5 Fool-Proof Ways to Successfully Navigate All the Holiday Treats
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The holidays can be an extremely hard time for those who have fitness goals, you have temptation surrounding you, yet at the same time, you don’t want to deprive yourself. How do you navigate through it? IS IT POSSIBLE to keep working towards your fitness goals while still enjoying the holiday says? I know many of you think NO, but I’m here to tell you that you CAN with the five tips I’m about to share with you.
TRANSCRIPT:
Hey hey, beautiful human. Can I steal five minutes of your time? I have something super important to share with you, but I promise I'll be really quick. You're listening to my weekly bonus episode of Embrace your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter. I'm about to give you a quick tip for building your confidence, honoring your body and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real, let's get it, let's go.
Hello and welcome back to another bonus episode of the Embrace Real podcast. So grateful that you are here spending some time with me today. I know that the holidays can be an extremely hard time for those of you who have fitness goals. There's temptations surrounding you yet. At the same time, you don't want to deprive yourself. So how do you navigate through it all? I'm here to tell you that it is possible to keep working towards your health and fitness goals. I know that many of you guys might think no, but you absolutely can. Especially using these five tips that I'm about to share with you in today's episode.
So let's dive right into it. Tip number one, you have to give yourself permission to eat the treats. The more permission we give ourselves without guilt, the less control the treats actually have over us. And the less likely we will be to overindulge. So please give yourself permission and you won't have to fight the annoying battle of trying to restrict yourself. Speaking from experience, I know that it sounds silly to give yourself permission, but subconsciously we often don't allow ourselves it. We make ourselves feel guilty. We tell ourselves this narrative that is making us feel like we can't do it. So by you verbally saying, I eat the freaking cookie or eat the brownie or whatever holiday treat that is your favorite. Give yourself permission to eat it, guilt free. And every single bite even, you can say, this is so delicious and really try to soak it in and allow yourself to actually enjoy the treat without any of the guilt.
Tip number two, do not skip meals. I know a lot of women will skip meals because they ate something they 'shouldn't have' or because they're going to a gathering where they know there will be lots of food that they think is unhealthy. The issue with skipping meals to make up for what you ate or what you're going to eat is that you're going to cause yourself to become ravenously hungry. And when you reach that point of feeling so hungry you can't take it anymore, guess what? You're likely going to overindulge, plain and simple. It's better to nourish your body with what you need and then have control when the plate of holiday treats is in front of you. Than under nourish yourself and have zero control, nourish your body and you will crave less.
Which leads me to tip number three, focus on protein. So whenever I go to holiday gatherings, I concentrate on loading up my plate with protein first. Because protein is the most satiating macro, filling up on protein will allow me to feel fuller longer. And it also prevents me from wanting to completely overindulge. If you know for a fact that there won't be any protein at this holiday party, I encourage you to eat protein before going. Whether it's a proper protein packed dinner or a quick protein shake. Regardless of the source, getting your protein will help you to have more control in the moment. Simply because like I said, protein is the most satiating of the three macro nutrients. And that's really going to help you feel fuller longer, which will allow you to still enjoy your treats in moderation, but not feel so overly hungry, which will lead you to just eating all of these holiday treats, but not really curbing your hunger. If that makes sense.
Tip number four, only eat what you really want to eat. Avoid eating something just because it's in front of you. If you're going to eat holiday treats, reserve it for treats that you're actually craving and actually taste good. If you bite into a cookie or a brownie or some sort of holiday treat and you don't love it, you don't have to finish eating it. If everyone else is eating treats, but it doesn't look great to you, you don't have to eat it just because everyone else is. So I want to encourage you to only focus on eating the treats that you love. So that way you're not eating foods that you get to the end of it and you're like, that wasn't even that good. Trust me, I've been there, I've done that. And I have come to find that when I actually allow myself to eat the foods that I truly truly love, I enjoy it 10 times more.
And tip number five, if possible, learn how to properly fuel your body for the majority of the holiday season. For those of you guys who've tuned in for a while, you guys know I'm a firm believer in counting macros. I believe that that is one of the best ways to simply nourish your body with what it needs through protein, carbs and fats. It can be a foolproof way to help you stay on track, because it gives you the best of both worlds. You're able to eat the foods that you love while still working towards your goals. And I'm here to tell you that I know it is not realistic to count macros a hundred percent of the time, or even 90% of the time in the holiday season.
So if you already count macros and you're feeling down on yourself because you find yourself not hitting your macros in the month of December, please know that that is normal. What I actually decided to do in the month of December with my Make December Count challenge, which is on Instagram, you can find the template on my highlight story, MDC template. Basically what I am doing for the month of December is I am focusing on my protein intake and I'm focusing on my water intake. That's going to be most realistic for me. And I figure that that would be most realistic for the majority of people as well.
Because like I said earlier, protein is one of the most satiating of the three macros. So it's not only going to ensure that I feel fuller longer, but it does help me manage my cravings. But I know firsthand that I'm not going to be able to count macros every single day this month. And that's okay. So if you are in that boat where you typically count your macros, please give yourself some grace. What you can do is focus on the days that you are not busy and you're in the semi-normal routine. Focusing on nourishing your body through the macros that you need. On the days that you have holiday parties or things that you need to go to, just focus on trying to get enough protein intake, and then allow yourself the sweets and treats and moderation.
But if you are in the other boat where you don't know how to nourish your body, I would encourage you to learn the tool of macro counting. Simply because it is one of the best tools to have in your toolbox. So that when something like the holidays come around, you already have the tool of learning how to fit your favorite foods in moderation into your daily intake. So it's not completely new to you. So if you want to learn more about how to calculate your macros, you can check out my Macro Counting Made Simple online academy. We give you your customized macros. We teach you step by step how to do it. For the entire month of December this program is 50% off. Yes, five zero percent off. And you can head over to macrocountingmadesimple.com. You can learn all about it there.
But like I said, just how to properly fuel your body this month, that simple tool can actually help you succeed when you find yourself in situations where it's more likely that you are just eating mindfully. You're eating the sweets and treats in moderation because you already have that tool in your toolbox.
So let me recap those five things. Number one, give yourself permission to eat the treats. Number two, don't skip your meals. Number three, focus on protein. Number four, only eat what you really want to eat. And number five, if you haven't already, learn the tool of macro counting to help you nourish your body and have that solid foundation in the midst of the holiday season. So that you have a baseline to go back to of how much that your body needs on a regular basis to properly fill your body.
Remember at the end of the day, it's what you do the majority of the time. So if you are consistently, properly fueling your body and allowing yourself those sweets and treats in moderation to fit into your daily allotment of macros, it is totally fine when you have that one or two meals or days throughout the month where you are not counting your macros, you're not following your macros. You're just eating mindfully. Again you can go to macrocountingmadesimple.com to get your macros calculated, and you can start counting them this holiday season to stay on track, if you haven't already. That program for the entire month of December is 50% off at macrocountingmadesimple.com.
Thank you so much for tuning in. I hope that these five foolproof ways to successfully navigate all of the holiday treats was helpful. I would love to hear your thoughts so be sure to screenshot this, post it up on your story, tag me Julie Ledbetter, tag Embrace Your Real account. And we will talk to you in the next episode.
All right sister, that's all I got for you today. But I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you are not already following me on the gram, be sure to do Julie A Ledbetter. Yes, it's with an A in the middle. For that daily post-workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple podcast to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world, and I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it.