How To Lose Weight Before The Holidays Without Dieting In December

The holidays don’t have to derail your progress. They can be the reason you win the year. We break down a simple, honest strategy to finish strong without trying to force fat loss in December: pick a cutoff date, set a clear goal, map your events, and treat the next six to seven weeks like a focused sprint with a planned break at the end.

First, we tackle why December is a poor month for weight loss and how planning backwards from December 15 or 20 creates relief and structure. You’ll learn how to map “X days” like work parties and birthdays, then double down on the open days with the habits that actually move the needle: tracking your food daily, lifting with intent, hitting your steps, sleeping more, and checking in on time. We talk targets by context—why three to four kilos might be realistic if you have it to lose, and why smaller changes require tighter execution when you’re near your goal. The message is clear: define success, then let behaviors catch it.

We also get practical about sacrifice and damage control. Rather than fantasize about food you’ll “never” have, remember a holiday window is coming. That mindset turns a tempting burger into a calm choice for steak and veg, swaps heavy cocktails for a gin and tonic, and stops an off-day from snowballing into an off week. Momentum lives in the middle: enjoy the moment, protect the next day. And because motivation comes in waves, we frame this season like an athlete’s training block—push hard now, enjoy a reset, then pull the same levers in January without the guilt or the guesswork.

If you’re waiting for January to give you a new personality, don’t. It’s darker, colder, and rarely easier. Build momentum now, arrive at the holidays with a plan, and step into the new year with proof that your system works. If this helped, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs a plan, and leave a quick review so more people can find it. Then tell us: what’s your cutoff date—and what’s your year-end goal?

Transcript

Why December Is Not For Dieting

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Right guys, today we're gonna talk about smashing the end of the year. So we are in the what 3rd of November. And we know December's coming. Lots of holidays stuff. Um very, very, very, very, very difficult month to lose weight. Now, I said this on my little video to the community today, and I'll say it again. Losing weight in December does not need to be part of your plan. There are special edge cases where you just don't give a shit about Christmas. You've got something big coming on in January that you're getting ready for. Um, it's been a terrible year and you don't really want to celebrate Christmas or do that kind of stuff. But I would say 90% of the time we don't want to be losing weight in December. So knowing that December is going to be a very tough month for us, we have to go, okay, what's coming in December that I can maybe sacrifice on a little bit now. But also knowing that it's going to be tough soon, the worst thing to do is go, well, I'll wait till January, like, you know, 99.9% of other people elsewhere, and then come back in January and go, oh my God, I'm ready to go again. But now you've got like five kilos to lose because you didn't do half the work you should have done last year. It's a terrible way of thinking. If you are any of you are high up in your job, any of you run a business, any of you do any kind of high performance work, the worst thing you can do is take your foot off the pedal before it's gonna get even less. Like it's not getting, you know, we're gonna go through one of the toughest months ever with sales. What should we do now? What we should do is not concentrate on sales early, put our feet up early. No, let's fucking try and get some sales in

Plan Backwards From Mid-December

SPEAKER_00 1:55

because we know sales are gonna get difficult in December. Um, so we need to know what's coming, so it gives us enough time to go, right? I can lock in for a period of time and push myself um pretty hard. So it is what, eight weeks left until the end of the year. Um, but knowing that we're not gonna kind of get to the end of the year, we're gonna lose. Let's do the calculations right now. You know, we've got January the 5th. We could probably come back then, yeah. So we've got the week of the 29th, the week of the 22nd, um, 22nd week is obviously the Christmas week, and then that 29th week is that week in between Christmas and New Year, where it's a bit of a dead week. So again, we can talk about what's gonna happen in them weeks, but we're probably looking at what to the 15th of December that week, maybe can push to the 20th. So we've got one, two, three, uh four, five, six, seven weeks. I've done that right. One, two, three, four, five, six. Yeah, seven full weeks to dig in. That's not a bad runway, actually. Seven weeks, pound a week, three and a half

Define A Clear Year-End Goal

SPEAKER_00 3:15

kilos if you've got it to lose. Some of you don't even have three and a half kilos to lose, so you're probably gonna hit the bloody goal by the end of the year. Um, but that's a good runway, you know. So, what that says is let's say let's give us, let's give ourselves a cutoff date, December 20th. Some of you might be a little bit earlier, December 15th. Yeah. I want you a bit of homework, is map that period out, that seven weeks or six weeks if you're coming in at the 15th, look in the diary of what's gonna potentially happen before then. There might be a little bit in the early stages of December where you're like, oh, I've got MBM Christmas party, there is gonna be food, there is gonna be alcohol there, you're probably gonna want to relax just a little bit. You might have an other Christmas parties and few bits and bobs, winter wonderland dates and this, that, and the other. So you might not know what's going to come in pre-December, so we can map out November and add that on later on, but map out over the next few weeks uh for sure what's in your diary, and then look at them dates and go, where can I sacrifice a little bit, or where is it just a I'm going to have to eat certain foods? Example of that. Um, I've got daughter's birthday on the 26th of November. Let's say we're going to, we're not, but let's say we're going to Pizza Hot, for example. It's going to be quite tough when we have my diet there. I'm going to treat myself to a pizza because of my daughter's birthday and a slice of cake. That's an X day. Can't do anything about it. It is what it is. But up until that, there's time where I can push. So understand them days when it's just a bit of a write-off. Um, Thanksgiving, Friends giving, and there's a few of them coming up. Map them out. There should be maybe two or three, maybe four going in. So that leaves a quite a few days for you to really go for it. Now, when we've got days of relaxation or we've got a period of relaxation coming, we need to learn how to really sacrifice. No, let me just rewind there. Let's go back to more. Got the cutoff day. Let's build the goal first. What is the goal for that period of time? Now, some of you, like I've just said, seven weeks, you can go three and a half kilos is an average weight loss if you have it to lose. Um, so how does it work if I know I've had it to lose? We look at it as a percentage. So let's say you're in the 80s, 70s, 80s mark, and you kind of want to get down to 60 kilos, for example, is a big portion of weight that you still need to lose. Therefore, we could probably get it done. Let's say you're 70 kilos and your goal is 67, three kilos, the percentage of you what you have to lose is quite small. So it's a bit harder to get that three and a half kilos off and a bit more unlikely because it takes a bit more as you get close to your goal to get them little bits off. So knowing if you've got it to lose is you need to understand that. Number one, if you don't know, you can please just let me know and I'll tell you what's in a good target to get to by the end of the year. But let's say you've got it to lose, we won three and a half kilos. Like myself, I've got about four kilos to lose by the end of the year to have my goal for the year. Um map that out. Okay, this is what I won. Now, how important is that to me? It's really important to me because I set out in January that I wanted to be under 100 kilos by the end of the year. I was 108 at the beginning

Sacrifice Now For Holiday Freedom

SPEAKER_00 6:45

of the year. It's took me, well, it would have taken me 12 months to lose eight kilos. Now, some of you thinking, fucking hell, that's slow. Yeah, it's slow because I did it the long way around. Um, and I mapped it out for the year. I said I'm just gonna slowly chip away and then push a little bit harder for the last few months of uh the year. But at the end of the day, if I set my self-target 100 kg on January for 2025, if I get there December 30th, do we go 31st? Yeah, 31st. And I get to that 100 kg on the 31st, who gives a fuck if it took me a year? I got to my goal. When I said I was gonna get to my goal, there we go. Shit happens throughout the year, shit happens throughout your journey, things come up, things get in the way. But as long as you don't give up on your goal, that goal is still open for you. Yeah? That goal is still available for you. If you give yourself a year to become a millionaire and you are skin for 364 days of it, and then the last day you you get the sales that you want to hit the million, who cares? Like, you know, sometimes these journeys we get so caught up with where we should have been. But actually, as long as you don't give up, you're in a good place. So Magni goal, you know, really understand what that is. Some of you might just be like drop a dress size. Some of you might be like, you know, I had a goal recently, client wanted to fit into a wedding dress from seven years ago. She's had two kids. Wasn't even a weight goal, it was just fit into the wedding dress that she used to wear. Brilliant goal. Some of you might be like, fit into that tight pair of jeans for Christmas. Whatever that goal is, define that goal, get it really clear in your head. Okay, let me go back to my other point. Learning how to sacrifice. In December, there is going to be plenty alcohol with friends and family. There's going to be plenty mince pies, plenty chocolate, plenty cake, plenty nice food around friends and family that you can sit and you can enjoy and you can have the time that you've missed out on for this period of time. Knowing that's coming, in this period here, we can say, I can sacrifice on this because I'm going to have it later on. Sometimes on a diet, what we do is you fantasize about a takeaway because we feel we're never going to get that takeaway again. Oh my God, I'm sitting here and your friend goes, Do you want a glass of wine? And in your mind, you go, Oh my god, I want this glass of wine because it's been so long. I don't know when I'm going to have a glass of wine again. It's like, come on. The wine's coming at Christmas. You're going to have some time to relax. You're going to have a good 10 days off to chill, put your feet up, get a Bailey's, get whatever. Don't tell me that it was too good right now to miss out on and then double it up in December because that makes no sense to me. Sacrifice right now. There is not a chocolate bar in the world that isn't worth sacrificing to make your body feel good. There is no alcohol in the world

Damage Control On Off Days

SPEAKER_00 9:50

that is worth not worth sacrificing to make your body look good. I promise you, I see it every single day. You may think that you know best in the moment. You may think you know what's best for you. You may think your circumstances make you need certain foods. But I can promise you right now, I see the difference between someone getting to their goal that has sacrificed. And if you ask 100 of them people, they get to their goal or are very close to their goal or feeling really good in their body. Do they regret for one minute some of the food that they sacrificed? 100% of them will say, I do not regret not having that chocolate. I do not regret not having that alcohol. I do not regret not eating the takeaway. They they don't regret none of it because in that moment they feel so good. But sometimes what we do in the moment of having this types of food, we convince ourselves that we need it and after feel like shit and then regret it. So, how does that make sense? Fast forward in your mind. Understand, I can live without this glass of wine. I can have this meal with my friend and not have the burger and chips and just have the salad today. Why? Because in about seven weeks, it's going to be Christmas and I can have a burger and chips if I want, if I really want it then. Or I can have a mince pie when I want. Really having that tool in your back pocket for certain events is a good way to shut up that voice in your head of you deserve it. It's been a tough week, it's been a hard week. Um, why don't you just have the food now? Come on, you've you've dieted for seven days, you've lost a little bit of weight, you should have a bit of, you should have a cookie. Hey, shut up, mate. I've got this coming in December 20th. So I'm gonna give myself seven weeks on it, push hard, get to get then, and have my time to relax. Learning how to sacrifice and learning how to dig in when you have these little periods is is very key because how the weight loss journey works or how the transformation journey, health journey works, it's it's peaks and troughs, and it's very much like an athlete. If I'm training the athlete, if I'm training a mom with three kids who just wants to lose 10 pounds, it's the same mentality. You're

On-Days: Track, Train, Check In

SPEAKER_00 12:15

gonna go through cycles, and you'll see this with your past behaviors and stuff like that. Sometimes you're motivated, sometimes you're not motivated. Sometimes you can push hard because you got at this space in time, sometimes it's difficult because it's summer or Christmas. So, in certain times of year, there is certain blocks where it's a good time to really push hard because then it's gonna pull off for December, but then January, with that rush of, oh my gosh, it's New Year, I really want to make this year my year, you get another wave of motivation. So you've got to ride these waves. It's if someone's kind of like going through the whole year, like 10 out of 10, like smashing it, it's very, very, very, very odd. Or it's like a one in a million chance because some people are just that motivated. But the general person, you have to ride waves of motivation, non-motivation, struggling, not struggling, losing weight, weight still, weight gain, weight loss. It's just how it is. But if then waves are like this, but overall we're getting closer to our goal, doesn't matter how long it takes, overall it's getting closer. We just got to use these waves a little bit more. Like I will sometimes pull a bit of motivation out of you or pull your personality out of you because I know how to use that. You need to start learning how to use the times of the year. Mums are very much like this because especially if your kids are an age where they're getting spools and nurseries. When struck my comments, you've got this period of time when you've got the kids, life is different, it all changes. So you have to adapt your whole life. So then we go back to school term, this back to school time to push. Uh half term, again, madness. Back to school time to push. It's kind of setting the year out. So this is a really, really, really, really, really good time. It's a time when I'm pushing hard for my goal. Um, it's a really good time for you to go, let me get my head down because we know there's gonna be time to relax later on. Now, the moments where you've got that time off, or we've got these days where you just can't avoid, the key thing is is like have the food, but don't just because you've started, feel like you need to go over and over and over again, or like over-indulge or overdo it because you're gonna go back on the next day. It's keeping the damage at a low, like really damage control them moments. We went out on Wednesday with some friends. Um, I had a pint of Guinness, don't drink that often, but I had a pint of Guinness, I had steak for lunch, um, and there was like they gave chips for the steak. I probably had like two chips. I love it being nice for chips, but there was an opportunity to have dessert after. I said, you know what, I've had my fun, I've done it. Could have had the dessert, could have had another pint of Guinness. You can always add another layer onto it, or you can say I've had a bit of balance and I can leave it here and just be okay with the fact that like I've had some time off, but tomorrow I can work, get back

Ride Motivation Waves Through Seasons

SPEAKER_00 15:20

to work. But we don't always have to go, oh, well, because today's been off, or because I'm gonna have a balanced meal, it has to be the worst thing on the menu. It has to be the fucking chips covering cheese with sauce or a burger because I'm having a day off. It's like, no, it's a day off. Maybe go have a nicer version of something healthy that you're having. You know what I mean? If you're sitting down with a friend and there is going to be drinking there, you know there's gonna be drinks, maybe a Hindu or a birthday party, you can say to yourself, okay, I'm gonna have a drink, but maybe I can have a gin and tonic, or maybe I can have a vodka soda or tequila lime. Something that's gonna take that edge off and damage control just a little bit more because damage control is key because then when we're back on, we can push, but we haven't done so much damage. One, we feel like shit the next day and you don't feel motivated at all. Two, you've got a hangover and the next day feels even more difficult. Or three, you've put on two kilos in a night because you've actually smashed up the fruit, and now you've got more work to do that next two, three days. Um, you know, some days off might even be just you have to elevate your calories by 200 calories. Like, that's not a bad day, but you can still fit it in the amount of calories that you've got. Now, what do we do on the on days in this little period where we can look at it more of a sprint? Is it's game long. Any little extras that we can get, any more steps, it's a bonus. Pushing a little bit harder in the gym, going a little bit heavier, not skipping that workout because you feel a bit tired today, not tracking your food because you just can't be asked, you know. If we're gonna have some days that are off and have some fun, when the day's on, we have to respect the fact that, like, you know what, I've got some time off coming. Can I just track my food for seven weeks? Can I just be that person who tracks their food for seven weeks? I track everything in this business. Um, the key measurements of success are people's ability to track on a regular basis, whether the tracking is good or bad, but tracking on a regular basis, and them checking in with me or their coach. So they're actually purposely saying, This is my way, this is my my pictures, and this is what's happened. Their form is in because they have three days to get that form in. There shouldn't be no excuse for, oh, it's late on a Tuesday. It's like you had like 80 hours to do a 30-second form, a bit like my video the other day, the lazy way of thinking. That's a lazy way of thinking. Getting that form in, getting that check-in in, getting the tracking in, showing that effort is a key, key thing for people. I can go, that person's doing this, they get this. It's it's the one relationship that is key. Like when I look through people's progress, they go, that person's checked in 100% for the last six months, they got good progress. That person's tracked their food. Yeah, some days weren't great, they got good progress. It's only when

January Reality Check And Momentum

SPEAKER_00 18:30

I go into someone's tracking or I go into someone's check-in history and I go, they checked in once in October and they've tracked three days in October, where's the result? I don't even have to check. I can pretty much guess. So understanding that tracking your food or in some way, shape, or manner, and getting your check-in in photos, weight, and form in on time are two key metrics for success. If you're choosing not to do either of them, what we don't have because then we've got uh the time, the days off, but when we're on, you're not doing the two key things that are gonna get you success. So this has to be a game of uh give and take. You've got some time off December 20th, December 15th, you've got some days off when we've marked them in the diary just now. You've got your goal, you know exactly what you need to do on the on-days. That means now the power's in your hands to go, right, in this period, I've got a real chance of getting some good success before January. If any of you, which I don't think you do, if any of you are thinking that January is going to be different for you, or is going to bring something different, like a different layer of motivation, a different personality, a different level of drive, you are so, so, so mistaken. If you cannot do it now in this period of time, January is going to be double hard because what happens in January is we've got the post-Christmas blues, post-New Year's blues. It's very dark. It's been dark for more months in January than it has right now. Vitamin D is low. January, February are mentally very hard months. And I could probably pull some stats up. Well, I bet you most people are depressed in January, February, if I'm honest. It's a very tough time because it's a dark, this is in the UK, by the way, wet and cold and things like that. So don't assume that next year is going to bring a whole new level of motivation if you can't just go hard right now. Because, but if you can go hard right now and get a bit of success, maybe put a pound or two on it over Christmas, in January, you can pull the strings back again to the same protocol in January. And you can say, okay, I've now had my fun, I've now had my balance. Now, can I push forward? Can I still have the days off that I've got birthdays and this and that on? Of course. But I've had my fun now, so I can now push for another six weeks. So you see what I'm saying? It's that push and pull at periods of time. But what we can't do in them

The Game Plan And Accountability

SPEAKER_00 21:20

periods of time of pushing is create a high level of excuses, is create, you know, not do the simple things that we know we need to do to get that success. Because that's basically saying that here is the game plan to get exact the exact thing that you want. You know, what is it that you want? I want to be fit, I want to be healthy, I want to love my body, I want to be in the best shape ever. Okay, here is the exact game plan to do it, and this is a great time to put that game plan in place, and you choosing to go, you know what? Get out of there. Get out of there with that. I'm gonna do my own thing, take my chances. Trust me, you've got to take my my um my expertise and my my level of experience of working with hundreds, doubt or thousands of people and seeing the mentality throughout the year. This is the best way to play the game. And the the way to play the game is checking in, getting you, tracking in, marking out your meals, marking out your days that you've got off, marking out the days that you've got on, getting to the gym when it's hard, like digging deep because you know you're gonna have a break. It's like the buildup to a photo shoot, the buildup to a holiday, the buildup to a wedding. People can dig in at a higher level because they know they've got this the goals inside. When if we create that same mentality with seasons, especially this season and then the beginning of next year, you're gonna be absolutely fine. So that's pretty much everything I've got to speak about. Map out your year, set your cutoff date, build your goal, mark the days that are gonna be there for sacrifice, but then in the days that are green basically, go seriously

Wrap-Up And Community Updates

SPEAKER_00 23:10

hard. What else should I have to say? Oh December, we've got Christmas party on the second. Um so if anyone hasn't signed up for the Christmas party and wants to join, there's still room for that. We changed the venue. So please let me know. ASAP, I could just put you on the list. Um, what else did I have to say? You know, some other bulletins that I had things I can't remember off the top of my head. Um okay, that's what I've got for y'all. I'm gonna stop this and then any questions.