10 easy steps to shift gears without falling off the tracks
Jordan Patrick,B.S. Kinesiology & Nutrition, Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist, 8 Weeks Out Certified Conditioning Coach
It’s undoubtedly a very busy and stressful time for most people, especially those with little ones, coordinating between families, and all the stress that comes with it.
Unfortunately, the holiday season is also the time of the year where SO MANY people put their fitness and nutrition on a complete halt because the burden seems to be too much to try and balance.
The truth is, if you really look back and ask yourself if you honestly HAD to give up all you were working towards “just until you get through this”, you’d find that you could possibly just make some small adjustments so you don’t have to dig yourself out of a hole later by stopping completely.
In my experience, the people who stop completely “for the busy season”, don’t immediately pick it back up when they said they would.
Here are 10 tips from over a decade of working with clients (majority who have kids) in the fitness industry that have helped myself and clients adapt to the holiday season:
Tip #1: Address Your Perfectionism:
What if I told you that being 80% perfect 100% of the time is WAY better than being 100% perfect 50% of the time?
Many people struggle with perfectionism; and sadly, perfectionism is the top enemy of progress.
What do I mean by that?
Many people spend so much time freaking out over insignificant details OR suffering with “Analysis by Paralysis” that they forget the major habits required to make REAL progress.
Let’s take nutrition, specifically, fat loss as an example…
Have you ever failed on a fat loss goal?
Was it because your Fat/Carb ratio wasn’t perfect?? Ummm….probably NOT!
Was it because you didn’t have time to get your food just right? Ummm…again, probably NOT!
Was it because you didn’t distribute your protein entirely correctly? Yep, you guessed it… probably NOT
It was more probable that your lack of fat loss success was due to: Not being compliant and giving up. And this is exactly why being 80% perfect 100% of the time is WAY better than being 100% perfect 50% of the time lends itself to your overall success WAY BETTER.
Look, there’s no magic to this process…
Don’t let your need for perfectionism or feeling like you have to be perfect 100% of the time sabotage your progress. Oh, so you didn’t hit your macros perfectly? WHO CARES! Get it as close as you reasonably can and move on. Missed a workout? Get after it tomorrow! Wasting time worrying about what you DIDN’T do is severely interfering with you moving past that, being consistent, and…
ACHIEVING SUCCESS!
Don’t let one bad outcome become several. Eating an entire pizza because you blew it by having one slice is like getting a flat tire and then slashing the other 3 yourself.
Don’t focus on perfection, focus on consistency!
Tip #2: Plan Ahead & Pre-Log Food Before Events
If there is a menu available for the place you’re going to, I highly suggest that you look ahead and decide what you want to order beforehand.
Pre-logging is a tool that helps you stay on course with a plan so that you don’t go too far off the handles when you’re at events. Especially when you want desserts and drinks. When this happens, you will inevitably be “over” on your calories and prescribed macros, but try to stay within 20% of the total and you will be fine most of the time. If not, refer back to Tip #1.
Tip #3 Adjust Your Nutrition Goals for a Cycle
Thanksgiving-New Years is NOT a good time to be in a fat loss phase (aka caloric deficit). Instead, it’s a good time to eat your maintenance calories and focus on maintaining your current weight.
In order to focus on maintaining your current progress without stressing about macros, I suggest you pivot to hitting sufficient protein and water intake.
After you have hit those numbers, you can adjust your focus to eating intuitively. That is, eating any type of food until you feel satisfied. This gives you a chance to indulge in your cravings, but also eat to a point where you don’t make yourself feel sick from doing so. Practicing intuitive eating will help you become more aware and in touch with your body and mind during your fitness and health journey.
Tip #4 Remind Yourself: The Food Will Always Be There!
This piggybacks on Tip #3. When you feel like this is the “last chance” you can have this food for “x amount of weeks”, you will be more likely to engage in overeating.
This is why most restrictive diets don’t work! Because people can’t wait for the diet to be “over” so they can go back to “normal eating”.
This is why finding a diet that gets you results without too much mental fatigue is what you want so that you can stick to something long term.
Not only that, but the simple reminder that this isn’t the hunter/gatherer ages anymore, you can have your favorite food, snack, treat, indulgence ANYTIME now. This is the 21st century. There is no need to stuff yourself in fear that you can’t have it in the future.
Can I be honest with you?? I STILL struggle with the “Don’t stuff yourself” phase.
YES! I have a bachelor’s degree in Biomechanics/Exercise & Nutrition and I STILL sometimes eat until I am stuffed.
It’s kind of embarrassing…but I want to let my clients and people reading this know that even the “fitness elite” are no strangers to the mental struggle of health and fitness. Especially when it comes to nutrition.
Unlike drugs, we NEED food to survive each day. And that’s what makes it so hard because we HAVE to find a healthy balance for food in our lives.
But the simple reminder that works for me is telling myself; ”I’ve tasted this treat, I’ve enjoyed it, and I’ve had enough”.
I know it might sound silly, but guess what?
Every time I’ve practiced this sentence and stopped myself, I’ve NEVER regretted it later on.
Those words are the HARDEST to implement.
But this forward thinking is what will save you.
What will FUTURE you thank you for?
Tip #5 Don’t Skip Meals and Feel Like You Have to “Earn” a Big Holiday Meal.
Feeling like you have to “earn” a meal creates unnecessary shame around food in which skipping meals in order to save up for a bigger meal later can lead to unhealthy thoughts and behaviors around food.
The best thing you can do around holiday meals is simply enjoy them and be in touch with how your body feels and responds to the food you consume.
Tip #6 Drink with Moderation in Mind
Moderate levels of alcohol consumption are usually fine when accounted for in calories.
While alcohol is a form of energy on its own, containing 7 kcals per gram, when it comes to tracking macros, alcohol can be tracked similar to protein, carbs, and fat.
It’s best to track alcohol as a carbohydrate so you can add it into your overall calories
For example, the average 1 oz shot of tequila is about 97 cals. Divide that by 4 (because carbs have 4 kcals per gram) and 1 oz of tequila = 24g of carbs
Like I said before, moderation is key. Excess consumption has been shown to inhibit muscle growth as well other obvious detrimental health effects
Tip #7 Practice Self Forgiveness.
Blew it the night before? That’s ok, jump back on it today!
Many people do not give themselves the right amount of forgiveness AND accountability to be able to accomplish their goals.
While self forgiveness does not mean letting yourself off the hook, it is necessary to keep you from living in the past and being stuck with the feeling that you don’t have what it takes to reach your goals.
Self forgiveness is exactly the tool you need to get you out of the perfectionist mindset and the “All or Nothing” cycle that’s holding you back.
Tip #8 Get Your Workout Done Early in the Morning
The holidays are packed with evening events and activities. Knocking your workout out in the morning will leave you feeling more relief around the holiday stress AND more energy throughout the day.
This is the perfect time to work on being a morning person!
The key to getting up early is going to bed at a decent time the night before. You’re fooling yourself if you think you can go to sleep at 12am or 1am and get up at 5am or 6am to workout. That won’t last long. Again, I know this sounds obvious, but as an avid “night owl” who has been getting up at 5:30am for over 10 YEARS to train my clients, trust what I’m about to tell you because I am NOT a morning person…
- Do NOT get distracted on your phone, social media, or TV when you need to start getting ready for bed.
- Lay out your clothes, shoes, etc for the next day.
- Set 2 alarms. I have my phone alarm next to my bed (easy to hit snooze) AND more importantly, an annoyingly LOUD digital clock alarm on my dresser that FORCES me to get up and walk over to it and turn it off.
- Prepare a breakfast beforehand (overnight oats, pre-made breakfast burrito, etc) and have everything out to make yourself coffee and food much easier.
Tip #9 Adjust Your Workouts for Time Efficiency
Remember, something is ALWAYS better than nothing. During the busy season, it’s a good idea to adjust workouts by either shortening them 30-45 minutes OR doing less workouts a week.
For example, if you usually workout 4 days a week. You might need to scale back to only 2-3 workouts per week until the holidays are over. But stopping completely is the biggest mistake you could make during this time!
Adjusting your workouts will keep your momentum going into the New Year making it much easier to pick back up the intensity and frequency versus having to start from a complete halt.
Tip #10 Recruit Friends & Family for Walks After Dinner.
You’d be surprised how accepting your friends and family are for walks! It’s easy, it’s free, and it will give you some extra calorie burn after a big meal and will leave you feeling refreshed instead of sluggish.
The change of scenery can really add to some great conversations with your loved ones!
I hope these tips help and that after reading this you decide to implement a few of them and see how they work!
Onward!
If you need more professional help and guidance, and especially if you have certain physical limitations, I make custom training plans with instructional exercise videos for my clients based on their goals, abilities, limitations, and available equipment. I talk to all of my clients daily through my app as well make them custom meal plans, provide nutritional coaching, and hold them accountable to their goals!. Click here (https://jordanpatrickfitness.com/contact/) so we can schedule a 30 min consultation call to see if I can help you reach your goals!