in a good way. This is not to encourage binge eating but to make the meal after a big effort more worthwhile. This rewarding of yourself and your hard work automatically inspires a more responsible outlook when making decisions about food.

3) Eat your meals on time! This is a super common mistake that people make. Despite spending time deciding what to eat, what often gets ignored is the time at which you are eating. This can cause more problems to our metabolic system and reverse the effort you may have put in sorting out finer details. Try to go on an adventure camp or a program where you have a day full of activities planned with a set timetable for meals. You and your body clock will certainly benefit from it.

4) Health and sustainability go hand in hand. We mention this because weekends allow us the break to look at things from a new perspective. Have you ever broken down the contents of your meal and thought about where each of them comes from? You might just get a shock when you calculate the number of resources that go into bringing together a plate of food on your table. There is a long chain that works to ensure the variety of food you are able to obtain at any given point. Now obviously what we don’t think about often is how this chain adds to our carbon footprint individually. In our daily lives, we may not be able to do much about this but on one weekend, you certainly have the option of choosing to spend your time and money at a place where you can eat locally. Choose a farm stay or a camp close to a village and you will end up benefiting your own health as well as the smaller local business.

Across the country, there are now many options for adventure seekers to choose from that offer a taste of healthy living amid nature, not so far away from the city. Many of these campsites are :