In This Article
It’s late December. That means holiday season.
We are going through those liminal weeks between Christmas and New Year when the world seems to pause, but your body and mind are anything but still. Family gatherings stretch into the evening. Rich meals appear at every turn. Your usual routines dissolve. Travel disrupts your sleep. Late nights blur into slow mornings.
And underneath it all, that familiar whisper: “I’ll get back on track in January.”
Many people struggle with how to not gain weight during holidays while still enjoying festive celebrations.
The common approach is often extreme though: either strict discipline or complete abandon. But here’s the paradox: The week that feels like it should be about rest often leaves us feeling worse. We abandon our foundations in the name of celebration, then spend the first weeks of January clawing back what we lost.
What if you didn’t need to fall off track at all?
What if there was a third way?
One that shows you how to balance holiday indulgence and health, letting you stay grounded, energized, and fully present for the people and moments that matter most? After working with over 60 high-performing leaders through multiple holiday seasons, Markus and I learned this: the people who come out of the holidays feeling strong don’t do more. They do less, but with intention.
They follow three simple principles that take less than 30 minutes a day.
And they never sacrifice the magic of the season to do it.
Here’s the simple but highly effective framework we use.
"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."
Principle 1: Keep Movement Simple
Holiday Fitness Tips: Your Holiday Maintenance Protocol
Most people approach holiday fitness with an all-or-nothing mindset.
Either you’re hitting the gym for full workouts (which rarely happens with family in town and disrupted schedules), or you’re doing nothing at all.
But your body doesn’t need intensity during the holidays. It needs consistency.
The goal isn’t to maintain peak performance. It’s to maintain your foundation, the baseline of mobility, strength, and energy that keeps you feeling like yourself.
That’s where the Holiday Maintenance Protocol comes in: three 10-minute movement practices that anchor your day, no gym required.
Morning Mobility Flow (10 minutes)
Before the day gets away from you, before the first family member wakes up or the first email arrives, spend 10 minutes moving through your body’s full range of motion.
Think: hip circles, spinal waves, shoulder rolls, deep squats, and gentle twists. Nothing fancy. Just waking up the joints with full body awareness, to remind your nervous system that you’re safe in your body.
This practice does three things: it clears brain fog, reduces stiffness from travel or unfamiliar beds, and sets a calm, intentional tone for the day ahead.
Post-Meal Walk (10 minutes)
After your biggest meal of the day, whether it’s Christmas lunch or a festive dinner, take a 10-minute walk.
The intention is not burning calories. You walk for blood sugar regulation. Walking after eating helps your muscles absorb glucose more efficiently, which means more stable energy, better mood, and less post-meal I-need-lie-down-to-take-a-nap crashes.
Bonus: it’s a natural break from intense family dynamics. Sometimes the best gift you can give yourself is 10 minutes of fresh air and space.
Evening Stretch Before Bed (10 minutes)
End your day with 10 minutes of slow, deep stretching. Focus on the hips, hamstrings, and shoulders. That are the areas that carry the most tension.
This practice signals to your nervous system that it can rest. It counteracts the physical stress of travel, long meals, and holiday stimulation. And it dramatically improves sleep quality, which is your foundation for everything else.
Maintaining Your Fitness Routine During Travel
One of the biggest challenges during the holidays is maintaining your fitness routine during travel. The good news? These three 10-minute practices work anywhere—hotel rooms, guest bedrooms, even airport lounges.
The morning mobility flow requires nothing but floor space. The post-meal walk works in any neighborhood or even up and down hotel corridors. The evening stretch can happen in the smallest spaces. No equipment. No excuses. Just staying in the game.
Principle 2: Eat Without Restriction or Guilt
The 80/20 Holiday Eating Strategy
Here’s what doesn’t work during the holidays: strict meal plans, food rules, and guilt-driven restriction.
You’re surrounded by special foods you only see once a year. Family recipes. Festive treats. Meals tied to memory and tradition. Trying to white-knuckle your way through that is a recipe for misery… and it always backfires.
The 80/20 Holiday Strategy is different. It’s built on permission + joy.
The idea: 80% of your meals are anchored in protein-rich, nutrient-dense foods that stabilize your blood sugar and keep you energized. The other 20% is full permission to enjoy the special stuff — the desserts, the drinks, the festive meals — without guilt.
The Psychology of Guilt-Free Eating (and not gain weight)
Eat whatever you want, no guilt.
A study published in the journal Appetite found that participants who associated chocolate cake with guilt were significantly less successful at maintaining their weight over an 18-month period compared to those who associated it with celebration.
The guilt group showed higher levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) after eating foods they labeled as “bad,” which directly impaired their metabolic response and increased fat storage. Meanwhile, the celebration group — who gave themselves full permission to enjoy special foods mindfully — maintained stable weight and reported better overall well-being.
The lesson: guilt doesn’t protect you from weight gain. It causes it. Permission, paired with intention, is what allows you to enjoy holiday foods without physiological or psychological backlash.
4 Holiday Mindful Eating Tips to Navigate the Buffet Table
Start with protein and vegetables. Fill half your plate before you even look at the rest. Then add what you actually want, not what you think you “should” have, but what will genuinely make the meal enjoyable.
This is an intentional strategy to eat well and feel good, so you can be fully present for the conversation and connection happening around the table.
Managing Family Dinners Like a Pro
Before you arrive, eat a small protein-rich meal or snack. This stabilizes your blood sugar and prevents you from arriving starving, which is when we make choices we later regret.
At the table, eat slowly. Put your fork, spoon, knife, down between bites, letting your hands rest briefly on the table. Enjoy the food. Notice when you’re satisfied, not stuffed to the brim. Remember: you can always have more later if you want it.
The Festive Drinks Question
If you’re going to drink, sandwich it between protein and water. Have a glass of water between each drink. Pair alcohol with food, not an empty stomach.
And here’s the real key: decide in advance how much you’ll drink. Make it an intentional choice. Because hangovers don’t just ruin the next morning. They derail your energy, mood, and decision-making for 48 hours.
The Anchor Meal Principle
No matter how chaotic the day gets, protect one meal. One anchor meal that’s protein-rich, nutrient-dense, and makes you feel good.
For most people, us included, that’s breakfast. A simple egg-based meal or protein smoothie that sets the tone for the day. This gives your body one solid foundation to build on.
This is such a wonderful time of the year. Enjoy the special meals. Eat the desserts. Savor the treats. Just anchor the rest of your day with foods that support your energy, mood, and focus. That’s intention.
Principle 3: Make Calm Your Default
The holidays spike your nervous system in ways that most people don’t recognize.
Family dynamics resurface old patterns. Travel creates low-grade stress. End-of-year pressure compounds. Even the good stuff — the excitement, the stimulation, the late nights — pushes your system into overdrive.
And when your nervous system is dysregulated, life crumbles. Sleep suffers. Cravings intensify. Patience evaporates. You snap at the people you love. You lose access to your best self.
That’s why the third principle is your anchor.
The 5-Minute Grounding Practice
Every day, ideally in the morning or before bed, take 5 minutes to regulate your nervous system.
Like this:
Step 1: Breathwork (2 minutes)
Sit comfortably. Close your eyes. Breathe in for a count of 4, hold for 4, exhale for 8. The longer exhale activates your parasympathetic nervous system — the rest-and-digest state.
Repeat for 2 minutes. If your mind wanders, that’s normal. Just come back to the breath.
Step 2: Orienting (3 minutes)
Open your eyes. Without moving your head, slowly scan the room around you. Let your eyes move from object to object — a window, a chair, a plant — without focusing too hard on any one thing.
Notice shapes, colors, textures. Let your gaze soften. This practice tells your nervous system: “I am here. I am safe. I am present.”
It sounds simple. And it is. Orienting is one of the most powerful tools for resetting a stressed nervous system. It pulls you out of your head and back into your body and the present moment.
Or try the short practice below.
Why Holiday Stress Management Matters
When your nervous system is calm, you respond instead of react. You stay patient with family. You make better food choices. You sleep better. You enjoy the moments instead of rushing through them.
This 5-minute practice is your insurance policy. It’s the anchor that keeps you grounded when everything else feels chaotic.
You can’t control the holiday chaos. But you can control how your nervous system responds to it. Five minutes a day. Breathwork and orienting. That’s your anchor.
The Real Gift of This Framework
The Holiday Paradox isn’t about choosing between discipline and joy. It’s about building a foundation strong enough that you don’t have to choose at all.
Thirty minutes a day. Three simple practices. Move your body, anchor your nutrition, calm your nervous system.
That’s it.
This framework shows you how to balance holiday indulgence and health without sacrifice. You don’t abandon your wellness practices, and you don’t miss out on the celebrations. You do both—mindfully, intentionally, joyfully.
And when you do this, something shifts. You show up differently. You’re more present at the dinner table. More patient with your kids. More energized for the moments that matter. Less anxious about January.
Because you didn’t fall off track. You stayed anchored to what makes you feel good. And the best thing? You actually never missed the magic.
The holidays aren’t about perfection, never were. They’re about presence, connection, and joy. These three practices help you show up fully, for yourself, your loved ones, and the life you’re building.
Ready to Transform Your Body and Become Your Fittest YOU?
You don’t have to choose between enjoying the holidays and feeling good in your body.
The three principles in this guide (movement, nutrition, and nervous system regulation) are just the beginning of what’s possible when you build a complete system for your health and energy.
Two more ways we can help:
If you’re ready for personalized support:
Our Executive Energy Evolution is a 12- or 24-week private coaching program designed for high-achieving professionals who want to build lasting strength, stable energy, and calm focus — without gym memberships, restrictive diets, or burnout.
We work 1:1 with a small number of clients to create sustainable transformations across movement, nutrition, and stress regulation.
If you want to learn the fundamentals first:
Join our free 5-Day Holistic Fitness Email Course and discover how to get fit, stay energized, and feel calm — without gyms, restrictive diets, or hours meditating.
You’ll get daily lessons on functional movement, Mediterranean nutrition, somatic stress management, and how to make it all stick.
