After a long hard week at work, there’s nothing better than being able to relax at the weekend. You can sleep in, treat yourself and enjoy a drink or two. But is your weekend actually draining you of energy for the week ahead?
Doing certain things at the weekend almost set you up to fail on Monday morning, leaving you feeling tired for the week and struggling to get through it. While it is great to relax when you do have days off, you should also be mindful of what this could be doing to your health and affecting the rest of the week.
Here are some ways your weekend habits may not be ideal for seeing you through the week:
Sleeping in
We all love a good lie in on a Saturday morning, especially after our alarms have woken us up early for five days straight, but getting too much sleep can be just as bad as not getting enough.
Going from five days of getting the same amount of sleep to having more at the weekend can actually make it more difficult to wake up during the week. It can leave you feeling tired and tired, meaning you may rely on caffeine and sugar to get through the week, which isn’t overly healthy.
Rather than lounging in bed for a few extra hours, don’t oversleep by more than an hour and go to bed around the same time. This will keep your sleep pattern intact and make it easy when your alarm goes off on Monday morning.
Drinking too much
Alcohol isn’t great at the best of times. While the odd drink is okay, many of us use the weekend as an excuse to binge, meaning we drink far too much than is healthy on a Friday and Saturday night.
Not only is this bad for your health and puts a lot of strain on your liver in a short space of time, it also means you feel tired and ill for most of the weekend. Drinking and being hungover drains your body of vital nutrients that you need to to get through the week. It can take you some time to regain these so you may start feeling completely yourself again just in time for the next weekend.
Balancing Weekend Choices for Well-Being
Consuming beverages excessively is not advisable. While occasional indulgence is acceptable, many of us tend to overindulge during the weekend, especially on Friday and Saturday nights. This can have adverse effects on your health, placing considerable strain on your body in a short span of time. It may also leave you feeling fatigued and unwell for most of the weekend, depleting your body of essential nutrients needed to carry you through the week. It might take a while to recover these nutrients, so you may not feel completely yourself until the next weekend.
Eating unhealthy food
Another vice that many people indulge in at the weekend is junk food. After a week of being good, it can be tempting to treat yourself to fatty, sugary and high-calorie food as a way of rewarding good behaviour.
It’s okay to have a small treat regularly, but using the weekend to indulge too much essentially undoes all the hard work you put in and can mean that you end up intaking more calories than you did during the week. This is bad for your waistline and energy levels, which means it could be a constant battle to lose or maintain your weight.