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Holiday nutrition: skip the January penance
Every year the same cycle: December abandons the habits, January punishes the body for it — and February fills my schedule with the resulting strains. The holidays were never the problem. The overcorrection is.
“I picked up my daughter and my neck went numb”
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Play video: Client testimonial — Danielle, 6 weeks of neck pain rated 7/10 “After 3 years I didn't think anyone could help me fix my neck”
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Play video: Client testimonial — Sandy, 3 years of neck pain rated 8/10 “My office job means my neck is in constant pain — nothing seems to help”
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Play video: Client testimonial — Cindy, a lifetime of knee pain rated 6/10 “I tore my ACL in an MMA match and haven't been able to train since”
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Play video: Client testimonial — Meghan, knee pain after an ACL tear, 4 out of 10 down to 0 “After my fall my knee was in pain and I couldn't stand on one leg”
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Play video: Client testimonial — Brad, 6 months of knee pain rated 6/10 “I got surgery on my shoulder 2 years ago and have been getting rolfing and PT”
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Play video: Client testimonial — Samantha, 5 years of shoulder pain rated 7/10 “My shoulder numbness and tingling was so bad I drove 2 hours to see Jamie Atlas”
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Play video: Client testimonial — Heather, 6 weeks of shoulder nerve pain rated 10/10 “I've been in physical therapy for 6 months and I'm stalled on my results”
— JudyYour results may vary.
Play video: Client testimonial — Judy, 6 months of shoulder pain rated 10/10 “My shoulder pain meant I couldn't take my shirt on or off without hurting”
— SharonYour results may vary.
Play video: Client testimonial — Sharon, 4 months of shoulder pain rated 6/10 “3 surgeries over 10 years and I still can't get my shoulder above my head”
— ClayYour results may vary.
Play video: Client testimonial — Clay, 10 years of shoulder pain rated 7/10 “Taking my dog for a walk he pulled on my shoulder and now it hurts to move”
— KendallYour results may vary.
Play video: Client testimonial — Kendall, 2 weeks of shoulder pain rated 6/10 “I was squatting at the gym when I felt a pop and my leg went numb”
— KellyYour results may vary.
Play video: Client testimonial — Kelly, 12 months of back pain rated 8/10 “After the car accident the hospital said I was fine but my back pain says otherwise”
— DaxYour results may vary.
Play video: Client testimonial — Dax, 5 days of back pain rated 10/10 “Playing football has left me with constant back pain that I can't get rid of”
— MatthewYour results may vary.
Play video: Client testimonial — Matthew, 7 weeks of back pain rated 7/10 “I went to Pilates to fix my back but it ended up making it worse”
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Play video: Client testimonial — Colleen, 8 weeks of back pain rated 7/10 “I was thrown from a horse and couldn't bend over without pain”
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Play video: Client testimonial — Katrina, 4 weeks of back pain rated 6/10 “This 9/10 back pain is stopping me from sleeping at night”
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Play video: Client testimonial — Alexis, 2 months of back pain rated 10/10 “My back pain is so bad I can't put on my shoes”
— PenelopeYour results may vary.
Play video: Client testimonial — Penelope, 5 weeks of back pain rated 7/10 “Living with back pain has me living at a 7/10 pain that I can't find relief from”
— ChrisYour results may vary.
Play video: Client testimonial — Chris, 8 weeks of back pain rated 7/10 “I have a herniated L4/L5 and my sciatic pain feels like a screwdriver in my back”
— KendraYour results may vary.
Play video: Client testimonial — Kendra, two years of shooting sciatic pain resolved “The doctor told me my spondylolisthesis back pain could only be cured with surgery”
— TonyYour results may vary.
Play video: Client testimonial — Tony, two weeks of severe back pain down to 1 out of 10 Watch the segment
I covered this as the guest expert on Denver7 — the expert chair was never limited to one station, or to the exercise half of health.
Play video: Avoiding holiday weight gain — Denver7 A saner way through the season
Guard the ordinary days; enjoy the special ones. Thanksgiving dinner is one meal. The real seasonal drift lives in the six ordinary weeks around it — leftovers for days, the office treat table, routines suspended "until January." Keep your normal meals normal, and the celebrations can simply be celebrations.
Shrink the training, don't stop it. This is the piece that matters most to what I do. Bodies keep most of their strength on remarkably little maintenance — two short sessions a week through the season protects months of work. Bodies that stop entirely, then meet an ambitious January program, are how winter injury stories start. If you keep one habit through December, keep moving.
January is for resuming, not atoning. The penance mindset — punishing workouts, slashed eating, guilt as fuel — produces flare-ups and quitting far more reliably than it produces results. Come back to normal training at slightly reduced loads, be a little patient, and the season costs you close to nothing. That is the whole trick, and it is not a dramatic one — which is exactly why it works.
Common questions
How do I avoid holiday weight gain without skipping everything good?
Guard the ordinary days rather than policing the special ones. Most seasonal drift comes not from the feast itself but from six weeks of leftovers, office trays and abandoned routines around it. Keep protein and vegetables anchoring your regular meals, keep moving most days, enjoy the actual occasions fully — and there is usually not much damage to speak of in January.
Is it worth exercising through the holidays if I can’t train properly?
Emphatically yes — and this is the part most people get backwards. Shrunk training beats stopped training by a wide margin: two short sessions a week maintains most of what you have built, while six weeks of nothing followed by a fierce January restart is the classic recipe for the strains and flare-ups I see every winter. Consistency is a smaller ask than perfection, and it pays better.
What should I actually do in January?
Resume, don’t atone. The punishing January program — daily workouts, slashed calories, penance framing — reliably produces two outcomes: injury or abandonment, often both by February. Return to your normal training at slightly reduced loads for a week or two, eat like a person with a long-term plan, and let the season have been what it was: a season.
Did last January’s comeback leave something aching?
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