By: Chris Gates

As I type this, the holiday season is upon us.

We’re just about to run through one of the most fun stretches of the year! From Thanksgiving through New Years Day, there are no shortage of fun events, family gatherings, festive meals, and more waiting for you.

But while it’s a fun period of time, I understand it might admittedly be a very challenging period of time for you as well.

With the holidays comes…

• Social situations full of food and snacks…
• Calories galore from delicious home cooked meals…
• Alcohol and other seasonal drinks that are hard to resist…

And many other factors that can make managing your health and fitness pretty difficult.

I mean, if we’re being honest.. Many people set weight loss resolutions for the new year because of gaining a bunch of weight over the holidays.

And I’m gonna be straight with you. This article isn’t going to teach you the finer points of dieting during the holidays so you don’t gain any weight at all.

Nope. Not even close.

Instead, what you’ll learn in this article is how to enjoy the best of the holiday season while managing things around your special gatherings and meals to maximize the holiday season from all angles.

Rather than focusing on strict dieting, we’ll discuss how to mindfully navigate the holiday season, with a particular emphasis on the days between the big celebrations.

So if that sounds good to you, and you’re ready to manage your health, fitness, and fun… Let’s dive in!

Here’s how to eat healthy during the holidays.

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To Start, Set Realistic Goals and Expectations

The first step toward enjoying the holidays guilt-free is setting realistic goals.

Trying to “diet” through Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year’s gatherings only leads to stress and often takes away from the enjoyment of these special moments.

So don’t put yourself through that.

Think about it… Do you really want to look back on this year’s Thanksgiving or Christmas as the one where you missed out on all the fun. Or felt removed from experiencing everything with your family and friends?

Of course you don’t.

So instead, approach your holiday eating with a mindset of flexibility and balance.

• Focus on Enjoyment Over Perfection: It’s okay to indulge at holiday gatherings; these are not the days to focus on restriction. Each individual holiday comes once a year, and you should allow yourself to fully enjoy your favorite dishes without guilt.
• Prioritize Balance on Non-Holiday Days: The real opportunity to manage your diet comes in the days between events. If you plan to indulge for a holiday meal, aim to get right back on track the next day and approach your diet just like you would any other day. Prioritize protein, eat lots of fruits and vegetables, and keep your calories in check. This will help you feel energized and healthy.

Setting reasonable goals, like maintaining your weight on average — or even just focusing on enjoying time with family — will allow you to go into each event with a positive outlook and reduce massive amounts of stress.

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How to Eat Healthy During the Holidays: Plan Ahead and Be Mindful

Preparation is key to avoiding the common pitfalls of holiday overeating. And research has consistently found meal planning to be a major factor in successful weight management.

And really, this isn’t any different than any other part of the year. If you want to stay on track, you need to plan ahead and have a game plan for situations that fall outside of your normal routine.

During the holidays, planning is just as, if not more important. Want to enjoy yourself, have fun, and stay on track?

Plan ahead.

• Put Holiday Events on Your Calendar: Yes, I mean physically get this stuff on a calendar, whether it be on your phone, on paper, whatever. Visualizing what’s coming up will make it easier to plan.
• Manage Your Diet Before and After Events: If you know you have a holiday gathering coming up, adjust your diet before and after to create added flexibility. Plan to incorporate lots of lighter, protein-focused meals with fruits and veggies in order to leave room for a satisfying holiday meal. (We’ll touch more on how to manage your diet in the next section about calorie cycling).
• Prioritize Your Favorite Foods: Instead of trying to sample every dish at a party or dinner, identify the foods you really love and focus on enjoying those. For example, for me Thanksgiving is about my mom’s stuffing and mashed potatoes — not really the chips, dips, or sides that are sitting out on every table. So I focus on filling up on the foods that are really meaningful to me. This strategy can help YOU indulge on what’s most meaningful to YOU while keeping portions under control.

Being mindful doesn’t mean restricting yourself; it’s about making intentional choices that help you enjoy the holiday while staying on track with your goals.

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My Favorite Flexible Dieting Strategy: Calorie Cycling

We’ve made it to my favorite part of how to eat healthy during the holidays: Calorie cycling.

The strategy I’m about to outline for you is one that makes holiday eating a breeze while eliminating tons of stress. And it’s one you can use any time of the year when there are big events on your calendar.

Calorie cycling involves having higher-calorie and lower-calorie days throughout the week. And by cycling your calories, you can slightly reduce calories on some days of the week to build up a massive bank of calories on other days.

Let me explain with an example…

• Let’s say you regularly diet on 2,000 calories per day.
• If you were to reduce your calories very slightly on six days of the week — let’s say, just 200 a day — then in essence you’d “save up” 1,200 calories. (200 calories per day, multiplied by 6 days = 1,200 calories total.)
• Those 1,200 calories you “saved up” can be reallocated to the seventh day of your week for a big meal.

You can read my comprehensive breakdown of the calorie cycling strategy if you want to learn more.

Example: Calorie Cycling

For the purposes of this example, let’s say you wanted to build a bunch of flexibility into Thanksgiving Day. What you can do is take those 1,200 calories and build them into Thanksgiving, and you’ll have a grand total of 3,200 calories to eat that day.

Your week would look like this…

• Monday: 1,800 calories
• Tuesday: 1,800 calories
• Wednesday: 1,800 calories
• Thanksgiving Day: 3,200 calories
• Friday: 1,800 calories
• Saturday: 1,800 calories
• Sunday: 1,800 calories

And making the slight reduction is easy. Simply eliminating one snack a day should remove 200 calories from those days around Thanksgiving. And a little goes a long way.

Calorie cycling will help you build massive amounts of flexibility into your holiday.

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How to Eat Healthy During the Holidays: Handling Parties and Buffets

Parties and buffets can be challenging. And in an article about how to eat healthy during the holidays, it’s a topic we HAVE to address.

If you’re a guest at a party, or dining out at a restaurant, it’s hard to eyeball the food and know how many calories you’re eating.

But don’t worry. You don’t have to be ruthlessly meticulous with every single bite that goes in your mouth.

There are a few simple cues you can use to enjoy a party or buffet without going overboard.

• Survey Before Serving: When faced with a buffet or large spread, take a quick look at all the options before filling your plate. This way, you can find the foods you want to prioritize, as well as locate some of the nutritious options like protein, fruits, veggies, etc.
• Stick to One Plate: It’s quite honestly pretty hard to go way overboard when you limit yourself to one plate of food. The calorie overload tends to happen when you go back for seconds and thirds. So just grab a plate, fill it up with whatever you want, and make that your entire holiday meal.
• Slow Down Your Eating: It’s easy to get carried away with all the food options available. You don’t need to inhale everything in sight as quickly as possible. In fact, eating very fast can make it hard to accurately identify your body’s hunger signals and know when you’re full. So slow down, enjoy those foods you love, and make it an enjoyable experience — not a race.

If you can put those three tactics into action, you’ll have an amazing meal without feeling overwhelmingly stuffed, regretting your nutritional decisions, or feeling guilty.

OK… What About Alcohol

Admittedly, food isn’t the only thing that gets people in trouble during the holidays.

Alcohol plays a big role, too.

Holiday drinks can add up quickly in terms of calories, and alcohol can lower inhibitions around food choices. That combination of empty calories plus impaired nutritional decision making can be one that causes a lot of damage.

So, here are some practical tips for managing alcohol intake without missing out on festive beverages.

• Alternate with Water: For every alcoholic drink, alternate with a glass of water to stay hydrated and pace yourself. This can help reduce overall alcohol intake and prevent the “empty” calories from adding up.
• Choose Wisely: Opt for lighter drinks, such as wine, light beer, or spirits mixed with calorie-free mixers, rather than sugary cocktails or rich eggnogs. These choices can significantly lower calorie intake.
• Set a Drink Limit: Set a reasonable limit for yourself before the event to prevent drinking more than you intended.

With a few mindful choices, you can still enjoy holiday drinks while keeping your calorie intake manageable.

How to Eat Healthy During the Holidays: Managing Leftovers

Admittedly, managing your holiday itself is just one piece to the puzzle.

Any good holiday tends to come with leftovers that keep the party going for days (or even weeks).

They’re delicious, and something I think everybody looks forward to. But they can also be a trap that leads to excessive eating in the days following the celebration.

And this is where I think most people gain the bulk of their holiday body fat. It’s not the one meal you have at Thanksgiving or Christmas.

It’s the series of meals that occur afterwards that make each run-of-the-mill day feel like yet another holiday.

And while having stuffing readily available is one of my favorite holiday traditions, it’s also something you need to approach with a game plan in order to prevent things from going off the rails.

• Portion Out Leftovers: When it comes to leftovers, portion them out in advance into balanced meals to prevent overeating. Pair leftover turkey with a salad, or enjoy mashed potatoes with a side of veggies.
• Freeze Extras: If you have an abundance of food, consider freezing some of it to enjoy later in the season rather than eating it all within a few days.
• Get Back to Routine: After the big meal, return to your regular eating patterns as soon as possible. Having Thanksgiving dinner for breakfast, lunch, and dinner is probably overkill and unnecessary, so make it special and then move on.

Handling leftovers in a mindful way helps you get back into your routine while still enjoying the best parts of holiday meals.

Now, You Have A Plan… Good Luck!

The holidays are a time for celebration, connection, and creating memories — not a time for guilt or restriction.

Hopefully this article taught you how to eat healthy during the holidays while understanding that you can still enjoy every aspect of the season.

By setting realistic goals, planning ahead, and using strategies like calorie cycling, you can approach the season in a way that allows you to fully enjoy every moment without compromising your health goals.

And looks, if this all made sense but you need someone to help hold you accountable and take all of the guesswork out of your diet, exercise, and more…

I would love to help! Head over to my coaching page to learn about how we can work together to accomplish your health and fitness goals.

Happy holidays, and enjoy every bite!

~ Chris