Hello beautiful friends, and welcome to October if you are listening to this right when the podcast comes out, I’m so happy to be here with you today. And to kick off another month, we talked a ton in kind of end of August into September, about healthy fall prep. And now I want to talk a little bit about, you know, prepping for holiday time. I am usually a person who thinks about these kinds of things. We’re already like in the middle of the holidays. But I want to be a little more proactive this year back this up by a couple weeks. And maybe you’re new around here too with me. And this is you, you’ve found the podcast recently, and you’ve gotten more into health and fitness or started taking your health more seriously. And you might have some legitimate concerns and kind of anxiety and panic around coming up to the holiday season. And that’s very normal. And that is what I hear from my clients even who are not newer, just this time of year. It’s very typical and like cyclical for us to kind of get a little bit, especially if we made some progress, we felt some traction, we’ve gotten the ball rolling, we’ve gotten some good momentum. And then we can be naturally a little bit nervous of like, oh, no, now we have to do this with in a social setting or with a lot of just opportunities to be around more indulgent food and all that stuff like am I going to derail all my progress. So I’m here today to prep you for that. And next episode, next episode, we’re also going to talk about specifically kind of more like holiday situation tactics, today’s going to be just more of an overall set the tone for these next couple months, and how we can truly, honestly either maintain or even continue progress, maybe in the fat loss department, or in gaining strength and all of that good stuff. So we’ll dive right into it. Now. I do have five tips coming for you. I do want to say, especially if you’re newer here. Well, firstly, you’re here and you’re like, why is this girl panting? Is she on the treadmill? I’m not on a treadmill. But I am close to if not in my third trimester of pregnancy, I don’t really always know when we consider that I know it’s like roughly I’m 26 weeks right now recording this. So I’m huffing and puffing just sitting here. And I always get short of breath. That’s how some people know I’m pregnant before I even say anything. So just you know, pardon that but All right, we are looking at you know, the next couple of months. And this is a lot of time. Okay. I absolutely believe that there are time in places for indulgence and for not overindulgence, but indulgence, and enjoying ourselves. And so that’s what I was going to say if you’re newer here, then I went on the tangent of being pregnant. But if you’re newer here, that is always my approach is like I’m very much about 80% Eating whole clean foods 20% Having treats and indulgences. And I’ve come a long way in the last you know, whatever 10 years of finding what I consider balance for myself, everybody’s different some people just want to kick you know grains out of their kitchen forever. Some people want to never have refined sugar I am of the mind where I like to mostly feed myself and my family really good quality foods and use you know, maple syrup instead of sugar honey and this and that. But every now and then I make a real cake or I make you know whatever pasta from scratch with real flour and all that so I really kind of try to just have what works for me and for my family as a balance and we don’t have any, you know, huge allergies or anything like that or reasons and tolerances reasons to avoid those things. So that works for us. And I absolutely appreciate the fact that in the holidays, there are more indulgent foods treats snacks and I’m not going to tell you to never have those again. However, like I said, three months is a long time so if you’re listening to this when it comes out, Truly this starts earlier like we don’t usually have a ton of food around like it doesn’t feel extra to my family personally, my small little family here until really like Thanksgiving, that’s when I feel like okay pedal to the metal, because thanksgiving to New Year’s. But I realized and have realized through the years that this starts earlier for different people, like some people have Halloween candy in the house, like starting now like you’re already you know, buying these things or whatever. So we could do some serious damage if we just had that holiday mentality of like, let’s just indulge this as my 20% time from now until January 2, you know, what I suggest what I encourage what I’m gonna talk about today is having the mentality and the idea that yes, we should be realistic about our goals. Like for example, in the chasing greatness group, which is our monthly workout group. During the month of December, the goal is maintenance, I actually drop the frequency of the workouts from five or six a week, to just three a week. And this year for those of you who are in it and are like, Oh, but like what else, there is an optional fourth there three weeks, but we want to set ourselves up for realistic, realistic success. This is also why I run, you know, eight week fat loss challenges for those who are newer, and it’s a good little intro. And instead of hopping right to the monthly group, we learn a lot about nutrition, all that jazz. I do not run this, starting in November or December. The last one I run for the year wraps up at the end of this month. So this, you know, be smart about it is my advice just overall is to be realistic. And again, you could still make progress on your goals if you want to, especially if October, you know, you’re listening to this in October, and you’re like, Yeah, I’m with you, my holiday season doesn’t really pick up until Thanksgiving, then by all means continue to try to make progress and be a little more strict on things for this next month. But then, as you get into what is your holidays, you know, just act accordingly. I have never had the goal, I don’t think in 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, however long I’ve been hearing about this, to try to lose fat during the month of December, I just want to come out the end of the year, like not five pounds up, not 10 pounds up. And I’ve talked about before on here. Just one last thing I’m gonna say about this, that I also really have tried to embrace kind of like the liturgical flow of things and have realized like our not only the liturgical flow of things, but also our basic human inclinations. And I’ve gotten okay with from December and January, February, gaming, a couple of pounds are fluctuating a little bit of body fat in those kind of comfort months. Now obviously, if this swings really dramatically if I went from 21% body fat to 31% body fat, that’s a problem, or gained 10 pounds or 15 pounds or 20 pounds that I’m always trying to lose. That’s, that’s tough. But my Norm has been to gain about five pounds from like December to February, whatever. I don’t worry about it. Because for me that’s like, okay, we’re an Advent, we’re in Christmas season and then Christmas season, I do make more treats for the family. We have Christmas cookies, like all that stuff. And then we go back to what is our normal life is typically treats just once a week on Sundays, and then obviously sporadically for celebrations or girls nights if I have a girlfriend or something like that. And then I know that lent is around the corner, where we go really bare bones again and like cut out a lot of extras. And it’s not for the purpose of fat loss or weight loss. It’s just like how it is, you know, and then we celebrate the Easter season. So I personally and I know that again, this syncs up with for us in upstate New York this being seasonal that you feel like in the winter, you need to kind of hibernate down. Yeah, yeah, I switch to a little bit more. You know, we’re not doing as many salads and lighter foods like we do in spring and summer. It’s more risotto is and you can still absolutely have healthy foods in here. We’ll talk about that in the winter, like healthy soups, you can make an chilies and that’s all great. But I do think again, having a realistic Alright, if I maintain or gain five pounds in this winter season, is it gonna be the end of the world? Like no, it’s a little bit cyclical. That is more I know for the person who is kind of in a healthy body fat and body weight range right now I know that I’m saying that from a place of being typically not pregnant, a healthy body fat and body weight. So I’m okay with the you know, five pound fluctuation, but I understand to some of your listeners hearing like Brittany, I have 30,40, 50 100 pounds to lose, I don’t want to hear that I’m just gonna lose a couple months of the year you don’t have to that’s also my point is you can you know go the other route of pursuing fat loss at all times.
Time stamps:
Prepping for holiday stress. 0:02
Welcome back to the show. This episode is all about prepping for holiday time.
Today’s episode will be more of an overall set the tone for these next couple months and how to maintain or even continue progress in the fat loss department or strength.
There are time for indulgence and enjoying ourselves. 2:29
80% eating whole, clean foods, 20% having treats and indulgences during the holidays, and 10% indulgence and enjoying ourselves.
Three months is a long time, so this starts earlier.
We could do some serious damage if we just have the holiday mentality of, let’s just indulge this 20% time from now until January 2.
Having the mentality and the idea that yes, we should be realistic about our goals, like chasing greatness group.
How to avoid holiday weight gain? 7:18
The five tips for all of us to prevent massive holiday weight gain, whether it is to lose a lot of weight or just to maintain progress so far.
The holiday season itself is part of the panic and frenzy, even if you are organized about it.
Brittany is due on December 3, so she is trying to front-load a lot of this. She is encouraged by the fact that when she had her second son he was november 17, she was done and dusted ready for Christmas.
She is not doing her hair that week.
Tip 2: prioritize your workouts. 12:48
Tip two, prioritize your workouts. Even if you scale down time or frequency, even if you’re in the chasing greatness group, there’s another solution.
Prioritize. Have it in there when you are going to do it, because this is the part where you’re really forcing yourself.
Tip three, say yes to the treats that are really worth it and no thanks to the ones that are not.
There is a line between enjoying food and hospitality and indulging that with your kids and your family and friends.
Say yes to the things that are worth it. 18:16
Say yes to the things that are worth it and say no to the ones that are not.
Be strategic about what food you keep in house and the placement of it.
The importance of being strategic about the placement of Christmas cookies in the house, and how to remove obstacles in the way of unhealthy choices.
A podcast episode about removing obstacles for fat loss and maintenance is available on the website.
Surround yourself with positive influences. 22:00
In this season, continue to surround yourself with positive influences in the health and fitness department.
Reframing things instead of trying to look at it in a bad food way, like, I have to get in my three to five servings of vegetables today.
It is helpful to look at things in a positive way and mitigate unhealthy choices during the holiday season. Keep positive influences around.
The next podcast episode will be about healthy eating the holidays, what to do when you have multiple events on one day and general tips.
