85- 6 Holiday Workout Strategies: How Busy Midlife Moms Can Stay Consistent Without Guilt

The holidays don't have to derail your fitness. Kat shares 6 practical strategies to help you stay on track, build resilience, and stop the guilt spiral—without sacrificing time with family.

The 6 Strategies

1. Give Yourself Permission for One Small Win – A 15-minute walk counts. Celebrate ANY movement.
2. The Short Memory Rule – Stop replaying missed workouts. Focus on what you can do TODAY.
3. Swap, Don't Skip – Have 20 minutes instead of 60? Do the 20. Adapt, don't quit.
4. Just Start – The hardest part is beginning. Once you do, your mind shifts.
5. Reframe What Today Means – Measure success by what moved you forward, not what you missed.
6. Build Your Resilience Muscle – Every time you adapt, you get stronger. Skills that last a lifetime.

Key Takeaway

Consistency over perfection. Small wins have power. You're not failing—you're adapting.

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Transcript

0:00

If you're listening to this, you're probably juggling about a hundred things right now. Holiday shopping, family plans, work deadlines, kid activities, gift lists, meal prep for gatherings, and somewhere in all of that you're just thinking about. When can you get that workout in? Wondering if you're going to completely derail between now and January? I get it. I'm in the thick of it too. Here's what I want you to know. You don't have to choose between being present for the people who you love and taking care of yourself, and you definitely don't have to feel like a failure when your workout plan doesn't look like what you thought it would. Today we're gonna be talking about something I wish someone had told me years ago, how to navigate the busiest, most chaotic seasons of your life without abandoning your health. We're breaking down real practical strategies that work during the holidays. And honestly, they work through every other crazy season of life that, and honestly, they work through every other crazy season. Life throws at you too. You are also going to learn how to give yourself grace, how to adapt without quitting, and to actually build strength during the times when you feel like you're barely holding it together. Welcome back to Miles from Review. I'm so glad you're here today, no matter where you're at, if you're at home, if you're in the car, if you are out on a workout.

Kat: 1:20

Welcome to MilesFromHerView, the podcast powered by KatFit Strength, where busy women like you find practical solutions to fuel your fitness journey with authenticity and resilience. I'm Kat, your host, a mom of two active boys, a business owner, and an ultra marathon runner and a strength trainer in her forties with nearly two decades of experience. I'm here to help you cut through the noise of fads, hacks, and quick fixes. This is a space where we celebrate womanhood and motherhood. All while building strength and resilience and reconnecting with you from a place of self-compassion and worthiness. Whether you're lacing up your running shoes to go out for a run, driving your kids to practice or squeezing in a moment for yourself, I'm right here in the trenches with you. Let's dive in.

2:08

Thank you for joining me I know a lot of people are feeling everything Right now. We are in the final few weeks of the calendar year. We're also in a time period where there are so many holiday celebrations that are taking place. Your inbox is also overflowing and in the midst of this whole chaos. You might find yourself wondering, when am I supposed to get a workout in? Or how am I supposed to juggle it all? And here's what I want you to know from the start. You are not alone. I get it. I'm living it too. And today I wanna talk about something that applies not only just to the holiday. But applies beyond whether you're starting a new job, moving kids, going back to school, all of it. So stick with me if you're relaxing on your couch. Hopefully you have a nice warm drinks and you're smuggled up with that, but, so let's be real for a second here. Holiday season isn't just about being busy. It's a different kind of busy. It's not just your normal chaos, it's the normal chaos plus family expectations, gift shopping, meal planning, holiday parties, and a million other things that just were not on your radar or on your to-do list three months ago. What I've noticed, both myself and with the women I work with is holidays hit different because they also come with emotional weight. You're trying to create memories. Be present for people you love and somehow also be on for work. And that's exhausting. That's the kind of exhausting that makes you want to skip your workout because you just don't have the energy. And that's not weakness. That's being a human during a genuinely demanding time. I want to shift our thinking with this. Because holidays are actually a perfect time to practice the resilience skills that will serve you through crazy seasons. Holidays are actually the perfect time to practice resilient skills because they will serve you well beyond the holidays. And so before we get into these tools, I also wanna say bad days, bad weeks, missed workouts, missed weeks of workouts are going to happen, whether it falls in the holidays or beyond, it's just part of the season. I'm not here to sell you a fantasy that you're always going to be hitting personal records. You're never gonna miss a workout while juggling all of life, and everything's just gonna be perfect. That is not. Realistic, and that's not the point. The point is consistency over time matters way more than perfection. One missed workout does not erase your progress. One week where you do half of what you normally do doesn't undo all the work you've put in. Your fitness isn't fragile. You know your fitness isn't a fragile thing that collapses if you just take a breath. You're not going to lose everything and you're not starting from zero in January. You're just adapting, and that's actual strength. All right, so here are the actual tangible items that I want you to take away. Does not mean you need to do every single one, but to start to shift your focus here. The first one, give yourself permission for one small win. I love this one because it is really freeing and on days when you feel like everything is impossible, you just pick one thing and give yourself that small win. It could be a 15 minute walk around the block, a quick mobility routine while you're waiting for the oven to heat 10 minutes of stretching while you listen to music or while your kids watch their show. Even some deep breathing while you're sitting in the car before. Picking up your kids, attending a meeting, a holiday party, all of that are wins. All of that is showing up for yourself and for your health. I'm a big proponent of when I tell my clients we wanna celebrate workouts left undone, sets undone, reps undone, it's not because we're selling mediocrity, it's we're celebrating the fact that we're showing up and life can interrupt. And that one small thing shifts something in your mind. You've moved, you've shown up for yourself, and that matters so much more than the workout you didn't do. And this applies to every busy season because it has a cumulative effect of those small things is what builds your foundation. Number two, the short memory rule. So this one's really tough, but really important. And maybe you're like me, before you close your eyes and go to sleep, you might start to replay all the things that maybe didn't go so well during the day. Maybe it's an awkward conversation you had or something you might have said, or maybe it was a misrep or whatever it may be. You had a bad day. You skipped the gym. You got sick and lost a week of training. You chose to say yes to family time instead of your workout, and now you're thinking about it, dwelling on it and telling yourself you failed. Just stop. I mean it Just stop. Shut down those thoughts, and here's what I want you to do instead. Acknowledge what happened. And learn from it if there's something to learn. And then just let it go. Because it doesn't define you. It doesn't define your progress. It's just a day or a few days in such a bigger, larger, longer story. And what helps me reframe is when I find myself falling into that trap where I still feel this like guilt. Something didn't really work out, or I skipped a workout is, or I know I'm not going to be able to get a workout in. I shift my focus and I ask myself, what can I do today? Not what I should have done yesterday or what I should be doing today. I ask myself, what can I do today? Not what should you have done yesterday, not what you're going to make up for. What can you do today to move yourself forward? Number three, swap. Don't skip. This is the most amazing superpower. This one is one that I talk about with my clients all the time, and this is where you learn adaptability. Adaptability is gonna help keep you showing up any day of the week because you're swapping, not skipping. Let's say you had a 60 minute workout on the schedule, but you only have 20 minutes. So do the 20 minutes. That's it. You're not doing it wrong. You're doing what you can, and that's exactly what you need right now because. This prevents you from getting into that all or nothing principle where you are like, well, if I don't have 60 minutes, I can't do it. So we wanna swap, we wanna become adaptable. This is how we stay consistent. It's the same thing with intensity. So maybe your normal week has some hard sessions and during the holidays maybe everything is at a conversation pace mobility work walks are swapped. That's not a step backwards. That's you being smart about what your body and your mind can handle right now. And I think about it like this. A walk counts, gentle yoga counts, stretching counts. You're still moving, you're still showing up, and you are building that resilience muscle. This is something that will help you through every busy season. Whether it's now in December or in June or in August, it's we swap. Don't skip. Number four. Just start. Seriously, just start. I've had so many days and it tends to be on those busy days where the hardest part is to start my workout. It may be I am trying to answer one more client message. One more email, text message. So I have to just start, get away from my desk, put my phone on, do not disturb, get into the gym, get to the trail head, just doing it. So whatever it is, stop what you're doing and just start. If you start, your mind starts being flooded with excuses or reasons why you don't wanna work out, just start lace up those shoes, put your workout clothes on. It's going to change your mind. It's gonna shift where you're at and your energy is going to change. Number five, reframe what today means. This is a big one, so. If you're like most people, you're measuring your day like this. Did I do the workout? I planned, yes or no? And if the answer's no, you chalk it up as a failure. What if we changed the question, what did I do today that moved me forward, even if it wasn't my original plan? So what this is doing goes back to this small wins. It's looking at. Hey, what did I do? It's acknowledging your action that you're taking to put your health, your wellbeing at the forefront of your life because it's a priority for you. And maybe it wasn't the 45 minute strength session, but you took the stairs instead of the elevator. You parked further away, you did 10 minutes of stretching, you swapped. Or you added another fruit or a vegetable at a meal, and when you start measuring your day that way, suddenly you're not failing on tough days. You're succeeding in different ways. Again, it goes back to those celebrating those small wins and understanding the adaptability of swapping and just starting. So they all start to. Move in together. And it allows for that one where it's, you know, the short memory rule that you don't dwell on what didn't happen. You're dwelling on what did happen and how you showed up for yourself. Number six, build your resilience muscle every single day. Every time you adapt, you're getting stronger. Not just physically, but mentally. Every time you find a creative way to move, to show up for yourself, to keep going, even when plans fall apart, you're literally training your resilience. Resilience is gonna serve you for the rest of your life way more than any single workout will because it allows you to understand the depth and the capacity that you have. So when work gets crazy in May, you know how to adapt. When life throws you curve balls, you will know how to keep moving forward. You're not just getting through the holidays. You're building skills that make you stronger in every season of life. And the thing is, next holiday season. It won't feel as cumbersome. You'll be like, Hey, we've been here before. I know how to keep myself a priority without feeling like I'm a failure or overwhelming or falling on and off the wagon hopping to all or nothing. It's when we have these six strategies, we're able to stay consistent, be adaptable, and continuously show up for ourself. Okay, as I'm talking through all these strategies and the mindset shifts and the way to keep showing up for yourself. I can't help but think,'cause I've heard this before from people when I've shared these strategies and talks and in workshops, people are like, okay, but I actually need support. I need someone in my corner who gets it, who understands what my life looks like. Well, that's exactly why I created my training programs the way they are despite all the holiday chaos, it's not a reason to put your health on pause, and this is actually a perfect time to start working with a coach. Currently, I am accepting new clients and I understand how crazy messy life is. Just this week, I've had several clients reach out to me being like, I know this is the worst time to start, but I really need to start. I don't wanna wait until the new year. Do you have time? Do you have spots on your calendar? I do, and currently, like I said, I'm taking on new clients for my online training. There are two plans. The first one is essentials, and it is for someone who wants a plan, who just needs a plan. They are a self-starter, but want that support where they can communicate through me, whether it be video or voice messaging or written message through the app, they have a custom designed plan right there that includes strength training, cardio training and mobility, and they just open up the app and there's your workout or premier for someone who wants more FaceTime, who's like maybe new to strength training or needs that. 30 minute meeting a week, up to a 30 minute meeting to show up to get their workout done, to talk over and help adjust the mindset, understand your nutrition and recovery both areas. I am accepting new clients and I would love to hear from you. If this is something that you're curious about, go into the show notes, hop on my calendar, and I look forward to chatting with you. Both programs are designed with. Reality of your life and mind. You're not going to get cookie cutter workouts or expectations that don't fit you. You're going to get a coach who knows that sometimes showing up means 20 minute workout instead of a 60 minute one. Who knows that family time matters. Who knows that your fitness is part of your life, not the whole thing. And if you're ready to have someone in your corner, someone who gets it, who's been there, who can help you navigate not just the holiday season, but every season ahead. Pop into the show notes, get all my calendar, book a consultation call, and I'd love to talk to you about what program might be the right fit. All right, let's get back to our conversation. So we went over the six strategies. You don't have to employ all of'em. Start by celebrating your wins. Start by acknowledging what you've done today. Even if it's put on your workout clothes and you had every intention of working out, but something happened at work at home and you didn't get your workout in, that is a win. High five yourself texted to a friend, man. Be like, Hey, I showed up for myself in these ways, or messaged me at the podcast. I will celebrate it. So. Understand that life is gonna stay chaotic. Holidays are just one version of a busy season. You might be a mom with. In the newborn phase, or you might be starting a new job working 12 hour days for the few first few months, or you're going through a move or dealing with family stuff or managing a health issue. Life gets busy in a thousand different ways, and if you figure out how to move your body and show up for your health during this kind of chaos, you know how to do it during any kind of chaos, and that's the real win. It's not about your fitness right now. It's about building that relationship with your health that can flex, adapt to whatever life throws at you that's sustainable and that is real. So understand bad days, missed workouts, bad weeks, missed weeks of workouts are going to happen during the holidays, and it's not a failure. That's just life. And what matters is how you respond. Focus on the small wins. Give yourself grace, adapt when you need to. And remember that showing up in an imperfect way is still showing up. Every time you do that, you're building something that lasts way longer than any single workout. You're building resilience. You're building relationship with your health that can survive anything. If you're looking for support during the season or any busy season, pop into the show notes. Click on the Cat FITT website and see everything that we're doing. I designed my plans for busy women like you for real sustainable strength no matter what's happening in your life. Thank you so much for joining me today. And remember, progress isn't about perfection. It's about showing up, adapting and keeping moving forward. One mile, one rep one day at a time. You've got this. I'm cheering for you.

Kat: 18:49

Thank you for tuning in to MilesFromherView, powered by KatFit Strength. If this podcast inspires you, don't keep it for yourself. Hit follow or subscribe to stay updated on the new episodes, and leave us a review to help more women and moms discover this space. Your feedback fuels this podcast and I'd love to hear what's working for you or what topics you want to dive into Next. You can connect with me on Instagram at KatFit or share this episode. Road with a friend who is ready to embrace her strength. Remember, fitness isn't about perfection. It's about showing up for yourself and finding strength in every step of your journey. Until next time, keep moving forward one mile at a time.