#22: 'Tis the Season... to have the cookie

Hey guys,

Hopefully you enjoyed the series on caffeine the last three weeks. This week I want to talk about eating as we get into the holiday season.

Going to discuss how to avoid feeling guilty about eating some holiday foods and how to stay on top of your fitness goals throughout the end of the year.

Weekly Action Point

🍽️ Try to limit yourself to eating out only once this week 🍽️ 

Making food at home is going to be healthier than eating at a restaurant almost always, even if you are choosing healthier options at a restaurant.

Ideally you could not eat out at all, but I know sometimes the convenience of grabbing food somehwere is huge. This week, just try to limit it to one meal.

It’s beginning to look a lot like christmas…

With around 6 weeks left of the year, I wanted to address the topic of holiday eating. For me, these next 6 weeks are the unhealthiest stretch of eating I have all year.

There are so many social eating opportunities, delicious christmas cookies, and in general a lot of ways to eat that aren’t necessarily the best for your fitness goals.

I want to start by saying: you should be able to eat christmas cookies without feeling guilty. I know I will.

If you ever have a personal trainer or someone on social media telling you to “stay strong” and resist eating holiday foods, probably best to not listen to that person anymore in my opnion.

There are a lot of things you can be doing during the holiday season to stay on track with your fitness goals AND enjoy the foods you want without feeling guilty.

Holiday Eating Strategies

So let’s talk about some things you can do during the holidays to keep making progress towards your fitness goals.

I see people all the time pushing out their fitness goals to the new year, telling themselves things will magically be different on January 1st for their motivation.

Then in the end of the year they start skipping a bunch of workouts and going completely off the rails with their eating - eating whatever they want, whenever they want.

Don’t put all your fitness goals on pause to restart in the new year. I promise, nothing magical happens on January 1st that makes it any easier. Not caring about your goals through the end of the year will just damage the progress you’ve been making.

Building off that, regardless of what holiday foods you want to eat, you can stay consistent with your workouts.

Try to get to the gym 2-3 times per week to focus on resistance training, maybe find time for one 20 minute cardio session per week. Whatever works for you. Doesn’t have to be anything crazy, but keep doing it consistently through the end of the year.

As we transition into November/December it starts getting colder and darker, and it makes it way easier to make excuses to not go for a walk.

Put on a jacket and go get your daily steps in. Or maybe you can find an indoor place to walk. There are a bunch of places where you could put in a podcast/audio book and walk some laps. Mall of America and the skyway system in downtown Minneapolis are two that I like. Or worst case, a treadmill always works as well.

Be intentional about getting daily movement in, even when it’s cold and dark and you might just want to sit on the couch under a blanket.

This applies all year round, but it’s something to remind yourself about to stay on track with your fitness goals during the holidays.

One of the best parts about it getting darker earlier is that it makes it easier to get to bed earlier. These are some of the best months to prioritize your sleep. And being consistent with your sleep is one of the best things your can do for your health.

Sometimes people will eat a Christmas cookie (or some other food typically thought of as “bad”), and then tell themselves they ruined their diet and just go off the rails eating anything and everything.

You can enjoy holiday foods AND prioritize your fitness goals at the same time.

For example, you can eat a Christmas cookie and still make a conscious effort to hit your daily protein goals.

Or you can try to prioritize eating mostly whole foods when you are on your own, and then enjoy the unhealthier options in social situations guilt free.

Regardless of what holiday foods you enjoy, you can still make an effort to eat vegetables daily.

These are just a couple examples, but the theme is this: you can make healthy food choices and eat holiday foods. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

The most important thing

Remind yourself that you are doing your best, and try to avoid the negative self thoughts if you aren’t perfect during the holidays.

You are doing awesome and shouldn’t be hard on yourself for enjoying the foods that come with the holiday season.

For me, there’s more social eating these next 6 weeks than the rest of the year combined. You know what’s more important than losing a couple of pounds?

Building your relationships and connections with the people you care about. Food is such a common way we do that, especially during the holidays.

Don’t feel guilty about some holiday indulgences. I still think you are doing awesome :)

Ben’s Best

🥗 Meal prep for the week: Honey garlic slow cooker chicken. Thanks mom for sending this recipe my way. I doubled this recipe to have meals for the week, and paired it with some rice, frozen green beans, and frozen broccoli.

🎙️Podcast I loved this week:

• Mind Pump 2462: How to Actually LOSE Weight This Holiday Season

  • This podcast fit in perfectly with the topic of today’s newsletter, talking about a variety of fitness topics related to the holidays.