Get Rid of the Scary Figure this Halloween by Doing This…

As Halloween is “lurking” right around the corner, there is something you should know: October and Halloween is REALLY when the holiday weight gain begind! The months of November through January are typically blamed for holiday weight gain because of Thanksgiving leading to Christmas parties and New Years booze. But, the pounds of fat actually start to accumulate as early as late October.

The amount of sweets people consume during this time is hard to imagine! People may try to be more conscious and buy bite-size candy as opposed to the regular. But,the smaller snack size that candy manufacturers make available give the impression that eating several “mini” chocolate bars is ok, considering the smaller size. This causes one to eat more than one would if they were to consume the regular-sized bar.

Let’s keep “having fun” the main focus while fixing the things we can control. Use the three figure-saving tips below that I have used on my clients, with great success, for keeping the pounds off while still allowing for the occasional indulgence this “trick or treat” season has to offer:

Tip #1 – Workout with Pumpkins

Pumpkins aren’t just for cutting up and placing on your front porch or making a high-caloric pie with. Before you do that, you can use it as an instrument to get a serious workout and burn over 500 calories in less than 24 minutes! If your don’t want to use a pumpkin, you can easily crank out routines and get the same workout by using a medicine ball.

Simply use the pumpkin or medicine ball and get started with a circuit routine like the on below:

Exercise#1- Pumpkin Burpees -  30 s max rep.

Exercise#2- Pumpkin Squat Press @ 30 s max reps.

Exercise#3- Pumpkin Arm Curls 

Exercise#4- Pumpkin Bent-Over Alternating Rows @ 30 s max reps

Exercise #5- Pumpkin Lunges

These high-intensity, metabolism-boosting circuit interval training workouts only take three minutes to complete and will have you burning 500 of calories during the workouts AND even more calories while you’re resting… or having those naughty Halloween treats! Click here to RSVP for the 3rd Annual Charity Halloween PUMPkin Boot Camp on Saturday October 30th at 8:45 am over at North Shore Park – Downtown St. Petersburg.

Tip #2 – Make Healthier Halloween Recipes:

Think outside of the box when it comes to preparing Halloween snacks. One great strategy is to use fruit as a main component in your baked goods. The most popular fruit of the fall, the pumpkin, is a health food in disguise. Loaded with beta-carotene and packing 7 grams of fiber in just one cup, adding this to any treat immediately improves its nutritional profile. For example, you can make a fall-time classic, pumpkin pie, into a much more figure-friendly option. In my “Guilt-Free Pumpkin Pie,” I basically substitute the loads of sugar with Splenda and replace high-fat condensed milk with only half the amount of low-fat or fat-free condensed milk. Simple changes like this eliminate the high-sugar, high-fat combination that is responsible for the major weight gain around the holidays. An example recipe is included below: 

Damon’s Heavenly Swirls Cheesecake

Directions:

Leave the cream cheese outside of the refrigerator for an hour so
it softens.

 Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix the four packs of cheesecake
with the Splenda. Afterwards, add one egg at a time. Mix with an
electric mixer. Pour cheesecake into a pan coated with Pam. If
using the chocolate syrup, pour small amounts as you wish and
have fun designing swirls with a knife. Bake for 50 minutes or until
the middle is almost set.

Place in refrigerator for 4 hours, or if you are in a rush, place in
the freezer for one hour. A sliver (1/11 of the pie) can be used as
a treat. For more tasty Halloween recipes, go here and download a free copy of my “No Tricks Halloween Cookbook.”

Tip #3 – Just Use Common Sense

- Only buy enough candy so that you expect to run out before the evening is over. For weight loss success, it is critical to not have “trigger” foods lying around – the temptation is often too great.

- Allow yourself just one piece of candy in the morning and then one at night. Skip any desserts that you would normally eat after dinner. Also, be sure to increase your exercise activity by thirty minutes on every day that you eat your two pieces of candy. This will counteract the increase in calories that you are consuming.

- Furthermore, if you indulge a bit too much, it’s important to forgive yourself and move on. Dwelling on the past will not help your success.

We must break out of the frustrating eating patterns that sabotage our fat loss efforts during the holidays. Our brains are wired to crave the sugar-packed treats that compliment the Halloween season; not because we’re made that way but because we’re creatures of habit when it comes to holiday tradition and our body craves sugar when we are sedentary. Therefore, instead of using Halloween as a reason to justify eating a bunch of junk food, why not spend the seasonal event to spice up our workouts by using pumpkin exercises and making healthy pumpkin pecan shakes? Halloween thus becomes a fat loss tool for us, an approach that is key to adopting a healthy lifestyle for long-term weight loss success.

Committed to your fitness and success,

Damon Reio

P.S. – To RSVP for the 3rd Annual “Halloween PUMPkin Boot Camp” click here and reicieve my “No Tricks Halloween Cookbook” packed with healthy holiday recipes and treats as a BONUS.