How To Tackle The Holidays With Food Confidence

00:00Real quick, the only ask I could ever have of you guys is to help spread the word so we can help more women lose body fat, build muscle, reach their goals, and feel insanely confident. And the only way we can do that is if you rate, review, and share this podcast. So the single thing I ask for you to do is if you could leave a review. It will take you 10 seconds, and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else. The most important thing to remember on this holiday is to be present, is to be mindful, is to experience and fully engage in the holidays, in this day. I fully believe in memories over macros.

00:42What's up, you guys? Welcome back to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkie Stott, co-founder of WarriorBabe. And on this podcast, we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident. I am your host, Nikki Stott, and welcome to episode 105. Today, we are going to dive in to talk about how to tackle the holidays with confidence.

01:13Every single year, this question always gets presented to me. How do I eat on the holiday? And then I'm either coaching or giving support or helping clients through the aftermath of a holiday and kind of reframing their experience, but also resetting expectations and reminding them that one day is not going to derail the progress that you have made in the last so many days and months.

01:50And possibly even years. Okay? So on this podcast today, you guys, I want you to walk away with understanding the mindfulness of this holiday, getting some tactics to take away so that you can implement with a holiday in a couple of days. Even with the holiday of Christmas coming up to these same exact strategies I'm going to talk about today can totally be implemented for what that holiday in another month with Christmas. Okay? But I want you to walk away with understanding and having the understanding and the confidence that you can enjoy yourself on this day and this holiday and you don't have to think about anything else other than that.

02:34Okay? So let's dive into it. Let's get right down into the five things that I want to talk about today. Five specifics that are going to, again, help you with mindfulness, help you with some tactics, help you with understanding that you are fully in control of this holiday and in the control of how you get back to it afterwards. And then I want to talk about reminding you with, like, the overarching thing that I always hear clients talk about after this holiday. I just want to send you off with a reminder around that specific thing.

03:10Very broad there, Nikki, but it's going to be a reminder there. I don't want to talk about all of the five right now and then the podcast will be done because I want to dive into each of them. So let's get down to it. The first and the most important thing to remember on this holiday is to be present, is to be mindful, is to experience and fully engage in the holidays, in this day. You know, being around the company of your loved ones, being in the holiday spirit, appreciating the food, immersing yourself in insane gratitude for these experiences that you are a part of.

03:52Right? Like the conversations, the memories, the family members that maybe you haven't seen all year and you get to catch up on this day. The friends that maybe you are traveling in from all around the country to see you and to see your family and to see the kids and, you know, all of these things, right? This is your time to be fully engaged in this experience and to be extremely present for this day. So I don't expect any of you to worry about your nutritional choices on Thanksgiving or Christmas or Hanukkah.

04:30I don't expect you to bring your scale to these outings and weigh your food. I fully believe in memories over macros for these days. Okay? Let go of worrying about the fact that this is in alignment with my goal or I'm eating way too much today or I'm having so many carbs and so many fats or I'm having this dessert. Let go. Let go of that. Let go of worrying if, like, this is going to derail your progress.

05:03Let go of it. Focus fully in the moment. Be fully engaged in the experiences that you're having. Be fully present. That's the first one. And be fully grateful. This should be be present and be extremely grateful. This holiday is all about gratitude. So really focus on that. There's so much science that goes into scientific findings and research that goes into the emotion of experience, experiencing gratitude that can help with stress relief, that can help with your mood, that can help with so many things.

05:34So really focus this day on being present and experiencing fully the experiences you are having and being grateful for them all. That's number one. Number two, this is a tactical thing that you can implement on this day. On these days. On Thanksgiving and Christmas and Hanukkah and all of the holidays that are coming up. Okay? Eat protein around or in between your big meals. Okay? So let's just use the example of you having Thanksgiving dinner in the afternoon or the traditional setting of dinner.

06:07Right? For the rest of the day, highlight and make sure that you are eating protein throughout. And just eating protein because majority of your food. And what I mean by protein is like have eggs for breakfast. Have chicken breast or have yogurt or have like a protein shake or something. A protein bar for lunch. And then those options, you can have that again in a couple of hours after lunch. But just wanting and making sure that you get enough protein in the safe.

06:40Now, I know I just said don't worry about your food choices. But if you are somebody that wants to focus on making sure that you're still fueling your body with enough food, you don't have the track. You can just be more consciously aware and intuitively eat more protein. When you wake up, eggs. In a couple of hours, some yogurt. In a couple of hours, maybe if you have some chicken, you know, laying around from your meal prep. In a couple of hours, a protein shake right there. And then you're going to have your big freaking meal, which is going to consist of protein, fats, and carbs. And a shit ton of fats and a shit ton of carbs.

07:10Okay? You are going to have stuffing, which is by far. Maybe you're going to have stuffing. Who knows? Stuffing. Who knows? By far one of my favorite dishes with Thanksgiving. But majority of those things outside the turkey is all carbs and fats. And then not to mention the desserts that you're going to have, right? That's all carbs and fats. So you're probably going to hit definitely your fats in that meal. And maybe some, if not majority of your carbohydrates in that meal. So like if you're having protein all throughout the day,

07:42the most important thing that I want to highlight here is a few things. Is that it helps to stabilize your blood sugar levels throughout the day. So it helps you to feel fuller longer and then reduce the cravings, which will then help you to prevent overeating when you go into having this big meal, right? It also will give you still energy levels throughout the day. It'll make you, it'll just add to the fact that you are satiated. You know, you don't have to, a lot of people don't eat during the day and then they go and

08:13have this big meal and, you know, and they don't eat it throughout the day because they're going to have this big meal. But if you want to maintain still practice of the habits that you are implementing for yourself on a regular basis and allow your body to still experiences the benefits, experience the benefits of protein, then just have protein and some carbs throughout the day leading up to this big meal. Okay. That's number two. And what I mean is like, yeah, like eggs, all the things that I just said, like that could be your protein little snacks throughout the day until you get to that big meal.

08:46So that's number two. Number three is my favorite. I love saying this to all of my clients, but, you know, for the sake of the podcast, I'm just going to say a-hole. Don't be an a-hole. Okay. What I mean by that is don't eat until you are overly stuffed and uncomfortable and you're like, oh my God, this is like, I just ate so much food. You know what I mean? And you feel like a bloated, a bloated something after you have this big meal. Eat until you are comfortably full. So the point is with holiday foods is to enjoy it with like out overindulging and with the

09:23eating the protein throughout the day that'll help you to go into this meal and just be present and experience a meal for what it is. And, you know, not feel like you're just stuffing yourself, right? When this is a really good experience for you to learn how, you know, the body signals of fullness, right? So stop when you're comfortably full, but I want you to experience and respect the signals that your body is giving you when you are full, because this is the thing, like you will eat

09:55this meal, right? And then you won't start, you'll feel like you can keep going, but I encourage you to like, when you feel like you'll, you'll, your body will kind of tell you, you have to be like, you really aware of the signals that it's saying. It's hard to really explain that because it's such a, it's so personal to the person experiencing it. But if you are, if you can hear, if you can just listen to the signals that it's giving you, your body will tell you to stop. And then 10, 15 minutes later is when you will really start to feel full.

10:26And then it's like, you know, people always say like doing a dessert now, a dessert later, and then like allow a break for you, this digestion process to start happening, to break down all the foods that you have ate, and then go ahead and have a piece of dessert. But mainly what I want you to do is to just like, just, I seriously joke, my clients know this all the time, like, don't be an a-hole, eat till you're comfortably before, enjoy the moment. And don't just overstuff yourself because you're going to feel sick, you're going to feel horrible

10:56after that. So that's the third one, right? Enjoy the food without guilt, but respect the fact that your body is telling you, hey, I'm full. And listen to it. Hey, hey, just want to drop a huge appreciation to you guys listening to the show. It means a lot. I hope you guys are enjoying it. And there's so much more to come with it. If you are enjoying it, hit the subscribe button. I'd appreciate that tons. And also, it would help this podcast reach others who need to hear these messages too. Number four. Number four, number five are honestly two of my, I feel like the most important ones to nail

11:30here on this podcast. Number four is keep in mind that this is one day. This holiday, this upcoming Thursday is one day. Thanksgiving is one day, right? Christmas is two, given the fact that it's Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, right? But out of 365 days of the year, there's three days, right? That this is one day and then the next day you return to reality. So what I really want to highlight with that is remember that holidays are temporary breaks

12:07and routine. They aren't permanent changes. So it's so important for you to, you know, the next day when it's back to reality is to return to your normal workout routine. It's to return to your normal eating habits. It's to return to your normal goal-focused activities immediately following. Because this is where people get stuck in a trap. There's Thanksgiving and then they kind of hit like a, oh, it's the holiday season.

12:41Oh, you know, December is such a busy month. Christmas is right around the corner. And so their work ethic of what was maybe like 90% before Thanksgiving drops drastically to probably like 40% given to December, even lower than that. Some people just stop exercising altogether and just wait for their new year to come about. Look, listen, loud and clear. You are in control of making this happen.

13:11You are in control of recognizing that this is just one day. It's a temporary break in my routine. It is not a permanent change. I am not going to make it a permanent change. And so therefore, Black Friday and the days around Christmas, I am going to enjoy this one day and then get right back to it the next day. I'm going to get back on my routine. I'm going to meal prep any food that I have to meal prep. You can use some of the Thanksgiving dinner for your meal prep.

13:43It's nothing but healthy foods there, right? You just have to eat it in smaller quantities. And then that's on you, okay? It is entirely in your control to get right back to it the next day. I don't want you guys to be the people that don't exercise because I got too busy or it's the holidays and totally blow out your month of December and wait until the new year starts. You staying focused right now throughout this time, right, will put you ahead come the new year.

14:16If you can continue, right, remind you, like, be present, focus on gratitude, enjoy this day, enjoy the atmosphere, enjoy the experience. Just recognize that it's one day. And so the next four weeks leading up to Christmas is entirely in your control to make it happen to you to get back onto routine. Or else, you know, and like all of the days leading up to Thanksgiving, through this whole entire year, you've kept habits, you've built habits, you've been, you know, hopefully, you've stuck to the goals that you told yourself you would get after

14:53for this new year, right, for 2023. Well, don't let that slip right now. Because you let that slip right now, it's going to be much harder to get back into it in 2024 and start 2024. It's one day, return to reality the next day. This is a temporary break in your routine. This is not a permanent change, okay? That's number four. Number five, there was an amazing podcast that I just dropped on Friday, this previous Friday.

15:25The one that you guys hopefully have already listened to, but if you didn't, immediately following this podcast, you are going to go back to the last episode. Or you can just maybe even let this one ride, because it will probably blend right into the episode, which I would highly encourage you do if you did not listen to Friday's episode yet. This is going to help your mindset drastically by you listening to this podcast, the following podcast, the one I'm harping on right now.

15:56When you listen to that around the scale and around fluctuations and understanding why it doesn't budge, that will greatly and positively impact your mindset the days after this big holiday. Friday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. If you guys are those people that step on the scale to just like almost torture yourself to see how much weight or where the scale's at the day following,

16:26to see how much the scale maybe went up. Listen, you guys. First of all, you have to listen to that podcast. It's going to greatly explain around majority of the thing around carbohydrates. And when you eat a ton of carbohydrates, your body holds on to water and you may feel puffier because of that. And so then you go and step on the scale and it tells you that you're heavier. However, it is not fat. It is water weight. It is the inflammation from the carbohydrates. So because listen, in order for you to gain a pound of fat,

16:57you have to eat 3,500 calories in one day. And that's like not to mention the calories in balance, right? If you're exercising and all the things that you're doing and like walking around and things like that, you have to eat 3,500 calories in one day to gain one pound of fat. Ain't nobody that I know is doing that without intention. Okay? So when you go and step on the scale the next day following Friday, Saturday, Sunday,

17:32I am just going to put this into your brain right now. That scale is going to go up because you just overindulged in a big freaking meal. And so your body is holding on to water weight and inflammation and all of the things, but it's not entirely fat. So go listen to the podcast I post on Friday. It's probably, it is, I know by far of 105 episodes of this podcast. It's by far the, one of the most favorite ones I have recorded yet because it'll break. So it's not that it will break. It's just going to re, it's going to educate you on what is actually happening when you step on the scale.

18:04The scale is only telling you how heavy you are. It's not telling you how much you are made up of, how much body fat, your organ size, everything, your muscle mass, everything, your water retention, everything of those has weight. But like, it's not, it's just telling you that here's a number, this is how heavy you are. That's it. Okay. So of course you're going to be a little bit heavier because you had a ton of carbs and carbs are all into water. And so you step on the scale and there's water weight and water retention. But like, you wouldn't know that by just stepping on the scale because you need to be educated on

18:36that kind of stuff. That episode is going to educate you on that stuff. So please make sure that you understand that weight can fluctuate naturally, especially after a holiday. And it's important to not panic. And just to make sure that you return to your normal routine of working out and eating right. Like I said, in number four, the next day. For reality is reality the next day. And so get right back to it. All right, you guys. So those are five things I hope that you guys can take and tackle this holiday with the

19:09utmost confidence, right? Number one, be present. Experience the moment. Allow yourself to really, really accept the fact of memories over macros. Number two, eat protein around the big meal. Eat protein leading up to the meal, right? You're going to be able to reduce cravings. You're going to be able to go into the big meal without feeling like you are going to overeat in that meal. Number three, don't be an a-hole. Eat until you're comfortably full. Listen and learn these body signals of your body trying to tell you that you are full, right?

19:41Enjoy the food without any guilt, but also respect that, hey, my body's full. I'm good. This was great. This meal was delicious. And beyond, right? And then number four is keep in mind that this is one day. So this is a temporary break. This holiday and Christmas is a temporary break in your routine. It is not a permanent change. So you get right back to it the next day. Picking up the important, picking up the, and returning to regular exercise, eating habits,

20:12the goal-focused things that you have been doing for this entire year, you pick that right back up. You don't give it up for the whole month of December, right? You don't wait until New Year's to start it, okay? And then the last one is just listen to episode, I think it was 104. Yeah. The last episode to this. Let this podcast just roll right into it because that's really going to help you understand that weight will fluctuate because of something that I explained in that podcast. I'm educating you on it, especially after the holiday.

20:43And it's important to not panic and just get right back to it. All right, you guys? Happy Thanksgiving. You know what I'm really, really grateful for? Remember every single one of you guys that listens to this podcast and then rates, reviews it, shares it with somebody else that will gain so much value to it too as well. I appreciate all you listeners. I appreciate the love that you give this podcast. You guys have no idea how much that means. And it's so much more than I can put into words. I'm truly so grateful for every single one of you.

21:14All right, you guys. Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you guys have an amazing one. See you in the next episode. Real quick, the only ask I could ever have of you guys is to help spread the word so we can help more women lose body fat, build muscle, reach their goals, and feel insanely confident. And the only way we can do that is if you rate, review, and share this podcast. So the single thing I ask for you to do is if you could leave a review. It will take you 10 seconds and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else.

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