3 Methods to Crush the Winter Holidays

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Those who are flexible in thought, will inevitably succeed.
––David Cunliffe

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.

The “Fucking Relax” Method
 
Ideal if:

• You track your calories or macros all year round, and have gained a lot of knowledge about nutrition through this process
• You only miss training sessions if you’re ill
• You’re always worried that you’re not doing enough to achieve your goals
• You feel burnt out and really want some time off your disciplined regime

 
How this method works:

• Stop tracking your food on days when you’ll be celebrating, such as Christmas day, or on every day that you want to take off if you prefer. On untracked days, pay attention to your hunger and fullness cues: start eating when you’re truly hungry, and stop eating when you’re satisfied, without feeling sick or bloated from how much you’ve eaten.
• If you want, you can also train less or not at all during this time. Instead, you can focus on any movement that you enjoy and that keeps you active.
• Fucking relax.

 
Frequently Asked Questions:
 
1. Don’t I need to track at least calories and protein to make sure I hit my goals?
 
We’re talking about a few untracked days out of the whole year.
 
Moreover, most people aren’t going to attend twenty-four hours’ long “free-for-all” buffets.
 
Even on the days you’ll be celebrating, only one meal is usually bigger than what you’re used to – such as Christmas dinner – whereas the others tend to be pretty standard or even smaller than usual, because you’re not quite as hungry.
 
Even if you were to under-eat protein and overshoot your maintenance calories at every single one of these bigger meals, you wouldn’t lose all of your muscle and you wouldn’t be able to put on that much body fat.
 
Furthermore, if you’ve spent years tracking, you have a wealth of knowledge about calories and macros, so you don’t necessarily need to track to know what’s in the food you’re eating.
 
Most importantly, you have solid habits in place, such as eating protein and vegetables with every meal. You won’t stop doing these things just because you’re not plugging all your data into MyFitnessPal for a couple of days.
 
Trust yourself.
 
2. What if I eat too much?
 
You need to eat about 3500 calories in addition to your maintenance calories in order to put on 1 lb of body fat.
 
For instance, my maintenance is around 2000 calories, so I’d need 5500 calories in a single day to accomplish this. I don’t think I’d be able to do it… unless I was tracking calories and wanted to hit that goal (ironically).
 
So, if you eat too much:

• It probably isn’t as much as you think it is.
• It’s only a few meals in an entire year. You’ll live.
• This is not what you do every day. When you go back to your usual routine, any weight you might have put on – which is almost all water retention and glycogen, by the way, not body fat – will fall off within the first couple of weeks without trying to be in a caloric deficit.

 
3. Shouldn’t I at least make an effort to work out?
 
I mean, you could. The thing is, you don’t need to use the “Fucking Relax” Method.
 
You can track all of your food as usual. You can follow your usual training program.
 
However, one of the reasons listed as an “ideal” criterion to choose this method, is this: “You feel burnt out and really want some time off your disciplined regime”. So, if you’re considering it, then, deep down, you don’t want to train as usual.
 
For a couple of days out of the whole year, you don’t have to.
 
So relax, eat some good food, and go back to the gym in January, feeling rejuvenated and ready to crush every session again.
 
The Non-Negotiables Method:
 
Ideal if:

• You want a break from tracking calories and worrying about every bite of Christmas pudding that crosses your lips, but you also don’t want to overdo it
• You need a more flexible plan than usual, but also some accountability
• You want to test the eating habits you’ve been working on, and find out how well you can manage your nutrition without tracking it

 
How this method works:

• Set yourself the following non-negotiable daily targets:
  • One form of movement 
  • A serving of protein with at least three meals or snacks. If you’re a bigger, taller person, a “serving” can be about two palms. If you’re a smaller, shorter person, it can be a single palm. If you’re somewhere in the middle, go for a palm and a half.
  • About two handfuls of vegetables or fruit with at least three meals or snacks every day.
  • Instead of tracking calories, start eating when hungry, not peckish or starving; and stop when satisfied, not too hungry but not full to bursting.
• When you’re having a “special holiday meal”, like Christmas dinner, you can add these non-negotiable targets:
  • Everything you want to eat should fit on a single, reasonably-sized plate (not a saucer, but not a tray).
  • Once you’ve filled your plate, you don’t go for seconds.
  • If you want, have either one calorific drink, such as a glass of wine, or one serving of a dessert of your choosing. This is in addition to the plate, not included within the plate, so it’s a controlled extra.

 
Frequently Asked Questions:
 
If you haven’t already, check out the FAQ section under the “Fucking Relax” Method. Some of those answers can apply here, too.
 
1. What counts as a “form of movement”?
 
Anything. It can be a walk, a resistance training session, or a run.
 
As long as you’re staying active for some time every day, consider that goal accomplished.
 
It isn’t important what kind of movement it is, because the purpose of this non-negotiable target is to promote your consistency, not to smash a gym PR or prep for a marathon.
 
2. How do I know what size to pick for my protein serving?
 
This method is meant to be more flexible than your usual calorie-tracking approach. If you try to get too precise about measuring your hand-sized protein serving… You’re not being flexible.
 
Fucking relax.
 
The Calorie-Tracking Method
 
Ideal if:

• You’re not at all tired of tracking calories – in fact, you love it!
• You don’t think that tracking makes you feel restricted
• You’re aware that you’re going to have to estimate the calorie content of some foods you may not have control over – like your mum’s casserole – and you’re ok with that

 
How this method works:

• Plan all the days on which you intend to eat more calories.
• On the days leading up to these events, save up to 15 to 20% of your daily caloric intake, like you’d save some money to buy your partner a Christmas gift.
• Plan ahead so you can spread these caloric reductions over multiple days, not just one. For example, if you want to eat 2500 calories on Christmas day, and you normally eat 2000, eating 1900 for five days (100 calories saved every day) is easier than eating 1500 calories on a single day (500 calories saved all at once). As a result, you’ll be less likely to over-eat on the lower-calorie days.
• Spend your extra calories wisely, keeping them for the “main event”. The rest of the time, eat what you would on a standard day. This way, you get more calories for the bigger meal, which is the truly special one. You don’t need extra calories at every single meal just because it’s Christmas day.

 
Frequently Asked Questions:
 
1. Is this too obsessive?
 
Something is harmful if it affects one or multiple aspects of your health, such as your relationships, your mental status, or your physical health.
 
If you genuinely enjoy tracking calories; you don’t engage in a binge-restrict cycle if you save up calories on certain days and spend them on a single meal; and this method doesn’t take away from your life in any way, then you’re going to be fine.
 
No behaviour is inherently good or bad. It’s the intention that matters.
 
2. What if someone is bringing home-made food, and I can’t track every single ingredient that’s in it?
 
I have two handy methods to track food when you’re eating out, which you can use in this situation, too. You can read more about them in this article.
 
3. Does it make a difference if I save calories after the higher-calorie day, and not before?
 
Doing this won’t change the physiological outcome. In other words, you won’t gain or lose any more weight whether you save calories before or after a higher-calorie day.
 
However, be mindful of your intentions.
 
Some people may feel guilty after a higher-calorie day and lower their intake in the following days to “compensate” for their “mistake”.
 
So, if you want to reduce your caloric intake after a higher-calorie day, plan for this ahead of time. Make sure it isn’t a last-minute decision made because you’re panicking about what you ate.
 
If you feel like you ate more than planned, let it go, get up the next day, and resume your standard diet straight away, without trying to compensate with less food or more activity.
 
Returning to normal tends to foster a much more positive relationship with food and with yourself than if you attempted to “fix” what happened. There’s nothing to fix because you didn’t do anything wrong.
 
Practical Takeaways

1. Read the “Ideal if” section carefully when choosing the best method for you.
2. The winter holidays amount to a couple of days when you may be eating a little extra. This really isn’t a big deal in the long term.
3. However, you don’t need to go to the other extreme, and completely ignore every healthful habit you’ve been working towards so far.

 
Thanks for reading. May you make the best gains.
 
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