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.

​Around this time last year, I released an article on how to manage your diet over the holidays, with options if you count calories and if you who don’t, so you can click on the link if you are looking for some tips on budgeting your calories or food portions.
 
Today, I want to delve into some mindset tips that will help you enjoy this time with less guilt and without having to give up on either your fitness goals or the holiday mood.
 
So I’m going to cover:

• How to stick to your goals and have fun without guilt
• How to get friends and family on board with your goals

 
Without further ado…

​It’s January 1st and you haven’t thought about exercise or nutrition for two weeks.
 
You have been eating a lot more than usual, drinking a lot more than usual – and I don’t mean water – and sitting around a lot more than usual. Maybe you feel bloated or sluggish and you think it’s time to “get back on track.” How do you do it?
 
In this article, I intend to cover some strategies to incorporate healthy eating and exercise back into your life after a “holiday layoff.”

Your mindset dictates the way you feel about your choices. Are you happy to diet or do you only do it “because you have to”? Are you happy to work out or is it a chore?
 
If you believe a certain truth, then you will behave accordingly. So, if you switch from a truth that doesn’t serve you to one that aligns with your goals, you are setting yourself up for success.
 
The three tips in this article can help you reframe your fitness decisions so that you can achieve your objectives and enjoy yourself in the process.
 
As a side note, when I was first brainstorming ideas for the piece, I thought to use the festive period for context, but in hindsight this advice can apply to your lifestyle as a whole.

​In my experience, people seem to have two different attitudes towards social events during a fat loss diet:
 
1. The “fuck it” attitude.
 
These people find it hard enough to stick to their diet on an average day. When a big meal out with alcohol and dessert enters the picture, they either feel overwhelmed or decide they don’t want to let the diet “ruin” the occasion.
 
Whichever the reaction, the outcome is the same: the diet goes out of the window, often for good.
 
2. The “oh God no” attitude.
 
This was my own way of thinking when I was struggling with diets and disordered eating.
 
I was so concerned with losing all the weight loss progress made that I would be terrified of anything outside of my routine.
 
The idea of not being able to track calories as accurately as possible, choose the ingredients going into my food, and control my portions would make me either avoid the meal or dread it like capital punishment.
 
For others, this gut-wrenching panic (no pun intended) may mean they lose control and binge like there’s no tomorrow.
 
Neither of these behaviours is sustainable, healthy, or conducive to long-term fat loss success.
 
So how do you approach a social event?
 
In this article, I aim to provide you with two potential strategies, based on whether or not you track your calories and macros.