139. Why Starting Over in January Keeps You Stuck (Do THIS simple reset to stay consistent all season!) | HOLIDAY EATING SERIES

Welcome to the Holiday Eating roadmap miniseries. Your 8 episode 10 minute coaching companion to help you get through the holidays with less stress, more intention and without feeling like you're starting over in January. Every week in December I'm dropping two short bite sized coaching chats designed to help you navigate real life. The holiday meals, the travel, the events, the stress, the low energy with confidence and clarity. These are the kinds of conversations I have with my clients when things get messy, busy or unpredictable. Except now you get to have them in your ears whenever you need a little guidance or grounding. And if you haven't already downloaded it, I created a totally free companion resource to go with this series called the Holiday Eating Roadmap. It's a beautifully designed step by step guide that walks you through balanced meals, enjoying the holidays guilt free, resetting after indulgent days, supporting your energy and ending the year feeling proud, not panicked. You can grab it for free down in the show notes. It pairs extremely well with these episodes so you can listen, learn and actually apply everything in your real daily life. My goal with this miniseries is quite simple. I want to give you the tools and the mindset shifts you actually need to feel good throughout the holidays without the restriction, without the shame, and without feeling like the season derails your progress. Because it's not the holidays that throw most women off, it's the weeks of all or nothing that follow them. This series is here to help you break that cycle once and for all. So my friend, grab your coffee, settle in for the next 10 minutes and let's dive into today's coaching chat.

Welcome to well On Her Way the podcast helping busy women cut through the noise of today's wellness industry to focus on what really moves the needle. I'm Dani Merenberg, nutritionist, women's health advocate and mom. Juggling it all right alongside you. I know how overwhelming it is to do it all and still find time for you.

Here.

We're done with wellness that overwhelms each week. I break down the science, tune out the noise, and sit down with trusted experts to make health feel clear and doable for your real everyday life. You'll leave every episode with simple, sustainable.

Steps you can use right away to.

Feel your best and live with more clarity and confidence. Because wellness shouldn't feel like another full time job and you deserve to feel well on your way.

Hello and welcome back to your coaching chat for December. Holy moly. It's already December. What the heck. This year flew by and we are kicking off this series for December with the biggest holiday mindset shift you will ever make. Why you don't need to start over in January. And honestly, this one shift alone might totally change the way you move through the holidays forever. I want to start by calling something out that so many women quietly fear this time of year. And it's this idea that the holidays just totally ruin your progress, that November and December are basically a wash, that you need to just get through them and then you'll fix everything in January. But the truth is, and I really need you to hear me here, there is no such thing as holiday damage. Food does not derail you. A few parties don't derail you. What actually derails most women is the belief that they've messed up and the all or nothing spiral that comes after that. Most women don't fall off during the holidays. They fall off during the weeks after the holidays, when the guilt kicks in, when the restriction starts, when the I'll fix it in January mindset is running the show. So if that's you, you're not alone. But we're going to do things a little bit differently this year. All right, I want you to think back on the past several years for a second. How many times have you said, I'll just get serious about my goals in January only to feel extremely overwhelmed, frustrated or burnt out by mid February? That's not a motivation problem. That's also not a discipline problem. It's this all or nothing strategy problem. All or nothing can pop up like eating perfectly all week and then overeating on the weekends, skipping meals to make up for a big day of eating, feeling guilty after parties, thinking one dessert ruined all of your progress, telling yourself that you'll just start fresh on Monday or in January. But the truth here is that if your plan only works on perfect days, it is not a real plan. It is not the plan for you. And your version of health, your 2026 version of you, deserves so much better than that. That's exactly why we're doing this series, to help you build a version of consistency that actually works in real life, especially during the holidays, because they happen every single year, right?

I've been in a calorie deficit the past few weeks with the goal of reducing body fat with while maintaining lean muscle. And anyone who's been through that knows it's a tricky balance. I'm really intentional about how I feel my body and how I'm supporting it during a cut. And one of the things I've been testing and absolutely loving lately is a supplement called Modus by Tonum Health. It was developed over eight years in partnership with researchers at Duke, and the goal is to help your body burn fat more efficiently without losing muscle in the process. It includes ingredients like berberine ala, taurine, vitamin B3 and milk thistle, all backed by research to support things like blood sugar regulation, mitochondrial energy hormone balance, and inflammation. What I love most is that it's not about a quick fix. It's about metabolic support from the inside out, especially if you're focusing on body composition like I am focused on. Modus helps strengthen your body's energy system so that you can burn more efficiently and feel better doing it. You can try it for yourself@tonam.com and use my code Danny M for 10% off your purchase. That's T o n u m.com with my code D a n I m for 10% off your purchase.

So I want you to take a moment and I want you to take a breath and let this sink in. What I'm about to say Maintaining your progress through the holidays is success. Not losing weight, not tightening up, not hitting every macro or every workout. Just maintaining. Because here's what women misunderstand. Maintenance is not a pause button. Maintenance is actually the real skill here.

It is a strength.

It is a sign that your habits are working. Even when life is full and messy and when we can nail down maintenance, that is when everything else clicks into place and you no longer are on this hamster wheel. If you can maintain through Thanksgiving through December, parties, cookies, travels, late nights, family, stressed, let's be honest, you can maintain through anything. And that is an insane amount of progress for a lot of us who are never in the mindset of maintaining is good. Now let me reassure you in the most grounded, science backed way that I can. You cannot undo months of progress with a handful of indulgent meals. Your body just does not work like that. You can't ruin your metabolism with holiday foods. Doesn't work like that. You don't lose fitness progress overnight. You don't lose muscle from just a few days off. You do not throw away your potential because you ate pie. Your body is far more resilient than you think. So let's give it a little credit, okay? And honestly, what you do most of the time matters more than what you do some of the time. So if you spent 10 months building habits, one month will not and truthfully cannot erase all of that. Just like it doesn't happen overnight, you can't refute it overnight. It's the fear of Ruining everything that actually derails women. Not the food, not the events. It's that fear that I am ruining everything. We live in these dramatics. We live in these extreme dreams. So let's remove that fear. Let's ground you back into what's actually true and what's actually happening. I want to give you some very simple, tangible, but powerful, I think things that you can implement today. So for the holidays, I want you to pick three anchor habits inside the guide. We'll dive into this deeper, but pick three anchor habits that keep you grounded throughout this entire month. Three things that no matter how busy or chaotic your day gets, you can come back to and accomplish these three things. This might look like protein at every meal. This might look like 80 ounces of water a day, maybe a 10 minute walk. Veggies at dinner, a consistent breakfast. Closing the kitchen after dinner so you're not creeping back in and grabbing more. Taking five minutes of quiet in the morning. Maybe you're doing a little bit of breath work or, I don't know, meditate. I know that's like a foreign concept for a lot of us, but pick your three anchors. Nothing extreme, nothing super rigid. Just simple, repeatable anchors that keep you connected to yourself during this really chaotic season. Because when you have these anchors, you don't feel off the rails. If you can just do these three things every single day is going to help you feel way more grounded. You don't fall into this I blew it mentality. You don't feel like you need to start over. You feel steady, you feel intentional, you feel in control. And that is the whole point of this series, is to have you living in that through this season. So if you want help choosing your anchor habits or if you want structure, visual and tools to kind of walk you through the whole holiday season, make sure you download the holiday eating roadmap down in the show notes. It's totally free and it pairs beautifully with these episodes and gives you the step by step support to actually practice this, not just hear it. And I really think it'll help it sink in for you in our next episode. On Thursday, we're going to dive into.

Your holiday game plan.

How to approach the season with awareness instead of anxiety. It's going to set you up so.

Well for the next few weeks.

So until then, remember that you do.

Not need to start over again in January.

You just need to keep showing up with intention today and pick your three anchor habits to start using and implementing. All right, I'll catch you in the next episode.