Hey all! Kayla Genson here! With Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s just around the corner, we will be spending time with loved ones and great food. While many are excited for all of the yummy treats, there are others of you secretly sweating, wondering how you will get through the holidays AGAIN this year without derailing your progress. Or maybe you are the person who says, “Oh forget it! I’ll start over in January!” Then you spend the next month and a half eating garbage and feeling like garbage.

First, let’s take a second to BREATHE. Next, I want you to say out loud, “The holidays will NOT derail my progress.”

Good, now we can move onto to some helpful strategies to get through the holidays without feeling like you need to miss out or feeling like you sabotaged yourself.

1.) Try not to “save your calories”. This looks like not eating breakfast and possibly lunch that way you can engorge ALL the food later. This way of eating tends to lead to an all out binge that leaves you feeling miserable at the end of the night. Instead, eat a satisfying breakfast and lunch, that way when the holiday meal comes around you can eat mindfully because you will not be starving.

2.) If you track your food/macros: I encourage you to try not to on this day. Holidays are meant to be enjoyed with family, friends, and food. Don’t try to stress over how much fat is in your stuffing. Memories > Macros!

3.) Do not try to “burn off” your holiday meal. You know those memes that say 3 sets of 12 push ups burns off a cup of mashed potatoes? WRONG. The body doesn’t work that way, and you do not need to earn your calories.

4.) Have the dessert! Again, holidays are meant to be enjoyed with family, friends, and food. The slice of pumpkin pie will not make you gain 5 pounds of fat. Just maybe don’t eat the entire pie.

5.) Be nice to yourself. If you do go off the deep end one or two days, everything will be fine! Just don’t use those one or two days to keep stuffing yourself into a New Year’s Resolution that you don’t want to keep.

Hope you all enjoy the time with your families and eat super yummy food!

Love you guys!

Kayla