Ok, y’all — I’m posting today’s Physical Education from the road.
I’m with my wife’s family in Tennessee.
If you watched last week, I said today was supposed to be a chat with my buddy Andy.
And… yeah. As you can see, plans have changed.
Vacations — especially the family kind — have a way of turning your best-laid plans into group votes and general chaos.
You’re away from home base, either in a place that feels unfamiliar… or a place soaked in childhood nostalgia and all the childhood behavior patterns that come with it.
I’ve been struggling through the first few days of this trip, but I did get a run in this morning.
And it got me thinking: this is actually the perfect time to talk about how to survive family holidays as the “fitness person,” especially when nobody else around you shares the same excitement.
So here’s 10 Do’s and Don’ts — and yeah, it’s gonna be a little heavy on the “don’ts,” because honestly… it’s a minefield out here — to help you get your workouts in without starting a family civil war or becoming the person your in-laws whisper about every time you lace up your shoes.
DON’TS
Don’t rub your fitness habits in people’s faces. And don’t announce your workout like it’s a big event.
This is not the place to educate people — and honestly, you’re probably not the professor anyway.
It’s totally fine to stick to your program, but, as Lil Wayne once said in the best bar ever: Real G’s move in silence like lasagna.
Just keep it quiet, do your thing, enjoy how it makes you feel, and remember: most folks don’t want the play-by-play.
Don’t disrupt the plans or the flow of the day.
Your workout might be the most important thing for you that day, but it’s probably not for everyone else.
Make sure you’re not holding people up, dropping the ball on family responsibilities, or otherwise jamming up the works.
Don’t expect anyone to create space for your training — you’ve gotta find it.
And on the flipside, don’t expect anyone to say, “Hey Noah, why don’t you take an hour and go to the gym, you’ve earned it!”
Even the world’s sweetest grandma isn’t thinking about your fitness.
That’s on you.
You’ve gotta find the time and make the choices that set you up to succeed. We’ll talk more about that in a minute.
Don’t moralize food — no ‘good,’ ‘bad,’ ‘cheat,’ any of that.
Even if you manage to avoid talking about the gym entirely, you’re almost guaranteed to talk about food.
Eat however you want — stay on your macros, go totally off the grid, whatever — but don’t make any of it about morality.
You choose how you eat, they choose how they eat, and that’s the whole deal.
And just like with fitness, if you’re ever going to have a real conversation about health with someone in your family, that’s a slow, careful, months-long process — not something that happens over a four-day weekend.
Don’t try to convert or coach unwilling family members — and don’t invite people to join you.
This lines up with everything else I’ve said so far, so no surprise here: now is not the time.
And yeah — don’t invite people to join you unless you know they want to do exactly what you’re doing, for the same amount of time.
Trying to coordinate workouts with people you rarely see is a great way to sabotage your own routine.
They might take forever to get ready, or forget their earbuds, or finish earlier than you, or decide they want to elliptical themselves into dust while you just want a quick pump.
Don’t do it.
The only exception: a time-limited class — a CrossFit drop-in, yoga, whatever. You both start and end together.
Otherwise… do your own thing.
Don’t forget why you’re there — to spend time with people you love.
Family time is precious, and it’s not guaranteed.
Whatever your fitness goals are, we’re talking about one week here.
Keep some perspective on how much this actually matters in the grand scheme of your life.
DO’S
Do get your training done first thing.
This applies all the time, but it’s extra true during family trips.
Time gets weird — the day just evaporates while you’re sitting around waiting for the next meal or doing absolutely nothing.
Do your workout early, before the day sweeps you away into either a whirlwind of “stuff we have to do” or a swamp of just sitting on your ass.
This also leads right into the next one:
Do set yourself up for success — sleep, drinks, and food.
It’s really hard to wake up early and run if you were the last one awake the night before, polishing off the final bottle of wine or slice of pie.
Even if it doesn’t feel like it, you do control when you go to bed and how much you drink.
And if you’re like me — a human Roomba drifting around the house vacuuming up snacks from any flat surface — do yourself a favor and hit the grocery store.
Buy the stuff you normally eat that somehow never appears during holiday meals.
Vegetables. Protein. Water.
Get those in early and you’ll magically feel less pulled toward second and third helpings.
Set yourself up for success now, or don’t be surprised when things don’t go your way later.
Do choose the easiest, lowest-drag option.
Go on a run.
Do some pushups or pullups at a playground down the street.
Hit a local gym — and by “local,” I mean close to you.
This is not the week to drive across town to some cool boutique spot you saw on Instagram.
Make it easy so it actually gets done, especially when the rest of your schedule is already kinda wobbly.
Do think ‘maintenance mode,’ not ‘max effort mode.’
Quick story: I was deep in a Smolov squat cycle one year — lifts were feeling amazing — and I went to Thanksgiving at my uncle’s place in Park City, Utah.
Ended up at this weird gym catering mostly to the 65+ crowd, at altitude, with a strange barbell and a mirror like six inches from my sweaty face.
Tried to stick to my heavy triple… and got through exactly one rep before calling it.
Lesson learned: you are not hitting PRs on vacation.
Think of these workouts as keeping the car in neutral — not drive, not reverse.
It takes the pressure off and lets you focus on what feels good and fits the schedule.
Alright y’all — hope that helps you navigate the holiday chaos without losing your fitness or your relationships.
If this was useful, hit like, subscribe, and drop a comment with your own holiday survival tips.
And next week — for real this time — we’ll have Andy on.
