Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 234: Don't Make These 8 HOLIDAY Fitness Mistakes

Episode Date: November 7, 2022

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Welcome in everybody to another episode of the Dynamic Dialogue podcast. In today's episode, I'm going to be sharing with you eight holiday fitness mistakes I see all the time as a coach in the fitness industry. With 10 years as a personal trainer under my belt, that means 10 holiday seasons I've worked with clients and worked with them through their struggles and honestly through my own struggles during the holiday season. The holidays can be a very, very difficult time when it comes to pursuing your fitness, maintaining your weight, losing body fat, and practicing generally healthy health promoting behaviors. So I have eight tips I'd like to share

with you today that I think will help you live healthier and make better decisions through the holidays, not just from a body composition standpoint, and certainly not just from a fitness standpoint, but from a holistic health behavioral standpoint. So getting into this right out of the jump, I want to touch on point number one, which is do not make the health and fitness mistake of missing out on the valuable elements of your spiritual and social health that come with the holiday season. Now, I know what you're thinking. You're probably like, whoa, whoa, whoa. I want tips on how I can lose body fat or how I can not gain weight during the holidays or how I can stay active. I don't want tips on indulging and on enjoying the holidays. I gain weight every holiday season.

So that's not helpful. It actually is, guys. And I've been thinking and reflecting on this a lot after a podcast discussion I had with Dr. Kyle Gillette of Gillette Health, where we talked about his seven pillars of health. And two of the ones that stood out the most to me, maybe because they're somewhat blind spots to me, are spiritual and social health. Now, for many people, particularly for those who operate within a faith-based structure, November and December tend to be faith, there's opportunities to practice and connect with one's faith during that time. Whether it be Kwanzaa, whether it be Hanukkah, whether it be Christmas, and other religious holidays, a lot of these holidays are clustered towards the back half

of the year. And foregoing the enjoyable and spiritual components of the year in effort to just work out a little more and maybe lose a little more weight, I don't think that really puts you in a position where you're going to be all that happy and you're going to be really not filling your spiritual cup. So, if you're a spiritual person, don't make too many sacrifices or concessions. Now, for those of us who are agnostic, maybe atheist, maybe you aren't religious or spiritual, or you're not spiritual in a conventional way, there's always the social side of things. And so, the social component of the holidays has a lot to do with friends, families, work events. We have so many end-of-the-year events and celebrations

that I think foregoing these things in an effort to lose body fat, in an effort to stick to your diet, in an effort to get all your workouts in, um, can have some deleterious or negative effects. Because again, there are multiple pillars of your health and it's an extra bowl. Like the social component is an extra bowl. You can't remove it. You can't pull it out. It's too darn important. And what good is being lean and ripped and jacked if you don't have friends and you don't have relationships? So this might be a counterintuitive first point to make, but that's why it's on the list number one. And that is regardless of your fitness results, or I should say goals or whatever your ultimate results that you'd like to have,

whatever it is that your goals are, do not make so many spiritual and social concessions that you reach them as a lonely, unfulfilled person. You need to expand your pillars of health outside of nutrition and training and incorporate things like rest, sunlight, sleep, stress management, and of course, spiritual and social elements of health. So a big fitness mistake I see made, especially from the fitness fanatics types, the people who are probably inclined to listen to a health and fitness podcast like this is foregoing too many of the all too important elements of the holiday season. And I'll also say that for many of you, if you're like myself, and maybe you come from a semi-broken family, you're not particularly spiritual, the holidays can be a uniquely challenging and difficult time where maybe you are surrounded by social media and movies and things that make you remember difficult, challenging times, and you don't have that conventional holiday model. difficult, challenging times, and you don't have that conventional holiday model, I think it's important to remind everybody that you can create family, find family, find spiritual connection

in so many unique ways, and to lean into that and not fall prey to some of the non-health promoting behaviors like drug abuse, excessive alcohol consumption, hermiting yourself inside, being depressed. These are all things that can affect people a lot during the holidays. I've worked with a number of clients over the years who have had uniquely traumatizing childhoods, extremely challenging familial situations, and the holidays actually are the hardest time of year for them, where for so many people, they're one of the most enjoyable times of year. And so I think just remembering that not everybody is in a position to enjoy the holidays. If you are,

lean into it. And if you're not, don't do anything that's not going to directly and positively improve your health. Don't get destructive either. Okay. Number two holiday mistake I see is consuming way too much alcohol and way too much sugar. So obviously, it needs to be said that the holidays typically are, you know, for most Americans and for most people in the West, we're talking about Halloween, then a big break through November into Thanksgiving. And then in December, we've got things like Hanukkah for the Jewish community.

We've got things like Christmas for the Christian and Catholic communities. We've got the New Year's holiday. So there's a handful of days, anywhere from like five to 15 days from the end of October to the beginning of January, where people are, you know, conflating the holidays with the holiday season. And during the holiday season, there's cookies, there's cakes, there's alcohol, there's all kinds of candy, whether it's Thanksgiving candy, whether it's leftover Thanksgiving baked goods, pies and cookies, whether it's all the Christmas parties and all the alcohol.

And really, instead of compartmentalizing these into individual days, it bleeds into a literal season. And in that season, what we typically see and what I see a lot with our clients at Core Coaching Method in the studio, with our other coaches, with our trainers, is clients who say, oh, well, you know, it's the holidays. And I always like to push back and remind people that the holidays are days. They're not an entire three-month season where you have license to eat like crap and especially increase your intake of empirically unhealthy things in high amounts. We know sugar in small amounts can be okay. We know alcohol in almost any amount is bad for you, but in lower amounts, it tends to be substantially safer than at higher amounts.

But if you spend three months every year eating massive amounts of sugar and massive amounts of alcohol or above average amounts of alcohol, that can have a long-term chronically bad effect on your health. And so a huge mistake I see is abuse of alcohol and extremely elevated sugar consumption. And so to hopefully help you work around that, things that you can do are to load your fridge up with alternatives, to promote water ingestion and do what you can to drink more water throughout the day. That's an extremely valuable tool to try to minimize your exposure to those sugary foods. We'll talk a lot more about this as we go, but do not make the holiday mistake of spending three months a year drinking an unhealthy amount of alcohol year drinking an unhealthy amount of

alcohol and eating an unhealthy amount of sugar. While it is possible to maintain a lean fit body composition and stay active while doing this, those are two uniquely negative things people tend to over consume during this timeframe that if you do this over a long enough time horizon will be bad for your health. Number three mistake I see a lot is thinking that you need a gym to work out and or stay active during this time of year. So a lot of people travel during the holidays. They go home and they visit parents. They go out. They visit relatives. They go on vacation. I'm taking a couple vacations during this time of year. And I really picked this up when my online coaching business started ramping up six years ago, which was the number of clients that were like, hey, coach, not going to be at

the gym this week, going home to visit my parents. And there's nothing in town or I'll be staying there. They've got nothing to work with. So I'm going to take the week off. And it's totally OK to take a week off. Many of you train too much and could use a week off. But for a lot of you, maintaining the habit and activity is going to be vital for consistency, for weight loss,

for being and living a healthy life. And so a big mistake I see is people thinking that just because they're leaving their traditional home-based gym and going somewhere where maybe they don't have access to a gym, that they cannot train or stay active during the holidays. That is not true at all. Something that you can do that can make a really, really big difference during the holidays and helping you stay active is to get some bands, get a TRX, get some light dumbbells, get some equipment that travels easily. All of those do. Get some nice walking shoes so you can go on more walks. If you're going to be traveling and going places with your family, a lot of that additional walking kind of gets baked in. I think about my upcoming trip to Cancun and to Hawaii. Me and my girlfriend are going to be walking around all over the place.

That's just how we operate. That's just how we do things. And so that's a lot. But there's also a gym right there on site at the resort. But if you're going home to the old family house and you don't have weights there, you can pack a TRX, you can pack some bands, you can pack a few things. And once you buy them once, you'll have them forever. And so that can make traveling really, really easy as you continue to grow, develop on your fitness journey. But do not fall prey to the notion that just because you're traveling away from your gym, or maybe you can't easily get to a gym that you can't stay active. And on the flip

side of that, don't think that it's not okay to take some time off. So many of you need to take more time off than you already do. And I think that doing that can be so, so valuable. So maybe if you are more advanced, you can take your deloads and work them in here. You can find opportunities to step away from hard training and focus on promoting more sleep, more walking, more mobility work. All of the stuff that I tend to find that people really, really skip out on when they're hard, hard, really, really zealous trainees across an entire year. Okay, moving on to tip number five. We've got thinking that you need to lose body fat or diet during this time of year. We talk a lot about periodization when it comes to training. What's going on, guys? Coach Danny here, taking a break from the episode to tell you about my coaching company, Core Coaching Method, and more specifically, our one-on-one, fully tailored online coaching program.

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and tolerance and getting ready for the season ahead. When we talk about like bodybuilders, they have off seasons where they focus on bulking and growing and competition seasons where they focus on getting lean and holding onto muscle. For average population, general population folks, I find it tends to work pretty well to focus on losing body fat during the spring and summer months. And it oftentimes works really well to focus on maintaining those results, not necessarily moving forward with the same amount of intensity and zeal during the holiday months. It can be really hard to do this because of some of the things we already mentioned, right? There's so many spiritual and social things baked into this time of year. There's a lot more drinking, a lot more baked

goods, a lot more tasty, hyper-palatable foods being thrown in our face. And sometimes with all of the things that we have to worry about, whether it's with work, with family, with kids, to also maintain a calorie deficit can be really, really arduous and quite challenging. So sometimes shifting what it is you're looking to do and shifting your expectations away from, hey, I need to be losing fat towards something that might be a little bit more holistic or a little bit more reasonable, like, hey, I'm just looking to maintain my weight. That can be really, really valuable. And so, you know, from October to December, a focus on weight maintenance, a shift away from feeling as though you need to lose body fat

towards more of a focus on, hey, I'd be really happy to just maintain my weight by focusing on getting a lot of protein, eating my vegetables, being mindful of my alcohol consumption. I'm still going to indulge and engage with my family and friends, but I'm not going to overindulge with my family and friends to the point where it negatively impacts my health. That can be a really, really beneficial and smart way to do things. Periods of maintenance and diet breaks and refeeds can be really, really valuable when they're done for a couple of weeks. But for many of you, taking a couple months to be at maintenance and then really hitting it hard in the new year when things soften up from a social standpoint, from a travel standpoint, from a work deadline standpoint can be very, very beneficial. Tip number six is to ditch the notion that you need to burn off all of the food that

you enjoy. I've talked about this a number of times on the podcast, but specifically with Halloween and the candy, with Thanksgiving and the feasting, and with Christmas and the indulging, people feel as though they need to either wake up early to burn a shit ton of calories. This is typical on turkey trots on Thanksgiving, or on November 1st, the day after Halloween, where they eat all the candy, they need to go out and do some hellacious workout. And we've talked about the ability for the body to actually compensate for a heavily increased caloric ingestion, meaning like, oh, I ate a shit ton of Halloween candy. I'm going to go burn it off. And we know that exercise is

okay at creating caloric expenditure and for creating an energy deficit. But the easiest way to do it is to just eat less or to honestly just get back to eating in a more normative fashion. Because one thing's for sure, if you feel and you create a framework and a paradigm that you need to earn enjoyable food, that can lead to a negative relationship with food or that you need to punish yourself with exercise after enjoying food, that can lead to a negative relationship with food. And one of the things that's really, really important and that I really champion people focusing on is finding a way to make your fitness holistic and to never look at it as a form of

punishment. Because we know that human beings are substantially more likely to avoid punishment than they are to engage with things that aren't pleasurable. We see this all the time. Human beings are kind of wired to avoid pain. So if you start framing exercise as a painful way to kind of make up for food transgressions that aren't even real transgressions, that can create a really negative relationship around food, exercise, and the holidays. So I would strongly encourage you to move away from the notion that you need to, quote unquote, burn it off. Move away from the idea that you need to, quote unquote, earn it, but instead be generally more mindful of having multiple days from October to January where you are eating in a way that is healthful, eating a high-protein diet, eating lots of fresh fruits, vegetables,

whole grains, and not necessarily indulging for three months straight. And on all those big holidays, punishing yourself with exercise, forcing yourself out of bed to the early morning bootcamp. I know that it might seem like I'm a little bit wishy-washy because at the beginning here, I'm promoting exercise and movement. And I think exercise and movement during the holidays is extremely valuable and beneficial for your wellbeing. I'm saying, don't feel like you have to go above and beyond every time you indulge and enjoy something. You know, if you work out consistently through the year, if you monitor and eat in a health promoting way consistently through the year,

you can have a couple of weeks, maybe even a couple of days, a couple of weeks, even a couple of months where your, you know, health promoting behaviors are down consistently. And maybe you're indulging in a way that's not all that healthy without it having a hugely negative impact. So just something I want you guys to think about and be mindful of. Don't fall victim to the notion that you need to earn it or burn it. Number seven, don't wait until the new year to incorporate new health promoting behaviors. Don't be a new year's resolutioner. There's something known as tabula rasa or the clean slate. And it's certainly beneficial to have a clean slate and to start from scratch. We see this a lot. There's just something really, really powerful, powerful about January 1st.

And as a fitness professional who worked in corporate fitness for a long time, I can tell you the proof is in the pudding. It shows on the PNL, January is a very busy month because motivations are high. But what better time to focus on starting new habits and behaviors than the time of year where people tend to take the most time off? They tend to have the most time at home. They tend to spend the most time with family. They tend to spend the most time around their loved ones, right? It's usually the time of year where people have the least work. They get time off at work. Kids get time off at school. These are great times to start incorporating new habits. So instead of starting the new year like, oh, it's January 1st. I'm hungover as fuck.

Well, I'll start on the 2nd and working your way back from there. Hey, maybe after Halloween this year, at the time of recording this, it's November 2nd. So maybe mid to early November, you can start small little baby steps towards those health promoting habits and behaviors. I think that's a wonderful way to go about doing this instead of, like I said, doing what most people do, which is waiting until January 1st to start taking care of your health. There's nothing stopping you from working on it right now. It's an absolutely phenomenal opportunity when things quiet down a little bit. And yes, we get busier with family and social events, but it's always

a good time to just start thinking about, hey, what do I want to work on? And if you can get from the contemplation stage into a little bit of that small action stage, I think it can be really, really valuable. And all right, guys, this is the eighth tip. This is a big one for me. I work on this a lot with clients is thinking that just because a food is there that you have to eat it. I've trained a lot of elderly women over the years who are so sweet, so kind, so generous, and so inclined to bring cookies, candies, and baked goods to the gym, to the studio. I even have one client who set out an entire huge charcuterie spread at the gym one year. It was really sweet because I said, hey, we get so many baked goods and pastries and cookies

and candies that we can't eat them all. And truthfully, like as trainers, we try not to eat so many of those things because oftentimes they're pretty devoid of nutrition. But she was like, okay, well, what do you think about this? What if I make a huge table, cheese and charcuterie board? And, you know, I was like, okay, go ahead and do that. So like the amount of things that people have brought in, um, the amount of things that people have, have, you know, brought to the studio that need to be eaten or not wasted is limitless. Um, and there seems to be, seems to be this notion that, Hey, if it's there, I got to eat it. You know, I don't want it to go to waste. Gotta, you know, I got cookies and pies. I got to eat it. I don't want it to go to waste. I got cookies and pies. I got to work my way

through this stuff. That's not the case, guys. There's more than okay to just say no, to not finish the cake, to not finish the cookies, to throw it away, to give it to somebody else, to donate it to a food shelter. There are so many ways that you can get around the idea and the notion that just because the food is there, you have to eat it. That is a big, big one that I think a lot of people struggle with. And you don't have to engage in wasting a ton of food to work through this. Okay, guys. So again, the eight mistakes I've seen a lot over the 10 years I've been coaching in the holiday season that will really set you back is one, if you're already a fitness fanatic and you're already really invested,

not making time for those other elements of spiritual and social health. Number two, overconsumption of sugar and alcohol. Number three, thinking that you need a gym to stay active during this time of year. Number four, not seeing and taking the opportunity to deload for those of you who are very, very active. Number five, thinking that you always need to be dieting and always losing fat. Remember, this is oftentimes the best time for a diet break or a maintenance phase. Number six, trying to burn it or earn it with regards to food and enjoying food. Number seven, waiting until the new year to start taking your health seriously or start a new health promoting behavior. And number eight, thinking that just because the food's there, the alcohol is there that you need to drink it or eat

it. That is just not the case. I want to thank you guys all so much for tuning in to this episode. I hope you have a safe, healthy, and recuperative holiday season. I will be dropping episodes throughout this time period so as to help put you on a trajectory to monitor your health, improve your performance, and increase the happiness, health, and longevity that you've got. Thanks so much for tuning in and I'll catch you on the next one.