How to Help Your Clients Stay Healthy During the Holidays

The holidays are here. To some clients that means reconnecting with family, getting in touch with their motivations, and enjoying meals with friends. For others, it means added stress from the in-laws and overindulgence.

No matter which camp your clients belong to, sticking to their health and fitness goals during the holidays becomes increasingly difficult. Thankfully, there are a few simple things that you can give your clients to help them both enjoy the holidays and continue to progress towards their goals. Here are The Basic Lifestyle Guidelines, holiday edition.

(Coach’s Resource: Learn the original Basic Lifestyle Guidelines and how to implement them with your client’s in this free Coach’s Toolkit.)

The Basic Lifestyle Guidelines: Holiday Edition

1) Have Your Clients Breath More

With family coming into town, holiday parties, and cocktail hours your clients’ balance of work and rest will not be ideal during the holidays. So to help them manage their stress recommend that they stop throughout the day to take some belly breaths aka diaphragmatic breaths. 

This type of breathing will help them reduce stress and keep their immune system working at full capacity, both of which tend to be overloaded during the holiday season.  

2) Get More Sun Exposure

During this season clients tend to go to bed later than normal which, over time, can have a negative effect on their circadian rhythm. A great way to lessen the damage is to ensure that your clients get adequate sun exposure. This sun exposure can come in the form of going for an afternoon walk or having those evening drinks outside and watching the sunset (weather permitting). Client’s who live in cold climates could benefit from the addition of a Happy Light.

3) Reflect on Their Goals

The holiday season is a great time to help your clients reflect on their progress and capitalize on new motivation. 

During this time of year, clients are typically reunited with their friends and family and are reminded about what is truly important to them. Take this opportunity to have a consultation with your clients and reflect on what worked and what didn’t during the previous months. Bonus points if you can capitalize on their new motivation and plan out the months to come.

4) Enjoy in Moderation

The holidays are synonymous with indulgence and while it’s easy to deploy some complicated diet strategy in order to avoid those extra calories, the best approach is often the simplest. 

Have your clients enjoy their favorite foods in moderation but recommend chewing each bite thoroughly (30 times) and post-meal walks. 

Chewing each bite thoroughly will increase the change that their body can digest the food properly and the post-meal walks will help reduce insulin spikes and boost their NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis). Have your clients try to incorporate other family members to keep themselves accountable and promote smarter choices in the ones they love. 

Coaching During the Holiday Season

Coaching during the holiday season can be difficult. But instead of setting you and your clients up for failure with complicated health recommendations, keep it simple. Consistency is the key to progress and simple behaviors are easier to be consistent with. 

The same goes for your coaching practice. While you can use complicated techniques what actually makes a professional is a ruthless execution of the fundamentals. That’s why we’ve developed and taught more than 10,000 coaches The OPEX System of Coaching, an approach that focuses on the fundamentals. Learn this approach when you download our free Coach’s Toolkit.