The Unf*ck Your Fitness Podcast

141. Holiday Survival Guide: Enjoy the Holidays Without Sabotaging Your Fitness Goals

• Kristy Castillo

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It’s that time of year again - the holidays are upon us!


I know this time of year is hectic; the holidays are fun, but also suuuper busy, stressful, and can feel really hard.


You can think of today’s episode as your ‘holiday survival guide’ in regards to your fitness journey. I know you’ll be hearing plenty of tips and tricks on how to navigate the holidays without gaining weight or getting ‘off track’. You may also hear that it’s okay to just say f*ck it, and start over in January.


Well..I’m not here to do either of those. I’m here to cut through allll the BS and noise out there, because what matters is that you find what works for YOU! 


Yes, it’s important that you have *some* type of plan you’re following, so you CAN stay on track with your fitness goals this season (whatever those may be for you). 

There’s also a way for you to find a balance of enjoying foods and treats at holiday gatherings, without forgetting about your goals completely. I personally don’t believe you need to make the holidays all about food either - there are soo many other special things to focus on!


At the end of the day, you have to figure out what YOU want. How do you want to feel, and how do you want to look this holiday season? No one can answer those questions but you. The choice is yours, because you are in control, and that’s a beautiful thing, friend!


In this episode, we cover:

  • Understanding that this time of year is hard, busy & stressful for pretty much everyone
  • What my current season of life looks like
  • The importance of having a plan during the holidays + why it should be personalized for YOU
  • Finding a balance of enjoying the holidays while still being mindful of your goals and not giving into #allthethings
  • Why the holidays don’t need to be (and shouldn’t be) all about food
  • Getting super clear on what you want + how you really want to feel


Links/Resources:

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Un-Fuck-Your-Fitness Podcast. I am your host, Christy Castillo, and I'm here to give you real talk and cut the BS so you can actually enjoy building a body you love. I'm a personal trainer obsessed with giving you simple action steps to take you from feeling stuck to feeling sexy. Let's go.

Speaker 2:

Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to today's episode. I am recording our annual, if you will, holiday survival episode and unfortunately, this episode won't be reaching you until after Thanksgiving. That is poor planning on my part, but here we are, in true Christy Castillo fashion I got your back, I got your back, don't worry. So first of all, let me, before we dive into the holiday survival guide episode of all of my real talk and tips and tricks and thoughts on the holidays and how to stay on track and reach your goals and ease your stress and ease your mind, because I'm getting a lot of questions right now on how to navigate the holidays, and so I want to talk about that for sure.

Speaker 2:

But before I dive into that, I want to just talk a little bit about what's going on in my own life right now, and I think you'll find it relatable because a lot of my clients right now are struggling a lot. A lot of my clients are struggling right now and a lot of us are blaming the time change, and I'm 100% in agreement with that. The time change is hard. It's dark y'all, it's gloomy, it's blah. It just feels like it sucks the life right out of us, and I'm totally there. The holidays are hard for many different reasons. They're busy, they're stressful, they're fun, it's a lot, and those are just two things. Right, the time change, the holidays, and then there are so many other things that I have going on, that my clients have going on, that you have going on, and so this shit is not easy. Right, it is a hard time of year and I just want to extend a little love to you, I guess, because, yeah, we're all feeling it, we're all stressed, we don't know how to get it done. I keep seeing these reels that are like people trying to juggle being healthy and fit and being a good mom and going to work and hitting your protein and hitting your macros but not eating too much, but eating enough and fixing your hormones and fixing your metabolism, and crying, but don't cry too much. And feel your feelings, but don't feel them in the wrong places, just like all these memes kind of making fun of, honestly, how we all feel right now. And so I get you and, yeah, I just wanted to extend a little love, give yourself a little grace.

Speaker 2:

This is why when I say, when you have the opportunity to be on track, when you can be 100%, when you feel good, when life is going smooth, take advantage of that. Don't backslide. When you're just kind of coasting, when you feel like life is good and life is easy, and, oh, this is fine, I'll just take a little time off, don't, because inevitably life will smack you in the face back and forth back and oh, this is fine, I'll just take a little time off, don't, because inevitably life will smack you in the face back and forth, back and forth, right Sometimes, until it knocks you down. And then, when you're down, life will just kick you in the ass a couple more times. So when you have the opportunity to be on your game and to build muscle and hit your macros and kick some ass, I guess do that. Okay, take advantage of that time. Because that's what I always think. When life kind of is just busy and I just don't have time and it's just everything's going on, I always think, man, I wish I would have worked harder when I had the opportunity, because right now I can't get in the gym as often as I want to, or when I'm in there I'm not strong enough mentally, physically, whatever to be able to work as hard as I want. And, man, I really wish I would have taken advantage of those days. So if you're in a time right now where you're like Chrissy, I'm feeling good, I've got it all figured out, right now I'm good, good for you and kick some ass for all of us, because there will come a time when you're down as well. And so right now and whenever you do have the opportunity to just grind, do that, because you're going to need to kind of have that in the bank. You know, like, keep some of that saved up so that when you have to spend it, when you have to have time off, things like that, you will have that in the bank to be able to do so.

Speaker 2:

A couple of things going on in my life. Well, number one thing my husband had surgery last week. He had his ACL repaired and his meniscus cleaned up and so, speaking of not being able to work out, he is not going to be able to do an actual full-out workout for months. I don't know. I think the doctor said six months or something like that I don't remember exactly for a full workout, but watching him is just like God. That's terrifying to think that I would possibly be in a place where I would have to take that much time off. He's doing really well with it right now. He's obviously just not even a week out, so he's still kind of figuring that out and healing and just starting PT and it's really hard.

Speaker 2:

But you've had injuries, I'm sure, before, and I actually tweaked my back a little bit last week and you you'd have thought that the world ended because I thought, oh my God, there's no way I can take time off from my workouts, like I have to baby this and take care of it, and I'm doing that. But anyway, and as far as me, you know having to obviously take care of him and you know drive him places and get him to PT and all of the things, along with my son, starting basketball Tonight actually is his first game and the holidays. So now it's like navigating my husband's new schedule and my work schedule and my son's new basketball schedule. I'm like, which sport am I talking about here? It's a lot and life is going to just be a lot right now and it always is a lot at this time of year, so it's nothing that I'm not used to. But also, yeah, my husband's surgery. It's stressful for him for sure, which makes it stressful for me and it's stressful for everyone and it's different. So this time of year and I'm really downplaying it I'm really stressed out about it. So right now I'm just kind of talking about it nicely.

Speaker 2:

A few times a day I have a little breakdown where I'm like how the fuck am I supposed to get him to PT and appointments and get all my kids' schedules figured out and get my schedules figured out and all my clients' stuff figured out and get to basketball games and prepare for Thanksgiving and prepare for Christmas and buy the presents. It's a lot. So a few times a day I freak out and don't know how I'm going to get it done. But I will, on top of all of that, taking care of myself, making myself not optional, making my workouts not optional, really filling my own cup, because I'm not going to be good for anyone if I don't do that. So enough about that. Shit is getting real. For me too, it's the holiday. Shit is getting real. For you guys, it's the holidays and time change and life is just kind of crazy. So I feel you and let's just keep going, okay.

Speaker 2:

So now onto the holiday survival episode. I'm just going to call it that. I'm not going to talk to you like your typical podcast, like your typical holidays, how to maneuver the holidays, kind of thing in this one. I have episodes in the past where I talk about how to get through the holidays, how to get through fall, how to pivot all the things, and I want to briefly touch on that. But then I'm going to get to some real talk here, because there are going to be a shit ton of people posting about how to get through the holidays right now. Right, all the coaches, all the personal trainers, all the therapists, everybody I love us and I'm not knocking any of those careers, because I am one and I love this field but this is a very common thing for all of us to talk about. Okay, and it's very redundant for one, it's all the same stuff. It's either all the same stuff or it's completely opposite.

Speaker 2:

Someone's saying, like, well, just don't enjoy the holidays and stay on track completely, and another coach is going to say enjoy the holidays and do whatever you want on the holidays and you can get back to your fitness journey later or to your fitness goals later. It's a wide array of things that it's going to overwhelm you and it's going to confuse you and you're going to see all these reels and all this information and you're still going to be like what am I doing, right? So, yes, it's confusing and yes, I want you to enjoy your holidays. I've had holidays where I've been doing my autoimmune diet and my gut-issued protocols and I've had holidays where I've wanted to stay 100% on track and not have a cheat day and whatever all the things that I kind of went through in my dieting journey, I guess, and my fitness journey and it sucked. I hated sitting at the table thinking I really want another plate full of stuffing and not having it and not knowing, you know, thinking that all of those carbs were bad and thinking that they would all make me fat and you know, I felt disgusting, I look disgusting, all the things that we think and I would get overwhelmed thinking if I have more than I need today, then I'm going to have more than I need tomorrow and it's just going to keep going. And in this cycle, I definitely obviously understand the balance of enjoying your holiday, but also it's important to stay on track, it's important to keep your goals in mind. So I'm just going to talk about this and you can pull things. I know most of you enjoy my real talk and it's really helpful and it's. You know, I'm going to unfuck this for you and I'm going to cut through the bullshit.

Speaker 2:

I'm not going to tell you exactly what to do, because the holidays look different for everyone. Literally, the holidays do not look the same for me as they do for you. Some of us, some cultures, some traditions, some people, some families, celebrate Thanksgiving like Thursday, friday, Saturday, sunday. And if that's you and you're listening to this episode on Tuesday and you're still feeling like shit, it's time to get back on track. It's time to get a grip and reel it in, because, again, this is coming out after Thanksgiving. So you may have already kind of done these things and that's fine. There's more holidays coming up, so you're good, got to regroup, right.

Speaker 2:

But having a plan is really, really important, just like every other fitness goal that you have. Having a plan is important. Your holiday is going to look different than mine. That's going to look different than your best friend's. There's not one right way to approach it. There's not only one way to approach it. So I'm not going to sit here and tell you that there is because I've heard a lot of coaches in the past say to me this is how to approach the holiday if you want to reach your goals. And so I did, and I restricted all the holiday foods and it freaking sucked and I probably still didn't reach the goddamn goal.

Speaker 2:

So I'm not going to say that's right, and I'm also not going to tell you to just not track anything all weekend and just eat whatever the hell you want, because that's not good either. That can turn into a very, very deep downward spiral of eating way too much and, honestly, that's the culprit. That's why America's overweight. We eat too much and so I'm not going to do that either. But you have to know that it looks different for everyone and there's not just one way to get through it and there's not one right way to get through it. You know how to stay on track.

Speaker 2:

If I were to ask you do you know how to reach your goals? Do you know how to not gain weight over the holidays? Yes, you would have to eat your macros. You'd have to act like it's not the holidays, right, basically? So you know how to not gain weight over the holidays, but will you do that For me? No, I'm not going to do that. To not gain weight over the holidays for me would look like not eating a plate full of all the things I want to eat on Thanksgiving. Not eating a plate full of all the things I want to eat on this.

Speaker 2:

Coming Saturday is the Ohio State Michigan football game. It's like a holiday at our house and then it looks like at Christmas parties. I'm not going to have certain things and on Christmas Day I'm not going to have certain things and I'm not going to do that. So I know full well I'm going to gain a couple pounds over the holidays and I have to be okay with that. If I'm not okay with that, then I have to restrict everything and stay completely on track. So I have to know ahead of time what that's going to entail, what that means for me. And if I were to ask you that, you know too. You know how to get through the holidays and not gain weight. You know that. You know how to lose weight right now. That doesn't mean you're doing the things right.

Speaker 2:

You know the holidays are only a few days. If you only overate on Thanksgiving, on Christmas Day, maybe on Christmas Eve, that's three days out of the entire holiday season. Right Out of what? Out of two months, if we count November and December, that's three days. If you only took the holidays, that's not a big deal. Three days out of 60 days is nothing. So you can look at it like that and say I'm going to stay on track. The other days I'm going to. You know, fuck off and eat whatever I want on these three days, but will you do that? Suck off and eat whatever I want on these three days, but will you do that? You know the holidays are only a few days technically, but you'll probably fuck around and eat too much for the weekend before that at a Christmas party, the weekend before that at a work party. You'll probably eat too much more often than you should in these upcoming months.

Speaker 2:

So for me to get on here and say how to survive the holidays, how to stay on track during the holidays I've done that before. So you can go listen to last year's episode right On this episode. I wanna tell you you already know, you already know how to do this stuff, but it doesn't mean that you're doing it right. That's where you have to make the decision of what is my goal for this holiday season, and I talked about this on last year's episode a little bit. I remember saying I hope your goal is to enjoy the holiday season and I hope your goal is to have fun and enjoy some food and enjoy time with your family and enjoy giving gifts and celebrating and all the things and, yes, food has a part in that. I love holiday food. So my goal is to, yes, stick with my habits as much as I can. I want to hit my steps every day. I want to hit my protein every day. I want to drink my water every day. I'm going to get a workout in four days a week minimum, and that's it. I know that's my goal and I know that's what I'm going to stick with. So you have to also know these are my non-negotiables. These are things that I'm going to have to do every single week throughout this holiday season to be able to stick to my goals. And if you do that, you'll be fine.

Speaker 2:

I have some clients that are just not wanting to go super crazy for the holidays. We've talked on our one-on-one calls with my one-on-one clients and they're like I'm just going to have Thanksgiving food on Thanksgiving, that's it. I'm going to have Christmas food on Christmas day or whenever we celebrate with my family, whenever we celebrate with the other side of the family and that's it. I'm acting like it's no different time of year otherwise, and I love that. That's kind of where I'm at. I guess they want to rein it in.

Speaker 2:

I think a lot of that confidence, though, comes because they know exactly what they want. They also know that they're not really restrictive outside of the holidays. They can have foods that they like. Often, they feel good right now, and they also don't want to backslide that far. So they're like I already have some Oreos and I already have some ice cream every day, or a few times a week, or whenever they allow themselves to have it to fit in their macros and fit in their goals. So they're like I can have for me Thanksgiving food. Oh my God, I love stuffing. I love pumpkin rolls. I love the sweet potato casserole. I could technically make that stuff any day of the year and have it. I don't, so I'm going to probably pig out on it on Thanksgiving. But, ray, I have other foods in my life that I have every single day, every single week, every single month, so it's not a huge deal.

Speaker 2:

I think a lot of the worry that comes with the holidays comes from those of you who are still maybe in that binging cycle, that under eating cycle, that restrictive cycle. So you're like I'm doing so good on my diet right now. I haven't had a carb in three weeks. Now you're like now it's Thanksgiving and Christmas and now I want to have carbs and I don't know how to do it right, because that's kind of the wrong way to do it. Or you're just newly into, maybe, this journey with me and you're like I'm feeling really good but I still don't feel positive that I've got this in the bag right. I still feel like I could backslide if I have too much. Or I feel like one day of going overboard and not hitting my macros is going to ruin everything for me. And it's not. So once you get through the holidays and you've survived and you haven't gained a shit ton of weight, right, gaining three pounds through the holidays would be a huge win, like I would be totally fine with that.

Speaker 2:

So it comes with that confidence of you know, yeah, I'm going to eat a little bit extra on some holidays and on some holidays I'm going to have a protein shake in the car on the way to the party and I'm going to have some protein that they have available, and I'm going to have a salad, sticking to your macros, and that's fine. There's nothing wrong with not pigging out at the dessert table and not having three glasses of alcohol and not having four pieces of cake, and there's nothing wrong with going to a party and just eating like you normally would on a normal day. There's nothing wrong with that. That's actually how you should freaking be, because if we want to cheat and go off track and screw up our macros, we can do that literally any day of the week. It's not that big of a deal. So there is a balance of enjoying the holidays and, yes, that is so important.

Speaker 2:

But do we need to gain 10 pounds just to enjoy the holidays? If you gained 10 pounds, would you have enjoyed the holidays any more than if you just gained three? If you just overate on Thanksgiving and maybe you had some leftovers even that weekend this last weekend when you're hearing this and then maybe for Christmas either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, you overeat and then you have a big family Christmas party, maybe two weeks before Christmas, so you overeat that day. Plan a big family Christmas party, maybe two weeks before Christmas, so you overeat that day. Plan it out. What can you do? Maybe you have a party with the girls and you're like I'm going to actually go a little bit crazy that day so that when I go to my family party I'm not. I know somebody brings the turkey and somebody brings the ham and somebody brings the pies. I'm not going to have the pies. Just kind of plan ahead and figure out what you want, right? Here's my thoughts.

Speaker 2:

I really don't think that you need to gain 10 pounds over the holidays just to enjoy them. I think that's actually overkill, I think it's unnecessary and I think when it comes January, you're going to be pissed at yourself. You're going to feel like shit, you're going to have even that much further to go. So I don't think when coaches say like, oh, it's just one month or it's just a week or whatever, I don't like that because a lot of damage can be done in a week, mentally and physically. A lot of damage can be done over the holiday season if you just enjoy the holidays with food, and I don't know why.

Speaker 2:

Food yeah, food is part of the holidays and it's part of enjoyment and it's fun, and I love freaking, love food, but it's not everything. I think our mindset around the food is more, so important, right, even on those years that I restricted a lot, it was more my mindset of I really want that and I can't have it, or, you know, thinking about the food as being bad. It was my mindset and the way that I felt around the food and because of the food, instead of, like now this year, saying, yeah, I'm going to have a little bit of everything that I love on Thanksgiving day and Christmas day and Ohio State day, but I don't need to go crazy. I'm still going to stop when I'm full. I'm still going to only eat when I'm hungry. I'm going to prioritize protein because I feel in control, I trust myself around food. I know the food isn't good or bad, but I still don't need too much of it.

Speaker 2:

It's not that Thanksgiving food is good or bad. It's not that the carbs are good or bad. It's that if you eat too much, your body has to store it as fat. If you haven't built enough muscle and done all the things, to be in a place where your body stores it as something different, whereas your body can just use it. But if you overeat and then you take a nap on the couch and then you overeat again later and then you go to sleep and then the next day you do it again and you're just chilling watching football all weekend Like no, get up, go for a walk, work out, drink your water, like you don't need to just fuck off all the time Like I don't like that.

Speaker 2:

I also don't like that food has that much control over the holidays. The holidays can mean something different. Prioritize gift giving for your kids. Prioritize your kids. Prioritize yourself and self-care. Prioritize your kids. Prioritize yourself and self-care. Prioritize your significant other. Prioritize your family. You don't have to just think about food If someone's like, oh my gosh, this food looks amazing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it does, but I'm actually not going to overeat it, it doesn't have to be that big of a deal. So I hate the notion of just enjoy the holidays and get back on track after. No, I don't like that because that puts us in a state of being not in control, and I think you should be in control of yourself always, and I know that that's hard because that comes with confidence. But let me just instill a little confidence in you right now. You know what it takes to be healthy. You know what it takes to get fit. You know how to say no to foods, will you? I don't know, that is going to have to be a personal choice. You know how you will feel after you've overeaten, because maybe you've overeaten at every single holiday, gathering, get-together, your entire life, or maybe you've just done it recently, but you've done it before, I guarantee it, and you know exactly how that feels.

Speaker 2:

At the end of the day, what do you want? How do you want to feel? How do you want to look? What do you want? Ask yourself that now. Start asking yourself that now. And if you already messed up on Thanksgiving, it's fine. It's literally fine. Even if you gain five pounds over Thanksgiving weekend, it's all carb weight, it's all water weight, it's going to go away.

Speaker 2:

Get up while you're listening to this podcast. Get up, go for a walk, drink some water, get moving. Let's go. Okay, no more slacking, no more feeling bad about yourself. No more. Oh, my God, I'll just start again in January. No, you've got plenty of time. Let's go.

Speaker 2:

Get up, change the attitude. Okay, but seriously, what do you want? Do you want to do that again if you overrate on Thanksgiving? Do you want to feel like shit again on Christmas? Because you will if nothing changes? So what do you want? If you want to enjoy the holidays thoroughly and you want to enjoy all the freaking food and that's what you want, then go get it. That is totally fine, enjoy that. But know that that's going to come with probably feeling like shit, probably kind of looking like shit, probably kind of wishing you didn't do that, and that's fine. But just know that you made that choice and now you're going to have to undo it right, because there's a whole week between Christmas and New Year's that we all feel like where am I, what's my name, what day is it, what the F is going on, and that week is crazy. So I want you to feel more in control.

Speaker 2:

So your holiday survival tips guide episode from yours truly here on Unfuck your Fitness podcast is just that. I wanted to talk you through it. I wanted to give you some real talk. I wanted to you know, just literally unfuck it, because you're gonna have a lot of people telling you things Drink water, prioritize protein, drink protein on the way to your event. Yes, all of that stuff is absolutely true, absolutely true. Prioritize protein absolutely. Drink your water. Absolutely true, absolutely true. Prioritize protein Absolutely. Drink your water, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

Go for a walk, if you can, right after you've eaten. Who can do that? I don't know. I know I'm not going to be at my grandma's house being like, oh, I've got to go for a walk after I just ate. See you guys, I'll be right back in 20 minutes. I'm not going to do that. So some of those tips are just like probably not going to happen. But if you can do that, right, I think it's so important to stick with what you want, stick with what you know. Also, realize it's just a couple of days, it's not the end of the world and everything will be fine afterwards. Everything's going to be okay. You're going to survive, okay. So again, just some real talk. Because I know you're getting all the tips thrown everywhere and you're still like what do I do? What matters?

Speaker 2:

Honestly, if you gain 10 pounds over the holidays, you can lose it real quick in January. So that's not that big of a deal. If you want to spend January losing 10 pounds, then go ahead and gain it. I personally do not. I'd like to start January off not having to lose a shit ton of weight. But that's in your control. This is all in your control.

Speaker 2:

I go back to you got yourself in this situation. You know how to get yourself out. We've got to pull up our big girl pants and do it. This shit is not optional. You can tell yourself that stuff till you're blue in the face, but you have to actually do it. When it comes time, this is it. If you want to look at it like that, this is do or die. This is the moment. This is what you were made for.

Speaker 2:

When you're faced with that choice of overeating or saying no, thank you, I'm full, I'm good, I'm just going to have some water. Thank you, that's it. That's your choice. What are you going to do? But at the end of the day, that is totally your choice. Do you want to enjoy that second piece of pie or do you want to say no, thank you. Totally up to you. I'm not going to tell you which one to do, because you're an adult and we've got to figure that out for ourselves. So, some tough love, because I love you and because we need it sometimes we need it. So I, for one, I'm looking forward to the holiday season.

Speaker 2:

Stressed out about it. 100%, absolutely. But I feel in control of myself and I'm very much on track mentally of what I want to do. I've started limiting sweets after 3 pm. I've made sure my water is a priority. I've made sure that I'm getting on my walking pad and walking like I'm pulling myself out of this little funk that I was in. And it feels good. It's hard. Even last night we got home from PT with my husband and I went straight out to the garage and started my workout when I wanted nothing more than to take a nap. So know that it's not easy for me. It's just not optional for me. I'm going to do it because I want to feel proud of myself at the end of the day. So know that I'm right here struggling with you and I'll be faced with those same exact choices, and I've been faced with them every year of my adulthood. So you know I'm right here with you. But I hope this was helpful. Again, little tough love. Love you lots and I'll talk to you next week.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to today's show. Go ahead and leave a rating and a review and, of course, follow the podcast so you don't miss out on any future episodes. And I would love it so much if you came to connect with me over on Instagram at Christy Castillo Fit. I will see you next time. Bye.