The holiday season often means packed calendars, filled with family gatherings, work parties, and festive get-togethers. Right now, we’re in the thick of it. But how do we approach these events without feeling either deprived or overly indulgent? How do we navigate our nutrition in a way that aligns with our goals instead of calling it quits and just “starting over in January?” Let’s talk about it…

There will always be periods of time, whether it’s weeks, months, or years, where you may not be able to maintain your leanest or fittest point, and that’s normal. But if you take time to build foundational skills and habits, you can keep that maintenance range in a place that feels good to you. And you can always return to some of those more time-intensive skills and practices when capacity allows. 

The holiday season often conjures images of festive gatherings, joyous celebrations, and, inevitably, alcohol. For many, these moments include a glass of wine, a cocktail, or a beer to toast the occasion. However, an increasing number of people are becoming "sober curious," re-evaluating their relationship with alcohol. This movement isn't about outright abstinence but about mindfulness and understanding how alcohol impacts our bodies, especially concerning health and fitness goals. Let's explore how alcohol affects our health, particularly in the realms of fat loss, sleep, and overall wellness.

A maintenance phase is arguably the most important season of our nutrition since it’s where we can best focus on the habits that help us find harmony with our physical, mental, emotional, and social health. Without the prioritization of changing our bodies, the other aspects of our lives that we value can better be at the forefront. However, that doesn’t mean that body composition can’t remain in the periphery. The foundational habits that we develop before or alongside a focused fat loss phase, with the goal of long-term physical change, continuously support small aesthetic changes over time.

If you’re in a calorie deficit and working towards fat loss goals, a main goal should be minimizing any feelings of restriction or hunger so you can maximize adherence to your deficit. This is why we, as coaches, take a strong stance against aggressive and unsustainable deficits. If our hunger is through the roof each day, it’s not very likely that we’ll be able to adhere to that calorie deficit for long. Luckily, there are tools that can help us minimize hunger and, luckily, those same tools also keep us well-fueled and promote our overall health as well.

I think we all technically know that our weight is just an arbitrary number on a device that doesn't mean that much, but it can still be difficult to let go of the anxiety and frustration that this number sometimes carries. It's easy to step on the scale and either feel proud when we see the number has decreased or hopeless when it hasn't. This is because we have this idea that the number on the scale equates to our self-worth. Rather than just suggesting that you don't let the number on the scale bother you, I want to delve deeper into how we can utilize the number on the scale as a measure of progress alongside other metrics, or how we can step away from the scale entirely -- and how to decide which option is best for us.

As someone who reentered the dating world a few years ago, I never fully understood the concept of red flags. And then, suddenly, I understood the dialogue. It seemed like I was in a parade, and red flags were readily available and in abundance. But dating doesn't have the monopoly on red flags. Our bodies often wave a giant red flag in front of us, and we seem to be colorblind to it. But I want to draw your attention to calorie deficit red flags, how a reverse diet can address those red flags, and whether a reverse diet may be appropriate for you.

There is quite a bit of misinformation behind the idea of intermittent fasting. Some sources claim that it is the ‘best’ way to pursue fat loss, others boast mental clarity, and some boldly imply that it is as simple as skipping breakfast and then getting abs.  The truth is that we all practice IF to some extent; when we sleep, we are fasting. This period of fasting is important for helping regulate blood lipids and blood pressure, reducing inflammation markers, and stimulating metabolism (all totally normal processes in our bodies). The claim that IF is a helpful fat loss strategy stems from these benefits, but doesn’t mean it’s the magic pill you’ve been looking for.

The idea of what is “healthy” is nuanced. A salad can be healthy as it’s filled with micronutrients, and a cookie can be healthy when we allow ourselves to enjoy it guilt-free. It’s important to note that fast food can be consumed in a way that isn’t as healthful if opting for super calorie-dense options that lack nutrients, but most fast food restaurants do have options that are more aligned with goals of eating healthfully.  Fast food is not bad, nor is any singular food bad or good, because they exist within the context of our goals and life circumstances.

Reverse diets may also be helpful if you’ve been eating a deficit for a long period of time and want to get an idea for what your current maintenance calorie needs are.  It can be beneficial to slowly increase calories to make sure you’re keeping the habits you established while in your calorie deficit, rather than just considering the end of your deficit to be a signal to just stop being mindful of your nutrition altogether. Chances are that your ideal maintenance nutrition doesn’t look much different than your deficit nutrition – just slightly larger meals and a little extra flexibility.

There is so much nuance in talking about the topic of a calorie deficit. From navigating a deficit in a sustainable way to recognizing if your body is even ready for a deficit, there are so many different factors to consider.

It’s just as important to develop strategies for times when you don’t have the capacity for laser focus as it is to maintain consistency when you’re aggressively pursuing a goal.  Maybe even more so, because you will have times in your life where your nutrition-related goals have to take a back seat.

When considering fat loss, the number one thing we talk about is energy balance. In order to lose fat, it’s necessary to eat a calorie deficit (eating less calories than you expend). However, our bodies aren’t made to exist in a calorie deficit forever.  Enter: the maintenance phase. 

One part of our nutrition that I think can be really empowering is learning to address appetite through the typical ebbs and flows of life. This means when we’re sick, hot, busy, etc. and appetite is low (or gone completely); and when we’re more active or a little munchy and appetite is higher than normal. In either of these situations, knowledge of our nutrition allows us to tailor our food choices to how we’re feeling, so we can still honor our hunger and fullness cues and continue to fuel ourselves well.

In most general cases, we think of metabolism as the processes that convert food and drink into energy that we can use. It’s a hot topic in today’s nutrition sphere as it so closely correlates to fat loss and dieting, but in a broader sense, our human metabolisms are all of the processes that work in our cells to keep us alive, down to the cellular level.

If you want to reduce your body fat percentage, build muscle mass, reach a goal weight, or improve strength in the gym, tailoring your nutrition to your goals is absolutely essential to achieving those goals.

Some stress is considered vital for a happy and healthy life. Stress challenges us to adapt and overcome obstacles by learning new things, and stress motivates us to set and progress toward personal goals. On the other hand, too much stress that goes unrelieved can have negative consequences on our health and fitness goals, on top of negatively impacting our emotional health and well-being.

Even if you have composition goals, your current body is fully deserving of your respect. Learning to respect your body even if you have composition goals is one of the first ways to start building that confidence.