The Bare Minimum Method: How to Keep Momentum Over the Holidays

So we're not quite fully recovered from Thanksgiving, but we're not yet drowning in Christmas, but absolutely not in a routine, right? Well, most of us are out of it in some way. So this is the time of year where I always hear from women.

I'm gonna have to start in January, okay? I'm just too busy right now. There's too much going on. I can't be consistent with this because everything's all over the place. Everything feels off, so what's the point, right? But here's the truth. This is the exact season where the bare minimum method is really going to shine. It's really about succeeding on your worst weeks and not waiting for the perfect ones because I have worked with women for over 10 years now and the ones that are the most successful, are the ones that find a way to stick to the bare minimum during seasons like this when everything is out of routine, but they're able to keep that momentum going. And that sets them up for more success when everything does kind of line up and everything's perfect, right? So they're not constantly playing catch up because they know how to adjust for the seasons and they know how to adjust their expectations of themselves for the seasons. And those are the people that are consistent long-term, okay? So what is the bare minimum method?

Essentially, this is a strategy for when life is messy, it's busy, it's out of routine, stressful, chaotic, and ultimately, it's not about perfection. I mean, is it ever about perfection? As busy women who a lot of us are working or moms or have homes to take care of and partners and just we all have so much going on, it can literally never be about perfection, okay? So that's rule number one. But especially in seasons like this, it's definitely not about perfection. It's about maintenance and it's about momentum.

Okay, so instead of aiming for 100 % and then doing zero and then beating yourself up and feeling like crap, right? We actually lower the bar. We're gonna aim for 30 % to 60%, right? But we're actually gonna hit it. So this is going to help prevent the holiday backslide, this idea of like, I'll fix it in January, that spiral that we can go down. It's gonna help keep you consistent when everything else is falling off.

analogy I like to use with this is resisting the snowball. So if you're a client or a member of the strength squad, you've heard me talk about this a lot, but you know in cartoons when somebody starts building a snowball and then sends it down a hill, like grows to a gigantic size and then, you know, inevitably runs somebody over. This doesn't really happen in real life. We always try to get that snowball to grow bigger and it always ends up falling apart, but at least in a cartoon, those snowballs grow bigger. So I like to compare this to that kind of analogy. So a lot of times in the holidays, we sit around trying to build snowballs, right? We're packing snow together. We're feeling guilt about, you know, trying to rush to build this snowball. Like, my gosh, I have to work out. I have to eat well, but it's hard, right? Because it's, you know, the holidays. And inevitably we end up pushing that snowball over the hill and just letting it roll. And it gets bigger and bigger and bigger to the point where we can't really control it. It's just, you know, chaotic. Everything's out the window. I'll start again later.

And a huge skill is being able to resist that snowball. So when you notice yourself panically building, panically, is that a word? Panically, building this snowball and pushing it towards the edge of this hill, you gotta be able to stop and recognize what you're doing. You know what I mean? You've gotta be able to stop and look at that and say, I'm doing it again. I do this every year. I try to be perfect or I try to be what I always am every other day of the year and I'm not able to be consistent with it. Either I eat a crappy meal. So then what's the point of working out or I keep missing workouts. So what's the point of eating healthy? And before you know it, your mind is, you know, convincing yourself that you suck. And then you're throwing in the towel and that's when everything goes to crap and we feel like crap and that's not the way to do it. And there's no reason to do it. So why does the bare minimum method work?

When you focus on doing the bare minimum, it is much easier to keep that identity of being somebody who honors their health and wellness, somebody who works out, somebody who eats well. It helps keep that identity intact instead of throwing in the towel and starting again in January, right? Another reason why the bare minimum method really works is it reduces the cognitive load.

We already have a million and one decisions that we have to make anyway, let alone during this time of the year. So when you have a very basic plan that is very easy to follow, that is going to help keep your identity intact, and it's going to help you stay on track and keep that momentum and maintain where you're at, fitness, health, nutrition-wise, it is really gonna reduce that cognitive load, which is gonna make your entire life way less stressful, right?

It's also gonna help stop that all or nothing cycle that we're constantly stuck in. I told you earlier that I'm constantly seeing people doing this every single year. There's very typical seasons where people are really, really on it and then they completely throw in the towel and then everything creeps up and they end up feeling like crap and they go into, and I'll tell you when it is, it's January and it's September when kids go back to school. Those are the two times I see this the most. holidays were crazy, I feel like crap, I need to get back on the wagon. Summer was crazy, I feel like crap, I need to get back on the wagon. So instead of throwing everything to the wind and throwing in the towel, if we can actually learn how to apply the bare minimum method, then we're gonna stop that all or nothing cycle, which is truly gonna be the thing that keeps our momentum going year round, okay? This is really the number one reason why women stop showing up is because they're stuck in this all or nothing mentality.

It's also gonna help prevent that holiday weight creep. I know you know what I'm talking about. So it's normal for your weight to creep up a little bit over the holidays, but if you don't really have a plan on... how you want to manage that, then these tiny little accumulations can literally add up year after year. so knowing how to maintain and knowing how to manage the holidays and utilizing the bare minimum method is gonna really help prevent that holiday weight creep or help you manage it.

Because I know for me personally, a little holiday weight creep is normal, but I know exactly what to do to bring it back down because I'm gonna allow myself the extra calories, right? And a lot of times I'm gonna utilize those in the gym, but sometimes I'm not. Sometimes I'm not gonna be in a place where I can really utilize all that fuel in the gym and I really need to implement the bare minimum method, but I still am able to manage my weight and my expectations surrounding health and fitness, right? It's also gonna protect your mental health. I mean, come on, we know how important it is for exercise and nutrition and how that affects us mentally. So your mental health being protected and you feeling like you're getting some wins, right? That you actually have some momentum and you're actually maybe not making progress, but you're not losing progress. That momentum is going to help you build confidence, which is going to release you from guilt and anxiety. And it's going to lead to fewer binges, fewer, you know, all out overeating sections, and really make you a lot more successful overall.

Because it all starts in the mind. and lastly, implementing the bare minimum method is really going to help teach flexibility. So as I said before, real fitness and nutrition isn't really built on perfection. It never really is. So if we can start to understand that year long flexibility and you know, and sometimes we're going to have seasons where we're on it and everything is rocking and rolling and other times we're going to have, you know, less perfect ones that need, you know, more flexibility and only when we can understand that that is normal and that is natural, can we start to build that momentum and live that way throughout the year and not have it be something that totally screws us up. Okay. So there's three rules of this bare minimum method. Rule number one is you're going to pick three non-negotiables. Yes, three. I do not want you going any more than three because honestly, your brain can't really handle more when life is busy. some non-negotiables are going to be things that don't already come to you super, super easily, but they're also not, you know, big goals that you never do. So for example, if you never work out, if you literally never work out, your non-negotiable should not be workout every day. Okay, that's setting the bar too high. On the other hand, if you already work out three days a week, no matter what, you're always at least working out three days a week, then your non-negotiable is not gonna be workout three days a week, right? Cause you're already doing that very easily. So you can either, raise the bar a tiny bit and say, all right, I'm gonna get four workouts in a week, or you can pick something else, all right? So here's some examples. Hitting 100 grams of protein every day. Maybe if you're tracking or if you're eyeball tracking, another one would be to get 30 to 40 grams of protein in every main meal. That's a great one. That's one I'm using right now. One can be to get eight to 10,000 steps every day. Strength training, two to three times per week, okay? Drinking 80 to 100 ounces of water. Going to bed 20 minutes earlier.

The key point is that your non-negotiables during the holidays are not your normal goals. They are scaled down versions, but they're not ones that are ones that you're already meeting. Cause again, we're already picking three. So I gave you an example of myself. I'm already hitting eight to 10,000 steps every day. Yes, hitting those steps every day helps keep me on track. It is definitely a bare minimum for me, but I do it without trying cause I have dogs.

And so I'm walking them twice a day and I'm just naturally getting those steps in. So I'm not gonna set that as one of my three non-negotiables. I'm gonna set something that might feel a little bit more hard. And one of them is 30 to 40 grams of protein every main meal. Now here's the thing about that one. I also already do 30 to 40 grams of protein in every main meal very easily. However, during this season, during these three weeks, four weeks, whatever you want to look at it. It's actually harder for me because I'm in cozy mode. All I want to do is eat, know, soups and stews and baked goods and all that stuff. So it's easy for me to like throw this out the window and don't get me wrong. If it's like a special meal, like Thanksgiving day, that's actually easy to get protein. But if it's like some special meal, you know, you're, have, you know, Christmas dinner or like a neighbor holiday get together or even like New Year's Eve or whatever it is.

There can be meals within that that I'm not because I'm just focused on having a good time. But for every single meal that I can control, getting that 30 to 40 grams of protein at this time of the year, I, a lot of times we'll let that slide. I mean, the other morning, I really just wanted to eat a breakfast that had like five grams of protein in it. I had to stop myself and go, remember the promise you made to yourself, right? So normally I hit that really well, but at this time of the season, I tend to slip. So that's why I'm using that as one of my non-negotiables because I'm also aware of how big of an impact those 30 to 40 grams of protein in each main meal will have on my ability to keep the momentum and keep that progress, right? Maintain my progress. So that's gonna be one for me. Strength training as well. I tend to really slack on my workouts. Honestly, it's cold outside, my gym is outside. I don't wanna go out there, right? I don't wanna get out of my sweatpants. I don't wanna get off my couch. So strength training three times a week is also one of my non-negotiables. And then the other one is making sure that I am getting plenty of water, because I also have been not drinking as much water because it's cold outside. So that's one of mine as well. So you're going to pick three non-negotiables that you know are going to help keep you on track. And then you're just going to do them. You're going to do them every single day. And you're going to aim for consistency, not perfection. What does consistency mean? It does not mean doing it every single day. And if you miss a day, you weren't consistent. No, it means 80%. All right, 80%, 90%. It doesn't need to be a hundred percent. If you miss a day, no big deal.

Get back on track the next day, all right? Rule number two, so once we pick those non-negotiables, rule number two is lower the bar until you can always hit it, all right? So the question you have to ask yourself is, can I hit this on my absolute worst week? I don't wanna say worst day because honestly, on your worst day, if you miss it, it's not a big deal. But if you have a really bad week, can you still do these things, these non-negotiables? If the answer is no, we need to adjust it.

Okay, so if you set yourself eight to 10,000 steps and you know that on your worst week, you're only gonna get 7,000, then maybe 7,000 should be your bar for the bare minimum, right? If you are telling yourself you're gonna track your macros, whether it's because you're paying attention to the numbers and trying to meet certain numbers, or whether you're just data gathering, which is a great reason to track.

But you know that on your worst week, that's gonna go out the window. Well, girl, you're gonna have your worst week during these four weeks. So maybe we shouldn't have that as a goal. Maybe you should do the strength plate method, which is another podcast in itself, but basically a portion control method, right? So be realistic. You need that momentum and that's gonna be more important than ambition right now, okay? Rule number three is done is better than perfect, especially right now. If you can check off a win, I'm a huge fan of that.

An example is that when I'm working out and it's just one of those days and I got into the gym, but I only did a exercise or two and I'm just kind of feeling done, I will still check that box as done. I will hit the button on my training app as complete and it will give me a high five. And in my calendar, that workout will be marked as done. I'm not telling myself I have to finish tomorrow. I'm not leaving it undone and then trying to play catch up.

Done is better than perfect. A mediocre habit done consistently is going to beat a perfect habit done twice a month. During the holidays, consistency is the win. Think of this season as practice for future chaos weather. Anyone can thrive when life is calm. That's the reality. Real strength is built in the chaos and how do we create the momentum in that chaos? So your holiday specific bare minimum blueprint. Number one,

I'd like you to focus on strength training. So if we can pick a non-negotiable strength training, that would be amazing. I would say two to three days per week minimum, full body sessions, 20 to 30 minutes does not have to be super intense. Make sure you have a squat, a hinge, a push, a pull, and some form of core in there. If obviously, if you want done for you workouts that you can plug and play in my training app, just go to the link in the show notes and try out two weeks free in my training program. It's the.

It's called the squad. I'm like stumbling over the words. It's my coaching, training, nutrition coaching community called the squad and it's amazing. We have done for you workouts, programs, nutrition help and weekly coaching. So it's a great thing to utilize, especially at this time of the year. So make sure you have those movement patterns in there. Keep the weights moderate. You don't need to chase PRs. I mean, you certainly can. And that's what we'll talk about next week is how to kind of level up from here. What if this bare minimum method is not really what you need right now and you want to learn how to lean in and utilize this season for gains, that's what we're gonna talk about next week. But if this is clicking with you, then I would say try this, okay? Try the bare minimum blueprint. Keep your weights moderate. Don't necessarily try to chase PRs unless you're feeling it that day. Remember that the goal is to maintain, not necessarily to build, okay? You also wanna make sure, number two, that you're utilizing the strength plates. This is the idea of portions, like 80 % of the time.

So you wanna make sure half your plate is veggies, a quarter of your plate's protein, a quarter of your plate carbs. Make sure your snacks are a protein and fruit. So we're a protein, protein, protein, right? You don't need to track unless you want to. You can eyeball these. This is a great time to rely on your intuition. Make sure we're getting that protein 30 to 40 grams or a quarter of your plate in each main meal. And this is gonna work seamlessly with parties and potlucks and travel as well, because it's way easier to do a method like this instead of tracking, right? When we don't really know what's in it. Also for eating a lot of soups and stews and casseroles, which I know I am.

Those are really a pain in the butt to create recipes for. Now I do it cause it's my job, but I know it's hard for everyday people to do that. And so this makes it a lot easier. Number three for this blueprint is protein anchor every morning. I mean, we just talked about protein, but in the morning, this is going to be really important. Get that 30 to 40 grams in the morning. It's going to make it way easier to hit your protein goals the rest of the day. So make sure that you're focusing on that protein in the morning. It's really going to help with cravings and energy and overeating later, but especially meeting those protein goals for the day.

Number four is steps are greater than cardio. So am I telling you not to get cardio in? No, absolutely. If you're feeling up to it you want to by all means, cause you're gonna get steps during the cardio, right? But you don't need to put that pressure on yourself to do cardio. I would say focus on the steps. It's pretty easy to do anywhere. I know that it's cold outside. Not a lot of people wanna go out. Tip number one is bundle up and do it anyway. But tip number two is get a walking pad. I cannot tell you how beneficial that thing is to have in my house that it's easy to move around so I can set it up in the living room when we want to watch a movie, but I don't have my steps in. It's just so easy. So I would recommend those, but you can also do jumping jacks. You can pace while you're listening to this podcast. You can do a lot of things inside your house to make sure that you get those steps. And that's really going to help keep your metabolism relatively strong. It's going to help lower your stress and it's going to help you reach those six to 10 to 12 K step goal, depending, you know, obviously on your season and what your non-negotiables are.

Number five try to have water before anything else So hydration is really gonna help manage your hunger cues as well And again, it's kind of hard to drink sometimes when it's in the winter So don't hesitate to drink tea and coffee because yes ladies that is hydrating you also Drinking enough water and being relatively hydrated is gonna help your sleep your recovery your energy Try to drink water before coffee, but go ahead and have your coffee, right? So making sure you're hydrated and then number six is damage control without obsessing. So try not to show up to events and holiday parties starving. I know that you wanna try to save room, right? But it ends up backfiring a lot of times when we go starving and then we're just like, can't stop eating all the delicious food. Try to make sure that when you do pile up, you know, before a party, you're hyper focusing on protein and veggies. So having a protein shake or a protein smoothie or chicken and vegetables, et cetera. And you don't need to track, right? Just use those visual cues we talked about before. And remember that one indulgent meal doesn't wreck anything, literally, like even scientifically. Your body can handle it. So don't get mentally stuck in this idea that you did something wrong. If you go to the party, if you go to the event and you have one too many glasses of wine and a second serving of pumpkin pie, it's fine, okay? So what success looks like during your worst weeks? It's not PRs, visible changes, losing 10 pounds, tracking every macro instead, okay?

And lastly, what is success going to look like during your worst weeks, right? It's not necessarily going to be PRs or visible changes or losing 10 pounds or tracking every macro, okay? Instead, hopefully you'll find that your clothes still fit, right? You don't feel like an absolute zombie. You're not bloated or freezing. You're not starting at rock bottom in January. You're mentally steady and maybe you actually feel in control even when life isn't and that would be a huge win.

So success in December really should be about maintenance and maintenance is really setting yourself up for progress in the future. Don't forget, maintenance is magic and this is the time to practice it. So the holidays don't have to be a pause on your health, on your fitness, on your nutrition. They just need to be a modified version for what you normally do. And the bare minimum method is that bridge essentially between I'm completely off the rails and I'm doing enough, right? Every rep, every walk, every step, every protein anchor, all of it is gonna count right now. And your body, you have to remember too, remembers the small things just as much as the big things. It remembers what input you're constantly giving it. So your goal for these next few weeks is don't fall off, resist the snowball, okay? But also don't try to climb mountains, just keep walking the road.

Thank you so much for being here. I hope you're having a wonderful and controlled holiday season. Next week, we are gonna talk about leveling up, how to use the holiday calories to get stronger. So if that resonates with you, make sure to tune in then, and can't wait to see you. Bye.

• Coach Jaime

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