Planned Flexibility – Dealing with Holiday Fear

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I think we all have blocks between us and the best version of ourselves, whether it’s shyness, insecurity, anxiety, whether it’s a physical block, and the story of a person overcoming that block to their best self. It’s truly inspiring because I think all of us are engaged in that every day.
––Tom Hooper

​Many of us look forward to the winter holidays to travel, spend time with family, and “eat all the food”. I’m not one of those people.
 
I worry about replacing my secure, solid routine with the unpredictable chaos family celebrations can be. I get anxious about leaving my home for a different house in a different country (my own family is in Italy, my partner’s in America), with different rules to learn and respect. I dread having less control over food and exercise than I do in the comfort of my daily life. For all these reasons, making the decision to go on holiday in the first place is a feat of strength. In fact, “travelling abroad at least once” was one of my long-term goals for the six-month period from September 2018 to March 2019.
 
In the past, my go-to strategy to face holiday fear was to shame myself for my anxieties and try to “go with the flow”. It was a disaster. I can’t go with the flow. Without a plan, I feel lost and anxious, so I become rigid and unforgiving about everything else (food, exercise, etc.) in a lacklustre attempt to be flexible about what’s going to happen next. It may sound like a paradox, but the “flow” makes me more strict.
 
Now I don’t dismiss those fears or reject my Type A personality anymore. Instead, I try to channel that personality into finding ways to curb anxiety and enhance flexibility. In this article, I’m going to share some of these strategies. If anything I said so far resonates with you, feel free to borrow my tips!

Food
 
Over the festive period, following my customised IIFYM guidelines may not always be possible. However, a few adjustments should minimise food-related stress and optimise nutrition: 

• Aim for +/- 5/10 gr per macronutrient target: If you want to or can track all macronutrients, albeit not too strictly, then your objective can be to stay within 5-10 gr of your usual target. For example, at the moment I’m eating 228 gr of carbs every day. Over the holidays, I will settle for a range, from 218 gr (228 – 10 gr) to 238 gr (228 + 10 gr). This will keep you in the right nutritional ballpark, give or take a few grams, which won’t have any sizeable impact on your fitness. If you already stay within 5-10 gr of your targets on a regular basis, then make the range slightly broader, for instance 10-15 gr.

 

• Focus on protein: Sometimes, tracking all macros – even in a more flexible way, as detailed above – is an unrealistic expectation, but you can still cut your losses. Protein is the most important macronutrient for muscle growth, so aim to prioritise its intake over tracking carbs, fat, and even calories. This is because it’s hard to predict energy expenditure while on holiday: for instance, my usual maintenance calories may put me in a caloric deficit if I’m walking much more than I would at home. In this case, keeping protein high would help me preserve muscle mass. On the other hand, if I eat a surplus of calories, protein will promote muscle gain.

 

• Don’t cut: Going on a restrictive diet at this time would most likely drive you mad. Planning for the festive period to be a maintenance or, even better, a bulking phase  gives much more room to enjoy Christmas dinner and other celebrations. Personally, I’m bulking and upping my intake slightly for the next couple of weeks, which I’m spending in South Florida with my partner’s family. I saw my weight decrease a little before leaving England, so the increase in calories will allow me to keep bulking up or at least maintain my physique until I get back home and return to my normal schedule.

 

• Be honest: Honesty and a bit of self-irony will go a long way in helping loved ones accept and respect your habits, even if they’re different from what they’re used to. Since my past food-related behaviours were rooted into a mental illness, I was ashamed of them and refused to talk about them. Now, my behaviours reflect healthier goals, so I intend to start sharing them proudly. If I’m honest with friends and family and explain why food and exercise are an important aspect of my lifestyle, they will be more likely to show support. It’s also a way to involve them in and get them interested in what I’m doing: self-experimenting with training and diet to utilise my findings with future personal training clients. Maybe some day they willbe clients, so why not?

 
Exercise
 
The key word here is forward planning:

• Work out in the morning: Scheduling early morning workouts is especially useful during the holidays. Whether you’re staying with family or at a hotel with your partner, exercising as soon as you get up means your training won’t get in anyone’s way – and vice versa – since everyone will be asleep or at most making breakfast. In fact, for this reason I prefer working out in the morning on a regular basis. If you’re used to afternoon workouts, it’s normal to experience some more fatigue or a decrease in performance while your body adjusts to the time difference.

 

• Find a gym: Nowadays, many gyms and fitness centres stay open even on Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve. When my partner and I booked our flight for her hometown in Florida, I asked for her father’s address and scouted the surrounding area to find a suitable gym. Upon our arrival, we visited it together the day before we worked out there for the first time (this morning) so that we could register in person and know what to expect.

 

• Bring some low-key equipment: I usually pack my wrist and ankle weights, gloves, and laptop, so I have access to some workout videos. I can fit this equipment into my carry-on suitcase, my only luggage, and get a good workout session anywhere. Other relatively inexpensive tools you can bring with you are resistance bands, ropes, suspension trainers, doorway chin-up bars, and light dumbbells or kettlebells.

 

• Take a deload week: A deload is a phase of your training in which you reduce the amount of work you do in the gym (sets, reps, load, or all three), while frequency (the number of times you train) stays the same. It’s a good option for a short holiday if you think you’ll be more active than usual, as you may accumulate more fatigue and stress. Moreover, deloading will also mean less time spent in the gym and more energy out of it. I’ll be in Florida for 10 days, effectively a week and a half, so I’ve planned my deload during the week beginning on Christmas Eve, the last week of 2018.

 
Mindset
 
I can always rely on science to cheer me up. To gain a pound of fat in a week, I would have to eat 500 calories above my maintenance intake every day. It’s not impossible, but it’s quite difficult. Moreover, a study from last year shows that two full weeks without training don’t produce any declines in strength or hypertrophy.
 
Let’s contemplate my worst case scenario for a minute: what if I couldn’t exercise or track macros for the full 10 days? According to scientific research, if I was at least careful to keep protein high, I wouldn’t experience any substantial loss in terms of muscle mass and overall fitness.
 

 
For some people, this post might look like a study in planning madness, but for me it’s a way to embrace who I am while improving my flexibility. I tried to be 100% adaptable and failed miserably. Planned flexibility, as I like to call it, seems to be working much better so far.
 
In Future Episodes:
 
My last post of the year will be an update on my bulking phase, tackling my workout, nutrition, mindset, and other interesting stuff. Speak soon!
 
Your Turn:
 
What are your “holiday hacks”? Share them in a comment!