The holiday season often means packed calendars, filled with family gatherings, work parties, and festive get-togethers. Right now, we’re in the thick of it. But how do we approach these events without feeling either deprived or overly indulgent? How do we navigate our nutrition in a way that aligns with our goals instead of calling it quits and just “starting over in January?”
Let’s talk about it…
REDEFINING GOALS & CREATING REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS
It’s normal to feel torn between your goals and holiday food traditions, especially if you’re used to an “all-or-nothing” mindset.
A flexible approach to our nutrition isn’t about depriving ourselves; it’s about finding a balance that works, even in the busiest seasons. If your goal is fat loss, you likely know this means being in a calorie deficit. But with all the holiday events, travel, and food-focused scenarios, consider if strict adherence to a deficit is realistic—or even enjoyable—for you right now.
Instead of pushing through and relying on willpower, ask yourself: Can I realistically prioritize a calorie deficit during the holidays?
For many, the answer is no, and that’s okay! This season is about connecting with loved ones, and food is a big part of that. Embracing a maintenance mindset might be your best tool for enjoying the holidays and coming out stronger.
Rather than pushing for fat loss, shifting to maintenance over the holidays offers you the flexibility to indulge a little while keeping your progress intact. Taking a break from a calorie deficit can help prevent diet burnout and give you a reset, physically and mentally. This approach lets you enjoy more freedom with food while practicing the healthy habits you’ve been building, like balanced choices and portion awareness.
EMBRACING MINIMUMS & LETTING THE REST GO
True progress in our eating behaviors and relationship with food isn't about doing it all “perfectly;” it’s about building habits that support us even during the busiest seasons. This is where the power of setting minimums comes in—a tool we love because it keeps us grounded and moving forward in those behaviors and routines that support our overall health, no matter how hectic things get.
Minimums are those small, achievable goals you commit to even on the busiest days.
These can be simple, like drinking 75 oz. of water, getting in a 10-minute walk, or enjoying a protein-packed snack before heading to a holiday event. Instead of getting sucked into the “all or nothing,” minimums let you say, “I can meet this non-negotiable,” no matter what. This flexibility not only helps you avoid the cycle of abandoning your goals but also strengthens habits you’ll keep leaning on long after the holidays.
As you enter the holiday season, remember that a week of sticking to your minimums is far better than a week abandoning habits and spiraling into “screw it mode.” Focus on what you can do, even if that looks far different than your capacity during other times of the year, and keep your eye on building the kind of balanced, resilient approach that supports long-term success.
SETTING YOURSELF UP FOR (EVEN MORE) FUTURE SUCCESS
Progress can take many forms, even if it doesn’t look like constant forward momentum. Maintaining progress and habits we have made is one of the most powerful tools in our nutrition toolbox. Using these months as an opportunity to lean on habits and solidify our relationship with food isn’t a step back, it's a chance to build skills and confidence that will carry you well beyond the holiday festivities.
By adjusting our goals and expectations, setting minimums for ourselves, and then anticipating obstacles, and creating a plan to address challenges we may face, we’re flexing our skills and solidifying our chances of continued progress and success.
Picture yourself at a family gathering:
Your favorite holiday dishes are front and center and you know you want to enjoy them. Instead of feeling pressured to load up your plate or, conversely, avoid those foods entirely, you’ve set a simple plan: you start with a reasonable portion of protein and veggies, then add a small serving of those special sides you love. As you savor each bite, you’re prioritizing mindfulness, enjoying the flavors without feeling the need to overindulge, and listening in to your hunger and fullness cues.
When obstacles come up, like pressure from your family to eat more, you know you’ve already spent some time deciding beforehand how you want to respond. You say something like, “I’m really enjoying everything and want to save room for dessert!” and set boundaries politely but clearly and no one gives it a second thought.
When dessert rolls around, you decide in advance to choose one treat to fully enjoy, knowing you’ll feel satisfied rather than stuffed. This approach lets you feel intentional and satisfied - an empowering feeling that reinforces your confidence to make similar choices in the future. By choosing balance over restriction, you’re building a sustainable, positive relationship with food that will show up for you beyond just this holiday season.
We don’t have to “throw away” our progress during the busy holiday season.
Instead, we can use this time as an opportunity to solidify habits that will serve us all year. Rather than waiting for January to get “back on track,” we can take comfort in knowing we’re actively working towards long-term success, enjoying the season with balance, and strengthening both habits that support our goals and our relationship with food as well.
We are committed coaches who work with clients who want to create real, sustainable change. We love nothing more than helping our clients find a supportive approach to nutrition that allows them to work towards their goals without white-knuckling their way through yo-yo diets. Learn more about our KLN team here!
Grocery shopping doesn't have to be overwhelming. Learn how to build a simple, balanced grocery list using 6 easy categories and turn it into meals all week.
What if flexibility was built into a healthy diet all along? The 85/15 approach uses the USDA's discretionary calorie allowance to end all-or-nothing dieting for good.
Most people don't lack discipline — they lack a better plan. This article shares tips on how to stop relying on willpower and start solving the real obstacles behind your nutrition goals.
Most people with PMOS (formerly PCOS) have insulin resistance. Starting your day with 30g of protein helps improve glucose response and supports hormone balance and is the best nutrition tip we have for those with PCOS.
From weight loss drugs to “What I Eat in a Day” reels, thinness culture is resurfacing under new names. Learn how to spot it—and what to focus on instead.
A great online nutrition coach does more than hand you a plan — they listen, collaborate, and tailor strategies to your life. The right coach helps you master the basics, build sustainable habits, and leave with the tools and confidence to succeed long after coaching ends.
Stim eating happens when you snack for stimulation, not hunger. For ADHD brains, it’s a common way to chase dopamine. Learn why it happens and how to build better tools.
What we eat can actually say a lot about our relationship with the planet. But when it comes to sustainability, there’s a lot of noise out there. Is going vegan the answer? Is almond milk ruining the environment? Does eating local really make a difference? In a recent episode of our podcast, How to: Fitness, we delve into this topic and get curious about the impact of our food choices on the environment.
When it comes to health, fitness and weight loss goals, most people focus on the physical: what to eat, how to move, which “plan” to follow. But the truth is, the biggest obstacle isn't always your body -- it's usually your mind (or your mindset). One of the most common (yet sneakiest) roadblocks we see with our clients is self-sabotage. In this week’s post, we’re diving into what self-sabotage is, how to spot it and ultimately, how to decide if self-sabotage is the thing that’s been holding you back from making progress towards your nutrition and fitness goals.
Most sports nutrition advice assumes a cisgender body—but that doesn’t work for trans athletes. This guide offers personalized, affirming nutrition strategies that support performance, recovery, and body autonomy, with insights on hormone therapy, body composition, and fueling without the binary.
Menopause is a major physiological shift, period. For any woman going through the menopause transition, the bombardment of “solutions” and “hacks” can feel really overwhelming. But here’s the good news: navigating menopause probably doesn’t require overhauling your entire life, chasing endless biohacks, or spending your entire retirement fund on fancy supplements. Support matters—yes—and having a great care team is important. But more often than not, it’s not about doing more, more, more. It’s about doing what matters most.
The rules of energy balance may seem simple on paper (with all “name brand” diets driven by hard and fast regulations operating under the same umbrella): calories in vs. calories out. Follow the guidelines, achieve results. However, without a foundational belief that we are capable of overcoming and learning from the challenges that are bound to arise in the process and are deserving of the outcomes we seek, we are bound to struggle with any real, sustainable change. A growth mindset is the key to unlocking our potential to reach any and all of our goals.
In the world of nutrition, tracking food intake can be a popular tool for building awareness of our eating habits and helping us to reach more specific goals (eating within a deficit, reaching a certain bare minimum for fiber intake, or even fueling for specific athletic-based performance). But what happens when we reach our goals? Do we continue tracking forever? The answer is absolutely not. Our goal isn’t to obsessively monitor every bite but to use tracking as a temporary tool to cultivate a deeper understanding of our relationship with food.
75 Hard is a popular program that's come to the forefront the last few years promises rapid transformations, increased mental toughness, and life-changing results, but what it misses is how extreme approaches can be counterproductive to your long-term goals. The focus on rigidity, perfectionism, and punishing routines may offer short-term wins but lead to burnout, injury, or even regression. It can be counterintuitive to your overall well-being and can just be another attempted quick fix that keeps us stuck in the cycle of restriction, punishment, and believing that change comes only when we’re miserable and doing everything “perfectly.”
At KLN, we require a six-month commitment from our clients, and there's a good reason for it. When you first join us, we take the time to get to know YOU – your habits, history, and what makes your daily life tick. This isn't something we can rush through-- it takes TIME! Time need to see how you live, how you interact with food, and how different factors affect your eating patterns. Getting to know you as an individual - your lifestyle, your needs, and what keeps you motivated - is crucial for providing the absolute best guidance and support from your coach.
We work within a framework of tracking macros to facilitate sustainable progress and, eventually, move away from tracking completely. However, while tracking, there are some ways we can make it easier on ourselves! In this blog post, we’re sharing our favorite tracking tips as “macro coaches,” experienced trackers, and coaches who help our clients make tracking work for them.
As nutrition coaches, we have the privilege of building close relationships with our clients as we help guide them toward their goals - be those related to aesthetics or fat loss goals, performance goals, or goals of optimal health. Along the way, as we work on building a better relationship with food and our habits, we get to share parts of our stories that are relevant to our coaching styles. We’re taking time this year to share more about us, our nutrition journeys and transformations, our road to becoming nutrition coaches and educators, and the amazing clients we have the privilege of working with.
As a dad to a toddler, mac and cheese is a staple in our house. But as someone who doesn’t enjoy keeping a ton of food items on hand, or cooking with a lot of ingredients, this three ingredient mac and cheese is a HUGE WIN. Plus, it’s high in protein, creamy, and is a great way to get some fiber with the chickpea pasta.
As nutrition coaches, we have the privilege of building close relationships with our clients as we help guide them toward their goals - be those related to aesthetics or fat loss goals, performance goals, or goals of optimal health. Along the way, as we work on building a better relationship with food and our habits, we get to share parts of our stories that are relevant to our coaching styles. We’re taking time this year to share more about us, our nutrition journeys and transformations, our road to becoming nutrition coaches and educators, and the amazing clients we have the privilege of working with.
As nutrition coaches, we have the privilege of building close relationships with our clients as we help guide them toward their goals - be those related to aesthetics or fat loss goals, performance goals, or goals of optimal health. Along the way, as we work on building a better relationship with food and our habits, we get to share parts of our stories that are relevant to our coaching styles. We’re taking time this year to share more about us, our nutrition journeys and transformations, our road to becoming nutrition coaches and educators, and the amazing clients we have the privilege of working with.
As nutrition coaches, we have the privilege of building close relationships with our clients as we help guide them toward their goals - be those related to aesthetics or fat loss goals, performance goals, or goals of optimal health. Along the way, as we work on building a better relationship with food and our habits, we get to share parts of our stories that are relevant to our coaching styles. We’re taking time this year to share more about us, our nutrition journeys and transformations, our road to becoming nutrition coaches and educators, and the amazing clients we have the privilege of working with.
As nutrition coaches, we have the privilege of building close relationships with our clients as we help guide them toward their goals - be those related to aesthetics or fat loss goals, performance goals, or goals of optimal health. Along the way, as we work on building a better relationship with food and our habits, we get to share parts of our stories that are relevant to our coaching styles. We’re taking time this year to share more about us, our nutrition journeys and transformations, our road to becoming nutrition coaches and educators, and the amazing clients we have the privilege of working with.
As nutrition coaches, we have the privilege of building close relationships with our clients as we help guide them toward their goals - be those related to aesthetics or fat loss goals, performance goals, or goals of optimal health. Along the way, as we work on building a better relationship with food and our habits, we get to share parts of our stories that are relevant to our coaching styles. We’re taking time this year to share more about us, our nutrition journeys and transformations, our road to becoming nutrition coaches and educators, and the amazing clients we have the privilege of working with.
As nutrition coaches, we have the privilege of building close relationships with our clients as we help guide them toward their goals - be those related to aesthetics or fat loss goals, performance goals, or goals of optimal health. Along the way, as we work on building a better relationship with food and our habits, we get to share parts of our stories that are relevant to our coaching styles. We’re taking time this year to share more about us, our nutrition journeys and transformations, our road to becoming nutrition coaches and educators, and the amazing clients we have the privilege of working with.
As nutrition coaches, we have the privilege of building close relationships with our clients as we help guide them toward their goals - be those related to aesthetics or fat loss goals, performance goals, or goals of optimal health. Along the way, as we work on building a better relationship with food and our habits, we get to share parts of our stories that are relevant to our coaching styles. We’re taking time this year to share more about us, our nutrition journeys and transformations, our road to becoming nutrition coaches and educators, and the amazing clients we have the privilege of working with.
Becoming knowledgeable and proficient in providing our bodies with the macronutrients they need to work most optimally is an incredible place to start when digging into personal nutrition. When that sound foundation with those major nutrients is met, or while working to become more confident in consistently meeting those macronutrient needs, we can also begin to dig in a little deeper and work to understand our micronutrients needs as well.
In today’s post, I’m talking all about the client + coach relationship and how to really get the most out of your work with a coach. Whether you work with one of our coaches or have worked with any sort of coach in the past or are thinking about working with a coach, understanding how you can bring your best to the table can make or break your success in reaching your goals.
We often see tips for curbing an increased appetite, but what about those of us that consistently struggle with a lower appetite? Here are habits that can help you navigate having a low appetite.
Smart watches - Apple Watches, FitBits, Garmins, etc. - can be such an incredibly helpful tool for daily life, but they become more detrimental than helpful when we rely too heavily on the data they provide. But we can understand how to utilize them in a way that is most beneficial for us and our needs, without having them give us inaccurate information.
AI can create meal plans, grocery lists, and nutrition tips in seconds, but lasting change usually takes more than information. In this post, we’re breaking down what AI can do well, where it falls short, and why human nutrition coaching can help you build realistic habits that actually fit your life.