Hi guys, welcome back to the strong with Julie podcast today's episode. It's going to be a fun one
We're talking about the holiday season and how to not fall into the whole trap of I'll start in January
And if you're like Julie, but I need to start in January the next two months is crazy for me
I hope that today I can maybe change your mind a little bit or give you a different
Perspective so this is one of my favorite topics to talk about honestly because if you can stay even like
20%
Consistent now until the new year
Everything is just gonna be so much easier in January your routine your momentum all of it and we'll dive into that
but before we dive in I just want to give a
Quick update and little black Friday details for one-up nutrition the supplement company that I partnered with a few months ago
They're doing a huge black Friday sale any two items you save 20% by any four items
You save 25% and by any six items you save 30% and it's up to 50% off
And if you use my code Julie X fit you get an additional 20% off, which is wild
In terms of like what products I to suggest I keep it simple in my day-to-day routine
I use their fish oil their vanilla protein powder and the creatine monohydrate in the watermelon flavor
Take creatine every single day. Those are the three things that I personally use that on a day-to-day basis
I've tried every single supplement on the market
I swear at this point they get sent to me which is fun to try it and test it and be like your test buddy
But those are the ones that I think are worth your money
I do have a whole supplement podcast if you guys want to listen to that
But I want to get right into this podcast and kind of section it off into different phases
The first thing I want to talk about is the number one thing people do wrong
Then I want to go into like part two of the episode. It's gonna be pick your holiday standard
This is an activity I do with my clients so we can do it together
Once we pick those out at the end
I want to give you guys some little prompts and to-dos and I hate to give you homework
But I think it's a fun way to hold each other accountable and yeah, let's get right into it
Oh, I did want to tell you guys that this Saturday. I'm going to my very first
College football game, which is wild. I went to Fairfield University. Well, I went to UConn first
I never went to any of their football games. I did participate in a tailgate
But we didn't actually end up going to the football game because they were really bad and then when I went to Fairfield
You they didn't have a football team
So we're going to Ohio State on Saturday very last minute Brett's cousin, Texas last night
It was like hey, I have these two tickets. Do you and Juliana want to go and bro's like let's do it
So we're gonna do it. It's gonna be fun
I usually read my book when Brett watches football, but I feel like it's poor manners to bring a book to a football game
Anyways, I'm excited for the food. It's about a hit
Okay, so the number one thing that people do wrong during this season like especially right now a week out from Thanksgiving
Is that they create this automatic habit that when things get hard?
They don't have to try so things are gonna get hard right and you're creating this habit of you know what?
I'll wait and start told January so you're literally giving yourself permission and creating a habit loop that you're gonna
Maintain for the rest of the year probably that if things get a little bit difficult
If your schedule gets a little bit more chaotic that you no longer have to try and I see trickling effects in that like in terms of
Vacations or summertime when like kids are off from school
People just have created that pattern of big date big changes big drop-off like Thanksgiving hits
They stop December gets busy. They stop Christmas starts. They stop it becomes literally an annual ritual stress
Overwhelmed abandon ship, but I want to tell you something that might change your mind about this
So I went over some statistics obviously. I'm an online fitness coach and I actually have a way higher
retention rate in October November and December compared to January February March, which is absolutely nuts and
I think this is because the clients who come in in October November
They have the right mindset to thrive during the season
They understand that things are gonna get busy and they're not gonna be able to give it a hundred and thousand ten percent
As if they had nothing going on
But they understand that and they want structure and they want a coach to be able to pivot with them
And if it's a really busy week be able to check in that week and be like hey coach
What's the bare minimum I can do this week to see results and I think that's what really leads to it
Whereas the people with the January mindset like okay new year new me
They are stepping into that new year
Expecting themselves to be absolutely perfect because the week before Thanksgiving they told themselves, you know what?
I'm gonna wait until January 1st and when January 1st hits
I'm gonna be perfect and then they realize when January 1st hits that their life actually isn't perfect
They still have things that they have to do. They still have obligations. Their schedule is still a little bit busy
You know like it doesn't not all obligations just go out the window in January things are gonna pop up
And if they don't maintain that standard of perfection that they've set in their mind
That's when that habit loop of oh things got hard. I no longer have to try kicks in so my October November December people
Even if they don't know it their body thrives on momentum and slow motion is always better than no motions
Your habits don't need to be perfect during this time
But they just need to stay alive like keep them a little bit above water
You know if your step goal is 10,000 steps a day like can we just keep it a little bit above water and hit like eight or
9,000 steps a day. Don't let it drown at 2,000 steps a day. You get me?
So with that being said now I want to set your standard
So now we're gonna move on to part two of picking your holiday fitness standard
And there's three different things that we're gonna go through number one option is burnout recovery mode
Number two is maintenance mode, which is my favorite for most women and number three is
Intentional body change mode. So you're gonna fall into one of these three categories and we're gonna pick that today
Before we even talk about your workouts your macros your methods for success
You need to choose the version of success
You're gonna be operating towards between now and January 1st and there's three very valid standards those that I just listed and
The first thing that we have to do to figure out which category do we fall on is we have to scan your schedule
So I want you to pull out your planner or your calendar literally right now
You can pause this pull it out and ask yourself these questions. What days are you traveling?
What days are you celebrating?
What weekends are non-negotiably booked and what weeks feel normal versus insane?
I don't know if you guys really care to hear about my schedule, but I suppose I'll tell you real quick
So for me November 26 is a travel day November 30th is a travel day in between will be in
Grand Rapids, Michigan, and then Thanksgiving Day will be in Ohio
Then I have December 10th a very important photo shoot that I want to look and feel real good for and that's for an upcoming little
Not challenge, but a different thing that's coming out
Which you guys will learn about soon which has nothing to do with my coaching which is crazy because
Literally 95% of my energy the past like four years have been towards coaching and the other 5% towards like content creation
I wanted like I need a little spark of something new so something new is coming
I talked about it a little bit on my coaching page, but more info soon
I just don't have it completely finalized
So I don't want to tell you guys and then backtrack if I was wrong or if things changed not that I'm trying to gatekeep
Anyway, so photo shoot then December 11 through 14th
My mom is visiting and then December 20th through 28th will be in Connecticut. So I got a lot of stuff going on now on top of that
We have a Christmas party and we do Christmas Eve party for Thanksgiving. We drive all the way to Ohio
We have lunch like Thanksgiving lunch. We all sit there and look at each other
I'm just kidding. I sound terrible. We all sit there and chat and get to know Brett's family and just catch up for a while
And then we have dinner and then we drive three hour drive home. It's a lot of sitting
I try to creep away to walk around but everyone wants to talk to everyone and they're a little bit older
So literally that day, I just give myself permission to be a pig and I just let it be and then the next day
I typically get like a week's pass at a gym and hit a fire leg day with all the mashed potatoes that I had
All those carbs are going straight to the booty. Okay, cool
So you did that for your schedule, right? So you have everything marked down
Hopefully you got a cute little highlighter and you highlighted those crazy days. So now we have to think okay based on all this
That's going on. What of the three categories do I fit in so the first one is
If you're burnt out as heck and your schedule is
Overloaded and you feel like you're drowning
So if you're burnt out and your body is sore and you're tired and you've been really great all year hitting your goals
I just want to tell you that you're not failing and it probably means that you pushed really hard this year and you cared
And you tried and you showed up and now your body is like hey
Can we chill for a minute especially with all the stress going on so I want your focus if you fall in this category to be
Structure so like planning out your day ahead of time so you have the capacity to
Engage and be happy and smile and really enjoy the social conversations
You're gonna have in this like holiday season laughs and fun foods all the things
But I need you to plan your schedule out so you don't feel overwhelmed with it
Like how good are you gonna feel and this isn't even with workouts
I'm talking about with life like plan out the presence that you're buying wrap them ahead of time like put all this little step into your schedule
So you feel like you have your life together so focus on that so structure then the other thing is going to be
Mobility like this is your time to get a little bit more flexible
And your body's gonna thank you for it because last thing that you need is your cook and Thanksgiving dinner
You're cracking all over the place you're bending down you hurt your back. We don't need any of that
So you're gonna work on mobility it could be in the morning or at night
And I want you to set a little alarm on your phone a reminder every night ten minutes while you're watching your TV in bed
I don't care. You're gonna do a little mobility. You can look up YouTube ten minute mobility routine on my Julie X fit YouTube
I have it you can do it every single night. That's all I want you to do stretch. Okay mobility and stretching
Then the next thing is walking. I don't want you to give this up in the burnout category
You really shouldn't walking is so good for you and there's never gonna be a phase of your fitness journey
Where I'm gonna say don't walk because I think everyone should walk now
I'm not gonna give you a time structure to walk you walk when you can walk and keep it top of mind
So if that's in the morning, you do like a quick 20 minute lap with your dog
Good do it and have a goal. So that is your one goal is walking get off your dang phone
Okay, I want you to stop consuming so much in comparing like Susie Luz holiday decorations to yours or all this stuff like
Really watch your social media consumption during the winter
We talked about it last week with the seasonal depression, but I think that's very important
I caught myself doing that this weekend. I was in my
Lutile phase. So I think I was just sad anyways, but anyways, you don't want to do that and
Owning that you're in a recovery season. So notice. I didn't say workout. Okay in this
Phase you're giving yourself permission to not workout, but you're walking you're doing your mobility
You're making sure you're structured in your life
But you're giving yourself permission to just take a break from the weights and the sweat and everything and that this matter is because
Chronic stress will increase your cortisol and if you're feeling stressed already and you feel like you know what?
I really gave it my all this year and I'm tired
You have decreased the recovery capacity right now and that's gonna make fat loss harder if that's your goal
So by supporting your nervous system right now
You're actually gonna come back better and stronger and more motivated for January
So I think it's pretty clear that this is very different than just giving up because you still have
Structure you still have goals and you still have non-negotiables. So those non-negotiables in this category would be
Mobility using your planner or whatever you like to plan to make sure your life is you know
Go in the right direction and then walking. So those would be like your three non-negotiables
Now the next one is called the maintenance season and I actually really like the maintenance mode because I think it's like a good sweet spot for
Most clients I think honestly like 80% of people should choose this one
And this is where you keep your habits alive, but scale them back just a little bit
So what this could look like is instead of doing five workouts a week
We dial it down to three if you're previously doing 60 minute workouts. Let's do 30 minute workouts
Do you guys remember that new study that I shared about how two really hard sets to failure is efficient enough for muscle growth?
So if you're doing four sets of every exercise and you have to do two sets do that do something
You can swap gym workouts with at-home strength workouts and get an adjustable dumbbell set
I've done this for several of my clients who we already prepared to that December was going to be nets for them
So I reworked programming we pivoted my favorite word
The goal here is to maintain your muscle not to necessarily like grow any crazy muscle
Sorry, if you just heard Gus nor he's on my lap
Avoid burnout and just stay in rhythm for January and this is huge because it keeps you consistent and remember
Consistency is what creates progress and the only thing that's gonna help your consistency during crazy times is
Simplicity so make sure that your routine is you know, it's there
But it's also simple and it's simple to follow
Like it's not necessarily easy because you're gonna have to get up in the morning
You're about there sneakers on you're gonna have to do your workout. It's not easy, but it's simple
So that's what's gonna make
Going into January a little bit easier because you have this rhythm of consistency already and you're using this holiday as a bridge
Instead of a break every Sunday look at your week choose three workout days
Decide when and what you're doing that way you don't have decision fatigue day of this is choosing against ability over falling off
It's choosing habit overall or nothing and it's deciding that December is still a part of your fitness journey not a break from it
This is exactly why maintenance is the top choice in my head. But what if you have a real goal?
What if you're getting married in January?
What if something big is coming up or you have a vacation and you want intentional body change?
You're like Julie, I don't want to maintain. I want progress. That's okay, Queen
Okay, we're gonna do that without being miserable. First, you are going to not do the extreme stuff
Just posted something about you're majoring in the minors instead of majoring in the majors
We're gonna focus on the things that are actually gonna move the needle. You're not giving up sugar
You're not giving up sweets. You're not saying no to holiday parties
You're not skipping dessert because that's not realistic and honestly that is not fun
Okay, the only difference here is you're seriously going to progressive overload
So similar to your maintenance phase like same deal there in terms of like how you're gonna work out and maybe dial it back
But you're actually gonna progressive overload like you are going to make sure that each week
You are getting stronger and tracking your weights because
Scientifically like this is a part of the major category
Progressive overload will lead to body changes in a positive direction
You're gonna track every single day outside of those key holiday events every single day outside of the key holiday events
Like I said, so maybe you say no to the leftovers
Okay, you pick one goal and you really anchor to it
So by January 1st, I will consider myself to have been successful if I do my three workouts a week
If I apply a progressive overload and I track all days outside of events
Define what success is gonna look like for you come January 1st. Use those extra carbs as fuel
Don't let it stress you out on the holidays like eat whatever you want on the holidays and get right back to it the next day
You are on track all the other days
You're gonna be fine
But if you have three holiday parties that week cool track Monday through Friday train like the athlete
The days of the holiday party eat your breakfast high protein
Maybe have a lower carb lunch and a little high protein snack right before you go to the party
So you're not going in super hangry like drink a Fairlife protein shake or have a cup of Greek yogurt before you go
And then while you're there fill your plate with protein veggies and split the dessert, okay?
And you're gonna be absolutely fine, but portion control is key
No one is shoving food into your mouth if you're placing yourself directly in front of the appetizers or snack bowls and you're sitting
You're more likely to grab it. So maybe sit in a seat where you're a little further from all the food
Okay, so right now in your planner just write down by January 1. I want
Insert what you want. Okay. Well, I want is I want consistency and I want to get stronger and I have that photo shoot coming up
So I want to tighten up. So your brain loves this direction
It loves momentum and your results are gonna love consistency. Those go hand in hand. So now you have your three options
You pick it whatever you picked. I'm not judging you for all our right answers. There's no right answers here. It's you
It's your life. It's your decision and
Now I just want you to pick your three holiday non-negotiables. Okay, because again simplicity equals consistency and consistency equals results
So examples of what these three non-negotiables can be
8,000 steps a day a hundred grams of protein at least per day three workouts per week 80 ounces of water
Five minutes of morning sunlight. Maybe going outside and doing a quick stretch while you do that
Mobility before bed pick your three. Okay, so for me, it's gonna be my steps my protein and my workouts
those are my three and
Anchor those and you will not fall off
I promise because now you're not setting unrealistic expectations for yourself plan plan around your life and not against it
This is a busy season. Okay, and the busy season is gonna come again next year
So if you plan ahead for it if you move things around and pivot and just like dial it back a little bit
But give you a hundred percent to that dialed back version instead of thirty percent of your like
Insane unrealistic version of your standard. You're gonna do so much better and you're not like fighting against the season
You're working with it. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and it was helpful if it was please share it
Maybe on your Instagram or with a friend that would be really helpful
I just want to get the word out my number one goal in life is to help everyone look and feel their best without feeling
Like food is controlling their life because I was there for a really long time
And I just know how miserable and defeating that feels and I don't want anyone to ever feel like that
So whatever I can do and whatever little piece I can play in helping someone feel better
I really want to do that
so that would be really really helpful and then my black Friday sale is still going on for another six days for my coaching you get
Three months for the price of two or four months for the price or sorry six months for the price of four
Details on that can be found at juliexfit.com. You can watch the video there explaining how it works
And you can always DM me with questions at juliexfit or email me
[email protected] with any questions
The only thing going on sale this year is my coaching because I want to fill up my roster
I had a few girls graduate from the program in October and November which was really fun
So now I just want to fill up those spots and make sure I'm going into the new year with the full roster and then come January
I have that new offer coming out to you guys, which I'll tell you guys more about soon
So I love you guys. I hope you have a great rest of your week
I'm gonna go cheer on Ohio State on Saturday, and yeah, yeah have a good one
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