Lying on the couch on Sunday? This is relaxing and is definitely allowed. But there are other things you should do before the start of the week that can even help you lose weight.

Most healthy plans fail because you simply don’t have enough time for exercise and a balanced diet between your job, appointments and household chores.

Unfortunately, it’s not enough to just eat healthy and exercise on the weekend. Even during the week it’s important to conquer your inner weaker self. The following tips come in handy.

Very few people have the time or desire to get into the kitchen and cook healthy meals during their lunch break. In addition, the opportunity to prepare a healthy lunch is often simply not available at work.

Instead of satisfying your hunger with sweets or unhealthy fast food, you can prepare your lunch on the weekend.

This not only saves money, but also calories. Bowls, salads and wraps are great to cook in advance as meal prep. You can simply store the prepared food in the refrigerator. In the morning, lunch can easily be transported to work in a lunch box.

Do you often say “I don’t have time for exercise”? It’s best to put workouts in your calendar. Regardless of whether the training takes place at home or in the gym, writing down the planned exercises in advance can save a lot of time.

On stressful mornings you come up with numerous excuses as to why you can’t exercise today of all days. If you put out your sportswear for the week on Sunday, you save valuable time on Monday morning.

The sports clothes also remind you that you have decided to do sports. This can increase motivation and make it more likely that you will actually complete the training.

A “cheat day” is a day on which you consciously deviate from your healthy diet and eat less restrictively. If you find it difficult to maintain a healthy diet, it may make sense to choose a day of the week where more is allowed when it comes to eating.

Eating also has a social component, and on special occasions or gatherings with friends and family, you may not want to limit yourself too much. A cheat day can allow you to enjoy these social situations without strict dietary rules.

The original for this post “If you do four things on Sunday, you will lose weight all week” comes from FitForFun.