How you spend the next couple of weeks will directly impact the start, middle, and hopefully, playoff phases of your season. Time is precious – especially during the holidays – so I will get right into it.

EXCUSE vs. OPPORTUNITY

You will have multiple choice points over the next few weeks with respect to your nutrition, your training, and your recovery. It will be easy to succumb to gluttonous urges, and increasingly hard to stay disciplined as our entire society – and habits therein – are built around excess.

I will go back to my first blog post of 2025 with a simple question you can ask yourself for guidance at these Y’s in the road:

“Is the decision I am about to make aligned with my goals?”

It’s pretty simple, really. Easy to do? No. But if elite performance were an easy thing to attain, everyone would be an elite athlete.

“Yeah coach, but it’s the holidays, and it only comes once a year, and it’s my grandma’s family recipe and.. and.. and..”

I get it, okay. Go ahead, indulge a little. Enjoy that traditional family meal. Eat, drink, and be Merry. But if you are going to do that and you are going to claim to be an elite performer, you have to be willing to pay the price. There is no cheat code or secret sauce.

The truth: it will hurt. A hard workout the morning after excess intake of calories, sugar, alcohol, etc. can be excruciating. Your body and joints ache, and you will feel more exhausted than usual. It will be harder to get out of your cozy bed with the cold harsh wind blowing outside. Tom Brady, in a recent interview, may have the best solution to those challenges: “Fuck Your Tired.”

You drag yourself out of bed, get yourself hydrated and fueled with something actually healthy, and you get your ass to training. You do a proper warmup, groove perfect movement mechanics, and you get after it. You do all of this because you remember your WHY. See my last blog post on sustaining grit, and how her WHY helped my cousin Sophie navigate challenges to her goal of being the top triathlete.

If you don’t have a clear WHY, then the excuses will take over.

The Opportunity – While Your Opponent Sleeps

Here is the good news. 99% of your competition is going to slack off to some degree during the holiday season. So whether you are behind, equal to, or ahead of the competition, healthier habits and behaviors are going to help you move the needle closer to your goal.

Think about that opportunity to close the gap on those ahead of you. It’s human nature to select the path of least resistance. They assume that because they are better now, this means they will always be better.

Nonsense! But only if you are willing to do what they are not. Only if you are willing to sacrifice what they are unwilling to give up.

Tips for Maximizing your ROI During the Holiday Hoopla

Balance of All Things

• Control portion sizes. If you choose to eat a lot, then eat a lot a little bit at a time. You will absorb more nutrients and lessen the risk of indigestion. Mind your macros and continue to prioritize lean protein when possible. Limit huge dumps of sugar into your system.
• Stay hydrated. We are composed of roughly 65% water. Keep filling (and emptying) that glass, and bring that water bottle with us when we travel. Proper hydration facilitates everything.
• Train Hard. Train Smart. If you have put your system at a deficit, it may take some extra prep time to get into a groove. Adjust volume and intensity appropriately and focus on quality reps i.e., proper mechanics and cadence. Pre-season athletes with RPM in the South are in a power + speed phase right now. Do not neglect these modalities because you ate an extra piece of cake. As long as you can maintain form, fight through that discomfort. Remember, you chose this.

If you want to be extraordinary, Do The Extra

• There is a fine line between quality reps given maximum effort and overtraining. The best athletes understand their bodies and know where to draw that line. Given the extra recovery time during vacation time, this is an opportune time period to kick it into top gear and challenge yourself.
• For athletes in the South, you have a little over a month until the season gets underway. Athletes in the North, you have a few more months to prepare. If you are planning on adding that 5-10lbs of lean muscle and/or increasing power/strength, the time is right now. Wait until 2026 and you are going to be two weeks behind.
• Do not Cancel. REschedule instead. Schedule conflicts will present themselves to your training. Keep a calendar and make sure you set up a new session, whether with a trainer or on your own.
• Look outside the box. This means taking a holistic view of performance. At RPM, our 360 approach encompasses the 5 Pillars of Performance: Mind, Body, Skill, Nutrition, Recovery. If you are stepping up your game in the gym or on the track, be sure to turn the dials appropriately on the Nutrition and Recovery pillars. Take some time to reflect on your strengths and weakness, and gather intel from coaches and trainers on what you need to do to make a bigger contribution. Consider mental barriers that may be impeding your performance, and how to break those down. Do you use positive self-talk or do you beat yourself down? Think of phrasing and/or develop a mantra that can be a part of your process – something simple, that connects fundamental steps to actions – leading to a desired result.

I hope you made it this far and found something helpful to you or your athlete’s performance. If it feels new, you’ll need to try it several times to determine if it is effective or not. If a new habit or behavior doesn’t fit or is not beneficial, then leave it right there and move on. This is what integrative performance is all about.

Remember (or come up with) your WHY and make sure your decisions are in alignment with this goal.

Happy High Performance Holidays to All!