Enjoying The Holidays Without Backslides or Guilt

Do you ever come in to the holiday season and wonder how you will be able to still prioritize your health and fitness goals with everything else going on?

“work harder…optimize…push…lean into the discomfort…earn your holiday meal.” These messages may not only get REALLY old during the rest of the year, but they can also put a big damper on your holiday season. Worse yet, they may even hurt your long term success if taken as gospel during a time meant to be enjoyed and connecting with what’s important to you and those dear to you.

But how can you get all you need to get done with the seemingly shorter days and shorter weeks; more to do to prepare for events with family, friends or coworkers; and still many of the same obligations that haven’t changed? This holiday season may be a really great opportunity for you to explore some of what you can do to actually enjoy yourself and those around you without feeling guilty about it or experiencing any backslding.

The key to having really excellent health and even high levels of fitness may reside in learning to shift your mindset during the holidays to one of maintenance and balance with a focus on specific high yielding habits/actions. This way you can roll into the days and new year ahead both refreshed, without any feelings of guilt, and no steps backward.

Here is how…

Minimum Resistance Training Time to Sustain or Gain (tougher to do).

Be ok with maintaining your current level versus trying to forge ahead or harder during this time of year. Of course, if you want to keep putting up points hard, you do you; but here are some caveat examples of what you can likely do to keep what you got for the long run.

What you need to be able to do to maintain your current levels of health and fitness will depend on your goals, your experience and what it means to maintain for you. The more advanced you are, it can be really challenging to forge ahead when your sessions are shorter or less frequent, yet you can likely still maintain without pushing as hard and even a short break. However, if you are novice or intermediate you can likely get away with not doing as much (and may even still be able to get ahead). Other factors of course play into this and if you just peaked for a competition for instance, that same peak level may be harder to “maintain”. Conversely, you may find some down time to be just what the doctor ordered if you constantly train hard and don’t take breaks or some type of deloading.

For Strength:

It can be pretty easy to hold on to current levels of strength without having to push too hard as long as you get an intense set or two in at weights/efforts close to what you are trying to maintain. For instance, if you want to maintain a really heavy squat you can probably get away with just hitting a high percentage (80-90%) of that total weight on the bar for some reps, do some extra sets at a lower weight if you like, and grab a few more doing work that supports your strength for that (optional) and then calling it a day. You likely won’t lose anything when you come back to it at your normal consistency and efforts.

For Size:

Also not to tough to hold on to what you already have. Just try and get in at least a couple days a week and work somewhat hard (preferably more sessions if you can so you don’t need to push as hard in just two days, better split up the work you need to do, and maybe get in more volume of training which certainly doesn’t hurt for size)

Speed:

If speed is one of your goals, you also don’t need to work it EVERY day to maintain it. Get in a speed training day or one sprinkle in some training into a day where you are moving yourself (or lighter loads) with some velocity (fast intent is key here). Skip, jump, run, change directions quickly, move a bar with some weight on it real quick like a speed squat or clean, etc. Touch this during your week.

Of course there are also other things you may want to maintain outside of these three like a your cardio, endurance, recovery etc; and those can be approached similarly as they will not VANISH by you working on them less or even not at all for a very short period.

Easy Meal Tips and Nutrition Habits:

Enjoy!

Eating out is likely happening more for most people during this time of year and you may also be finding yourself having more indulgences like extra pie, ice cream, wine etc. It’s hard for most people to go black or white and cut these things out and you may have a more successful time if that hasn’t worked for you in the past to allow yourself to just enjoy…. Yes!… Enjoy!

On the other side of that is also overindulging and that can be a very slippery slope when indulgences are in abundance.

The sweet spot (pun intended) lies in allowing yourself to have what you want without having guilty self-talk or feelings surrounding it. Try having some of what you want rather than assigning a label or resisting and then move on. Next meal, next day, etc. However, pay attention and make sure you slow down and really experience the enjoyment in whatever you are eating as that is the whole point. Often times, people tend to focus on the guilt they are experiencing in the moment rather than slowing down, being present, and just taking it in.

Focus on Protein and Fiber

What can also help is adding more of these key nutrients. Not only do more lean protein and fiber make you feel fuller, help your health and fitness goals, body composition, and check off some key building blocks for maintaining; but they can also help displace other less nutrient dense foods when you add more than you currently are. Furthermore, they will both be nutrients likely in shorter supply in premade meals out or at gatherings. If you can increase the leanness of your protein sources both at home and when out along with increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables you are eating it can really do a lot to offset this.

One easy way to do this is to just make sure the protein source you are including is lower in fat and and that you have at least 1-2 palm size portions in a meal along with 1-2 fist size portions of fruit and/or vegetables. The carbohydrates and fats will likely not be in short order in most holiday Christmas parties, work gatherings, or gift baskets, so this can really help.

Make Sure You De-Stress:

The holidays can bring many of us some extra stress. Whether this is the shorter work weeks, year end deadlines, extra obligations, or perhaps family stress, it is not uncommon at all.

Making sure you are taking some time each day to maybe go on a 10-minute walk to clear your head, practice some mindfulness, go on a hike, take a bath, read, or do whatever helps you recalibrate can be essential. Taking that time for yourself with also allow you to be more effective in all else you will want and need to do as the year comes to a close. Afterall, it is also an introspective time and you may even consider envisioning the exciting things you’d like to try in the year ahead and visualize for some motivation.

Maybe Most Important This Year:

Last but not least, the last few years have been nothing short of traumatic for many; and at the least have drastically shifted how most of us connect and interact with each other.

Try to make an effort this year to connect with at least one friend, family member or maybe someone new. We are social creatures (mostly) by design and it enriches our lives and wellness to connect with other humans and increase our interpersonal connections with those that ground, inspire, enamor, or perhaps even challenge us. In a world where communication between one another only increases in distance and disconnect, try to find a way to more deeply connect with someone (or many) important to you!

Again, while some of you may want to still forge ahead right now, take a moment to consider what you may be able to do to better enjoy your present. How might you be able to best maintain, regather, and then perhaps look to leap ahead in the new year with your health, nutrition practices, training, self-care, and beyond.

We love helping people connect more and enjoy their training what works best for their wellness. If you’re interested, please book a free consult with us

Have some more curiosity about what you can do to maintain? Have a read HERE