66: Memories over Macros: 8 Tips for Body Image Confidence During the Holidays
Memories Over Macros: 8 Tips for Body Image Confidence During the Holidays
Struggling with body image this holiday season? Learn 8 practical strategies to maintain confidence, let go of food guilt, and prioritize memories over macros during celebrations.
It starts with the invitation. Holiday party. Family gathering. New Year's Eve celebration. And almost immediately, your brain goes there: What will I wear? Will my dress still fit? What if there are photos? Should I start restricting now to "save room" for the big meal?
If this internal dialogue sounds familiar, you're not alone. For so many women, the holiday season, which should be filled with joy, connection, and celebration, becomes a minefield of body image anxiety, food guilt, and appearance obsession.
But here's what we're not going to do this year: we're not going to let body image insecurity steal the magic of the holidays. We're not going to skip celebrations because we don't feel "small enough." And we're definitely not going to remember this season for what we ate or what we looked like, we're going to remember the laughter, the connections, and the moments that actually matter.
In episode 66, Tara gets vulnerable about body image struggles during the holiday season and shares eight powerful strategies to help you navigate this time with more confidence, less stress, and way more presence. Because at the end of the day, memories always matter more than macros.
1. Accept That Progress Isn't Realistic (Or Necessary) All Year Round
Let's start with the permission slip you didn't know you needed: you don't have to make progress during the holidays. In fact, expecting yourself to lose fat, hit PRs, or maintain perfect nutrition during one of the busiest, most emotionally-charged times of the year is setting yourself up for unnecessary stress and disappointment.
Tara emphasizes that progress isn't realistic or necessary 365 days a year. Your fitness journey doesn't have to be a straight line of constant improvement. There are seasons for pushing hard toward goals, and there are seasons for maintaining and simply enjoying life.
The holidays fall firmly into the latter category for most people, and that's completely okay. Giving yourself permission to step off the gas doesn't mean you're failing. It means you're being realistic and sustainable.
2. Maintenance IS Progress (And Showing Up Is What Matters)
Here's the mindset shift that changes everything: maintaining your fitness and health during the holidays actually is progress. Just because you're not losing weight or setting new records doesn't mean you're not succeeding.
Showing up for your workouts even when your schedule is chaotic? That's progress. Moving your body consistently without obsessing over every calorie burned? That's progress. Eating holiday meals without spiraling into guilt and restriction? That's absolutely progress.
Stop measuring your worth by the scale or your aesthetic changes. Progress is also about building a sustainable, balanced relationship with fitness and food, one that doesn't require you to be "on" all the time or miss out on life's celebrations.
3. Remember What Actually Matters: Memories and Experiences
Twenty years from now, what will you remember about this holiday season?
Will you remember that you ate a second cookie? That you wore Spanx under your dress? That you skipped your morning cardio on Christmas?
Or will you remember laughing until you cried with your best friends? The warmth of your grandmother's hug? The look on your kid's face when they opened their present? The way your partner squeezed your hand during dinner?
Tara drives this point home beautifully: the holidays are about creating memories and having experiences with the people you love. Your body, whether it's looking exactly how you want it to or not, is just the vessel that carries you through these moments. Don't let body image anxiety keep you from being fully present for what actually matters.
Life is happening right now. Don't miss it because you're worried about how you look in photos or whether you "earned" that piece of pie.
4. Health and Wellness Extends Beyond the Gym and Kitchen
This is huge: health isn't just about what you eat and how you exercise. It's also about your mental health, your stress levels, your relationships, your rest, and your joy.
Sometimes the healthiest thing you can do is skip the gym and sleep in. Or say yes to brunch with friends instead of meal prepping. Or enjoy dessert because it brings you genuine pleasure.
Tara reminds us that health and wellness is so much more than just the gym and kitchen. If you're constantly stressed, isolated, or depriving yourself in the name of "health," you're not actually healthy, you're just following arbitrary rules that probably aren't serving you.
True wellness means taking care of your whole self, not just your body composition.
5. Shift Your Focus from Appearance to Connection
One of the most powerful strategies Tara shares is actively shifting your focus away from how you look and toward genuine connection with others.
When you walk into that holiday party, instead of obsessing over whether people are judging your body, ask yourself: Who can I connect with? What interesting conversations can I have? How can I make someone feel seen and valued?
When you're taking family photos, instead of worrying about your angles or pulling away from the camera, think about how special it is that everyone you love is together in this moment. Think about your future self or your kids looking back at these photos, they won't care about whether you had the perfect body. They'll just be grateful you were there, smiling and present.
Shifting your focus to connection doesn't just make you feel better, it makes the people around you feel better too. And that's what the holidays are really about.
6. Keep Moving Your Body, No Matter What
This might seem contradictory to the "give yourself permission to maintain" advice, but hear it out: continuing to move your body during the holidays isn't about burning calories or preventing weight gain. It's about taking care of your mental health, managing stress, and maintaining the routine that makes you feel good.
Tara emphasizes the importance of continuing to move your body no matter what, not as punishment for what you ate, but as an act of self-care and consistency.
Your workouts might look different during this season. Maybe shorter, maybe less intense, maybe more flexible in timing. But maintaining some level of movement helps you feel grounded, reduces anxiety, boosts your mood, and reinforces that you're someone who takes care of yourself, regardless of what's on your plate.
7. Stop Moralizing Food as "Good" or "Bad"
Food is food. It's not good or bad. It's not clean or dirty. It has no moral value, and neither do you based on what you choose to eat.
Tara tackles the damaging habit of moralizing food and the guilt that comes with eating certain things. When you label foods as "bad" and then eat them, you create unnecessary shame and anxiety. You might even trigger binge-restrict cycles where "bad" choices lead to giving up entirely, which leads to overconsumption, which leads to extreme restriction, which starts the whole cycle over.
The truth is that all foods can be part of a balanced lifestyle. Yes, even cookies. Even eggnog. Even your aunt's famous mac and cheese. Having "unhealthy" meals doesn't make you an unhealthy person, and a few indulgent meals won't unravel all your hard work.
Food is meant to be enjoyed, not feared. And holidays are a time when food often comes with tradition, love, and celebration attached, don't let diet culture rob you of that experience.
8. Weight Fluctuations Are Normal and Okay
Let's talk about something nobody wants to acknowledge but everyone needs to hear: your weight will fluctuate during the holidays. And that's completely normal and okay.
You might eat more sodium than usual, which causes water retention. You might eat more carbs, which increases glycogen storage (and the water that comes with it). You might have later, larger meals that take longer to digest. Your cycle might affect your weight. You might simply be a bit less active.
All of this can cause the scale to go up, but that doesn't mean you've gained fat or destroyed your progress. Weight fluctuations are a normal part of being human, especially during times when your routine changes.
Tara reminds listeners to trust their bodies and find balance during the holidays. Your body is resilient and adaptable. A few days or weeks of eating differently isn't going to permanently change your body, especially if you've been consistent with your health habits the rest of the year.
Let go of the scale obsession. Stop weighing yourself multiple times a day or freaking out over normal fluctuations. Trust that your body knows what to do, and focus on how you feel rather than what you weigh.
The Real Message: You Deserve to Enjoy Your Life
At the core of all eight tips is one fundamental truth: you deserve to enjoy your life exactly as you are, right now, in the body you have today.
You don't need to wait until you lose ten pounds to go to that party. You don't need to earn your holiday meal with extra workouts. You don't need to punish yourself with restriction afterward. You don't need to hide from photos or skip celebrations because you're not at your goal weight.
Your body isn't the problem. Diet culture's messaging that you're not enough as you are, that's the problem. And you get to choose whether you let that messaging dictate your holiday experience or whether you show up fully, embrace the season, and create memories that matter.
Take Action
This holiday season, practice choosing presence over perfection. Here's your challenge:
Pick one event where you commit to being fully present. Don't check yourself in every reflective surface. Don't fixate on what you're eating. Don't spiral into appearance anxiety. Just be there, laughing, connecting, and creating memories with people you care about.
Ready to build a sustainable fitness routine that supports your life instead of controlling it? Try Broads for 7 days free and discover programming designed for real women who want to feel strong, confident, and balanced, holidays and all.
