Ep 84 | How to Navigate the Holidays on a Fitness Journey (Without Losing Your Mind)
Let's be real: the holidays can be stressful when you're trying to stay on track with your fitness goals. Between shorter days, endless treats in the break room, and social obligations where you have zero control over the menu, it's easy to feel like everything is working against you.
If you're worried about losing progress or gaining weight during the holiday season, you're not alone. As a personal trainer with over 10 years of experience, I have this conversation with every single one of my clients this time of year. And I'm here to tell you: you can navigate this season without derailing your progress or driving yourself crazy.
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Jayd (00:00):
There's a lot of stress and anxiety that a lot of people have around the holidays because there's a lot kind of working against you if you are trying to lose weight in particular, if you're trying to burn fat, the wintertime can sometimes just be really hard for doing that. The days are shorter, it gets darker sooner, so we naturally feel more tired and it's harder to get up and go to the gym after work if you work out after work or before work because it's dark before and after work. And then with the holidays, there's all kinds of yummy treats around. So what happens with a lot of people during this time of year is that they tend to exercise less and they tend to eat more. And what that means is a little bit of weight gain or a lot of bit of weight gain depending on how controlled you are about it, whether that's happened to you in the past or if that's happening to you now or you're afraid of that happening to you in the future.
(00:56)
I wanted to take a few moments as a personal trainer to give you some of my professional tips for how I encourage my clients to navigate the holidays so that they can stay on track with their fitness goals and also navigate if they do end up gaining weight or not moving forward as quickly as they would like in their fitness journey. So today's episode is all about how to navigate the holidays on a fitness journey, and I'm going to give you some tips for navigating all of the unique challenges that this time of year brings for people who are on a fitness journey. And I'm also going to give you some words of wisdom and encouragement, what I tell my clients to help them to navigate this season emotionally and mentally.(01:52)
Welcome to the Coaching Corner podcast. I'm Jayd Harrison, AKA Jaydigains. I've been a personal trainer for over 10 years and I've created this podcast to share with you tips for eating better, getting strong and burning fat without shame and without burnout. In today's episode, we're going to talk about how to navigate the holidays when you're on a fitness journey. This is a time of year where a lot of people get anxious about losing their gains, losing progress, or going backwards. As a personal trainer, I have to have this conversation with all of my clients around this time of year to help them to go into the holidays feeling less anxious and more confident in their fitness progress. Before we get into the episode, make sure to like this video if you're watching on YouTube, and if you are listening to this podcast, make sure to follow the channel so that you always get the latest episodes delivered right to your device. And without further ado, let's get into the episode.(02:52)
It's totally normal to feel some anxiety around this time of year. I know a lot of people are like, oh, it's the holidays, it's the best time of the year. And I mean, that's not really true for everyone, including myself. I personally just really hate this time of year for various reasons. Things have happened around this time of year in my personal life that I got to deal with and memories, deaths in the family, problems that I've had with people who are close to me, and this time of year is when a lot of that stuff tends to come up. And so that emotional pressure also puts a lot of pressure on me and my personal fitness journey as well. So my number one piece of advice for heading into the holiday season is to know yourself. You want to go into this season really aware of the things that are going to make it difficult for you so that you're not caught by surprise because there are things going on right now that are unique challenges and they're going to put pressure on your system.(04:05)
So you need to know what specific challenges affect you and how they tend to affect you for the holiday season. Here in the United States, in the northern hemisphere, it's cold. The days are shorter and there's holiday treats. Everybody's bringing in cookies and snacks and treats for Christmas, for Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Kwanza, all kinds of holidays are happening this time of year, new Year's Eve. So there's a lot of social obligations you might have for holiday parties at work or friends or with family, which means that you're not going to have total control over what you're eating all the time or what food is available or what food is in front of you all the time, which if you have been on a fitness journey, especially if you've been on a fat loss journey and you're used to meal prepping, meal planning and planning out what you eat, tracking what you eat this time of year is going to be really challenging because you're not always going to have, you're not going to know ahead of time what food is going to be available at this Christmas party or this holiday party or what people are going to bring and what people are going to bring to work.(05:21)
A lot of times the break room will have cookies in it or something like that this time of year, right? And that's going to be a unique challenge that you have to be aware of how it might affect you. Are you the type of person that if you see food, you're going to eat it? If it's put in front of you, are you going to eat it? This is going to be a challenge for you and an opportunity maybe for you to work on developing that discipline and doing some work around that habit of not being able to resist food that's put in front of you. So the treats are a main issue, and if you know that you have a particular sensitivity to that, then you're going to have to go into this season with a plan in place for how you're going to navigate that so you're not caught off guard, right?(06:13)
So know yourself, know how the different parts of this season are going to affect you. A lot of people are affected by seasonal depression when the days get shorter and there's more darkness, a lot of people have a lot of trouble feeling motivated to go to the gym and excerpt a lot of energy. You might be feeling more tired. That's a totally normal thing to experience this time of year, right? And you may also be experiencing some sadness this time of year is a reminder sometimes of people who we love who may have passed that we normally would see this time of year. So know yourself and know how you tend to deal with or be affected by the various factors that are in play at this time of year. And then number two is to have a plan in place for how you're going to navigate those challenges.(07:09)
For instance, if you know that you're going to be going to some holiday parties and there's going to be probably alcohol, lots of sweet treats, and you're likely to consume a lot of calories, then you need to prepare for that ahead of time, decide how you're going to navigate it. If you're trying to burn fat, if you're trying to stick to a certain number of calories, there are a couple of different strategies that you can use to stick with your calorie goal when you're going to be going to a holiday party or you're going to have extra treats around. One is that you just make sure that you eat ahead of time something that's really protein dense and maybe low calorie ahead of time before the party. So you're going into the party not hungry and you're already full of protein and the things that your body needs.(08:05)
That way if you do end up eating some treats, you're probably not going to eat as much and you're probably not going to have as many calories and you're going to get fuller faster because you already have some protein dense food in your stomach, right? If you know that you're going to have a hard time working out after you get home from work because it's dark outside and going from your home to the gym, right? If you know that's going to be really hard for you to get up off the couch once you get home, then you might need to change your workout routine where you're going directly to the gym before you ever go home. That way you don't have that downtime of getting cozy at home and then having to force yourself to leave. Or you may have to change your workout schedule so that you're working out before work or maybe on your lunch break when you still have energy.(08:59)
So you want to have a plan in place for how you're going to navigate the challenges that are unique to you that you might experience during this time of year. Another strategy, if you're going into a holiday party for instance, is a lot of times there's a spread of food at these things and where maybe it's at a restaurant or something, and you can still kind of choose better foods that are going to put less calories on your plate and less calories in your system, making sure that you're choosing food items. Basically keep the healthy plate model in your mind and try to select foods from the spread that more or less line up with the healthy plate model. As a reminder, the healthy plate model, basically you divide your plate in half and on half of the plate you fill up with vegetables or some kind of vegetable heavy dish, and then on a fourth of your plate, you fill it up with something that's rich in protein, a protein dense food, ideally low calorie.(10:02)
And then on the remaining quarter of the plate is where you have your starchy grains, your starchy vegetables, and so if you follow that kind of model for how much of each type of food you're selecting, then you can reduce the amount of calories that you're taking in at that holiday party. So you can go into the holiday party strategically thinking about the healthy plate model. So when you're choosing foods that you're going to eat structured as the healthy plate model, because that will allow you to stay within your goals or help you to stay more closely aligned to your goals, you're likely not going to be able to track everything, right? When you go into social gatherings like this, you're not going to be able to track everything. You're not going to be able to track it super accurately. So you have to know that going into it, that you're going to have to guesstimate and just try to approximate the healthy plate model or approximate close to what you would eat to hit your calorie goals.(10:57)
But one thing I do want to caution you against is what a lot of people will do. This can work, this can work, but it also can backfire. Sometimes people will just starve all day to save calories for their holiday party, and this might work, it could work for you, but it could also really badly backfire. The hungrier you are going into the function, the more likely you are to overeat and overconsume. So that's why I typically recommend make sure that you eat before the party, especially something that's protein dense and low in calorie. That way you're less likely to overconsume because you're not feeling quite so hungry. And then also make sure that you're eating protein throughout the day and especially early in the day, protein is a natural appetite suppressor, and it's what your body needs anyway to help you build muscle and burn fat more effectively and set boundaries for yourself.(11:55)
If someone pressures you to eat or drink something, remember that you can say no and no is a complete sentence. There's going to be a lot of social pressure depending on the social situation or how your family is, and know that you're an adult and you can make decisions for yourself about what you eat. You're allowed to not eat the stuff that's at that party or that gathering. You do not have to eat everything you don't. If someone wants to pressure you because they spent all this time on making this pie or whatever, that's not your fault, right? They chose to do that. They chose to make that food, and you can decide to have something small, you can have a little bit of it, but if they pressure you to have more, you're allowed to say no. It's not your responsibility to make that person feel better for the time that they spent, that they chose to spend on making these foods that maybe don't align with your plan, right?(13:01)
You're allowed to say no. So you're allowed to set boundaries for yourself. So go into that with that. So know yourself number one, but then also have a plan in place for how you're going to navigate the unique challenges. But then number three, give yourself some grace. Really be realistic about your expectations. Sometimes people will go into the holiday season and just know that you know what? I'm likely going to eat more right now and I'm going to likely not exercise as much, and that's okay. That's part of the plan. A lot of people use the holiday season as an opportunity to really bulk and use the extra calories to build muscle where they'll work out harder. They might not do as many workouts because they might not want to put as much time into it, but the workouts that they do do are harder, and they really focus on burning out their muscles and put those extra calories to use.(14:01)
So sometimes you got to go into it knowing with everything I have going on, it's likely that I'm going to gain a little bit of weight, but when the seasons start to change, I have a plan in place for how I'm going to phase maybe into a fat loss phase and maybe cut back a little bit. Know that going into the holiday season, you are allowed to just give yourself permission to relax a little bit and enjoy the holidays. You don't need to be in a fat loss phase forever. I don't think that you should be in a fat loss phase forever and be really restrictive of your calories forever. You shouldn't be living like that year round every year. At the end of the day, we're human beings. We are animals, and we are cyclical beings. We have seasons of life just like any other creature.(14:50)
And just like other creatures, you may have to accept the fact that there's going to be certain times of the year where your body fat percentage might be higher. And then there's other times of the year where your body fat percentage might be lower, and that's okay, and that's healthy. You can still be fit and also put on a little bit of weight. If you do end up putting on a little bit of weight, it's not that big of a deal because you can just work it off. As soon as the seasons change and you don't have as many demands on your time or your energy, it is okay for you to have a season where you're a little bit heavier. In fact, that's what a lot of gym growers do. They plan to bulk in the winter and then they cut in the spring, and then they're lean during the summer and the fall, and then they bulk in the winter.(15:42)
And so that knowing yourself and your capacity going into the holiday season, the amount of discipline that it might take for you to continue to eat exactly amount of calories for fat loss and the amount of exercise that you would need to stick to, just be realistic about it. Don't set yourself up for failure by setting goals for yourself during the season, knowing that it's going to be really hard for you to stick to those. You may be able to grid it out and be fine. I know plenty of people who do, but at the same time, you're allowed to enjoy some time eating a little bit more, enjoy your treats. You don't have to go crazy because remember, your body reflects what you do most of the time. The 80 20 rule is a thing. So if most of the time you're eating according to the healthy plate model, you're eating the amount of calories that your body needs for maintenance or for fat loss, taking a break, a diet break, or having a treat today or a treat week or a treat two weeks, is not going to have the amount of impact that you think it will and set you back so far.(16:57)
Because a lot of people have this fear that if they do go off plan and enjoy the holidays, that they're going to end up right back where they started from the very beginning, and that fear starts to set in. But that's not the case, especially if you've been on this journey for a while. If you have set up the habits, if you've established them, if you've had it going strong for a couple of months, taking a little bit of time off for the holidays to enjoy some extra calories, some treats, maybe drink a little bit of alcohol, eat a little bit more sugar, it's not going to undo an entire year's worth of progress. So trust your body to bounce back after you enjoy the holidays if that's a choice that you make. Right? And keep in mind though that I'm a personal trainer and I am accepting clients.(17:46)
So if you want a little bit of help navigating this season and also getting back on track once the holiday season is over, you can check out my Fat Loss Transformation coaching program. I'm accepting clients for both the 90 day version or three month version and the six month version. And during this program, I'm going to help you to learn how many calories your body needs to eat and order to burn fat and keep it off for good. I'm also going to help you to build a healthy exercise routine that works for you. And I'm going to teach you how to change your routines around food and around exercise according to the season of your life that you're in. I have a client right now who's in the program who met her fat loss goal halfway through, and we adjusted her amount of calories that she's eating and her exercise plan because she met her fat loss goal and now we're focusing on building muscle, and she's eating a little bit more.(18:40)
And she had a little bit of anxiety going into that because she's like, oh my gosh, I'm going to end up where I started. I'm eating more. But she was able to work through that and stick to her goals with my help. So that's something that I do, and I am taking on clients. So feel free to apply to work one-on-one with me because that's open and it's available to you. So I hope that you found this discussion helpful. Please don't sweat it if you do end up having a treat day or having a few extra calories here and there over the course of the holidays, because you're not going to lose all of your progress. But if it's something that you're concerned about first, know yourself and know what unique struggles you have, and make a plan for how you're going to navigate that. And don't forget that I'm here to help you if you need some help with that.(19:32)
Thank you so much for watching or listening to this episode of The Coaching Corner podcast. Again, I'm Jayd Harrison, A-K-A-J-D Gaines. I hope that you found this episode helpful, and if you did, make sure to leave like on the video if you're watching on YouTube, and subscribe to my channel. If you're listening to the podcast, make sure to follow the channel so you get the newest episodes as soon as they drop. If you're interested in working with me or checking out my products and services, head to my website, Jaydigains.com. That's J-A-Y-D-I-G-A-I-N-S.com. Check out my membership site with exclusive tips and downloadable meal plans, recipes and training programs. Links for all of that are in the show notes or in the video description below. If you're watching on YouTube, and you can also find more information for them on my website, Jaydigains.com. I'll see you in the next episode. In the meantime, take good care of yourself, make sure that you are drinking your water, eating your veggies, eating your protein, and prioritize your self-care, and I will see you soon.
Why the Holidays Are Actually Challenging (And It's Not Just You)
Here's what's working against you right now. The days are shorter and it gets dark earlier, so we naturally feel more tired. It's harder to get to the gym when it's dark before and after work. There are treats everywhere—coworkers bringing in cookies, holiday parties with open bars and dessert tables, family gatherings where saying no feels impossible.
What happens? Most people exercise less and eat more during this season. That combination can lead to weight gain, and the anxiety about that weight gain can make everything feel even harder.
But here's the thing: seasonal changes affect everyone. If you're feeling less motivated or struggling more than usual, that's completely normal. You're not failing—you're human.
My Three-Step Strategy for Holiday Fitness Success
Step 1: Know Yourself
Before you do anything else, take some time to think about what specifically challenges you during this season. Are you affected by seasonal depression when the days get shorter? Do you have a hard time saying no when treats are put in front of you? Do family gatherings trigger emotional eating?
For me personally, I struggle during the holidays because of some difficult memories and family stuff that comes up this time of year. That emotional pressure affects my fitness journey too. So I've learned to anticipate it and plan accordingly.
Understanding your specific triggers means you won't be caught off guard. You'll know what's coming and you can prepare for it.
Step 2: Make a Plan for Your Unique Challenges
Once you know what challenges you'll face, create specific strategies to navigate them.
If you're going to holiday parties: Don't starve yourself all day to "save calories." This usually backfires badly. The hungrier you go into a party, the more likely you are to overconsume. Instead, eat a protein-dense, low-calorie meal before you go. You'll be less likely to overeat because you're already satisfied.
If you struggle with workout motivation when it's dark: Change your routine. Go directly to the gym after work without stopping home first (because once you're on that couch, you're not getting back up). Or switch to morning workouts or lunchtime sessions when you still have energy.
If you can't track your food at social gatherings: Use the healthy plate model as your guide. Fill half your plate with vegetables, a quarter with protein, and a quarter with starchy grains or vegetables. This helps you stay aligned with your goals even when you can't track precisely.
If people pressure you to eat or drink: Remember that "no" is a complete sentence. You're an adult. You can make your own decisions. If someone spent hours making a pie, that was their choice—you're not responsible for managing their feelings by eating food that doesn't align with your plan. You can politely decline or have just a small portion.
Step 3: Give Yourself Grace (Seriously)
Here's what I need you to understand: you don't have to be in a fat loss phase forever. You shouldn't be restricting your calories year-round. We're human beings, we're animals, and we are cyclical creatures. Just like other animals, there are seasons where your body fat percentage might be a little higher, and that's okay. That's healthy.
Many serious gym-goers actually plan to bulk in the winter and cut in the spring. They use the extra calories from holiday eating to build muscle, then lean out when the seasons change. You can do the same—or you can simply accept that this is a maintenance season, not a fat loss season.
The 80/20 rule applies here. If you've been eating well and exercising consistently most of the time, taking a break for a treat day, a treat week, or even two weeks is not going to undo all your progress. Your body reflects what you do most of the time, not what you do occasionally.
I know there's this fear that if you go off plan during the holidays, you'll end up right back where you started. But that's not how it works, especially if you've been consistent for months. Your habits are established. Your body will bounce back. Trust the process.
The Bottom Line
You have options this holiday season:
You can stick to your fitness plan with the strategies I've outlined above. You can intentionally use this time to bulk and build muscle with those extra calories. Or you can give yourself permission to relax a little, enjoy the season, and get back on track in January.
All of these are valid choices. What matters is that you make a conscious decision rather than letting the season happen to you, and that you don't beat yourself up no matter what you choose.
Need Some Help?
If you want support navigating this season (or getting back on track after the holidays), I'm currently accepting clients for my Fat Loss Transformation program. I offer both a 90-day and 6-month version, and I'll help you learn exactly how many calories your body needs, build an exercise routine that actually works for your life, and adjust your approach based on the season you're in.
I recently had a client who met her fat loss goal halfway through the program. We adjusted her calories and exercise plan to focus on building muscle instead, and she was able to work through the anxiety of eating more with my guidance. That's the kind of personalized support I provide.
You can find more information and apply to work with me at jaydigains.com.
Final Thoughts
Don't sweat it if you have a few extra treats or indulgent meals over the holidays. You're not going to lose all your progress. But if you want to stay more on track, know yourself, make a plan, and remember that you're allowed to set boundaries and make choices that support your goals.
Take good care of yourself this season. Drink your water, eat your veggies, get your protein, and prioritize your self-care.
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