437: Thanksgiving Run-Down: Gratitude, Guilt, and Navigating the Holidays

This week’s episode is all about something we all need a little more of—gratitude, grounding, and giving ourselves grace through the holidays.

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, we’re diving into simple, practical ways you can weave gratitude into your running and daily life. Not in a “force yourself to be grateful” kind of way, but in a gentle, real, “let’s slow down and notice what’s good” way. From a 30-second pre-run gratitude pause to a post-run cool-down chat with yourself, these tiny practices can completely shift your mindset, your training, and honestly… how you feel about your body.

We also talk openly about something many runners struggle with but don’t always discuss—holiday food anxiety. The pressure, the comments, the guilt, the urge to “earn your food”… we’re not doing that this year. I walk you through how to approach holiday meals with more compassion, less fear, and a lot more presence so you can actually enjoy the season without feeling like you’re betraying your goals or your body.

And because consistency can get tough this time of year, we share strategies to help you stay connected to your training without feeling rigid or overwhelmed. Spoiler: flexibility and grace are part of the plan.

We also introduce our brand-new 30-Day Running Reset inside the new RLR app, built to help you rebuild your foundation, reconnect with your body, and fit running, strength, and mobility into real life—even during the busiest season. The app makes it easy, doable, and supportive, so you don’t have to figure things out alone.

As always, we close with a huge dose of gratitude for you—our community. You’re the reason this podcast continues to grow, and it means the world when you leave a review or share the show with another runner who might need it.

Take a breath, take a moment, and let’s step into this holiday season grounded and grateful—together.

01:28 The Power of Gratitude

06:19 Gratitude in Running

13:45 Thanksgiving Food Anxiety

22:09 Reprogramming Your Relationship with Food

22:27 Fueling Your Body for Performance

24:32 The Myth of Ketogenic Diets for Athletes

25:39 Enjoying Holiday Meals Without Guilt

27:55 Training Through the Holiday Season

33:49 Maintaining Consistency and Identity as a Runner

Join the 30 Day Running Reset and get a plan that will help you build a strong and injury-proof body by combining running and strength training in a way that actually works for runners like you.

Gain access to my new secret podcast, Unbreakable: The Runner's Guide To Injury-Proofing Your Body After 40. Click here: https://www.realliferunners.com/secret

Join the Team! --> https://www.realliferunners.com/team

Thanks for Listening!!

Be sure to hit FOLLOW on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player

Leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Your ratings and reviews really help and we read each one!

Come find us on Instagram and say hi!

Don't forget: The information on this website is not intended to treat or diagnose any medical condition or to provide medical advice. It is intended for general education in the areas of health and wellness. All information contained in this site is intended to be educational in nature. Nothing should be considered medical advice for your specific situation.

Transcript

Angie: 0:00

Welcome back to the Real Life Runners podcast, episode number 437 Happy Thanksgiving. If you're listening to this episode on the day that it is released, it is Thanksgiving here in the United States. So today we are gonna do a little Thanksgiving episode. That's going to be a buffet, if you will, smorgasborg of sorts. talking about all different topics. We're gonna go in a couple different directions here, but somehow tie'em all back into Thanksgiving, so stay tuned. What's up runners? Happy Thanksgiving to all of our US people, and if you're not in the United States, happy Thanksgiving to you too. Even if you don't celebrate, So today we're talking about lots of things related to Thanksgiving.'cause we were brainstorming what we wanted to chat about this episode. We were like, we could go in this direction, we could talk about gratitude. And we've done a lot of episodes on gratitude, especially around Thanksgiving. But it's never too much, I don't think.'cause I think gratitude is one of those things that we can tap into that can completely change. Our life and also our running. We talked about, oh, okay, we can talk about food and we can talk about how you can eat and not feel guilty in the holidays, and we can talk about lots of different things. So we're gonna just put it all together. So whether or not you like Turkey or stuffing or mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes or apple pie or whatever it is that you love about Thanksgiving, we're gonna give you a little bit of all of it today. It's a

Kevin: 1:41

cornucopia of running around Thanksgiving.

Angie: 1:43

I do like Cornucopias. They're very pretty. Very pretty. Yeah. So where do you wanna start?

Kevin: 1:49

gratitude.

Angie: 1:50

Gratitude. Yeah. I think that we could start, even the topic of gratitude is such a big topic. One of the things that I like to think about, and we've been doing a gratitude challenge inside of our membership this month, which I love, and we've had a different theme for every week. So like week one, we asked our members to post about something gratitude for the good, because I think it's easy for us a lot of times to be grateful for the good things in our life. And so a lot of people were posting about family and running and the, lots of different. Blessings, their dog, where they live, the good food. there's lots of good things in our life and I think it's always a good thing to train the brain, to find the good in our life because when you choose gratitude, when you intentionally try to find the good things in your life, you are training your brain and your nervous system to continue to look for those things. So especially if you are a person that tends to. Kind of default to more of a pessimistic type of attitude, or someone that likes to think about all the different things that are troublesome or worrisome or you have issues with anxiety and worrying. Shifting into gratitude and finding the good things in your life can truly rewire the way that you. Are able to perceive the world.

Kevin: 3:07

it's like when you're buying a car, suddenly those are the only cars that you see. if you're looking for a particular thing, dozens of them on the road. Or the story that I like to tell my students of, it's clearly a made up story, but it's the college professor that said he was gonna give a pop quiz and he passed it all to the tests and they were upside down. He said, okay. Everybody turned the page over and. On the other side of the page, there was simply a blank white sheet of paper and a single like spot in the middle of the paper, just a black spot in the middle of the paper. And he said, your assignment for this class period is to write about what And then after like in 45 minutes, everybody turned their pages in and he started reading them all out loud to the class. And every single person described the spot on the piece of paper, the size of it, the shape of it, how dark the black spot was. No one pointed out the white. Portion of the paper, which was the vast majority of what they were actually looking at. And he was like this is your life. The black spots, the smudges are not the overwhelming amount of your life, but if that's where your attention is drawn, that's all that you see. And that's what everybody actually wrote on.

Angie: 4:06

I like that story. I've never heard it before. Thank you. That's surprising. I

Kevin: 4:09

made that up just now.

Angie: 4:10

Oh no, I did not. We've been married for a long time and I've never heard that one, but it's so true. And I think that when you. Talk about that. It makes me think of the concept of having a bad day. I think that one of the things that we've been navigating is how to help our teenage daughters to navigate the world. Let's just say it that way. I like it, and I think that a lot of people in general. And I think that it's even more amplified in our teenage years because I remember as a teenager, I felt everything was, I don't wanna say everything was going wrong, but like you, we tend to, as humans, we do have a negativity bias. I think that's important for us to understand too, that our brains have a negativity bias. We have more negative thoughts than positive thoughts every single day because our brains are wired for survival. And so in order to survive. We have to, or our brains, I shouldn't say we have to, but our brains are naturally wired to find the threats and find the things that might threaten our survival. So if there's something bad going on in your life, you are gonna be more naturally wired to look at that thing because that's how your brain is wired to survive. And When there are things that are stressing us out or when people are not talking, doing the things that we want or acting the way that we want, they, it can cause people to spiral and it can cause people to go down that tube and say, oh God, I just had the worst day. And I'll never forget something that I read. And I'm sure lots of people have seen this, whether it was like on Instagram or. Who knows where, and it's just one simple question, which is, did you have a bad day or did you have a bad five minutes that you then let bother you all day long?

Kevin: 5:57

Yeah, that's what I did a lot when I was in high school because in, in high school, and I mean I think that it still happens all the time, but I know in, in high school particularly the brain way your brain is developing, the world is much more centered around you. And so anything that happens to you is the entire world like, so it's not just like a thing happened in the universe, it was the center of the universe, had a bad thing happen to it, and that seems much more catastrophic. And so then it's easier to make that spiral because it. It was this huge catastrophic thing, even though it was really like a teacher calling on me and I didn't know the answer in Spanish class. Like suddenly that was the worst thing ever. And looking back on it, it's fine. Yeah. But at the moment it seemed awful.

Angie: 6:41

And I think that's what we have to start to train our brains to, and this is one of the things that gratitude will help us do is to help see. All the white space on the page and not just focus on the black dots because there's so much goodness in our life, especially if we start to focus on it. If you just go for a walk outside and animals running around, or you are in a place where you live, that you are able to go for a run and not feel threatened by something. What a blessing like that alone is so beautiful, and I go out for a run sometimes and it's I've got trees and I've got, friends that I'm running with. there's so much that we can be grateful for. And when we shift to gratitude, it can literally change your physiology because it helps you to regulate your nervous system when you have. An attitude of gratitude. I'm just gonna go ahead and say it because it had to. Yeah, you, somebody had to say it. It had to hit at least one time in this episode, you're actually training your nervous system to find the good. And when you find the good, you feel more relaxed. And so you're helping to shift your nervous system from that sympathetic fight or flight mode where that's, when we are noticing the bad things, that's when we tend to get into anxiety and worrying and spiraling. And noticing all the ways that life is not going our way versus when we shift into gratitude and we start to find the good things and focus on the things that we're grateful for. That actually helps your nervous system shift from parasympathetic or from sympathetic into parasympathetic mode, which is your rest and your recovery and your digest mode. And so you are actually, you can think of it as gratitude actually helps your training as a runner, which is pretty freaking cool because. Your body during the hard workouts, during the hard runs, you're in sympathetic mode, but you're actually building strength and adapting to your training in parasympathetic mode. And so you can use gratitude to help shift your body over into that mode so that your body's actually recovering and adapting to your workouts in a better way.

Kevin: 8:42

This is the benefit of Cool Downs. The best part of Cool Downs is not the going out and running for five to 10 minutes, like that's not the benefit of it for the most part. Like it can be. Sometimes it's nice to get some of the extra movement in there. If it's a longer cool down, you can build up a little bit of cardio off of that. But if you're doing like a short cool down, that five minutes is not doing a huge amount physically. But five minutes with your friends that you just did a workout with can be huge because it completely flips your mind from the hard workout to chatting about anything, even if it's completely off the workout. Like the conversation that helps you start moving your day forward into the rest of your day and off of the very difficult workout is amazing. When I was in high school, after every race, the varsity squad would head off. For a cool down and after five minutes, they would find someplace to sit down and talk about the race, good, bad, or otherwise, just talk about the race that was so much more worthwhile than the 10 minute jog was the 10 minute chat that was drastically important to how we felt the next day. Way, way more important than jogging around for a little bit.

Angie: 9:48

And I think that's a wonderful example. I love that you guys did that. we really need to start implementing something like that in our team. I've tried so many times. we will keep trying because that sounds amazing. And so that to me is a very like, simple practice that you implement it as a team, but we as real life runners, maybe you don't have a running group. If you do, I think that's a great idea to just shift into. Talking about something else. And that's one of the reasons I also love my Tuesday runs because on my Tuesdays I go out with my running buddies. We do a speed workout every Tuesday, so it's not an easy run, but we always have the cool down at the end where we run for at least u usually about 10 ish minutes. Today it was a little bit longer and my legs were so tired and I did a lot of walking in the cool down today,'cause I don't know, something's a little off with me today. I was feeling like a little lightheaded, but maybe hydration or fueling or something. But anyw who. Once we get back to the parking lot, there are a couple people that have to take off and get home to get their kids off to school. But there's a couple of us that stick around and just do a little bit of stretching. And the stretching is helpful physically, but it's more also just allowing your body to wind down before you jump into a car, tighten up all those muscles and you just connect, what do you guys got going this week? And you just talk about things other than running. So if you. Even if you don't have a running group, I think that having a simple gratitude practice maybe before, during, and after a run, pick one of them, right? Like maybe it's before the run. You're like, I'm thankful for these shoes that I get to put on my feet. Maybe it's after that run where you allow yourself to say, you know what? I'm really thankful I got my run in today and just take. Literally three deep breaths. That's going to help your body shift into parasympathetic mode and get into that recovery so that your body can start. Rebuilding and recovering from your workout.

Kevin: 11:41

And that gratitude after a run really helps you practice being grateful. Whether it was a positive or negative run. if you had a bad workout the other on Monday, I almost threw up on the turnpike. That was would've not been cool for the people driving below. but after the run, I was grateful that I was able to put my body in a position. What were you doing? 200 meter. Hard efforts up the how many times? 12.

Angie: 12:05

Okay.

Kevin: 12:06

On the last one, I was real, I really pushed it. Yeah. and it was harder than I'd pushed in a long time. And so like with about four steps to go, it was like, Ooh, that's breakfast. and it was, but. On the cool down on the, like the jog back to the house'cause it's a couple miles back to the house from that, what we call a hill here in Florida of the tiny little overpass over the turnpike. that during that two miles it was like, wow, that was awesome that I was able to do that. Just that one that I'm able to go out and run, period. And two, that I was able to push myself so hard that I felt that terrible briefly.

Angie: 12:39

We are very twisted as runners. Like I said to our group today on our real life runners coaching call. I'm like, we are weirdos. Y'all just keep that in mind and we need to be proud that we're weirdos because the thing that I just thought about too when you were talking is after a run like that, when you are just pushing yourself to that effect. to that level on that cool down, you're like, oh God, that was awful. And I like, that's a lot of times like, that was awful. And I just thought to myself, awful and awesome. Start with the same two letters.

Kevin: 13:12

Yes. Aw.

Angie: 13:15

yes.

Kevin: 13:15

Yep.

Angie: 13:15

We're

Kevin: 13:16

just gonna, that's what I got. That's it. That's all you have? Yeah, that's what I've got.

Angie: 13:18

Okay. So when your brain says awful, you can just say, Aw, awesome. Instead of all, yeah.

Kevin: 13:25

I'm sure that it's probably Latin. They're probably basically the same thing, probably.

Angie: 13:30

anyway, so gratitude. Yeah. So gratitude can literally change your body's. Physiology and your response to exercise. So put some gratitude in after your run. That would be my challenge for all of you this week is like after your runs, after your workouts, just take a minute, literally one minute to find something that you're grateful for and just breathe. do some deep breathing and I bet you're gonna feel better after that.

Kevin: 13:54

All right, I gotta rhyme it too,'cause you gotta say it. So put a little gratitude in your attitude and then you can wrap up your run and move along with your day. Okay.

Angie: 14:02

Sounds wonderful. Perfect. All right. Shall we move on to the next topic? Yeah. What else you got? so Thanksgiving I think is a time where a lot of runners can become anxious because of food. And I say runners, but I just mean people in general. I think a

Kevin: 14:16

lot of people can become anxious around Thanksgiving because of food. Yeah,

Angie: 14:19

because of food. And I think that. It makes me sad. I used to be in this category as well, that food used to cause anxiety and I just think it's wild, like when you really think about it, that food, literally the thing that God gave us to nourish our bodies and keep us alive causes anxiety. Just the act of. Eating, which is the thing you need to do to stay alive causes so much anxiety for us. And we all know why. We all know we've talked about diet culture, we've talked about all the messages that we've been receiving since the time that we were young. But have you ever just taken a moment to just realize that like the thing that is actually keeping you alive, food is causing you anxiety? Because we allow it to.

Kevin: 15:06

Do you think that's part of the success of Turkey trots? Is people relying on the anxiety of others that if they go off and run a 5K in the morning, they feel better about the food later in the day?

Angie: 15:15

100%.

Kevin: 15:16

that's the 100%. what other big holidays do you start the day with? A 5K?

Angie: 15:21

No, it's because people feel like they need to burn calories in order to earn calories. But a 5K is just done. Did you like that rhyme too? I did

Kevin: 15:28

like that rhyme. But a 5K is honestly not burning that many calories. No, it's

Angie: 15:32

not. But it's the psychological aspect of it, right? Like it's the psychological of I'm gonna go push myself hard so that I can eat without guilt. Because for some reason we have it in our mind that just eating. Requires guilt or eating certain kinds of food or the amount of food that you're going to eat on Thanksgiving. You have to feel guilty about that unless you do something like go for a run.

Kevin: 15:55

But you also don't have to eat uncomfortable amounts of food, right? Like just because it's Thanksgiving and there are television shows that suggest that you should overeat on Thanksgiving does not mean you have to. you could be like, actually, I really all of these things. This is one of the reasons I think a lot of people overeat. If you look at the, like the Thanksgiving spread, there's instead of three different things you could put on your plate, there's eight and you enjoy all of them. Yeah. So you want a little bit of all of them and suddenly just a little bit of all of them is a huge amount of food sitting on your plate. Yeah. I think that's where, people

Angie: 16:25

also serve themselves like a normal serving of what they would have. If there were only three things then, but there's eight and then now there's eight. So because like you feel bad in some way, especially with some families. Like some families, when people bring different dishes, they, people feel bad if they don't take enough because Aunt Rita made this, I was gonna say that's grandma.

Kevin: 16:48

Stuffing. Yeah. You better eat grandma's stuffing because Exactly. We don't know how many more Thanksgivings we'll have with her.

Angie: 16:54

Oh my God.

Kevin: 16:54

And your

Angie: 16:54

grandma loved feeding you?

Kevin: 16:56

both of them had their own special stuffings. Yeah. And so yes, you had to make sure that you had all this, whether. Either of them were there at Thanksgiving or not. Both types of stuffing had to be made every year of my childhood,

Angie: 17:07

right. But there that is guilt, like built into the food right there. And in that case it was guilt for you not eating enough food. And then people have guilt for eating too much food. So you're screwed either way.

Kevin: 17:20

I literally, I, because there was. There was Grandma Brown stuffing and Grandma Gail's stuffing. And I vividly remember having this thought as a kid of I have to eat an equal quantity of both Stuffings. I need to make sure at all times there is the same amount of each stuffing on my plate. So I'd have one bite of one and then one bite of another to make sure there was matching amounts of stuffing at all times. Did

Angie: 17:41

you have a lot of Thanksgivings with both grandparents?

Kevin: 17:44

No, I never had. But both. You never did? No, but both Stuffings were served every Thanksgiving.

Angie: 17:49

Did they send them or your mom made both versions? What? Why?

Kevin: 17:54

My mom made both versions. she made her mom's version. And then when Grandma Brown was there, my dad's mom, she would make her version. And so then there were two stuffings. But I feel like either. My dad's parents came out regularly for Thanksgiving, or there may have been times that my mom made the other stuffing, and then we had both of them there, even without grandparents. I don't know. Thanksgivings were not a consistent holiday. One year we had a random Australian guy at our house for Thanksgiving, I remember. Yep. I definitely remember him and his name was Kevin. I remember that. we had a random Australian guy for Thanksgiving one year, and his name was also Kevin. That was excellent. That was a weird holiday.

Angie: 18:34

maybe it's. Maybe your dad wanted his mom's stuffing and so your mom made both?

Kevin: 18:38

Possibly. But her stuffing was not as good and that was the problem because I felt like I should eat as matching amount of both of them.

Angie: 18:46

Yeah, so guilt around food, right? Like I think that this is what this topic is going back to, and we talked about this on our call today as well. Where I told people and just reminded them like, you don't have to feel guilty for eating food, and if you think that you're going to overeat, re remember, like you do have control with how much food you put on your plate and just because someone might be upset with you. Doesn't mean that you have to overeat to the point where you feel uncomfortable. It doesn't mean that you need to have guilt over the amount that you're eating. Like I feel like I've gotten pretty good at this over the years because I used to overeat, because I would want, like I genuinely liked the food that we were eating, and so I would just eat it and then I would get uncomfortable and now I. Put stuff on my plate and I eat what I want to eat. I have a little bit of everything and usually I end up taking too much and then I hand my plate to Kevin.

Kevin: 19:45

Yes. Because I usually have three plates for Thanksgiving. so I have mine, then I clean yours, and then I go back and get myself a second plate. Yeah. And then sometimes just a little bit extra of your cranberry sauce. because

Angie: 19:55

my cranberry sauce is good. It is

Kevin: 19:56

amazing. Yeah. Did you see I got two bags of cranberries just in case you wanted to make some extra.

Angie: 20:00

we have to make two. Perfect. Yeah, I always make two.

Kevin: 20:02

Oh, good. Okay. I was hoping I, maybe I should go back. get a third bag.

Angie: 20:06

Perfect. But I think that, first of all, it's important that we are aware, right? Like of what your, what are your thoughts around food, around Thanksgiving, around this holiday or this meal, and. What do you want them to be? I think that those are the two that I like to what I would also invite you to journal on these if you want to, is like, what are my current thoughts? And then just write them down. Just dump them out on a piece of paper and then ask yourself, how do I wanna feel about Thanksgiving? Or what do I want my thoughts to be on this Thanksgiving? What? What is your intention like? My intention is I'm gonna make a lot of really good food and I'm going to eat the food that I want to eat without guilt, and I'm going to eat things on Thanksgiving that I don't normally eat, and that's okay. I'm going to eat. More sweets than I normally eat, more desserts than I normally eat, more carbohydrates than I normally eat. And that's okay. one day is not going to derail your nutrition. It's not gonna cause you to gain a bunch of weight. It's not going to derail your training. And this is really important for us to hear because there's so many people out there that think I need to make up for what I eat, or I have to burn calories in advance in order to create this calorie deficit so that when I eat, I am not. Going overboard, and that's just not the way that your body works. Like your body always wants to be in homeostasis. We all remember the word homeostasis from like biology 1 0 1, but it's your body's sense of balance. And so if you're overeating on one day, just the same way as if you undereat on one day. You're not going to starve. If you overeat on one day, you're not gonna suddenly gain 10 pounds. And I know that if you're a woman in perimenopause or post menopause, sometimes it feels that way because sometimes it feels like your body's just not responding the way that it used to. And it feels like just looking at food will cause you to gain weight, which is not obviously true, but it's a lot of things that are going on in your body in the changing hormones and things like that it, they do. Change the way that your body responds to food. So we do need to be more intentional with the choices that we're making. That doesn't mean that we need to diet, it doesn't mean that we need to restrict, it just means that we have to be intentional. So if there's a food that you really like, enjoy it. Put it on your plate, eat it, and try do your best not to feel guilty about it because you do have that choice. You have been programmed. A lot of us have likely been programmed to feel a certain level of guilt when it comes to food, but. That is actually optional. That guilt is optional and you can start to reprogram the way that you feel about food.

Kevin: 22:46

All right, I wanna go one, one step further than this. If you go out for a run the day after Thanksgiving and you indulge nicely on Thanksgiving, you ate a whole bunch of food, at some point you may have actually felt even twofold, and you go and you run on the day after Thanksgiving and you feel good on that run, you are like, man, I feel really good on this run. Consider that you might not be fueling yourself enough on most of your days. If the day that you really went for it and you ate a whole bunch of stuff, and you may even had just a little bit of guilt that you're trying to actually be okay with, but then you felt amazing on your run that the next day it's possible that you actually just fully fueled your body on Thursday, and then when you headed out for a run on Friday morning, you felt be good because there was enough. Fuel in your body to do the work that you're asking it to do, because that has been the case with some people that we've had on our team. That's been the case with some kids that have had on the cross-country team is they were like, oh man, I ate so much on Thanksgiving. But then I went for a run on that Friday and it was the best I felt in months. I'm like, oh, that. That might not be the sign that you think that it is, like that might just be that you've been under fueled for the last two months. that was, that's I thought it was a weird takeaway.

Angie: 23:55

What a weird takeaway.

Kevin: 23:57

because that wasn't the connection they made. They thought that there was something like magic that they'd eaten the day before, and I'm like, no, it's that you actually ate the day before.

Angie: 24:04

Yeah. And they. Ate enough carbs too. Because Thanksgiving does tend to be a more carb heavy type of meal. Like a traditional Thanksgiving meal does tend to have more carbohydrates than protein and vegetables.

Kevin: 24:17

it's carbs with a side of carbs. that is really the meal. It's a Turkey surrounded by carbs.

Angie: 24:21

Yeah. And again, this is not bad, right? these holiday meals that we have, they're not actually bad. They can actually support your training. Like what Kevin just said, if you are someone that normally restricts carbohydrates and you have a bunch of carbs on Thanksgiving, and you feel better the next day, then think about that, right? Like maybe it's worthwhile for you to track your intake for a couple of days. Actually see, am I getting enough carbohydrates? Because carbohydrates are your body's preferred source of fuel as a runner. They have done multiple studies. I know there was like this whole push towards like keto adapted becoming a fat adapted athlete and all this baloney, but there's plenty of research studies out now that show. Ketogenic diets and fat adapted training can actually lead to a decrease in performance in most people. Now, there's always outliers, right? There might be like this phenomenal triathlete that is fat adapted, that it works for that one person, but as a whole, as the human species, carbohydrates are your body's preferred source of fuel.

Kevin: 25:25

That was like the elite triathlon when we were kids and watching like the Hawaii Ironman on television. Yeah. That guy who like won it really is that guy. Yeah. He won it like six times in a row and then he made this huge push to be like ketogenic and fueled purely off of an incredibly low carb diet. But he was a freak of nature. Yeah. Like he had already won. Like the Ironman World Championship multiple years in a row and then was like, I'm gonna do this to my diet. He could have done whatever he wanted to his diet. He could have fueled the entire day on gummy worms and probably still would've beaten the field because that was the freak of nature athlete that he was. Yeah.

Angie: 26:00

And so essentially, I would invite you all on this Thanksgiving if you're, especially if you're listening to this on Thanksgiving morning, and you have the rest of the day ahead of you, is to approach this day with enjoyment, with confidence with. Without guilt, right? And just say, okay, I'm gonna go in and I'm gonna eat some food today. that is a factual statement. You don't have to put a good or a bad on it. Like food is not moral. I'm gonna say that again. There is no morality to food. There is no food that is good or bad. Food is food. Food is fuel for your body. Your body takes the food and it breaks it down into different particles in the body, and lots of them become glucose. Some of them become amino acids, like they all get broken down in the body. Some of it turn turns into feces and you just. Crap it out. this is what happens. You took the whole route

Kevin: 26:51

there,

Angie: 26:51

didn't you? I did. I went the whole way. But like it's when you think about it more objectively like that, right? I think that you maybe you can remove some of the guilt. if you, maybe you just think to yourself like, I'm probably just gonna crap this out anyway.

Kevin: 27:05

I'm sorry, I was laughing so hard because I had made the joke that pause in the sentence was a colon that you put in there was that not appropriate?

Angie: 27:11

It was an M dash, not a colon. It was a colon. Yeah, I know, I get it. Think

Kevin: 27:15

just because of the colon,'cause of the digestive system.

Angie: 27:19

Do you wanna say the word crap too? He's literally walking away laughing. Anyway, If you are listening to this after Thanksgiving, it's also not too late to rewrite your thoughts about it, right? So even if you did have guilt on that day, you can choose today to start thinking about it differently, which is a pretty cool thing. You can literally reroute. Rewrite your story and rewrite your thoughts anytime you want to. And it doesn't mean that those thoughts are never gonna come up again. Because when you have a well-worn pathway in your brain of a thought and a belief that you've been thinking for a very long time, it does take time and reworking of that thought.'cause it's gonna pop up and you're gonna have to rewrite it and it's gonna pop up and you're have to rewrite it. this is part of what it means to rewire your brain or change your mindset. It's not easy, but it is possible.

Kevin: 28:06

I like it. All right. What else do we got besides gratitude and food?

Angie: 28:10

Where would you like to go? I don't know. I have a place.

Kevin: 28:12

Okay, go for it.

Angie: 28:13

What about you?

Kevin: 28:14

no. you lead the way.

Angie: 28:15

I lead the way. So the last part that I was thinking about was training through the holidays, because Thanksgiving starts the holiday season and we go through Christmas and then we go into the new year and there's a lot of people in this time of the year that get quote unquote derailed from their training. And so I wanted to talk about how to navigate the holidays and run through the holidays. Without the guilt, without the shame, without the baloney and how to do so more like with intention, because there's a lot of stuff going on in this time and there's some people that just throw up their hands and they're like, I'm just not gonna be consistent during this time because life is too crazy. And if that's what you want to do. Then fine, make that choice. And then again, don't feel guilty about it because you made that choice intentionally. So if you're like, whatever, my train's gonna be inconsistent, then don't be mad at yourself when, if you gain weight over the holiday or if your performance declines, or if you have a race in the spring and you're not well prepared for it.'cause if you're gonna choose to be inconsistent, you can't be mad at the results of inconsistency.

Kevin: 29:22

Yeah, the December, this is a benefit of my having a race in January is you're, I'm not allowed to have inconsistency through December. it's just, it's not a possibility. If you have a spring, it's

Angie: 29:32

always a possibility. It's just not the choice that you're gonna make. Which,

Kevin: 29:35

it's certainly not the choice I'm making. you're right. it is a choice I could make. Yeah. I could phone it in December and DNF in January. that is. That is likely the consequence of that choice is how that would play out.

Angie: 29:47

think about your first marathon in Chicago, like when you were 21 years old and you decided not to train for the three weeks leading up to the marathon. Well,

Kevin: 29:56

I decided that I needed to pass those classes and there were a lot of tests,

Angie: 29:59

which was a good choice.

Kevin: 30:01

Yes, there were a lot of tests and a lot of projects that were due. Yeah, and I was, I still ran, I ran three Wednesdays in a row on the intermural cross country race, so I did three, five Ks in three weeks. That was my final preparation. We call it tapering.

Angie: 30:14

Tapering, but tho those choices led to the. Experience that you had in Chicago, which was poor, which was less than ideal, right? you still ran a ridiculously fast time because of who you are and what your running background is. But it led to that was a bit of a struggle for you. Yeah,

Kevin: 30:32

it, it was way more painful at mile 22 than it should have been. I've done more races and I know the pain of mile 22, that mile 22 was a different sensation and it wasn't just,'cause it was the first time that I'd ever run that far. It was the first time I'd run that far and been so ill prepared for the task I was undertaking.

Angie: 30:50

Yeah. So the number one thing that I want you all to take into the holidays is the fact. It says, this is not a belief, it's a fact. This is a fact. And there's, not a ton of facts in the world nowadays, but the fact is, you have a choice. You have a choice on how to navigate these holidays. There are things that are going to pop up and there are things that are going to not be fully in your control, but you always have a choice in how you respond to them. So you can. Think that you don't have time and you can think that, you know you're going to be inconsistent. And if you're thinking though those things, the result is likely that you're gonna miss workouts and be inconsistent. Versus if you realize I have a choice here and I'm going to intentionally, I'm going to be intentional with these choices. Maybe I'm not gonna be able to get in my normal 60 minute training session, but. I have time for a 30 minute, I have time for a 20 minute. I have time, and I'm going to choose to make time for this because this is important to me. So yes, there's a lot of things going on and yes, you might have to make some adjustments, but you can be intentional and put something in, even if it's just 10 minutes of movement, like you have 10 minutes at some point in your day. Maybe not every day, but you definitely, I would argue you do have 10 minutes somewhere in your day.

Kevin: 32:15

You do as long as you can get over some of the thoughts that you're disappointing other people. Because if you have people come in and visit or you're visiting other people for the holidays and you wanna spend as much time with them as possible, it can feel impossible to leave and go get in a run.

Angie: 32:30

Yeah. But how many of those times that you feel that way do you, are you like sitting on the couch, like watching a movie, which is great. I'm not trying to knock on that by any means, but you're also sitting there being resentful. Of that. A hundred percent. Been there like you're sitting there dude, I could be out on a run right now. Like what? We're not even talking, we're all just watching tv. And not to say that's not a family activity because that is a family activity that a lot of people engage in, but. Then you're sitting there and you're mad about it. Als also.

Kevin: 33:00

Yeah. And it's not even the movie that you wanted to choose. So now you're upset with that. And Timmy's over there playing on his phone and you were supposed to stay so that you could talk and albe as a family, and your brain just starts spiraling that direction. And it doesn't have to. You could be like, oh, this is an activity that I can actually opt out of. Like the activities where people are super engaged. quite frankly, you could opt out of those also, but you can find time to separate yourself, even if it feels like you should be spending all the time with a family that you are visiting or is visiting you. You can create time. You can simply choose to opt out of whatever event you want to. But there is, as you pointed out, there is likely events during that where you're like. I, no one's going to even miss me if I'm not here during this window. I could go get in even a long run. They just started a two and a half hour movie. I could take off for two hours and no one will notice.

Angie: 33:53

Or you could choose to wake up early, that's another thing. And get up and do your thing before the rest of the family is even awake.

Kevin: 34:01

Yes. Be, unless they're waking up with a crack of dawn to put a Turkey into the oven.

Angie: 34:05

Yeah. Yeah. there's always that, How can you stay connected to your body, to your training routine? Even when your, like the, your normal daily routine changes. The number one key in my opinion is going back to your identity as a runner, your identity as an athlete, because as a runner you are an athlete. So as someone who runs, you are a runner. Let's take it a step back. Okay. So if you're listening to this podcast and you don't think you're a runner. You are listening to a running podcast. So in all likelihood, pretty much I can say with probably 99% certainty, you are a runner. So if you run regardless of your pace, regardless of your distance, if you just put some shoes on and head out the door and go run, you are a runner. And as a runner you are. Athlete and as an athlete, you need to think about all of the things that affect how you train. Because if you're listening to a running podcast and you want your running to improve in some way, it's not just about, it's not just something that you do in order to lose weight or stay healthy, like you probably want to improve in some way. And so you have to start thinking, okay. It's not just about my running anymore as an athlete, I have to think about my mindset, number one, my identity as an athlete. I have to think about my running. I have to think about strength training and nutrition and recovery and sleep, and all of these pieces that play a role in how I feel as a runner. Because when you. Ignore those things. Your running's not gonna feel great, and then you're gonna be less motivated to do it. You're gonna be less consistent and you're gonna fall back into this trap. But if you are thinking about these things, like I know that, like we can look at it in two different ways here, right? Because you already have a lot of things on your plate over the holidays, and so if you're trying to also think about nutrition and training. Recovery and all of these things, some people can move into that state of overwhelm, but it doesn't have to be complicated. It can be simple things that you do to stay connected to yourself, to make sure that your body continues to feel good so that you can show up in the best way for the holidays. You can be present with your family and doing all of the millions of. Errands and things that you have to do, ordering all the Christmas presents, going, shopping, traveling, all these things, all of those things are very physically demanding as well, and mentally demanding and running can help you stay on track, both physically and mentally. So it's something that you can actually do to help yourself show up and handle the holidays a much better way.

Kevin: 36:38

It can be. It can be your source of grounding no matter what else is going on. And no matter how your schedule gets thrown around that run in your day, and if you're staying home, if you're in your same location, it can be that consistency of the loop that you always do just provides some stability when everything else seems to be changing and you go out for that same loop, that's a very stable place. And if you're traveling and you're in some. New place. Just being able to say, all right, I'm still gonna go out and run for 30 minutes because that's what I do. I'm gonna go get in 45 minutes'cause that's what I do. That consistency can be super helpful and use that as a grounding thing as the world around you continues to spin. Because there's a lot of schedules that get thrown off over the holiday season and I think that's what leads to most of the inconsistency. But saying, Hey. It's Tuesday and on Tuesdays I do. This is really helpful. Having some sort of schedule planned out for what December is going to look like, even knowing that it's probably going to not follow that schedule perfectly, but having a plan for December that you can then adjust, oh, this is what I was gonna do on Monday, but on Monday. The whole family decided to do this thing for four hours and I can't get my run in after it. So if you have a plan, it's easier to adjust a week when your plan is. I'll run when I have time. It's a lot easier to never find that time. So the better scheduled you have, the more likely you are to maintain your consistency.

Angie: 38:05

Yeah, I totally agree. If you want help with that, if now is a great time for me to put a shameless plug in here. I've created a program called The 30 Day Running Reset, and it gives you exactly what you need to do on every single day. It gives you your runs. It's a program that gives you both your running days and your strength. Days. So it integrates strength training and mobility and you're running together. And depending on where you are, you can do this in 20 to 30 minutes a day. We can use plans and workouts that meet you where you are. And this is really important. It also gives you daily lessons so that you can start to. Work on some of those other habits that are going to support you as a runner, like the sleep and hydration and nutrition. Like you get one lesson every day. The lessons are usually between five to 10 minutes. There's a couple that are like 15 minutes. but it's a daily thing to keep you on track and we. I just launched a brand new app, so the 30 day reset is now in our brand new app, and so all you have to do when you sign up over@realliferunners.com slash reset, you sign up for the program, you're gonna get an email that invites you to our app. You click that link and then you're gonna set up a your account in the app, and then it takes you to the home screen. You're gonna answer a couple questions so we can see where you are right now, and then every single day. Your activity and your task of the day shows up right there on your home screen. So it's one of those, great things where if you are a box checker like I am, that you love checking the boxes. You just have your task for the day. You watch the video, you check the box, you do the daily action item. You check the box and it will take you through 30 days and so that you don't even realize it, but you are just continuing to get stronger, to build consistency and also to build these other habits that are supporting your running. Every single day for 30 days.

Kevin: 39:57

that's a great way to cover the month of December where a lot of people get derailed. Like you could actually be like, ah, I was just gonna throw it in and maybe I'll get a new start in January. You could start now, right? And cruise into the new year, actually.

Angie: 40:09

Yeah, and that's one of the reasons that I mentioned this because it is one of those things where a lot of people just blow off this time of year and they're like, oh, I'll figure it out when January 1st comes around. I'll get back on it in the new year. But imagine. Where you would be on January 1st if you didn't do that? Like where, what would you feel like on January 1st knowing that you had been consistent over the past 30 days? And I always tell our team members too. Consistency is not about perfection. They are not the same. A lot of people think, oh, consistency means I can't miss a workout. I have to be perfect. That is not what it means. Here at Real Life Runners. We believe that consistency is very important, but consistency looks different for every single person. It's not about never missing it, it's about being intentional and trying to get it in and understanding. Sometimes life gets in the way and then you're gonna get right back on it. You're going to get right on the next task. And that's the beauty of this program and of this app because those tasks are there. So if you miss a day, it'll stay there until you check it off. So you can just alright, I missed this day. I'm gonna just get back on it the next day and then you can get back on that. And again, it'll just help take you through the holidays, giving you exact exactly what to do. Four your runs give you the exact strength workouts, the exact mobility exercises, you go right through, it's all right there in the app. You can watch a video demonstration of the exercise you put in, how much, how many reps you did. If you're using a weight, you can put that in and you check off the exercise and you just go through it. and it's a fantastic app and. We've just been getting the best feedback on it.

Kevin: 41:42

In case you can't tell. Angie's really excited about our new app and wants to share this with the world. I do. She's very excited for it. So give it a shot. It's gonna be amazing.

Angie: 41:52

Yeah, and I'm continuing, like I'm still building the app out. So the 30 day program is. Basically built out at this point, but I'm continuing to add new things to the app, so it's going to be something that I'm just so excited about. And so when you're done with a 30 day reset, if you wanna continue on as part of the membership, then that's an option too, because you're gonna see how freaking amazing this is.

Kevin: 42:13

If you started now, that could be a Christmas present. God, this all just lays out perfectly. It's like you've got this whole thing planned out. This is gonna be fantastic. Alright, so to recap, let's be grateful for everything. I'm super grateful for you. And, and the running of the whole year. but mainly you, because without you, I don't think that I could run as much as I possibly do. so thankful for you and you taking care of me and our whole family. and this podcast and this whole real life runner community, that you support all of us. And I think I speak for a lot of people when I say thank you for taking care of us.

Angie: 42:48

Thank you. I'm thankful for you too, and I didn't have a little speech prepared, but I love you and I'm very thankful for you also, for everything that you do to support me. And all of my crazy ideas in business and in life. Like a new app. Like a new app. This app is a game changer, I'm telling you. but yeah, I think that. you and I make a very good pair and a good partnership. and I support you and you support me, and we support each other, and I think that's exactly what a marriage is supposed to be.

Kevin: 43:16

Perfect. happy anniversary. It

Angie: 43:19

is our in,

Kevin: 43:19

it was our anniversary last week. It was recent enough.

Angie: 43:21

Yeah. So anywho, If you wanna get in on the 30 day reset, again, that website is real life runners.com/reset. But if you just go to the homepage, there's a link, on the homepage of real life runners.com. That'll take you there as well. And if you have any questions, just reach out, let me know. I can help you to personalize the plan. So if there are certain exercises that you can't do, if you are, if the runs, if you're not able to run 30 minutes yet, we can tailor it, we can do a run walk thing. So the goal of this program, like I said again, is to meet you where you are. And that is the most important thing because if you are jumping into a program that is beyond what you're currently capable of, that is a very quick way to becoming inconsistent. Not motivated or even getting injured, and we don't want that for you. We want this to be like the kickstart into 2026 and get getting you like off and ready so that on January 1st you're not starting over. You are just continuing the good habits. You've already started this month. thanks for joining us. We are grateful, so so grateful to all of you. All of you listeners that, that download the episode, that share the episode, thank you for all of you that have left us reviews. If you haven't yet, that's a wonderful way for you to show gratitude towards us and to show that you're grateful for the podcast that we put out every single week by leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. we would be so appreciative of that. And as always, thanks for joining us. This has been The Real Life Runners podcast, episode number 437. Now, get out there and run your life.