A Smarter Plan For Christmas Food And Fitness

Holiday chaos doesn’t have to bulldoze your health. We break down a practical, flexible plan to enjoy the food, see your people, and still feel proud when January lands. Instead of treating December like a two-week open bar, we map the month using a simple green, amber, and red day system that keeps you grounded without killing the fun. You’ll learn how to decide when to lean in, when to hold back, and how to turn one party into a single evening—not a lost weekend.

We set a smarter target for late December: maintenance from December 22 to January 5. That move protects your routines while you enjoy the big moments, and it makes any small holiday gain easy to shed once the calendar flips. We also lock in non-negotiables—steps, training, protein, hydration, and sleep—so your base habits keep working even when the schedule gets messy. If you’ve ever woken up after a “festive blur” wondering what happened, this plan brings clarity and control.

Social pressure gets a reality check. We share ready-to-use lines for skipping drinks you don’t want, navigating buffets without boredom eating, and ignoring the loud opinions of people who won’t live with your results. Then we demystify the scale: why post-party spikes are mostly water, how your “energy tank” refills and drains, and the best times to weigh so you track real trends, not noise. By planning your colors, protecting your habits, and choosing maintenance over mayhem, you’ll keep the joy and leave the regret behind.

If this helps you breathe easier about the holidays, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs a plan, and drop a review to tell us your green–amber–red wins.

Transcript

Reframing The Holidays

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Okay, guys, Christmas is here. I mean, it is the 17th of November, but it's essentially here. And what we talk about today, you can um apply this, to be honest, at any holiday, whether it's Christmas, whether it's summer, whether it's birthdays, whatever, like any big periods of a lot of things going on, you can apply this kind of uh thinking and this kind of thought process. So obviously, Christmas the thing is about Christmas is like, you know, when you actually break it down, there is there's only a few days where it's it's pretty heavy. You know, we've got Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day. Um, and then you've probably got, you know, if you go in family one day, you've got them, maybe two days there, Christmas parties at work. But them Christmas parties at work are normally the evening. Even if you look at our Christmas party, it's in the evening. Um, I'm hoping there's a little bit of healthy food. I'll still be on a diet. But the it's not like masses of days, you know, it's not like a two-week all you can eat all-inclusive holiday. And if we can ref if we can reframe our thought process around Christmas just a little bit, it can help us a lot. Um, you know, just because it's Christmas, we don't have to sit there shoving bloody celebrations down our pants, you know. Just because it's Christmas, we don't have to eat every hot chocolate given to us. You can actually enjoy that stuff without going over the top. I used to have really bad Christmas things. I used to do a uh a show that was in December, it was like December 2nd until like December 10th. It was this catwalk show. We used to get in really good shape. But from December 10th until like January 10th, I used to eat and eat and eat and eat. And my body's been in such a state by January. I spent three months fixing it. You can go desperately wrong over Christmas if you just follow that eating, eating, eating for no reason at all. Um, so the first thing I want to say is like reframe what Christmas is. Christmas is um, and how every event I think should be is going in there and make a decision if you are gonna eat or or you don't really want to fancy going that kind of diet. I might maybe Christmas is not a big thing for you, or like whatever holiday Thanksgiving is not a big thing for you. You might not want to go crazy, but look at it like, okay, I

Enjoy Without The Overkill

SPEAKER_00 2:30

want to eat, but if I'm gonna eat, I don't want to put a shit ton of weight on. Um, if you want to go fucking all out and eat everything, then feel free, go for it, put a shit ton of weight on, and we'll be back in January and we'll try and go again. But I promise you now that's the silliest way to um think about it. So if we look at it like, you know, can I go into this and eat nice food but enjoy myself? Not eat nice food and feel desperately guilty after and feel desperately like shit. Um, wake up the next day hating myself or going to a Christmas party and you know, getting too pissed and talking shit to too many people and feeling anxiety the next day. Like there's a positive in the moment, but then a negative after. It's a little bit like when we binge at the weekends, you know, started with two biscuits, ended up with KFC and Billy, two sticky tough of puddings. Then we regret it. Well, as we go into Christmas, you go, I want to eat this food, but I don't want to sit there regretting my life decisions. And the way to do that is just kind of like it set certain rules in your mind. My rules is Christmas. I am not eating one of them little chocolates. I'm not eating one of them. I've had them, well am I now? 30, 38 on a good year, I think. I've had them for 38 years, them little chocolates, just smashing them over and over and over again. And nothing good has ever come from me smashing a box of celebrations. So why do I need to go in this one and do the same? My daughter had a sleep over the day. I got a box of celebrations. The one was in the kitchen. I ate it. Oh my god, I thought, fucking hell, these are disgustingly sweet. I've not had sugar in a while. You realize these things like they just they're there, they don't need to be had all day long. Same with the drinking, endlessly drinking because you're bored of bloody, your cousins chat, or your dad's talking shit, you're just drinking because there's nothing else to do but watch home alone and drink bloody mauled wine. It's like just don't go down that road, that road, you know. So try not to do anything that's that's excessive. But having a goal going into December. Now, I've said this over and over and over again, and I can give you my advice of what I think your goal should be, but you you can make the decision for you. No one should be trying to lose weight from the 15th of December. I'd say maybe you want to push it to the 22nd, but you can make that decision. 15th or 22nd week, 22nd for sure, but 15th. I would, me personally, this is what I would do. We will be taking a break anyway, because I don't think any of you will want to be checking in. You can check in by all means, but I don't think any of you want to be checking in on Christmas week or the week after. So from the 22nd until the 5th of January, where we'll probably reset goals for January, like that 22nd week, we've got Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day. You're not going to lose weight there unless you're doing

Set A December Goal: Maintenance

SPEAKER_00 5:30

Christmas on your own. And the week after you've got New Year's Eve. I forgot about this New Year's Eve as well. New Year's Eve, New Year's Day. Again, you probably don't want to lose the weight there. So at least from the 22nd until the 5th, we want to be in maintenance. Maybe from the 15th, maybe there's a little bit going on the week before, we want to be in maintenance there. So up until that point, you can do as much damage as possible. But that leaves us with one, two, three, we've got four weeks. So we're looking at two kilos max if we're on a weight loss journey. And then we kind of cut off for weight loss. So doing a bit of damage until then and then cutting that off and going in there. This is what I think. You can try and lose weight for Christmas, but I do not think your goal should be weight loss for that Christmas. Your goal should be maintenance or putting a little bit on to lose it again in January. Now, I know like we're thinking, oh my God, put weight on. It's like weight is to be put on. Like if we're going holiday, I'm putting weight on, I can lose it again. Like, yes, if you're beginning of your journey, you just lost three kilos, the last thing you want to do is put three kilos on. But take the confidence you've got that three kilos off, and it can be lost a lot quicker once it goes on over Christmas. But maintenance as a bare minimum, I think, is where people should go. So, like if we've got this goal of like, right, I want to maintain or want to put on bare minimal weight, everything we do around that needs to go towards that. Everything we we we plan over that two, three week period has to go towards that. So if you're sitting there binging on food, you're thinking about this is not going towards my maintenance, and this is not going towards my bare minimum weight gain, you you're going to get a big surprise when you step on those scales and think you got away with smashing loads of food and go, did I get away with it? You're going to go, oh my God, I've put on a shit ton of weight. It happens. I've trust me, I've seen it a thousand times. So if we map out from now, let's go from now until the 5th of January. Literally, from today until the 5th of January, there's actually 49 days left of the year. Um, I worked this out before we got on the got on the call, but there's 49 days left. So let's take this approach. I think you should take this approach. The best thing to do is map your diet out. We've done this before on the program. We think we did it over summer or we did it at a different time. Green days, I'm gonna bring in amber days and I'm gonna bring in red days. Yeah? Green, amber, red. A red day is maybe we did this last Christmas. A red day is complete and utter write-off. There's no way I can track, there's no way I can do my workout, whatever. It's just not happening. Christmas Day, I got kids. It ain't happening for me. Walk, maybe, but it ain't happening. That's a red day. Boxing day, I'm probably gonna smash a few turkey sandwiches. I might go gym, but I like to go gym on boxing day. Me personally. But boxing day is probably gonna be a red day. Um, New Year's Eve means nothing to me. New Year's Day means nothing to me. I might go out for a nice meal, but it's not so much of a big thing. Matt then red days. Christmas party for me is looking more of an amber day. Now, what an amber day is, is I can keep my routine up to a certain point, and then I lose that routine.

Green, Amber, Red Day System

SPEAKER_00 8:45

So I can have my breakfast, I can keep my steps, I can keep my training, and then at seven o'clock, I've got a Christmas party that turns into an amber day. Now, those days are days on their own. So let's say every other day is a green day where I can do my steps, I can do my training, I can do my diet, and I can do my macros. Yeah. Let's say I've got an amber day. Have I got an amber day coming up? No, I don't have an amber day until the Christmas party or anything. Oh no, 29th of this month, I'm going to Lapland. Probably going to be a bit of an amber day for me. I can on the way there, it's three hours and probably track my food. What I do is in that moment, I try and be the best I can. Maybe I want to take part in whatever I'm doing, but you know, I might have a drink, I might have a little bit of bad food, but I do the best I can. That one day is amber. What I don't do, yeah. Um, what I don't do is then turn the next day into an amber or red day because that day was an amber or red. Because then what happens is you start to blur the week. And let's say you have an amber day on a Friday. It's now the weekend, but you go, fuck it, I may as well have another amber day. Fuck it, man. Now we've got three amber days that weren't needed. And if we kind of map these out before, what we'll see in your diary, you'll see a lot more green days than red and amber. And what you'd also be able to do is you'll be able to start making assumptions of how well you can maintain your body. How well you can maintain your results. If it's looking very amber and very red, you're going to be like, uh, you might want to pick up the phone and go, Louie. This is what my days are looking like. I need a bit of help here. And I'll go, okay, let's let's deep into it. Can we get a few more amber days and red days? But the green days is where we go hard. And on them green days, we don't need that hot chocolate. We don't need that baby's because someone offered it here. You don't need that mince pie because you walked into Gales and you've seen the mince pie. Then as you've seen the mince pie, you said to yourself, I want the mince pie now because I want it, I'm going to have it. No, we don't just see things and want it. If we want things, we have to be prepared for them. Like I might say, on Saturday, I'm going for a walk, I would like to have a mince pie and a hot chocolate, you know, not just because I've seen it, I need it. Because that's what happens when we have it, and then it kind of like it was supposed to be a good day, now it's a bad day, and it kind of throws us off and it ends up being a shit day. Them green days, we stay strong. So, and what can also happen is knowing that we've got like four green days in a row, you can be even stronger. You can push the steps, you can push the cardo, you can push the training a little bit more, knowing that I'm gonna have a little bit of a break here. When you match all them days out, you're gonna be a lot more confident with how you're gonna get through this next six weeks. Um, them red days, write them off. They are what they are. No guilt, don't go over the top, but don't feel shit because you can't get your steps in, don't feel shit because you can't get your training in. Them amber days, do your best, but then in that moment, make a good decision. Some amber days, what you might be like is that you know what, I've got a Christmas party, but I ain't gonna drink. Because to be honest, it's with my work people, and I can't stand none of them. Why would I drink to be with them? And also it's certain, you know, occasions. Don't drink because you feel like you need to drink because you're bored. Never do something because you're bored or you need Dutch courage or you need like some confidence in a room. Like, deal with that problem before that, don't mask that with having to eat. You know, they put a buffet out and you're eating for the sake of it because you're bored, makes no difference. So once you've got these green, amber, and red days of like how this month is is looking. Um, if you've got too much bunch together, we can make some sacrifice. Then you need to start to build your non-negotiables, especially on your green days and maybe on some amber days, where we've got your step target, we've got you keeping your hydration, we've got hitting your macros, we've got getting a good night's sleep and uh getting your training in. They're your non-negotiables, they're like whatever fucking happens on these days. If I'm pissed off, stressed, it's tired, didn't have a great sleep, I'm gonna get these done because tomorrow is a bad day, uh, amber or red day, and I need to just get these done. The more you can get the non-negotiables done on the days that you've got the power to, the better it's gonna be. But when we start to dip on the non-negotiables and we start to go, oh, I'm tired from my red day. I don't really fancy training today. Oh, maybe I'll wait till January, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's that, you just become like the rest of the population. Wait until January. I promise you now, I I've done this for many, many years. People think they're gonna be more motivated in January. January is a much harder month

Non‑Negotiables On Green Days

SPEAKER_00 13:30

than November is. November's actually a really good time to lose weight. I think November is one of the best months to lose weight. That's why I'm feeling my journey now. Because if we can, we, you know, we know we're gonna have a bit of balance coming in December, but January, Christmas is gone. It's a new year. Back to work, new targets. It's dark, it's grey, we've not had sun in a while. Unless you're going skiing on a holiday, it is a rough month. I don't know if many of you remember last January or February in the UK. It was depressing. It was not let's go smash the year. Trust me, that the energy was down. So don't anticipate you being like, right, I'm gonna smash it there if you can't smash it now. I'm gonna give up alcohol here if you can't do that now. So map that out. Have your non-negotiables on these green days and have a reason why. If we look at your schedule when in your check-ins with your me or your coach, and you go, Yeah, Saturday was a bad day. And I go, Well, do you check on Sunday? No, what happened? Oh, just couldn't be asked. Like, really? You couldn't. What? Why? Like, you know the system. And you know, a lot of people say, like, I don't know, I don't know. That's that's not a great excuse to either. It's like stick to your guns, learn how to sacrifice just a little bit. It ain't easy getting the best body, it ain't easy feeling the most confident, it ain't easy feeling sexy in your outfits and sexy naked. It ain't easy. That that part is not easy, losing 10, 20 kilos. It's not easy. Like I put the post up the other day, normalize that being quite difficult to do. But once we can normalize that, we can really push, push for this because the result here is way, way better than a handful of heroes or celebrations or 10 glasses of wine with Dave because you couldn't be asked to listen to his chat all the whole time at a Christmas party. Like, there's no reward over there, and I don't care what anyone says, there's no reward. There's never been a kind of mind that's given up drinking, lower drinking, lower sugar, lower junk food, lower takeaways, and I've gone, Louis, I've done it for three months and I fucking regret, I regret ever getting rid of the alcohol, I regret getting rid of the takeaways, and I regret getting rid of the sugar. Not one person has done that. Do you know what they have regretted? Drinking too much, eating too much, eating too much sugar. That's why we have 110 people on this program. Make it make sense. So, what do you want to do more of? More of the stuff that people definitely regret, or more of the stuff that people never regret? I don't think I've ever had anyone regret it. I mean, on this call, please put your hand up if you've had any regrets from cutting bad food out. So let's do more of that. Whatever that voice tells us before we have that food, before we go, ah, it's Christmas, I'm gonna eat this shit. Just say, remember when Louis said, no one's ever regretted giving this up. So what am I thinking I'm gonna miss out here? What am I thinking because everyone else is drinking that I'm gonna miss out? You know, Claire on the program went to her parents' evening the other day, everyone was drinking, she didn't drink. In the morning, she said, I felt so smug this morning going to the gym. Everyone's hanging out the bars feeling like shit. At the same time with them, I feel so smug this morning. She didn't regret not drinking. But in that moment, you convince yourself, I'm going to be missing out. I'm going to be missing out on something. Oh, what is it that I missed? No, we're not children. We're adams. You know what you need. You know, there was a time when I thought I was going to miss out on a night out. Trust me now, you try and get me out of this house at past 7:30, 8 o'clock. I know where I'm at. I'm in bed, mate. I know I'm not missing out on nothing. Like, I'm okay with my decisions of missing out, you know? Like when people are pissed and I'm just there sober. Like, Louis, why are you not drinking? You're so boring. I am happy being boring because I know what's coming

Handle Social Pressure

SPEAKER_00 17:30

for you guys. I went, oh, you why not eating cake? I'm happy not eating my cake because I feel fantastic. Them same people that were eating that cake, smashing the cake, smashing the alcohol, they're the same people that call me in January and go, Louis, can you help me out, mate? I've been overdone it. Yeah, I know. I could probably see this coming through the top through that, you know. Um, we spoke about alcohol. Training is something that we want to keep consistent through this period of time. Obviously, days that you're going to be out, but training is a good way of keeping consistent because also we can use days that we've had too much food. You can use that in the gym. You can really use that extra energy in the gym. Whether it's losing weight, maintaining, or gaining weight, training is one thing that you really want to keep consistent, no matter what. Obviously, if you're away, family stuff is quite hard. But the more training you can keep consistent and the more steps you can keep consistent, it will really save you through this um through this period of time. Now, I just touched on it quickly, but handling that social pressure of why are you not drinking? Why are you not eating this? Why are you not? Now if you've got good friends around you and you were an alcoholic and you gave up alcohol, you'd hope their friends, you said, uh, what are you drinking? You're drinking? No, I'm not drinking, I've give it up. They'd be like, okay, well done. You've done a good job because you're supportive. You're gonna get the odd idiot that goes, have a drink, mate. So that same person's leading you down a path that you don't really fucking need. Now, supportive friends will support you when you go, I'm okay, I'm not drinking. You will always get an arsehole that says, Why are you not drinking? And pointing a finger, I've said this a thousand times, one finger at you is three fingers back at them. You not drinking makes them feel guilty about them not drinking. Um, you know, I was at an event recently and someone said to me and I brought my own food. I had a meal prep company. I actually didn't prepare it, but I had a meal prep company. It was sausage rolls, ham sandwiches, cheese sandwiches. I bought a chicken and rice because I had just had it in the fridge and I put it in the microwave, and someone shouted across the room, Louis, have a day off, mate. I thought I could. I could have a day off. Could. But you ain't with me when I wake up in the morning and you I look in the mirror and I feel not good about my body. You're not with me when I'm with my kids on holiday and I take my top off and I might feel not good in my body. You're not with me when I try clothes on when I'm out and they don't fit me, or I try this top on and it feels too tight on me. You're not with me when you know I'm getting ready for an event and I just keep thinking, fuck you, nothing looks good on me. I just feel terrible. Or you're not with me when someone takes a photo of me and I go, Fuck a bottom way. That same person's not with me in them scenarios. So I could have a day off. Um, if you're gonna be with me in every single one of them scenarios holding my hand, you're not with me when I step on the scales. So if they're not with you, shut up. Shut up. Many, many, many people when I was building one of my businesses told me to have a day off. Many, many, many people on the way into certain things have told me, have a day off. If I'd listened to every person that told me to have a day off, I probably wouldn't have

Keep Training And Steps Steady

SPEAKER_00 21:00

been in the situation that I am right now, feeling my healthiest, feeling good in my body, feeling like I can support my family because I didn't have that day off that you told me to have off. I have times downtime, but having a day off something that I'm working towards from some random person who has no idea where my mentality is, and their mentality is probably not even in a good spot. Why would I listen to any social pressure from anyone? You know, a rich person will never judge you for being stingy and saving you money because they understand the reason why a really healthy person will never judge you for not drinking. Someone that's really super fit will never judge you for going out at 5 a.m. and going for a jog. Think about the people that are judging you, think about if you want to be like them, and if you want to be like them, jump on the train and go with them. But think about if you was in a different circle of people, let's say you're at the my body mental Christmas party, and people said, Are you drinking? And you go, No, I'm not drinking. I bet you not one person in that room will judge you. Not one. And if they were two, it's probably them thinking, Fuck, I shouldn't have drank. So think about the people that are judging you. Think about the people that are saying it. Never listen to your mums or mom-in-laws, they always say stupid shit. I'm a drink, fucking, you look too skinny anyway. Never listen to that. Because they had to say what was it and tell you fucking put too much weight on. Never listen to the moms. But understand who you're taking that pressure from. Now, when you do have any bad foods, big Christmas dinners, sticky top of puddings, a Bailey's or two, try and do it without any guilt. And do that is without overdoing it. Do not whatever you do, unless you love drama, jump on the scales after a red day. This is my last point, and like I want to really kind of make it make it really crystal clear to you. If you've had five green days and then you have a red day, if you step on the scales after that

Scale Anxiety And Water Weight

SPEAKER_00 23:30

red day, the reading you're gonna get is gonna show that red day. It's not gonna show the five green days that you did really well in. Now, if you do five green days and you step on the scales pre-red day, it's gonna show the efforts of them five green days, hopefully, if fucking, you know, it's one of them, one of them weeks. But stepping on the scales after eating a lot of food, what you're gonna get is you're gonna get an elevation in your weight. Now, that elevation in your weight isn't the fact that you've put on three kilos. It's not at all. A lot of it's gonna be water weight, a lot of it might have been a bit of bloat from alcohol or salt from the food that's held your weight up a little bit. Now, if you're to have five green days, one red day and five green days, what you will see if you weighed yourself after the second five green days, that weight will drop down. An elevation in the scale weight on a heavy after a heavier day of drinking or eating, it's always it's always going to be up, but it's not due to the fact that you're putting actual body fat on, it's water weight within your body. If you take a really dry sponge and you put it in water, what happens? It soaks up the water. When you're dieting and when you're healthy, and when you're doing lots of activity or in a deficit, your body is like a dry sponge. So if it just has one big bad day, what happens is it will suck up them calories quite easily. They will drop off again. Think of it like refilling a tank. Let's take this water bottle. In a deficit, this water bottle goes down and down and down and down and down. Once it reaches the bottom of the deficit, your energy tank is empty. Your body will go, we've got no more stored energy. We need to start going for body fat. And that's where we start getting weight loss, right? It starts to get body fat, body fat, body fat, because we've got no stored energy. When you then refill this tank with a bad day, what happens is all that tank refills. So the body stops going for any fat that it had and it starts using this tank again. But this tank weighs, yeah. It's heavy when it's full. So what it has to do, it has to drain that tank again, drain that tank in, drain that tank in. We only ever put a weight if we refill the tank and then we start eating more over. We stay in that surplus. And what happens is that spillover has nowhere to go but put into the body. So think about that when you're separate on a scale. It's like if I've had a big day and that tank is full, I've kind of got to wait till this tank is empty before I start thinking about what do I really weigh? So don't panic, weigh yourself on boxing there and go, oh my god, I put three kilos. Like, no, you haven't. No, no, no, no, no. To put actual three kilos on, you would have to eat 21,000 calories over your maintenance, blending. Not yeah, 21,000 calories over your maintenance, and that will not ever happen. You people can't even do a 10,000 calorie challenge on YouTube. So it is not real weight gain in one day to the next. The accumulation

Weigh‑In Strategy For Late December

SPEAKER_00 26:30

of numerous red days could potentially put a bit of weight on. Because once this tank is full, let's say on Christmas Eve, you overdo it, you fill your tank. On Christmas Day, we're gonna get a little bit of a spillover. Only a little bit, but a little bit of a spillover. And then a box of dead, we're gonna get a little bit of a spillover. Not it doesn't mean to be so heavy, heavy, heavy, but there's gonna be a little bit of a spillover. So do not step on the scales. Um, me personally, I would if you're going into Christmas for maintenance, I would weigh on the I would wait on the 22nd before Christmas, I would then wait on the 29th and then the fifth. If you wanted to be really savvy and you wasn't that obsessed with scales, the 22nd and then the fifth. Because even that wait on the 29th isn't gonna make much difference unless New Year's Eve isn't much of a big thing for you. You could say, you know what, I could probably start hitting a diet again on the 29th. I that's what I did last year. On the on the the first Monday after, um, I just went back to my diet because I wasn't doing it before New Year's Eve. Got a two year old. I think was in bed at nine o'clock watching

Closing Thoughts And Reset

SPEAKER_00 27:50

the American office. So it wasn't, you know, it's not special to be in the many of you have got toddlers and kids and probably will be doing exactly the same as what I did. So, unless you got an amazing babysitter. Um, okay, guys, that's it. I'm gonna cut the call there. So then uh everyone can listen online and then