Everyone Dreams of a White Christmas. But What About If We Strived for a Grey Christmas?

Bear with me, this is about to get very metaphorical.

So, the vast majority of people I work with are classic all-or-nothing thinkers.

They have never reached their health and fitness goals because they live in either extreme.

They’re either going to the gym six days a week. Or not at all.

They’re either eating nothing but lettuce leaves. Or anything and everything they can get their hands on.

Essentially, they’re all in. Or they’re all out.

It’s either black, or it’s white.

And I know this, because I was this.

So I can recognise it in them. And I know how to coach them through it. Because I coached myself through it and out the other side.

So back to the grey Christmas and the metaphor.

Maybe every year you enter the Christmas period and you reflect back on the year and recognise you didn’t reach your health goals.

Maybe you say to yourself, “I’ll blow out at Christmas, I’ll enjoy everything I want to, and then I’ll be good from January.”

You ignore the little voice in your head that says, “You said the same thing last year and look at where we are now.” Or you simply reply to that voice, “Next year will be different.”

With love and kindness, I am here to say: if nothing changes, nothing changes.

If you have a big blowout 'white' Christmas like you do every year, and you strive for a perfect 'black' January where you’re super strict and dedicated, you will be in exactly the same place you are right now (or worse) come Christmas 2026.

So I introduce to you the Grey Christmas.

Where you are neither saint nor sinner. You are neither on nor off. You aren’t black or white. You live joyfully and peacefully in the middle. Where sometimes you’re a dark grey, and sometimes you’re a light grey, but you move up and down the spectrum with the ebbs and flows of the season.

It’s December 16th. I imagine you don’t have social plans every day between now and New Year’s Day.

And even if you do, I highly doubt those plans last from morning till night.

So maybe breakfast on the surface does look white; maybe your work Christmas lunch is a dark grey; and maybe you’re so tired by the time you get home that you can’t be bothered to cook, so you opt for a balanced ready meal with an extra serving of microwave veg - a mid-grey, if you will.

Mix all those colours together and you’re grey.

But if you are living in a black-and-white world where your brain says, “Sod it, it’s Christmas and it’s the work Christmas lunch today,” so you skip your homemade breakfast and grab a bacon bap from the work canteen; you finish all three courses at the work Christmas lunch even though you feel so full you could burst; and you’re tired once you get home and the day’s already been a “write-off” so you order a takeaway.

Mix those colours together - it’s a pretty black day.

Which, once in a while, is not going to have a hugely negative impact on your health or waistline, but if every day looks like that between now and the 1st of January, it will.

This is a very long-winded, metaphorical way of promoting a balanced approach to life. But in my experience, that can sound vague, abstract, and unenticing. I personally really relate to abstract thinking and ways of viewing things to help guide my behaviours and actions. It’s how I broke myself free of all-or-nothing, black-and-white thinking. It’s how I’ve helped hundreds of people achieve the same. And once you crack the mindset challenge, health goals fall into place. I have seen it over and over and over again.

It isn’t a new, shiny diet you need. It isn’t superhuman levels of motivation. It’s a new way of thinking - a brand-new approach. And that starts with approaching a season like Christmas in a way you haven’t before.

And it can be as simple as waking up each morning, thinking about your day ahead, and asking yourself, “How can I approach this day in a Grey Way?” and let it guide you.

Let it guide you to have a bowl of oats and berries for breakfast instead of a breakfast bap from the canteen.

Let it allow you to enjoy your work Christmas lunch but stop when you feel full.

Let it guide you to a ready meal when you’re too tired to cook instead of ordering a takeaway you know you don’t really need.

Let it guide you into 2026 with 15 extra days’ practice of a brand-new approach which could just make 2026 the year you finally reach your goals.

Wishing you all a very merry, very peaceful, very Grey Christmas.