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If you’re currently reading this from under a mountain of blankets because the sun hasn't shown its face in three days, and your motivation has officially gone into hibernation, I totally get it.

I actually recorded this episode of the Deadlifts and Pizza podcast with a 101° fever. Jaime thought I was insane. I prefer to think of myself as elite. After a very serious discussion about just how elite I actually am, we got into the real problem: How do you stay on track when it’s cold AF and your bed is putting up a very convincing argument?

When it’s gray out, everything starts to slide. It’s a lot harder to get motivated for a workout when you have to put on three layers just to walk to the garage. You start making excuses for why that third cookie doesn't count, and suddenly "I'll just start again in April" sounds like a solid plan. This is exactly how people end up losing all the progress they made over the summer.

We aren't doing that this year. Here is the practical way to keep showing up when comfort is calling your name.

Stay Away From Extremes

The truth is, the fitness industry is riddled with extremes.

On one side, you have the “No Days Off” crowd. These are the people who preach being optimal at all times. Miss a workout and it’s suddenly, “Do you even care about your results? How can you not make this the most important thing in your life?!” And don’t you dare eat anything cooked in seed oils. How could you even think about putting something so toxic into your body?

Then there’s the other extreme, the “Always Give Yourself Grace” camp. This is where everything is blamed on your hormones, your genes, or your circumstances. It’s the ultimate "it’s not your fault" rhetoric.

As with most things, the best advice lives somewhere in the middle. You don’t need to be perfect, and you don’t need to make fitness your entire personality to get results. But you do need to do uncomfortable things sometimes. You do need to work for what you want.

It feels really good to say, “It’s not your fault. Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’re doing the best you can.” But… are you? Is that rhetoric actually helpful? I’d argue that in most cases, no. Letting yourself off the hook too easily isn’t “self-love.” It’s just a really good way to stay exactly where you are.

The “Babe, Take a Day Off” vs. “Babe, Get Your Ass to the Gym” Dilemma

The morning of the podcast, I went back and forth at least three times about whether I should work out, because I felt like garbage. I got dressed. I was about to head out to my shed gym. And then I stopped.

“I should do it. I’ll be fine.”

“No, I’ll just go later.”

“No, you could take a day off.”

“No, you really should do it.”

Eventually, I was like, “Babe, listen. You can take a day off.” (Yes, I call myself babe like a complete weirdo.) So I laid on the couch instead. And you know what? It was exactly what I needed.

But here’s the thing, I only felt okay making that decision because I know I’m consistent. I show up 99% of the time. So when I actually need a day off because I’m sick, I can take it without guilt.

The problem happens when “taking a day off” becomes “taking a week off,” which becomes “taking a month off,” which becomes “Wait, when was the last time I worked out?”

So how do you know when to push yourself and when to give yourself grace?

Ask yourself: Am I skipping because I genuinely need rest, or am I skipping because it’s uncomfortable and I’d rather stay cozy?

Both are real reasons, but they require different responses. If it’s the first one, rest. If it’s the second one, you probably need to get your butt moving.

Set Non-Negotiables & Boundaries

so what do I actually mean by non-negotiables? Non-negotiables are the bare minimum you commit to doing each day or week. They’re the least you’ll do on a bad day. The stuff you can hit even when motivation is low and life gets in the way.

Examples might be averaging 8,000 steps for the week, getting around 100g of protein per day, or strength training three days per week. Non-negotiables are not 20,000 steps, 180g of protein, and working out seven days a week. Those might be goals, but they’re not sustainable as a baseline. If your “minimum” is too high, you’ll miss it regularly and eventually stop trying.

How Much Protein Do You Need?

That doesn’t mean you can’t aim higher. You absolutely can. Maybe your non-negotiable is training three days per week, but your goal is five. The difference is that the non-negotiable is the floor. It’s the standard you hit consistently, even on off weeks.

Along with non-negotiables come boundaries. If I don’t give myself any boundaries, I tend to go a little off the rails. Boundaries are what keep things from sliding. For example, if I notice I’ve been going a little hard on the sweets lately, I might say, “Alright, this is getting out of hand. Time to rein it in.” That could mean cutting out sugar completely for a week or two, or putting a limit on how much I’m having. And yes, I know a lot of people are anti-restriction and preach having no limits. But the reality is, most of us need some limits. We give boundaries to our kids. We give boundaries to our pets. It shouldn’t be controversial to give them to ourselves.

Jaime shared a great analogy on the podcast: Imagine a dog in a field with a fence. The dog knows where it’s allowed to roam because the boundary is clear. There’s no confusion. Now imagine that fence is really short, like a little picket fence. It’s technically there, but it’s easy to hop over. Or go even further, it’s not even a fence, just a piece of ribbon on the ground. The dog might know it’s not supposed to cross it… but also, squirrel.

On the flip side, the fence still needs to give the dog enough room to run and play. If it’s too small and restrictive, the dog’s going to be miserable. That’s the balance you’re aiming for. Clear boundaries that guide your behavior, without making your life so restrictive that you can’t stick to them.

Lower Your Expectations

In a similar vein, you may need to lower your expectations at certain times of the year. Steps are much harder for me to get when the temperature is -27 degrees. Because of this, I lower my minimum average step count for the week to 8,000/day, instead of the 10,000–12,000 that I aim for in the spring.

Is it the very most I can do? No. Is it enough to maintain my health & fitness levels? Yes! Is it sustainable? Totally! It still requires effort, planning and getting uncomfortably cold sometimes (of course my treadmill happens to be in my cold, unheated, uninsulated garage), but it’s still doable.

Think of it like driving in a blizzard. When the roads are clear and the sun is out, you’re doing 60 MPH down a highway without a second thought. But when the roads are slick, and the snow is blowing sideways, you don't just park the car in the middle of the highway and give up. You slow down to 30 MPH. You’re still moving, you’re still heading toward your destination, you’re just doing it at a speed that keeps you from sliding into a ditch.

Maybe for you, the "slow lane" looks like dropping from four workouts a week to three, because your schedule is packed. Or maybe your nutrition isn’t as dialed in as you’d like it to be, so you focus on hitting your protein minimums, but worry less about calorie targets. Set non-negotiables that are achievable, but still “enough” to make progress, or at the very least, maintain where you’re at.

Find the best split for you

It’s winter. It’s hoodie season. You don’t need to be bikini ready yet, but you also don’t want to spend the entire winter morphing into the original Michelin Man, and then have to spend the entirety of spring trying to find 'you' again under all those layers.

Find Something That You Love

This is very cliche, but it’s true. You’re not going to stick to something you hate, or that you don’t truly believe in.

Here’s a non fitness example.

Ok, I’m going to be super real with you. I hate, I mean HATE posting on Instagram. It doesn’t go along with my personality at all. It’s all about getting attention and less about helping, or giving people valuable information. It’s so performative with little nuance. It exhausts me. I just want to be authentically me and real.

On top of that, there’s the doubt factor. Is this really doing anything? I could spend 8 hours creating the “perfect” reel- scripting, recording, editing, and posting. All to only get only 100 views and no interaction.

But all the “gurus” are always preaching “you need to post consistently every day,” “I promise, eventually something with happen.” The truth is I cannot be consistent with posting on Instagram because of how much I loath it, and I have not bought in to it’s benefits. So I decided to focus on other things, like the podcast and articles where I don’t feel like I’m performing and I can be myself. This is where I feel like I can give people valuable helpful information.

And guess what? Consistency is so much easier for me in these areas. Still challenging at times? Sure. But do they also feel more “me?” Definitely.

Fitness is the same. Find a way to make it fun. Find a way to make it sustainable. Choose activities that feel like “you.”

A great tip to make fitness more enjoyable is to focus on performance instead of fat loss. Once I did this I was completely hooked. Watching the weight on the bar go up every week, watching my form improve, and watching myself be molded into an athlete gave me motivation to stick with it. This gave me the buy in I needed. Not to mention how much better it makes me feel.

It’s much easier to stick with something when you can see the benefits. Strength training has tons of perks besides just helping you look good. Eating healthy has so many advantages besides helping you fit into that dress. Focusing on training and nutrition will help you look better, but also feel better and perform better. The latter are quicker to see and therefore easier to buy into.

A Fun Routine

Small Treats Go A Long Way

You know those boundaries that we talked about? Well, we can build things within those boundaries to make it feel less “sucky.”

One thing I used to do back when I first started actually being consistent with diet and exercise, was give myself little treats or rewards at the end of the day. I Love chocolate, but obviously it’s not practical to eat chocolate all day if you really care about your health and fitness goals.

What is fine however, is eating a couple pieces a day every day. So that’s what I did. At the end of the day I would eat a couple pieces of chocolate that amounted to 100 calories or less, while I watched some tv. It became something I looked forward to, and enjoyed. I also knew that 100 calories wasn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things, so there was no guilt whatsoever. This helped me stay consistent with my other nutrition boundaries I set, knowing I still had room for some fun stuff.

This also helped me reframe my thoughts around certain foods. I didn’t need to be perfect, I just needed to be pretty good. The unexpected result of doing this for a couple of months was I no longer craved chocolate, because I was “allowed” it every day. Soon I didn’t even want it anymore.

The problem is when little treats become big treats. This is why boundaries are so important. Finding that balance is crucial.

Bonus Tips

Break Up Your Steps Throughout the Day

If you find yourself barely moving all day and then trying to cram in 8,000 steps at 9 p.m., that’s not exactly a recipe for success. Instead, it usually works way better to break those steps up throughout the day.

Maybe you take a short walk right after breakfast and another one after lunch. Maybe you get a walking pad so you can sneak steps in while you’re working. However you do it, the key is not waiting until the very end of the day to get started.

You can also make your walks more enjoyable by pairing them with something you actually look forward to. Listen to your favorite podcast (ahem, Deadlifts and Pizza), or throw on a show and walk on the treadmill. It can actually be fun and relaxing.

For me, I usually get a couple thousand steps during my morning workout. I’ll take a short walk while I eat breakfast, and I can usually fit in a slightly longer walk before I get the kids off the bus. When I do that, by the end of the day I might only need 20 minutes on the treadmill to finish my steps, which is a lot better than a full hour.

Keep Your Workout Time Sacred

Pick a workout time when you know you won’t have distractions. That’s why I train first thing in the morning. The sun isn’t even up yet. No one needs me. Nothing is demanding my attention. I can kill it and focus.

If I try to work out during the day, things inevitably pop up. “Oh, this thing is actually more important, I should do that first.” “Wow, those dishes really need my attention right now.” “I need to rush this workout, I have so much to do.” But in the morning? Peace.

That doesn’t mean you have to work out in the morning. But whatever time you choose, schedule it and protect it. Nothing else gets your attention during that window. You made a date with a barbell, and you’re not standing it up.

Lean In To Winter Foods

Winter doesn’t mean your entire diet has to go out the window. There are actually some advantages to winter foods if you lean into them.

Take soup, for example. Soup can be incredibly filling, relatively low calorie, and nutrient-dense if you make it right. I usually make a big batch once a week in the winter, which gives me plenty of leftovers for lunches and usually another dinner too.

I also like to bake more and make foods I wouldn’t normally eat in the summer. Instead of fighting the season, take advantage of the cold while it’s here.

Final Thoughts

Staying consistent with strength training in the winter isn’t about white-knuckling your way through misery or pretending the cold doesn’t affect you. It’s about being honest with yourself, setting standards you can actually maintain, and knowing when to push and when to pull back.

You don’t need perfect weeks. You don’t need endless motivation. You need clear non-negotiables, reasonable boundaries, and a plan that works in this season of life, not some imaginary one where you have unlimited energy and no responsibilities.

Winter is going to test your discipline. Comfort will always make a strong argument. But if you keep showing up in small, boring, consistent ways, you won’t come out of winter feeling like you have to “start over.” You’ll come out stronger, more confident, and already ahead of the game when spring rolls around.

You don’t need to do everything. You just need to do enough, consistently.

And honestly? That’s how real progress is built.