387: 5 Tips For Running Through The Holidays

In episode 387 of the Real Life Runners Podcast, we share five crucial tips for running through the holiday season. Understanding the challenges the holidays present, they provide strategies to keep your running routine intact amidst celebrations and commitments. We encourage listeners to plan ahead, adjust as necessary, and embrace the festive period while maintaining a balanced approach to fitness.

02:28 The Importance of Process Goals

07:19 Setting Minimum Exercise Levels

10:32 Planning and Flexibility in Workouts

22:11 Staying Active in Different Ways

28:44 Enjoying the Holiday Season

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Transcript

Angie: 0:00

Welcome to the Real Life Runners Podcast, episode number 387. Today we're talking about five tips to help you run successfully through the holidays. Because we know that the holidays can be a tough time to make sure you're getting everything in. So today we're going to give you our five best tips on how you can have success and not fall off the wagon during this holiday season. stay tuned. What's up, Runners? Welcome to the show today. It is Thanksgiving day, actually, when this episode is being released. So happy Thanksgiving. There

Kevin: 0:51

you go. Happy Thanksgiving.

Angie: 0:53

we are definitely thankful for you. So let us start this episode by just expressing our deepest and most sincere gratitude for you being here, listening to this podcast, downloading another episode, spending this time with us. We know that your time is the most precious thing that you have. So anytime that you choose to spend. Listening to us is something that we do not take for granted. So we really do our best to try to pack these episodes full of actionable tips for you to become a physically and mentally stronger runner. So thanks for being on this journey with us. And, if we could make a small request of you, if you could just pause this podcast and leave us a quick review, let us know what you love about the podcast. What has you coming back week after week to listen to us? we would be so thankful if you were to express. your gratitude for the podcast by leaving us a quick review or sharing it with a friend. So

Kevin: 1:46

unless you're listening to this in the middle of a turkey trot, then finish your five K and then leave us the review. There you go. Good luck. Go catch that person. The turkey cost. That's an

Angie: 1:55

interesting thing though. Like during a race, like especially a five K, do people listen to podcasts or do most people you think listen to music?

Kevin: 2:03

I don't know. I don't listen to things during races.

Angie: 2:06

I would think during a 5K, people are more prone to listening to music because it's that push yourself type of thing versus like maybe a half marathon or marathon, maybe people would be more likely to listen to a podcast.

Kevin: 2:19

Maybe you're warming up for a 5K race and enjoying the smoother, relaxing podcast, in which case. Yeah. Get in a couple of strides and then leave us a nice review.

Angie: 2:27

There we go. So today we want to talk about our five tips for running through the holidays. And we know that this episode is coming out on Thanksgiving, so maybe we should have put this out last week, but that's okay. The holiday season is basically upon us and there's still more than a month or basically a month left in the holiday, more than a month left because New Year's gets lumped into the holiday season too. So we still have plenty of time for you to take these action steps and these tips that we're going to give you today and put them into play. we just wrapped up a fantastic workshop with our team inside the academy, and we went through these questions in real time and they had a workbook and kind of, we worked through all of these together to help them feel set up for the holiday season. So as a gift to you, I would love to give you that workbook that I gave to our Academy members, so that you can work through this in real time also. So if you have the workbook already downloaded and printed out and you want to use this podcast to guide you, great. And if you want to listen to this podcast and go back and grab that workbook afterwards, that's a great thing too. So if you want to grab your copy, all you have to do is head over to realliferunners. com and on the top, like in the menu bar, just click on free resources and then you will see the holiday running guide is right there for you to download and work through this With for yourself. So today we're going to talk about five tips to help you run through the holidays because the holidays are a wonderful time for celebration and laughter and indulgence. However, it can also be a time that a lot of people have a a tough time sticking to their running schedule where health and fitness goals fall to the wayside. They get pushed to the back burner. And there's a lot of people that fall off their routine during this holiday season. And then they come January 1st, they feel like it's time for me to get back on and I'm starting from zero again. And that can be a really frustrating thing. So we don't want you to have to go through that. And so what we want to do in today's podcast is really give you five of our best tips to help you. Still keep up your fitness routine during the holidays, understanding that it might look a little different than other times of the year. And that's totally okay.

Kevin: 4:41

Yeah. there's a lot of reasons besides just the holidays, like there's cold and gross weather coming around. Like some for some people, not for us, but I've got, we have people, clients that we're working over within the UK. They just get hit by a storm that had a name to it. I didn't even know that happened in the UK. I'm over, we're over here in South Florida. yeah, hurricane season is finally wrapping up and they're getting hit with. monsoons over there. So there's all sorts of weather out there. So besides the time commitments of various holiday festivities, there's all sorts of weather things that need to take into account. Also, there's all sorts of craziness through the back end of the year.

Angie: 5:15

Yeah. And so really you can apply this to any time of the year, but we're going to talk about the holidays today. So let's jump right in. Tip number one is to set process focused goals. So what do we mean by that? there are really two types of goals that you can set. There are outcome goals, and then there are process goals. An outcome goal is something that you want to achieve. So for example, I want to run a. 5k in under 30 minutes or I want to run a half marathon in under two hours. Whatever that outcome is usually it's metrics Usually it's numbers based a lot of times. That would be the outcome that you're looking for. A process goal is the end How you're going to get there. It is the action steps that you take to achieve that thing. So for example Using those same goals in order to run a 5k under 30 minutes or a half marathon under two hours Whatever your goal might be There's going to be a certain number of days of the week that you're going to need to run. There's probably some other things you're going to need to do. You're probably going to need to focus on sleep and nutrition and other things. And so those would be the process goals. So an example of a process goal would be I'm going to run three times per week. I'm going to strength train twice per week. I'm going to get to bed every night by 10 p. m. So those are the actual things that you're doing in order to achieve. The outcome goal that you're looking for,

Kevin: 6:41

right? And there's still numbers in there. There's still a way to check and see whether you're hitting these goals. I'm going to run three times a week. I'm going to run four times a week, whatever the numbers are that you're putting out there, there's still a very objective way to see whether you're hitting or not hitting your goal. It's just that it's more focused on the very specific actions that you're taking. And you can have a process focused goal and an outcome focused goal. Like you can have both simultaneously, but you can also pull away from this outcome focused goal during the holidays and just be like, I want to figure out how to get through the holidays and not just train wreck myself. Cause that's what I did last year. So a process oriented goal says, These are the steps that I'm going to be taking on a weekly basis. And as we keep going through the podcast here, we'll figure out what nice ways to make sure that you can stay on track with your process goals.

Angie: 7:33

So this is step number one is to figure out your process goals. So I would encourage you if you're in a place where you can pause this episode and start to write down some of those process goals. Now, before you do that, one of the things, and one of the distinctions that we made in our workshop today with our clients was. It's important to have those goals of I want to follow my training plan exactly as it's written or I want to run five days a week and I want to strength train three times a week. Like having those like higher ideal goals that you're setting for yourself. And then it's also important to have, For you to set what we like to call your minimum or your floor, your minimum, what do we call it? The Mel, the minimum. We did a whole episode, a podcast episode about this, but it was basically what is the minimum that you're going to do and still feel satisfied, right? Thinking that, okay, during the holidays, all of these things, minimum exercise level,

Kevin: 8:26

yes,

Angie: 8:27

Mel is your minimum exercise level. There's a whole episode on that. If you want to go back and check that out, but. But essentially we all know that the holiday season can get a little hectic, that things don't always go as planned. Like Kevin mentioned, there's weather, different weather patterns that we're looking at now, right? Like you might be planning on going out for a run and then all of a sudden your town gets hit by a blizzard, right? That's going to change things. So what are the minimum? Exercise goals that you have for yourself during this season as well, right? Like maybe ideally you'd like to run four times a week, but you're going to commit to no less than two times per week. that's going to be my minimum two times of two, two runs per week and two strength training workouts per week,

Kevin: 9:10

right? And a key with the minimum is that you're still. You still have a level of satisfaction with this. The minimum can't be like, I'd like to run for four days per week and strength train for two days per week, but that might not be possible. So I'm going to just subtract one off of both. I, at a minimum, I'm going to run for three and strength workout for one. But if that idea of run for three and strengthening for one is it, doesn't feel Satisfying doesn't feel like you're doing enough there. you're already just saying it in your head and you're like, I'm gonna be on edge If I do that, I'm not really gonna feel like I'm fully working out then that's not really a minimum It's just taking what you want and subtracting one to Because there's going to be other stuff like you need to actually set your priorities and be able to say, all right, if these other priorities come out, then I will still be fully satisfied with whatever this level is.

Angie: 10:03

Yeah. You don't want to set your minimum and then be annoyed by it, right? that's just your baseline for yourself. So like when you think about your minimum exercise level, that's really your baseline. You're like, this is my floor. I'm not going below this and I'm going to commit. to not going below that. And then when you have that, then anything that you do above that can be like a little bonus. You can pat yourself on the back that you got in those three runs or four runs or whatever it might be for that week. So step number one is that. are those process focus goals and then you know have both the ideal situation of what you would love to do during this time and then also have your baseline or your minimum step number two is to plan your workouts okay do not leave your workouts to chance don't just say i'll get in what i can because that is a recipe for not getting in anything most of the time and in order to plan your workouts i highly suggest using a calendar And making an appointment with yourself. Okay. I do this every single week on my calendar I have the certain number of runs that i've got the certain number of strength workouts that i've got and for most of the time I like to keep my week the same like I typically like to run and lift around the same time But there are some days or there are some weeks that My, I've got something planned or a different appointment scheduled in my normal time slot. So I have to move things around, but I still have that hour, half hour, whatever it is that you've got for your workout. I've got it scheduled in, and then I can just move it to whatever time in the day works out with my schedule. And then I honor that as an appointment to myself, because if you just playing on trying to get something in, like I said, oftentimes it doesn't work. Doesn't end up happening

Kevin: 11:52

right and I've heard various people suggest like you have to prioritize your workouts first So put those on the calendar first, but here's the thing with the holidays. There's stuff that comes up. That is a Seems like a pressing priority over your workouts You know if there's that's why people have issues during the holidays besides the weather issues There's a whole lot of more social functions that are happening that seem like they're going to take precedent You're like, I can't really miss going to that thing I people expect me to go to that thing and you can decide ahead of time Like it's really not worth my going to that thing. There might be a few people annoyed But I'm going to skip that thing for the sake of my lift, my run, whatever the thing is. But for the most part, especially during the holidays where there are more commitments that you've got, stick those on the calendar and then plan out. When are you going to work out? I think that it just makes more sense this way because there are commitments that you're not used to. So instead of being like, Oh, normally I work out on Tuesdays. Tuesday morning, but I've got a dentist appointment that shows up, every six months, there's a whole bunch of extra stuff that are showing up. So it's not Oh, I can just kick that to the next day or I can push it back by an hour. The next day also has another commitment. So really put them all on the calendar and figure out how you're getting to January.

Angie: 13:07

Yeah. And I think that. Inside the workbook that we have for our members, that you also have access to now, I have a whole page where you can use that space to write down any travel time that you need, or any time commitments that might be coming up. So that might include holiday parties or other things that you want to prioritize during this season that might interfere with your schedule, just writing them all out so that you can see it and then putting those things on the calendar again. So you can see. Very visually, okay, this, I have all these different commitments and how am I going to get my workouts in now? I have two more things that just came up that I forgot to talk about, or with our, members today. So if you're a member here's some extra bonus tips. Number one is you don't have to say yes. To everything you can say no and remember that saying no is a very powerful thing You don't have to go to every single holiday party that you're invited to if you want to prioritize your health your fitness your sleep Your workouts that is totally okay make that choice if that is the choice that feels good to you Also, if that you're you know, those you know Parties or gatherings are very important to you. It's also okay to say no to your workouts. I think where we get into a lot of trouble is when we were trying to do everything and trying to fit everything in, and we're afraid to say no to anything that leads to a lot of overwhelm. That leads to a lot of guilt and shame when. We can't actually fit all of these things in and so that's really the power of planning ahead and saying, okay, I'm traveling on these days. I've got gatherings on these days. Like, how do I want to fit my workouts in? Or if you're someone that wants to prioritize your workouts, you put those workouts in first and then you say, okay, are these Other gatherings or parties going to fit with my workout schedule. You can prioritize whatever feels good to you. Just keep in mind the holiday season is once a year. do you really want to miss those parties in order for you to get more sleep or get your workouts in? There's no right or wrong answer. You just have to decide what's going to be best for you.

Kevin: 15:11

Yeah. And you have to see how all of them play out because there's a domino effect to this. Yeah. If you go to a party on Friday night and you normally get up real early and run on Saturday morning, that might be a conflict and it doesn't look like a conflict on your calendar. You're like, Oh, I'll do this thing on Friday, do this thing on Saturday morning. But if you're staying up later on Friday than you're used to, you're gonna be exhausted on Saturday morning and you can pull both of those things off. But then what else do you have planned on that Saturday? Because you might be spent. So if you're like, Oh, I've got this thing on Friday night, and then I'm going to get up and I'm doing my workout on Saturday, and then I've got a lunch with my friends on Saturday afternoon. And then another dinner that with this other group of people on Saturday night. At that point it starts getting too much because now you really, you're just cramming everything onto the schedule and nothing does in fact overlap, but you also just at some point, and this I think is the benefit of having the calendar, once it's all sitting there, just look at it and be like, Wow. I'm tired looking at that. if, is it getting to be that level? Is it too much just looking at it? And you're like, I don't know if I have the bandwidth to do all of that, the most emotional, mental, physical bandwidth to get through all of this thing, because you have to take care of yourself also.

Angie: 16:20

Yeah. And I think that's one thing that a lot of people forget to schedule in is the rest necessary. Like they, we don't always take into account the fatigue and that really, leads nicely into point number three here and tip number three for the holiday season, which is to be flexible, be willing to adjust your training plan as needed. If you're feeling tired, if you're feeling overwhelmed, take a break and allow yourself to have extra rest and recovery time because of all of the extra things that Going into the holiday season, the meals that you have to plan, the gifts that you have to buy, the extra time that you get to spend with family, all of those things take a toll on you mentally and emotionally and physically as well. So your body might need extra rest and recovery time this season versus other parts of the year. And I think that's one thing that a lot of people don't take into account. And Tip number three is to really be flexible, understand that things might come up and you might need extra rest and recovery. And it's important for us to not put too much pressure on ourselves to stick exactly to the plan. If that plan, if that means, we're going to be exhausted. So in Kevin's example that he just gave with a party on Friday night, I am someone that usually does my longer runs on Saturday. If I had a party Friday night and I was Like basically, if you decide you're going to go to this party, you have two choices. Number one, you can go to the party and you can choose to leave early so that you're prioritizing rest for your run on Saturday, if you don't want to do that. And you want to just be able to enjoy and, indulge in the party and whatever that means and food and drink and, just be able to stay there as long as you want to, you can then choose to move that run to Sunday possibly. that's probably what I would do, depending on what party it was that We are going to on a Friday night would be okay. I know that with these people, with this group of friends, it, I tend to, stay up a little bit later than I planned on, Or I end up indulging a little bit more than I usually do. So I'm going to go ahead and leave that flexibility for me to have my run on Sunday instead on that week. And I can plan my week accordingly.

Kevin: 18:34

Yeah, but a lot of people tend to choose option C, which is I'm going to go to the party, pretend that I'm enjoying the party, but be resentful thinking about my run the next morning. That's probably not going to go well. I'm still going to get up and do the run, but during my run, I'm going to be resentful about the party the night before. So during the party, you're thinking about your run and during the run, you're thinking about the party instead of being able to enjoy either of them. pick one. Either plan on leaving the party early and prioritize the run, or enjoy the party and then move your run to a different day so that you can enjoy both of them. If you try both in too close of quarters, you're going to end up enjoying neither of them, and that seems like a terrible way to go through the holidays.

Angie: 19:15

Right, or if you do feel really tired, then just say, Okay, that's the choice that I made, and stop beating yourself up about it.

Kevin: 19:21

Yes, the acceptance and move on is a big key. I don't think it's a specific thing we've got on here, but the acceptance and moving yourself along to the next day is a big key. Big key of getting through the holidays,

Angie: 19:31

right? So in the workbook, you'll see on this page where we talk about being flexible, I ask you to write down things that might get in your way. And then your plan to adjust if those things pop up, because planning ahead is going to help, what to do, or at least give you some sort of a plan if those things do pop up. So one of the great examples that one of our clients gave on the call today is if my kids get sick, right? Because we know that holiday season. Tends to also come with some colds and flus and other things, right? So if my kid gets sick and has to stay home from school and I had a run or a workout on my schedule Then I am going to use my treadmill instead, right? or if a snowstorm comes in I am going to stay safe and I'm going to use the treadmill or what are you gonna do? what do you have access to? everybody might not have access to a treadmill and that's okay. There's other things you can do at home, or other options that you may or may not have. So the key is to really try to Think ahead and think of okay, what's maybe gotten in my way in the past. What obstacles have I encountered in the past? Maybe that is holiday parties or something like that And then what your plan is to deal with those things if they do pop up again,

Kevin: 20:48

right? So one of them is like carrying excess fatigue Look if you're heading into a day that you've got like a speed workout planned and you start it and you're feeling super, super tired. What's the plan? are you going to try and push through or are you going to adjust? Because if you have to make that decision on the day of while you're super tired, it's less likely that you're going to make a smart decision and that smart decision is not necessarily the right thing to do. Pushing through or pulling back. It's whatever actually makes sense for you So having the thought done ahead of time is of saying what during the holidays I don't want the excess fatigue to just keep building up. So I'm gonna pull back a little bit or Saying if I feel super tired, I'm gonna get the workout in but then I'm going to take an extra full rest day the next day like have a plan of what it is or that's if it's a speed day and I feel real tired, I'm going to turn the speed day into an easy session and put strides at the end of it. Like whatever the plan is, there's all sorts of ways to take care of it. You just thinking it out ahead of time just makes it easier when whatever it is comes up.

Angie: 21:50

Yeah. And that's also the benefit of having a coach and a support system is if you're not sure what to do and how to adjust this so that you can still stay on track and maintain your speed, your endurance, your fitness during this season, that's really one of the benefits of having a coach. And that's, one of the things that we love to help our clients do every week on our weekly coaching calls. All right, moving on to. Step number four or tip number four of how to run through the holidays with success is to stay active. So even if you can't stick to your regular workout routine during the holidays, there are other ways that you can stay active. So some examples would be taking a walk after a meal, maybe That's not something that you normally do, but you decided, you know what? Like my workouts aren't looking like they normally do. So I'm going to add in a 10 minute, 15 minute walk after dinner so that I can get some extra steps. I can get, it actually is very good for your blood sugar and for your digestion, for you to get out and be active after a meal that actually has, when it's one of those things that is small and has, very large effects on your overall health. So a 10 minute walk can do wonders for your body, for your fitness, for your blood sugar levels, for the way that you feel, for all sorts of different things. So adding in a walk after a meal, doing something active with family and friends. So maybe instead of just getting together and, indulging or watching movies or just sitting on the couch or, being inactive, you can get together and go ice skating or go hiking or do some sort of outdoor activity or even indoor activity, roller skating, bowling, things where you're a little bit, not that bowling is the most active thing, but like something where you're moving around and, being more active, right? you can also, Do things like if you are stuck inside and you're not able to go outside for your run, finding some yoga or finding an indoor strength routine that you can do at home with the equipment that you have, maybe you're someone that has fitness equipment. Maybe you don't have a ton yet. What can you do with what you have to stay active? There's a whole lot of things that you can do with no equipment at all to really get your heart rate Up to improve your cardio and to improve your strength,

Kevin: 24:01

right? So you talk about some of these. The last one that you had on here is yoga to de stress. Okay. So if you are changing your type of activity, actually, and you're like, Oh, normally I go for a run and I find it very stress relieving because a lot of people do a lot of people use running, not necessarily as therapy, but certainly as a stress reliever. And if you feel like the holidays are adding excess stress and you're like, Oh, I really want to make sure I get in my run because that's going to help with my stress levels. I am not the biggest fan of yoga. I'm literally straight out of the country song. I like to watch you do yoga, but that's where I'm at. Yoga is not a de stressing thing for me. It is a highly stressful thing for me that makes me super sore the next day. So if you're adding in stuff because you're like, I needed to get my run in, but I didn't, I'm going to do this thing instead. Make sure that it has a similar impact on you physically and mentally. Like I would flip it if we had magic wand and it could just. wave it and pop all sorts of equipment into the garage on elliptical or a bike would be comparable to being able to go off on an easy run or a speed run. I could put this onto equipment, but yoga, on the other hand, seems like it would be super, super stressful for me. If you cut the run earlier, a little bit shorter, because you've got more time coons that after meal walk is a great way to Be with like the extra group of people instead of cramming in all of the friends and relatives that are visiting. And now you're all trapped inside of the house. Just go out and go for a 10 to 15 minute walk. It's a really nice way to get people moving. The health benefits are phenomenal and you just get outside and you're active a little bit.

Angie: 25:34

And maybe it's a really good mentally for you to escape some of those aunts and uncles or people in your family that. You don't normally gel with during the holidays.

Kevin: 25:44

As we spend the holidays with your family, I was not gonna say that.

Angie: 25:48

So I

Kevin: 25:48

just thought I'd be over here.

Angie: 25:50

But everybody's got those people, right? Everybody has those people. We all have those people. It doesn't matter which side of the family there are, there's always that relative, at least one of them, that, says something or does things and, You might want to take a little 10 minute walk to get out of the house and get a breather. Just

Kevin: 26:06

a nice time to just enjoy the fresh air.

Angie: 26:09

Exactly. take a minute and write down other ways that you can stay active outside of your normal workout routine, right? I think that a lot of times we as runners have it in our heads that if I don't run a certain amount or if I don't do this strength workout specifically as it's written, that doesn't count. I know that there's plenty of people that. Have told me and I you know used to have this mentality in the past as well of if it's under three miles It's worthless like it doesn't even count like what's the point of even getting dressed if I'm not even gonna get in three miles and there's a lot of people that have those that idea or that minimum of it's not even worthwhile But yes, it is like it is worthwhile for you both physically and mentally and that can go back to our last point of being flexible but What if your workout time gets cut short? Maybe you get stuck in traffic that you weren't expecting. And all of a sudden, the hour that you had set aside for your workout now becomes 30 minutes. What are you going to do to use those 30 minutes Most effectively so that you can still get in a great workout and good use of your time, but understand, it doesn't have to be perfect and that's totally okay.

Kevin: 27:16

Yeah, that it has to be at least three miles. I also, back when I was in college and you had to bundle up a whole lot. More for cold weather and snow and stuff. The amount of time it takes to get yourself ready for cold weather running, and then to undo all of your cold weather running gear, sometimes it does feel like it's gotta be at least a solid 30 minutes. Otherwise, what is the point of all this? And the point is it adds consistency. It adds. It keeps you with a regular rhythm of an exercise routine and it's easier to maintain a rhythm Even if it's shorter than what you would like It's easier to maintain something that looks close to your rhythm than to abandon it for december and say Oh, I guess i'll start and recreate that new habit again in january Try to maintain that habit as best as possible Even if it doesn't look perfect Even if it's a little bit shorter than you used to try and keep it as best as possible So that when it hits january, you're just Turning the dial a little bit. You're not trying to come up with a brand new exercise routine.

Angie: 28:11

I really, I like that analogy a lot, like turning the dial, right? During the holiday season, maybe you're turning your workout dial down just a little bit. You're not as strict with your workouts. You're not doing as much, maybe your mileage is less or your strength is less during the workouts. And, but you're still maintaining, you're not turning it all the way down to zero. And that way, when you get into January, then you can maybe ramp back up again. I like that a lot.

Kevin: 28:33

It's like a dimmer switch for the holiday.

Angie: 28:35

This one goes to 11. Perfect. Excellent. All right. tip number five. Yes. The last four tips that we gave you are all fantastic. And tip number five brings us to allow yourself to enjoy the holiday season. Don't put so much stress and pressure on yourself and maintaining your fitness or, increasing your fitness level, right? Not a lot of people don't even, aren't even thinking about maintaining their trying to increase their fitness level and get in better shape during this holiday season. And that's fine. If that's your goal, go for it. Great, but don't put so much pressure on yourself that you forget to enjoy the holidays with your family, with your friends, with all the people that you're spending time with, allow yourself to indulge in some festive treats, because a lot of the treats that you have access, I shouldn't say that you have access to, but a lot of times those treats aren't year round things like, obviously Starbucks only has their, Go Christmas drinks once a year, right? But even though you could make pumpkin pie any time of the year, it probably doesn't happen, right? there are certain things that are very seasonal. And if you enjoy those things, allow yourself to indulge. That doesn't mean you need to eat half of a pie. You can be fine with. A slice of pie, right? cause there's a difference between overindulging and allowing yourself to indulge in some things that you don't normally have. And I highly recommend allowing yourself some indulgence during the holiday season. That's part of what makes the holiday season wonderful is just Bringing out these treats and spending more time with family and having things that you might not eat the rest of the year. I think that's all part of it.

Kevin: 30:16

I get a couple of things off of what you said there. One of them, the people that try and ramp up their fitness through the holidays, maybe they have a race on the calendar in J in January.

Angie: 30:25

We've both done that.

Kevin: 30:26

I have one on the calendar in January. So like you, like it's sitting there. it's a whole idea. And it goes back to the first thing that we said is lay your calendar out and figure out what do you have that needs to go on the calendar that are time commitments that may adjust your schedule and figure out how to fit it all in. do the best that you can. Go through, see if you need to make some adjustments to things, but have the calendar laid out so that you're able to enjoy so that on the times where you're like, I'm going to this commitment that I don't normally have, I'm going to be able to enjoy my time on that day. we've got like a teacher luncheon that we always have during finals week. It's got all sorts of food and treats and stuff. I need to make sure that I run on that morning because there's no chance that I'm running that afternoon. But the other thing that I wanted to mention on this, of the whole idea of Indulging a little bit more in some like holiday treats and some foods that you don't normally see if you actually feel phenomenal. The desk next day, maybe you're not eating enough food. Maybe the extra calories that you're taking in from a dessert that you haven't eaten since last Christmas is the calories that your body actually needs to be making these adaptations. If you're like, Oh, normally I skipped dessert. I give myself dessert once a week and this time I gave myself dessert on the various. social gatherings and whatnot and I felt great That's phenomenal and might be a little clue that you might actually need to be taking in some of these calories on the other hand Maybe your stomach doesn't feel so good after some of these and that doesn't mean that you're eating too much That just might mean that maybe that Particular thing does not agree with your stomach. So there's all sorts of different ways to look at it. But that whole idea of you might actually feel pretty good if you're indulging, not overindulging, that's where your stomach starts turning, going the other direction, but just indulging. If you feel really good off of this, that might be a clue that you need to be taking in, some solid calories.

Angie: 32:18

Yeah. And I think that, you, I think are a good example of planning out your workouts accordingly. Like you just mentioned, you have this 100 mile race in January. Like you need to be training during the holiday season. You can't just take off the next six or seven weeks or what, that's probably two months till your race. Yeah. Very

Kevin: 32:38

close.

Angie: 32:38

Yeah. you can't just like. Okay, I'll just adjust. And then there's certain things like, no, there are certain things that you need to get in for you to be trained properly. And so Kevin, you want to talk about like how you scheduled out? Cause he's he came to me and he's Ange, I really want to do a 50 miler, When do you think that is going to be a good idea to get in? Like I was thinking over Thanksgiving break is going to be a good time because then I can arrange my eating. I can, have more extra, extra time. So it doesn't have to be like on a Saturday or a Sunday. And I said, yeah, that sounds like a great idea. What about the day before Thanksgiving? Because then you can use Thanksgiving to refuel and just basically, and refuel all day long and eat lots of calories to give your body what it needs.

Kevin: 33:23

Yeah, the scheduling worked out really nice for that one, because I've got this whole week off from school So there's the time available to do it and take up half of a day in the middle of a week Which normally does not happen like normally this would have to be a weekend exclusive thing because it's gonna take hours upon hours to do the thing so That works out nice. And then Thursday is built in as a recovery day. We go for walks as a family. Like it's nice to be able to get out and move a little bit on that day. And after cranking out 50 miles, it's going to be nice to get up and move, not necessarily to get up and go run, but just to move a little bit and then come back home and have some food. And there's going to be plenty of food in the houses as we go through that day. But there's not a huge amount of commitment of different exercise stuff that I have to do now. We'll see what happens on Friday. Cause that's. usually when Christmas boxes come down from the attic. So we'll see how my legs are feeling. Hopefully they're fully recovered through Thursday and making sure that I've fueled appropriately in the afterwards. But this week just gives me a time to say, all right, we had something last weekend. We have something next weekend. We've got Thanksgiving on Thursday, but Wednesday actually works out really conveniently of a nice day that opens up on the schedule.

Angie: 34:34

That's funny that you mentioned. Christmas boxes because I was actually going to ask you to get those down today and I forgot to tell you to ask you About that so that they would be down and we can start decorating a little earlier. Excellent Okay, so maybe after the podcast perfect. There we go. And then voila Christmas box out of the attic that problem is now solved.

Kevin: 34:53

I'm gonna decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving starts.

Angie: 34:56

Maybe we'll see what we'll see what tomorrow. it depends on what the girls want to do tomorrow. I'll be prepping food. If they want to decorate the house, we'll be decorating the house.

Kevin: 35:03

I have absolutely no say in this. I'm just going to be out running. I'm going to come back from my run and there'll be Christmas all over the place. Yeah.

Angie: 35:08

And you're going to be running for six or seven hours, so it's going to be fine.

Kevin: 35:11

Excellent.

Angie: 35:12

all So that, those are the five tips. So just as a quick review, the five tips for running through the holidays, number one, focus on process goals instead of outcome goals. Number two, plan your workouts in advance and schedule them on your calendar. Number three, be flexible and try to allow yourself extra rest and recovery. Also try to, think about what might get in your way and plan for those obstacles ahead of time. Number four, stay active in other ways outside of your workouts. And number five, enjoy the holiday season and allow yourself to indulge. At this time of year, enjoy the heck out of it and decide ahead of time that you're not going to feel guilt. You're not going to feel shame when you don't get things in exactly as. The training plan has them because that's okay. And I think that's really one of the biggest things is when you adjust and when you decide on these things ahead of time, you are choosing these things consciously, which then means you can choose not to feel guilty about them because guilt and shame, those are choices that you make. It's the way that you're thinking about missing the workouts. It's the way that you're thinking about your fitness. Like you can literally flip the script and decide. To think about those things differently, to decide not to feel guilty when it comes to eating those treats. And I'm not saying it's easy to do, but it is simple. It is a simple choice that, you know what, I'm just going to enjoy this and I'm going to choose not to feel guilty about it.

Kevin: 36:44

What indulgence are you looking forward to this holiday season?

Angie: 36:47

Oh, that's a good, that's a good question. Normally I really like pecan pie, but I don't think at least for Thanksgiving, it doesn't seem like we're going to have a pecan pie because our girls decided that they would like to make pies. And one of them is making a pumpkin pie and one of them is making a fruit pie, like a cherry or peach or apple. I'm not sure she hasn't decided, what she's making yet. but I, if we don't get a pecan pie during, Thanksgiving, I think that I'll have to make sure that we have one for Christmas. The other thing I'm looking forward to is our Christmas cookies, because I love baking Christmas cookies with the girls and I love, chocolate chip cookies. Cookies are one of my favorite sweet treats. so just having, cookies is, it's fun and I love baking with them and for other people and giving them as treats. we, one of our. Holiday Traditions is making these Italian ricotta cookies, which are so delicious. They're like these, we call them, I call them my little puffs of heaven. they're just so darn good and the girls love making them and, They are delicious. Yeah. That and just a classic, we make chocolate chip peanut butter pretzel cookies that are super good. I love those ones too.

Kevin: 37:57

I think those are my favorite ones that you guys make.

Angie: 37:59

All right. So what indulgences are you looking forward to?

Kevin: 38:01

Those pretzel chocolate cookies. Those ones are phenomenal. And then I got to go back to childhood and my mom's fudge that, she's going to send in a box at some point during the holidays, because we're going to get that box, there's always a few, some that have like presents for the kids, and then there's always a box of fudge That is sends me back to being an eight year old kid in the kitchen, helping stir the fudge as everything melts together. And it just, it brings me back to that place, which I think is super nice for the holidays. if you've got that indulgence that just brings you back to being a kid, and that level of joy and love of the holiday season, eat it. Eat it and smile and don't feel bad about, even if your stomach doesn't feel great afterwards, still just eat it and enjoy it. Just have some. It's gonna be okay.

Angie: 38:43

Yeah, because you don't need the extra stress of eating the thing on top of that too. as I explained to our team members today, if you eat the thing and that, is going to increase your blood sugar levels, say, and then you're stressed about it and feeling guilt and shame for eating it, now you're just upping your cortisol levels about it too. And that's just not, that's also leading to an influx of blood sugar. so that's just raising your blood sugar even more. Enjoy the thing, decide you're not going to stress about it, decide you're not going to feel guilty about it, and that's actually way better for you than if you were to eat the thing and stress about all the food because that's going to raise your cortisol levels anyway.

Kevin: 39:19

Excellent. Good synopsis. There you

Angie: 39:20

go. All right. So I would love to hear from you guys. What are you looking forward to on the holiday? What are some tips that you have? What did we miss in today's episode? Reach out over at If you're not following us already, send me a DM, I'd love to hear your thoughts about this episode or on other ways that you feel, are helpful for you to stay on track during the holiday season and, we can share them with our full audience. So as always, thanks for being here and spending this time with us. This has been the Real Life Runners Podcast, episode number 387. Now get out there and run your life.