It IS possible to enjoy the holidays without stressing over your food and fitness. Here’s how!

The holidays are a time for enjoying the company of family and friends and getting away from our normal routine.

For some women, however, this shift outside the norm can bring on a lot of stress and anxiety.

Maybe you’re worried about having to spend time with certain family members. Or you’re stressed about how to handle all the food, and lack of your normal exercise routine. Whatever you’re struggling with, it can definitely make the holidays less than enjoyable.

It breaks my heart that many women feel this way about this special time of year. I can completely relate because I was once there too.

I used to be so preoccupied with the food and my expectations around its role in the holiday season, that enjoying the people around me was difficult.

And sometimes I still struggle! Not because I’m judging my choices but because eating a ton and not exercising at all makes me feel poorly if it goes on for too long.

But with a renewed mindset around my health, body image, and the role of food and fitness in my life, I’ve been able to break the pattern of stress and worry during the holiday season and do my best to simply enjoy it.

And I believe you can have this same freedom too!

You CAN enjoy the holidays without stressing over food and fitness. You have the power within yourself to make that change.

In this blog post, I’m going to walk you through four mindset shifts that can help you break the chains of health perfectionism that this time of year can bring to light.

And with this newfound freedom, you’ll be on the right path to enjoying the holidays without stressing over your food and fitness.

So if you’re ready to shift your mindset around food and fitness during the holidays, let’s go!

How the Holidays Increase Stress Around Food and Fitness

The holidays are a time when we’re often outside of our normal routine. It’s natural to have disruptions to our normal food and fitness routine.

You’re likely being offered foods outside what you typically eat. There is likely way more food available than normal, and the temptation to overindulge can be overwhelming. And you likely have less time to devote to your normal training routine.

For some women, this can be a welcome break from the hustle of everyday life. But for others, these factors can be major sources of stress.

You might be afraid of what will happen if you deviate too far from your typical diet. Or you might be concerned that you’ll lose all your progress in the gym with the extended time off.

These fears are rooted in something deeper: your identity. They’re telling of your relationship to food and fitness and the importance that you place on them in your life.

And my hope is that these four mindset shifts will help you start to break free from fear during the holiday season.

Shifting Your Mindset Around Food and Fitness During the Holidays

There is so much more to life than what you eat and how much you train. And enjoying the holidays and time with friends and family is no exception.

When we let our worry or obsession over food and fitness drown out the holiday season, we’re letting these things steal life and joy from us.

We’re putting our food and fitness habits on a pedestal in our lives where they just don’t belong. We’re giving them far too much power to control our happiness.

My mission is to help women just like you use food and fitness as a tool that helps them pursue their purpose and bring them greater joy.

In this, you’ll find freedom from the mindset that food, fitness, and being “healthy” is your identity or your greater purpose. When in reality these things are just tools to help you get there.

You can break free from the mindset that says you must strictly control your food and fitness routines or else you won’t be healthy. Or worthy. Or you won’t live up to some arbitrary standards. (Insert whatever lie you’re telling yourself here)

The truth is, when you’re truly living a Fed and Fearless™ life, you’re able to enjoy the ebbs and flows of life without stressing and obsessing over your food intake or your fitness routine.

This mindset shift is not an easy one to make. You’ve likely been viewing food and fitness in a certain light for a long time. Especially during the holidays. Shifting that viewpoint will take work and effort on your part.

To get started, here are some of the biggest mindset shifts to help you start viewing your food and fitness from a Fed and Fearless™ perspective.

Mindset Shift #1: Food and Fitness are Not the Enemy

Food and fitness are not the enemy. Actually, it’s the complete opposite.

God created food as something to be enjoyed as an earthly reflection of our enjoyment we are to have in Him.

If heaven is like a banquet feast, our enjoyment of special meals is a small taste of heaven on earth.

So when you look at all of the food prepared for you during the holidays as the enemy, you’re missing the bigger picture of what it means to experience earthly joy. Joy that we were designed to experience.

When we give food and fitness this foothold in our lives, we’re leaving the door open for the real Enemy to steal, kill, and destroy our joy.

Food and fitness have no power over us. And in themselves, they cannot make us stressed or worried during the holiday season.

The real issue is how we view food and fitness. How we allow our fears to direct our thoughts and behavior patterns, especially during the holidays.

Don’t let something that God created for us to enjoy become something that creates fear inside you.

Mindset Shift #2: Food is Not the Goal

Food is not the goal or the main focal point of the holidays.

This may seem hard to believe when you’re stressed about what to eat, how much to eat, or how to navigate the uncertainty you feel around food. Or if you’ve been brought up in a family that treats holiday food like it’s their last meal on earth.

And while, yes, food is a large part of many holiday celebrations and traditions, it’s not the sole reason you’re there.

You wouldn’t be preparing a huge feast just to eat it alone. The reason there’s so much food is that there are people you love to eat it with you.

So don’t let your obsession over food and fitness steal your ability to focus on the real reason you attend holiday gatherings – to be with family and friends and celebrate all that you’re thankful for.

You can still fully experience and enjoy the holidays if you eat a second piece of pie. And passing on foods that don’t make you feel your best can’t overshadow time spent with the people you love.

I repeat: Food is not the main focal point of the holiday season.

When you give it more focus than it deserves, you’re opening yourself up for more stress and unrest around food and fitness during the holidays. And you may end up missing the true purpose of the season: the enjoyment of fellowship with family and friends.

Mindset Shift #3: Food Does Not Have Morality

As a society, we tend to label foods as “good” or “bad.”

Vegetables, salad, and lean meats are the stereotypical “good” foods. While processed foods, sugar, and anything high in fat are labeled as “bad.”

The intentions for labeling food this way may have been pure. In reality, it sets us up for believing the lie that eating “good” foods somehow makes us good, and enjoying the “bad” ones means we’ve been bad.

Believing these lies not only skews our relationship with food but also with our self-image and self-worth.

Food does not have morality. Believe it or not, eating one food over another doesn’t make you a better or a worse person. Food is food, it’s as simple as that.

Eating carrots over a slice of pie does not make you more worthy. And choosing to have a second helping of stuffing can’t change your intrinsic value as a human.

You are worthy and valuable because of who you are in Jesus, end of story. Your worth and value are not contingent on the foods you choose to eat or abstain from.

Truly understanding that food doesn’t have morality can help you break the cycle of stress and worry over eating the “wrong” thing.

Instead, you can live in a spirit of abundance with your food choices. You can choose the ones that make you feel good or bring you joy in the moment, without worrying about anything else in the process.

Mindset Shift #4: Fitness is Not a Way to Justify Your Food Intake

Contrary to some of the popular memes floating around about how many burpees you have to do to burn off a slice of pie, you don’t need to justify your food intake with changes to your fitness routine.

Eating more during the holiday season doesn’t mean you need to increase your workout intensity or frequency.

You can eat more, or eat foods you don’t normally consume, without spending extra time or effort in the gym. And on the flip side, you can also work out less during the holidays without needing to also consume less food.

This balancing act around food and fitness during the holiday season doesn’t have to be a source of stress and worry. Truthfully, it doesn’t even need to happen in the first place.

Your body can handle ebbs and flows in your routine.

Allowing yourself freedom around food during the holidays will not result in drastic changes in your body composition.

And in fact, taking time off from your typical fitness routine during the holidays can result in better mental and physical health than pushing yourself to fit it all in would.

Becoming Fed and Fearless™ Around Food and Fitness

1 Corinthians 10:31 – So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

The stress that some women feel around food and fitness during the holidays is real.

I’m not denying that it can be difficult to navigate all of those food choices and being away from your usual training routine. As I said before, I too struggle during this season.

Not because I’m judging my choices, but because eating a ton and not exercising at all makes me feel poorly if it goes on for too long. I get antsy sitting around eating and relaxing all day!

But the truth is that food and fitness are simply tools you’ve been given to glorify God with your life. They’re not the focus of life itself. They don’t need to make such a huge impact on your enjoyment of holidays.

By stressing and worrying about what you’re going to eat and how you’re going to train, you’re giving far too much power to these things. You’re enabling them to steal your joy and rob you of your true purpose and calling.

And I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you were created for so much more than fear and stress around food and fitness.

There is so much more to life than food and fitness. And my Fed and Fearless™ approach to health and wellness will teach you just that.

Becoming Fed and Fearless™ means that you’re able to use your health as a tool to pursue your bigger purpose.

Your health will no longer be the main focus of your life. You’ll be able to shift your focus to living in the abundantly more that God has called you to.

JOIN THE CHALLENGE

If you’re ready to start honoring God with the way you approach your health, I’ve got something special happening for you at the end of this month!

Introducing the Faith Over Fear: 5 Day Body Confidence Challenge!

In this 5 day challenge, you’ll learn how to replace negative self-talk with faith-focused truth, so you can honor God with the way you care for your body.

Ditch your food and fitness routine as your source of self-worth and learn how to see your body through God’s eyes, so you can steward your health in a way that honors the body you’ve been given.

We officially start the challenge the week of December 29th, so sign up now and save your spot!

Click here to join the challenge!

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