In this episode, Cheryl McColgan discusses strategies for maintaining wellness during the holiday season. She emphasizes the importance of setting realistic intentions, managing weight, coping with stress, making mindful eating and drinking choices, and balancing social obligations with self-care. Cheryl provides practical tips for navigating holiday challenges, including travel and family dynamics, while encouraging listeners to be intentional and mindful throughout the season.

You can find Cheryl’s previous episodes about avoiding holiday weight gain here.

Disclaimer: Links may contain affiliate links, which means we may get paid a commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase through this page. Read our full disclosure here.

Takeaways

• The holidays can be stressful, and it’s important to plan ahead for wellness.


• Setting intentions rather than big goals can help maintain focus during the holidays.


• Protein intake is crucial for satiety and managing weight.


• Eating to 80% fullness can prevent discomfort after meals.


• Cortisol levels can rise due to holiday stress; managing stress is key.


• Alcohol consumption should be mindful, as it can cloud judgment and lead to poor food choices.


• The holidays should focus on nurturing relationships rather than just food and drink.


• It’s okay to say no to social obligations to prioritize self-care.


• Post-holiday, it’s important to return to normal routines quickly to avoid weight gain.


• Mindfulness and intention are essential for a balanced holiday experience.

Watch on YouTube

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Episode Transcript

Cheryl McColgan (00:01 .038)
Hey everyone, I’m Cheryl McColgan, founder of Peel Nourish Row, and it has been a little while since I’ve been on the mic. I took an unexpected longer hiatus than I thought I would, and I’m just now getting around to starting to record again. And I really wanted to get on here and do this episode because the holidays are such a stressful time for everyone. It’s a time where people could use extra support, could use extra ideas about how to

de-stress, not gain weight during the holidays, and just find ways to support your wellness in this busy time of the season. So I’ve done another episode like this in the past, and I’ll be sure to link that in the show notes, but for this one I did map out a few bullet points to keep me on track. I’ve got my laptop here with that on it so that I can glance over there occasionally and remind myself of what I wanted to share with you today. But the first thing is this why this, what does holiday mean?

wellness even mean or why does it matter? Again, it’s a stressful time. We’re around family for some times that’s very exciting and sometimes it can be very stressful and there’s a lot of travel involved typically and a lot of extra events and cooking and things like that. So it can be just a time where there’s so much going on that you forget to actually take care of yourself. So planning ahead now so that you don’t have to recover from everything at the beginning of the year is a good plan.

And usually what I like to say during the holidays, I mean, if you’re a lot of people that listen to this podcast are interested in weight loss or fitness or health and wellness. If you’re trying to lose weight during the holidays, that can be particularly challenging. I think what would be a better goal for most people is to just maintain during the holidays and not gain extra weight that you then have to kind of backtrack from the progress that you’ve made throughout the year. So all that being said,

I think the good way to start with this is just to set some intentions around the holidays. So for example, just to be really mindful every time that you eat or, consistent movement or practicing on your sleep during the holidays to make sure that you stay on track with your wellness. So whatever that intention is, just making something specific enough that you know what it is that you’re trying to accomplish, but generally it’s not going to be any big goals during this time of the year.

Cheryl McColgan (02:24 .606)
Just because it’s like I said a lot of extra stress a lot of extra things going on and so Setting really big goals around health and wellness this time of year can just be a way that sets you up for failure Which is not what we want want to go into the new year Thinking positive feeling positive and having every intention that way when we get to the new year We’re kind of set up in this place.

been mindful, we’ve been practicing taking care of ourselves and then once we get to the new year we can really focus on those bigger goals that you want for yourself and your wellness in 2026. So after you’ve set the intentions let’s address the first thing is weight. I actually looked this up before I got on here and most people gain anywhere between a pound to five pounds during the time period from Thanksgiving to the end of the year.

And while that can be also if your intention is to say enjoy time with family, eat really good foods, just nourish yourself and not to worry too much about weight gain, that is a perfectly acceptable intention as well. But if you want to think about, you know, maintaining your weight or not gaining weight during the holidays, then it’s important to kind of have a plan when you go into this. So the first thing, you know, I’m going to say is what we’re always very focused on here is the importance of protein.

Protein is a very satiating nutrient. There’s a lot of theories around about how your body will keep seeking out food if you’re not getting a proper protein intake. So that’s the first thing. So every time you sit down to a meal, plan on getting your protein in first, and then you can have a little bit more flexibility with the rest of your meal because you know that you’ve gotten your protein requirements out of the way. And then you can fill in after that with fats and carbohydrates. If you’re a carbohydrate eater, if you’re still trying to practice keto during the holidays, it is a time.

perhaps be just a little more flexible with that only because there’s going to be a lot of temptations there’s going to be a lot of things you want to try so again having that intention around that whether it’s taking a bite here or there or allowing yourself certain days of the week or a party or something like that to enjoy a few more carbs again just being really mindful and setting that intention so that you don’t kind of go off the rails with that stuff because some people one of the reasons they do a lower carb lifestyle is because they don’t have

Cheryl McColgan (04:40 .728)
They don’t either feel good when they eat carbs or they have a relationship with them where when they eat too many carbs, it makes them hungrier and eat more. So if you know that you’re that person, you certainly don’t want to set yourself on this crazy path of that during the holidays by eating a lot of extra cookies or potatoes or candy or whatever it is you’re normally avoiding for the most part. So being really mindful about those choices and allowing them in in the quantities that make sense for you and your personal goals.

So the other thing is eating to 80 % fullness. Now this is something that we should be practicing pretty much all of the time if you’re doing an eating program where you’re doing just more of an intuitive eating kind of style. If you want to give yourself time for your brain to get the feeling of whether you’re actually full or not. So eating slowly, eating mindfully, chewing your food and stopping.

when you’re already starting to feel full because it takes a little while for your brain to catch up with your body. So if you’re already starting to feel full, chances are 20 minutes later, 30 minutes later, you’re gonna be, you might have that stuffed feeling, which a lot of people have after Thanksgiving meals. So just being really mindful of why you’re adjusting to take note of how you’re feeling if you’re starting to get full and shooting for that 80 % mark in that way.

If you go a little over, you’re not going to end up on the couch with your holding your stomach and just being miserable. You’ll probably end up in a much better place. Also, I have two thoughts on this. And again, it’s about knowing the kind of person you are. So there’s this idea of saving your calories for certain big meals and everything. And I think that that can work for some people, especially if you’re tracking your macros and you’re eating a meal that maybe you made or that it’s a simple meal like tracking a certain quantity of turkey, for example.

that’s very easy to track. So you can either save some calories for later, so not eating as much throughout the day so that you know when you have a big meal that you’re not going to go over your calorie allotment for the day. But again, it’s about knowing yourself. If in the past you’ve experienced that, for example, on Thanksgiving, you don’t eat most of the day or you just eat a very small breakfast and then you go totally overboard, you feel sick the rest of the night,

Cheryl McColgan (06:52 .886)
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