Hey Friends,

The holiday season is here already. It’s a time of year when many people struggle with their fitness goals.

A big part of the holidays (at least for me personally) is the food, and the Christmas cookies don’t necessarily fall into my normal eating routine.

But, I want you to enjoy your Christmas cookies (or whatever holiday food) without feeling guilty about it.

If you ever have a fitness trainer who tells you not to eat Christmas cookies, you should fire them.

This week, I’m going to give you a couple of things to think about so that you can eat your cookies while staying on track with your fitness goals.

Reach out to someone you don’t stay in touch with as often as you’d like.

Send them a quick text or a call and ask how they are doing.

People matter.

And the holidays are an awesome excuse to reach out to someone if it’s been a little while.

I wanted to write about this primarily to give the reminder that you don’t need to “earn” your food.

If you want a cookie, go for it.

There’s no need to over-exercise to “make up for it” or punish yourself for eating foods you enjoy.

I think people always need that reminder, but especially this time of year.

There are a couple of simple tips I want to share to help you stay on track with your fitness goals throughout the holiday season (spoiler: they are the same things I recommend year-round).

Try to make an effort to have the majority of your diet come from whole, natural foods. Fruits, veggies, potatoes, rice, oats, meats, dairy, and eggs are examples of what I’m talking about here.

If these make up the majority of what you eat, you’ll probably be in a good spot.

Aim to get 7-10k steps per day. When it’s cold and snowy, yes, this is more difficult.

Be intentional about it and find ways to move around throughout the day.

Keeping your steps high and generally moving throughout the day is great for your metabolism, especially when you might potentially be eating some higher-calorie foods around the holidays.

Drink lots of water. You’ve probably been told that a million times, and for good reason.

Water is essential to everything we do.

The best thing you can do to stay on track with your fitness goals is to get good sleep.

Stop doom-scrolling social media and get to bed at a decent time. Allow yourself to get 8 hours each night.

Schedules can get crazy this time of year. If you can, try to keep getting a weight-lifting workout in once or twice per week.

Remind yourself that you are doing awesome. It isn’t the end of the world if you enjoy some holiday foods. I promise I’ll be doing the same.

I love the Sweet Green hot honey chicken bowl, but getting it at the restaurant is like $18, which is insane. I googled a recipe I could make at home, so I thought I’d share it with you guys.

I’m lazy, so I skipped making the cabbage-carrot slaw and instead just did roasted carrots. I put baby carrots on a baking sheet with salt and pepper, and threw them in the oven. Way easier than assembling a slaw as this recipe has, but go for it if that’s your thing.