How to Handle Holiday Food and Cravings Over 40

Nikkiey: The word diet, people think of it in terms of, I'm going on a diet because I need to lose 10 pounds in 30 days. And so I'm going to cut out everything that I've been doing and get to that goal in 30 days. And then once the goal is achieved, I can go back to doing all the things I was doing before I set out to achieve that goal. That's not a lifestyle change. That's just you getting on and off the hamster wheel of losing and gaining the same 10 pounds over and over and over again.

What's up, everyone? So this episode and the next few episodes over the coming weeks are going to be mashup episodes. Today's is all about mindful eating and helping you get ready for the holidays, Christmas and New Year's, over the next few weeks. And before we even dive in, I just want to say happy holidays to you all, happy New Year, and a big thank you. Seriously, thank you guys so much for all of your support this year, all of your listening and downloads to the episodes, all of your comments, all of your reviews. I'm genuinely grateful for every single one of you who has listened in and tuned in, who has shared these episodes, who has grown with me this year and has taken the advice and actually applied it.

All right, so let's get into this episode today, because this season, I feel like I blinked and it's already here. This season can be hectic. It can feel hectic. The travel, the food, the schedule changes, it's a lot. But today, just take a moment to listen and let the stress go away. Let me walk you through some simple, realistic strategies that will help you feel more in control, more confident and more aligned with your goals going into the holidays, without missing out on the moments that matter. All right, let's get into it.

Social events can feel like a landmine to your nutrition goals and to your fitness goals, right? So maybe you're wondering, how can I enjoy myself without feeling guilty or derailing my progress? Can I really stay consistent when I'm surrounded by drinks and food and friends that are also indulging in these luxuries as well? And the good news is you 1000% absolutely can. So that's what I want to talk about in today's episode. I want to share some practical strategies to help you approach these social events with confidence, with balance, and most importantly, with a mindset that lets you enjoy the moment without any regrets, and even afterwards without any regrets.

So the first thing I want to talk about is the mindset aspect. That's the first thing we need to address, because this is where most people trip up. Social events aren't just about food. They're about the connection. They're about the celebration. They're about being present. They're about catching up with your friends. But a lot of the time, everybody makes it all about the food. And that's where the guilt or the anxiety, and feeling like you messed up or you failed, can totally creep in.

So instead of going into a social event thinking, I have to be perfect, I've already tracked all of my meals, I can't eat anything off my plan, try reframing it as an opportunity to enjoy the people around you while making choices that align with your goals. It's not about the food. The really important aspect, no matter where you're at in your journey, is that typically you have some type of story or limiting belief around what you're trying to accomplish. So what you want to do is reframe that limiting belief in a way that's supportive.

We all know that when you go into social events, it's about the food. What food is going to be served? What is on the menu? What kind of drinks? What do I have access to? Instead, reframe it. Instead of thinking about it that way, think about it like, okay, I'm going to see family that I haven't seen in a while. And while you're there communicating and catching up and connecting, you can then secondarily make choices that align with your goals. So it's not about being restrictive, or being on or off your quote-unquote macros or your quote-unquote diet. It's about finding a balance that works for you in the moment.

And let's be real. Hear me loud and clear. One meal is not going to make or break your progress. What matters the most here is the consistency of your habits over time.

One of the best ways to feel confident at an event, I personally think, is to plan ahead. But don't overcomplicate it. So I want to give you a few things you can do before you show up to the event. The first thing I would say is, if you know what the event will have, specific types of food, whether it's a barbecue, a buffet or a sit-down dinner, you can plan your meals around it. If there's a menu, for example, you know where you're going to dinner and you can search the menu online, then I would, and I've told thousands of women to do this and it truly helps them mentally, look at that menu and see what options they have. Then you can plug and play that with your MyFitnessPal to see how you can plan your other meals around that meal.

Another example: if you know the dinner will be higher carb or higher fat, you can aim for more protein and veggies earlier in the day, in all of the other meals around the big meal. It's not about restricting yourself. It's about making adjustments that allow you to enjoy the event or the holiday without any type of stress.

Another one is, if you plan to drink, decide ahead of time how many drinks you're going to have and stick to that. Whether it's a wedding, an event, a dinner out with friends, Thanksgiving or the holidays coming up, think about how many drinks you're going to have. Two, three. Okay. And then stick to that. You don't need more than that. I'm feeling happy and cheery and talkative after just one or two because I don't drink often. So just know how many you're going to have and stick to it.

And then I would recommend opting for lower-calorie options, like the organic wines that are out there if you're a wine person. Me personally, I like tequila and club. You could do vodka and soda. Go more for the higher end, too. Tequila is a prebiotic or a probiotic, one of them, so it's good for your gut. That's why I love tequila. You won't find me drinking vodka. Vodka, for me, is just not good. Or you can opt for light beers or light seltzers. But most importantly, make sure that when you're having these drinks, you're also balancing it with tons and tons of water. Drink water, drink water.

Now let's talk about what to do when you're actually at the event, because you can plan all of these things, but how do you follow through with it? This is where the mindfulness and the balance really come into play. What I would recommend first is, when you arrive, take a moment to check out what's available before actually diving in, especially if you're at an event and you don't know what there will be. This gives you a chance to prioritize the foods that you really want rather than just grabbing everything in sight. I've personally been in a situation where I didn't survey all the options that were in front of me, maybe at a buffet at an event. There are so many options out there for you to enjoy, but you can ask yourself, what's worth it to me? What will I actually truly enjoy? You don't have to slap everything on your plate. You can just look at it and ask, do I like this, am I going to truly enjoy it, and is it worth it for me? So survey first. And then when you're ready to dive in, you've already mentally prepared and brought mindfulness around what you're going to go for.

The second thing I would say, whether you're at Christmas or anywhere else, because all of this coincides with how to stay on track while you're navigating these social events, is that if you're building a plate, start with protein and start with a veggie. Start with the turkey, start with the green bean casserole. But know that the green bean casserole also has other ingredients, and carbs and fats as well. That's going to help keep you satiated and satisfied and balanced, because the more protein you have on your plate, the more it's going to help you stay fuller and feel fuller. So it's going to make you less likely to overindulge. After that, add the fun stuff, like small portions of your favorite sides or desserts. If you're out to dinner, it's a little bit different. I would lean more toward that menu approach I talked about earlier, because it's just one meal. But if you're at an event with tons of options, this is the way I would navigate it.

Okay, so here's the mindset shift I want you to adopt during this holiday season, as you go into Christmas and New Year's: something is always better than nothing. If you can get in a quick workout, do it. If it's only 20 to 30 minutes, do it. If it's not four days a week but three days a week, do it. If you're short on time, focus on intensity over duration. Bring down the sets. Bring down the reps. Challenge yourself with a little bit heavier weight. You're not here to be perfect. You are here to stay consistent. Trust me now, believe me later. And trust that I believe in you, even if you don't believe in yourself that you can do this over the next three weeks. It's going in with a little bit more intention, and knowing that something is always better than nothing. If you're showing up for that something and getting in what you can get in that day, you're consistent. And that's all that matters.

I know one of the biggest challenges during the holidays is that your schedule is totally out of whack. What I want you to do, and this is what I did, is look at your calendar over the next year. I'm going to tell you exactly what I programmed for myself over the next three weeks. This week is pretty normal for me. I'm going to get a workout on Monday, a workout on Tuesday, a workout on Wednesday and a workout on Friday. All of the days around that, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, are off because I have plans for the weekend.

Now, moving into the holiday week of Christmas, this is what I did for myself. I put a workout on Monday the 23rd, and workouts on the 26th, the 27th and the 28th. I'm giving myself the 24th and the 25th off. And this is the beauty of only working out four days a week. Let's say I don't feel like it on the 26th. I'm still feeling the holiday bliss, I'm still relaxing, I'm really kicking it back with family. Maybe there are some plans we decided to do the day after Christmas. I will move that workout. I'll move everything a day back, so I would do the 23rd, the 27th, the 28th and the 29th.

It doesn't matter. Let's say you have four workouts in a week. You have seven days. It doesn't matter when you do the four workouts as long as you complete the four workouts in those seven days. So you have some leeway to move things around with the extra days in your week, right?

The following week, I did pretty much the same exact thing. I committed to the 30th, the 2nd, the 3rd and the 4th. Me personally, I'm not going to say 100%, because maybe I will find myself in the gym on New Year's Day, but most likely you will not find me in the gym on New Year's Day. It's going to be absolute chaos. If I do go, it will be later in the afternoon when everyone's gotten it out of the way. I don't know, but it's probably going to be mass chaos. So I planned around New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Again, same thing: I have four workouts in my week, and there are seven days. I have an extra day outside of the holidays, so if I don't get it in the day after New Year's Day, I can still get it in during the rest of the week.

So that's what I would recommend you do too. I know you have travel. I know you have family obligations. I know there are holiday events, and it can feel like there's no time to work out. But I promise you, there's always a way, and it's doing what I just said. If you can carve out 20 or 30 minutes for a workout, it doesn't have to be full-blown. It doesn't have to be an hour-long session in the gym. If you know you'll have a window of time in the morning or right before dinner, lock it in like an appointment. Write it on your calendar. Write it in your planner. Set an alarm. Treat it like a non-negotiable commitment. Because like I said at the beginning, once you show up for yourself, you're going to feel so much better. And at the same time, you're going to show up better not only for yourself, but for those around you and in your space during the holiday season. Okay?

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Actually, I think this is a really cool topic to be talking about, because we just kicked off a similar thing inside the WarriorBabe VIP program. The babes inside are doing a 60-day lifestyle challenge. We are encouraging the babes to give up alcohol, to focus on meal prep, to focus on their steps, to focus on strength training and to focus on their mindset. And I think all of these pillars really make up a lifestyle change, rather than just focusing on another diet to follow.

So many people use the terms diet and lifestyle change interchangeably. However, while they seem similar, I believe there are some very, very important differences between the two. A diet is a temporary approach to food, and it's usually focused on achieving a specific health goal or addressing a particular health issue. For instance, someone might adopt a low-carb diet to lose weight, or go gluten-free because they're managing celiac disease.

Diets can be helpful in the short term. I don't want to totally discredit that word. But they often require a lot of willpower, they are often very difficult to sustain, and they may not provide the necessary nutrients your body needs for optimal health. And beyond people using diets to achieve specific health goals or address specific health issues, women out there jump on tons of different diets in hopes of getting some type of instant-gratification result in X amount of time.

They're all out there. There's the low-carb diet. There's the keto diet. There's the freaking 21-Day Fix. There are so many things out there that require you to drastically stop all of the things you're doing and put on mad restrictions and rules in order to get X amount of weight loss in X amount of time. Typically, with the 21-Day Fix, it's 21 days. Some people expect immediate results with a keto diet. I've talked in previous podcasts about what happens with immediate results. But then what happens when you start actually eating that one macronutrient you can't give up forever, because it's not sustainable?

The word diet, people think of it in terms of, I'm going on a diet because I need to lose 10 pounds in 30 days. So I'm going to cut out everything I've been doing and get to that goal in 30 days. And then once the goal is achieved, I can go back to doing all the things I was doing before I set out to achieve that goal. That's not a lifestyle change. That's just you getting on and off the hamster wheel of losing and gaining the same 10 pounds over and over and over again. And that's what these diets give you. They have their own set of rules. They have their own set of restrictions.

What I firmly believe in, on the other hand, is a lifestyle change. You've heard me say this if you listen to the podcast. If not, and this is the first time you're hearing it, you're going to hear me continue to say it. I believe that macronutrients are not a diet. I believe they are a skill set that can serve you for the rest of your life, if you understand what the food in front of you consists of.

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If you have a plate and you know what that food is made up of, then you have empowering skills to make decisions for every other meal you eat moving forward. I believe that to be a lifestyle change, because you're gaining skills, you're gaining understanding, you're learning insights about nutrition that you can apply to long-term commitments for living a healthy and balanced life. So you don't have to set specific rules with macros. You don't have to set specific restrictions like other diets do. Sure, there are rules with macros, but they allow you to eat the foods that will help you manage a sustainable plan in the long term.

Macros aren't asking you to eliminate anything. They're not asking you to drastically cut down on calories in one specific group. They're saying, here is what you should be eating based on your lifestyle, based on your goals, based on where you're at as a human. And you can dive even deeper into lab work and understanding how metabolic processes work for you, where your sex hormones are, where your hormones are in general, where your cortisol is. What is so cool is that there can be a unique number for you to follow on a regular daily basis. Nobody should be following the same macronutrient numbers, because we are so vastly different. What the diets offer you is, here's a cookie-cutter program I found online. It's a PDF that came from my cousin's friend's sister's daughter, and they're all following it, so you should follow it too.

At WarriorBabe, we pride ourselves on not giving our babes, our clients, meal plans to follow over a 60-day, 90-day or 24-month period. We give them meal plans at the beginning as a tool and resource to show them how to identify how to put some macros together and some meals together on a daily basis. But a meal plan is restrictive in itself, because a meal plan is telling you, you have to have this for breakfast today, you have to have this for lunch today and you have to have this for dinner today. There is a wide variety of foods out there in our world that you can incorporate into your plan, rather than the three options you're given for each one of these meals. Some people don't find them enjoyable, but they eat them. And the reason they get off the plan after 30 days is because they don't like it, it's not enjoyable and it's not sustainable. So they go back to all of the things they were doing before, which is that hamster wheel of gaining back and losing the same 10 pounds over and over and over again.

People are only looking at the surface level of what diets can offer them: quick results. What I'm hoping you understand from this podcast episode is that people can shift from that mentality, that mindset of instant gratification, of, here's a simple plan I can follow for 30 days, to, okay, this lifestyle bit that Nikkiey's talking about may be a little bit harder to do, which it is. But anything worth doing, you guys, requires hard work, consistency, and changing the way you're going after the result you want.

It's the same result people want: losing weight, getting toned, building muscle. The diet approach has a different type of mindset to get you to that goal. It may seem easier, but it's also not sustainable. It's not long-term. I would actually argue that it's harder, because you're constantly in this loop of gaining and losing, and restrictions and rules and pressure and unhappiness. Same goal, though. That's the diet aspect.

Then there's the lifestyle change. You can find any fitness program out there. You can find somebody giving you a workout program. You can find somebody with an app. You can find somebody giving you a nutrition protocol. You can find all of that. But what makes a long-term change, a lifestyle change, entirely applicable and one you're able to jump on board with, is the behavioral changes that have to come into play.

Diets are like, get rid of the habits that got me to where I am, where I'm not happy, for 30 days to make a change. But then the habits come right back. The bad habits come right back. Whereas a lifestyle change is, okay, I'm learning the triggers I have when it comes to food. I'm understanding that I'm not eating enough and why. It's being insightful, taking this information and getting rid of the bad habits that got you to this point, understanding the triggers that got you to this point, or learning, oh, eating less actually isn't ideal, I need to eat more.

And you're learning all of these facets about yourself, which you should, because you're so individual. You have different triggers than somebody else. You have different beliefs and stories being told about eating less food than somebody else. You have different habits than somebody else that got you to where you are, where you're not feeling comfortable with yourself right now, and that led you to want to make a change. But I want you to not make the diet change. I want you to make the lifestyle change, and I want you to understand and learn these behaviors about yourself, which is what we do at WarriorBabe.

What we pride ourselves on is that our coaches don't just give you the plans I mentioned. They build a relationship with you to understand how you operate, how you think, your stories, the narratives you're telling yourself on a daily basis, the triggers that you have. And from building that relationship, they're able to professionally give you tools and resources to create new habits and shift the behavior. That's going to lead you to the ultimate transformation. That's going to lead you to a lifestyle change.

The goal is not to eliminate cravings entirely. That's entirely unrealistic. Instead, it's about building a healthier relationship with food and learning to manage cravings in a way that supports you and your goals. Cravings are a 100% normal part of life, a normal part of the journey you're on. I still have cravings today. But it's about handling them in a way where you're not feeling guilty or feeling like you're out of control. It's just a balanced approach.

Again, things are neutral. If you have a craving and the craving doesn't go away, and you allow yourself a piece of candy in the next couple of days or weeks, or maybe that's already been you because of the holidays, it's just about the mindset you have behind it. It's like, okay, cool, I'm having a piece of chocolate. All right, whatever. It's not going to fuck me up. And then you get back to it.

This is what I would recommend you do. If you can approach cravings with more curiosity instead of judgment, then you can start to understand them better and make decisions that are aligned with your journey without feeling deprived. And remember, a craving doesn't define you, and indulging once in a while isn't going to derail your progress. You control the cravings. Don't let the cravings control you. I know that's easier said than done, depending on wherever you are in your journey. But I can promise you, if you can take in what we talked about today, especially the mindset aspect of it, you will recognize that you are more in control than you've been allowing yourself to be, rather than letting the food be in control of you.

So again, to sum it all up, cravings are an absolutely normal part of the journey you're on. They're not something you should fear or feel guilty about. They're simply a signal from your body and/or your mind. By understanding why these cravings are happening, by being curious about them, by bringing awareness to them and using the strategies we talked about here for how to handle them, you can stay on track with where you want to go and where you are going with your fitness journey and your nutrition journey, without feeling like you're constantly fighting against yourself.

Welcome cravings. Honor cravings. Bring awareness to cravings. Be curious about the cravings. Why am I having this craving? What is happening in my external reality that is bringing me to have this craving? Cool. I have awareness of it. I'm curious about it. I don't have any judgment about it. I'm just super curious about it. And then you're going to act better and be more aligned with taking the next steps, and you're responding instead of reacting in that moment. And the more you do that, that's how you rewire these habits, these thoughts and these feelings to be more supportive for you in your journey.

All right, guys. I hope this was helpful and I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you. Again, if you have a second, please find a way to leave a review for the podcast. I would really appreciate it. I read every single one of them. And those reviews not only help this show, they also help other women find this show and listen to it. I am one person, but you guys are many. I lean on your support to spread this show to other people. So thank you so much in advance for your reviews, and I will see you next time. Peace out.

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