The holidays are a great time to hang out with friends and family, but it’s important to not let your hard earned work go to waste by stopping working out and eating everything in sight.
There are things you can do to enjoy the holiday season and all it has to offer while still keeping up with your fitness and nutrition.
In this article, I’m going to talk about fitness, nutrition, and daily life strategies so you can continue achieving your goals and not lose all your progress throughout the holidays.
Mindset
Before we talk about practical strategies, it’s crucial that your mindset is in the right place.
It’s the holidays – you should enjoy yourself.
It’s important to understand that you’re going to be surrounded by more food, more desserts, and that’s okay. Enjoy yourself, within reason, and don’t worry about every little thing – you won’t lose all your progress because you had a cookie or two.
Additionally, there’s going to be weeks that are better than others. There’s going to be weeks you don’t want to exercise. There’s going to be weeks you eat more than others. And that’s okay.
Simply reminding yourself that this is normal is oftentimes all you need. When you stop thinking you need to be perfect, you won’t beat yourself up when you have a difficult week.
Now that that’s covered, let’s talk about strategies to continue exercising during the holidays.
Fitness
1. Schedule your workouts
Just like you might block off time in your schedule for important work related activities, it’s important to actually schedule your workouts. Like actually write them down in your calendar.
Not only will this help organize your schedule, but you will be much more likely to complete your workouts if you have designated time for them. If you don’t schedule your workouts, you don’t have a plan and your workouts will not take priority.
2. Identify a bare minimum # of workouts per week
Identifying a bare minimum you will do each week is extremely important when it comes to maintaining a consistent exercise routine.
Think about an extremely busy week for you. How much can you realistically work out during that week?
Maybe it’s two 20 minute workouts sessions. If you typically do three 45 minute workouts, then you can choose two of them and cut them in half, focusing on the most important exercises for those days.
This does 2 things:
One, it allow you to keep making progress because you actually worked out. But more importantly, it makes working out a non-negotiable habit, which provides you with motivation to continue your exercise program because you didn’t “fall off track.”
3. Work out in the morning
I know, waking up early in the morning to work out is probably the last thing you want to do, but there are some benefits. The biggest one is that you’re more likely to get it done. The later you work out, the more likely your day will get busier and it’ll be easier to skip your workouts.
That said, working out whenever fits best within your schedule is the most important thing – but for many people, getting up an extra 30 minutes earlier to do a short and intense work out is the way to go.
4. Be flexible
During the holiday season, we tend to spend more time on the road visiting friends and family.
But as I always talk about, you don’t have to be a “gym rat” to reap the benefits of strength training and continue making progress – even a little bit goes a long way. If you need to shorten your workouts when you’re extra busy, that’s totally fine!
If two 15 minute sessions is all you can fit into your schedule, then start there. If you can do a couple 30 minute sessions, do that.
If you go to a gym, that’s great. But keep in mind that you don’t need a gym to get an effective workout. You can get in a great workout by simply doing some squats, lunges, push ups, rows (if you have dumbbells/bands) and abs.
Nutrition
1. Start each day off strong
My number one strategy to maintain proper nutrition over the holidays is to start each day off strong.
What does that mean?
It means if you’re going to be going to a friends or family member’s house for dinner, then be a little more strict with your breakfast and lunch.
Make sure your breakfast and lunch are healthy, nutritious meals as that will set your day up for success. If you’re able to fuel your body with lots of fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes with breakfast and lunch, then you can afford to be a bit less “strict” with your nutrition later on.
You could, for example, have a smoothie or oatmeal for breakfast, following by a stir fry or salad for lunch. With these two nutritious meals, you’ll set yourself up for success regardless of what you can control later on in the day.
2. Bring your own dish
If you’re going to a friend or family member’s house, offer to bring one or two of your own meals. You could bring one main dish and one dessert. Not only will this help take the stress of the other person for having to cook as much food, but it also allows you to have more options and control over what you eat.
We all know that some people’s food isn’t all that healthy or good tasting, so this is one way to stay in control of the foods you eat.
3. Eat something before you go
I have to say it – I’m not a huge fan when people say this. It seems a bit “cringey.”
But the fact is, it could help you. Let me explain.
First off, I’m NOT trying to tell you you shouldn’t enjoy food out of your house. That said, it could be helpful to eat a little before you go off to someone else’s house.
As I’ve already talked about, the more you eat food you don’t cook, the less control you have over how it’s prepared/what you eat. For this reason, if you know you’re going to go to a Thanksgiving or Christmas party that will be filled with desserts, eating something a little healthier before you go might help reduce those cravings.
Once again, this is NOT me telling you to not enjoy yourself. During the holidays, it’s important to enjoy good food and spend quality time with friends and family – these are just some tips that might help you.
Daily Life
Stress Relief
Outside of fitness and nutrition, practicing techniques that will help reduce stress on a daily basis is very important, especially because the holidays can be a stressful time with all that goes on.
Whether you’re planning to host a big meal, or dealing with the busyness of all that happens around this time of year, it can definitely cause some stress.
Here’s a list of daily habits you could do to manage stress:
- Meditate 5-10 minutes
- Go on a 10-30 minute walk outside
- Sleep 7-8 hours per night
- Read for 30 minutes
- Do a yoga routine
- Listen to music
- Relax in the hot tub or bath
Lastly, you can always think about what makes you calm and do that. Maybe there’s something not on this list that you’d prefer to do.
What’s most important is to take a few minutes each day to practice some sort of routine to help relieve stress. As I always say, make sure to put it on your calendar so it actually gets done!
Accountability: 2 More Quick Things
1. Have a Plan
Do you know what you’re doing when you get to the gym or start your workout at home? What about your nutrition?
For your workouts, I recommend you plan that out ahead of time so you know exactly what you’re doing when you start. For your nutrition, it definitely helps to have a plan as well. If you don’t have both those things planned out ahead of time, you won’t feel the same level of accountability and it’s going to be much more difficult to stay consistent.
2. Hire a Coach
While I might be biased, I’m not saying this just so I can advertise my own coaching. I wholeheartedly believe that hiring a coach is one of the best ways to stay consistent. Put simply, they create a personalized plan for you, help you along the way, and hold you accountable.
I know this because I myself have hired a few different mentors over the past year to help keep me accountable and it’s been the best decision I have ever made. Again, I’m not saying this because I’m biased – it’s actually been one of the best decisions I could have made as I’ve progressed far faster than I ever would on my own.
Online Fitness and Nutrition Coaching
So if you are looking for a coach to help keep you accountable and create a plan specifically for you, I recently opened up a few spots for my online fitness and nutrition coaching. Here’s what it includes:
- Customized workout routine that fits within your schedule/available equipment.
- Tailored plant-based nutrition coaching so you can reach your goals while optimizing your health.
- Integrated support system that allows you to be held accountable throughout your journey.
If you’re interested in working with me, I’d love to talk about how I can help you! Find out more here!