As a teenager with a restrictive eating disorder, I used to love and hate the winter holidays: I enjoyed the joyful atmosphere and – most of all – the gifts, but I was also terrified of eating too much and not exercising enough. Sound familiar?
 
In my years of coaching, I’ve helped my clients overcome their own holiday anxiety. With this article, I’m going to give you three methods that can help you do the same:
 

• The “Fucking Relax” Method
• The Non-Negotiables Method 
• The Calorie-Tracking Method

 
Each method is devised to suit one of three of the more common scenarios I’ve come across so far:
 
1. You work super hard on your fitness goals for months and swear to yourself you won’t stray even once over the winter holidays.

However, if you happen to eat a single unplanned mince pie, all hell breaks loose: you panic, think, “Fuck it,” and find yourself losing control over food more often than you’d like to until January.

2. On the other hand, maybe you’re too afraid to eat anything “unplanned”.

As a result, you maintain your physique… but you’re also watching your friends and family drinking wine and eating dessert, wondering why you can’t sit back and relax like everybody else.

3. Maybe you don’t quite experience either of the extremes I’ve just described, but you’ve never had a holiday where you felt confident that you were doing your best to both enjoy the celebrations and continue making progress towards your fitness goals. 
​
I lived Scenario 2 for at least six winters before I realised that it doesn’t have to be this way.
 
You can eat a mince pie or two without overdoing it every single day.
 
You can maintain your physique without restricting your diet to three “healthy” foods all the time.
 
Finally, you can strike the balance between staying on track and enjoying a slice of Panettone.
 
Read on to find the method that can work best for you.

Working out your calorie and protein targets is relatively easy. Any free online calculator can do that for you.
 
Actually hitting those targets? Not so much.
 
That’s where this article comes in, covering four ways to hit your calorie and protein targets every day, without fail.
 
Two of these strategies will apply to you if you have the time to pre-track your food.
 
The last two will have you covered if you need to track on the fly.
 
Therefore, whichever your experience, you’ll find something of value in this article and, most importantly, you’ll be able to apply it to your own circumstances straight away.
 
Let’s dig in.

So, you’re on board with the idea of tracking your calories and macros to gain muscle and lose fat.
 
You read my “Macros 101” article and learnt how to set your nutritional targets.
 
You started tracking and saw some good results.
 
But then, a few weeks in, you think you’ve hit a plateau.
 
And now you’re wondering, “Do I need to change anything?”
 
To be honest with you, tweaking a client’s macros or calories is usually my last port of call.
 
Often, a much more effective solution is to review your approach to tracking. After all, you haven’t been doing it for that long, so you may have yet to master some tips and tricks to make this system truly work for you.
 
In this article, I’m going to share five tracking hacks that always help my clients overcome their first plateau.
 
If you’re ready to master tracking, keep reading.

​Do you struggle to keep on top of nutrition when you attend social events during a fat loss diet? Then this article is for you.
 
I’m going to cover two of my clients’ favourite go-to strategies, which also happen to be two of my personal favourites, when eating out without tracking calories. So far, they’ve been applied with great success to a range of different social events, including:
 

• Weddings
• Summer barbecues
• All-you-can-eat buffets
• Birthday parties
• Work lunches and dinners
• Restaurant meals with friends
• Special date nights

 
Here’s why these methods work, even without being meticulous about your calories:
 

• They’re simple to understand and remember
• They’re easy to put into practice
• They rely on basic healthy nutritional habits that you’ll have already been working on to make your diet both sustainable and successful

 
Are you sold on the idea yet? Then let’s get into it.

​If you’ve been dabbling in the fitness world in the last few years, you might have heard of macros. Short for “macronutrients”, this term refers to protein, carbohydrate, and dietary fat.
 
Tracking macros is a common approach to losing fat, gaining muscle, or simply maintaining weight. Some people track all three macros; others only track calories; and others still track a combination of both.
 
All of these methods can be effective, so your choice will depend on your personal preferences and fitness goals.
 
But how do macros work? What’s the difference between macro- and calorie-tracking? And how do you set your own macros to get the best results?
 
Keep reading to learn the answers to these questions.