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Summary
On episode 408 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan lays out how to get through the holiday season without losing your health and fitness progress.
He walks through the four pillars, food, activity, sleep, and stress, and comes back to the same two tools for each one: have a plan and have a strategy.
The goal isn't to avoid holiday food or family time, it's to go in with a plan so the season doesn't quietly undo months of work.
Links
- https://40plusfitness.com
Key Takeaways
- Plan and manage your plate at holiday meals. Allan aims for about 25 percent protein, 50 percent vegetables, and leaves the remaining quarter for a small taste of traditional sides or dessert, so indulgence stays a deliberate choice rather than a free for all.
- Bring or host a dish you control. Allan requests to make the turkey and brings a plain vegetable dish to family dinners, which guarantees at least half his plate is food he trusts even when the rest of the spread is heavy and processed.
- You don't have to attend every invitation, but if you go, go in with a plan. Deciding your plate strategy and your boundaries before you arrive keeps a party from derailing your week.
- Build a movement plan around a broken routine. Pack resistance bands for hotel workouts, do a bodyweight session on days the gym is closed, or join a Thanksgiving turkey trot instead of skipping activity altogether.
- Use accountability to protect workouts during time off. Allan suggests pairing up with a friend to promise a set number of workouts for the week and texting each other to confirm, since holiday schedules make it easy to let exercise slide.
- Treat the holidays as a chance to fix your sleep, not wreck it. With time off and shorter days, use the opportunity to find your ideal bedtime, cut back on late night TV and alcohol, and actually get seven to nine hours.
- Separate what you can control from what you can't with family stress. Allan uses the mantra that if something won't matter in five years, it isn't worth five minutes of worry now.
- Work strategically before time off so you can actually rest during it. Allan clears his inbox and finishes lingering tasks right up to the holiday so that when he does take time off, he isn't carrying work stress into it.
“If something is not going to be affecting you in five years, then it's not worth worrying about for five minutes.”
Coach Allan