St. Pete Boot Camps

“No excuses” can usually fall deaf on one ear when it comes to taking control of your health and fitness; especially during this time of the year. Between, holiday gatherings, parties and shopping, this is the time when people generally put good health on the back burner and engage activities and respomsibilities that may not necessarily compliment their overall fitness. By the time the holidays come to an end they wonder where did the weight gain come from and immediately resort to the infamous New Year’s Resolution.

Don't get caught up in the Halloween weight gain web!

As Halloween is “creeping” right around the corner, there is something you should know: pumpkin season is REALLY when the holiday weight gain starts! The months of November through January are typically blamed for holiday weight gain because of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. But, the pounds of fat actually start accumulate as early as late October. The amount of sweets people consume during this time is incredible! 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:

1. Workout with Pumpkins:

Engage in some rediculously fun and effective seasonal fat loss workouts involving only your body weight and, well… a pumpkin! You can use this large orange fruit like you would a medicine ball (except for the throwing and smashing part). If you don’t want to use a pumpkin, simply use a medicine ball or dumbbell. You can make your very own four minute total body pumpkin fat loss workout, using the provided template below (the options are endless):

Exercise#1- Double-Leg Lower Body: Pumpkin Squats with Shoulder Press 60 s max rep, 10 s rest and transition

Exercise#2- Upper Body Push: Pumpkin Push-ups @ 60 s max reps, 10 s rest and transition

Exercise#3- Single-Leg Lower Body: Pumpkin Lunges with Torso Twist @ 60 s max reps, 10 s rest and transition

Exercise#4- Upper Body Pull: Pumpkin Bent-Over Alternating Rows @ 60 s max reps, 10 s rest and transition

- Perform this 4-minute circuit 3x for 12 total minutes.

View the video below:

Although this workout lasts for only twelve minutes, you will burn tremendous calories and save yourself the time to justify the sweets you would have eaten anyway. These high-intensity, metabolism-boosting circuit interval training workouts only take four minutes to complete and will have you burning tons 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 2nd Annual Charity Halloween PUMPkin Boot Camp on Thursday October 29th at 5:30 pm over at North Shore Park – Downtown St. Petersburg.

As mentioned in my popular article “Managing Your Weight Is Like Managing Your Bank Account,” the secret to losing, gaining or maintaining your weight is based on calories in vs. calories out. If you are trying to lose weight, you have to take in fewer calories than you are expending. People gain weight because they consume more calories than they expend through movement or exercise. This is how the weight-gain begins to “creep” up during Halloween.

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

Heavenly Swirls Cheesecake

Ingredients:
- 2 Rectangular Packages of Philadelphia Fat Free Cream
Cheese (plastic container makes a lighter, softer cheesecake if
you prefer)
- 1 Cups of Splenda
- 2 Whole Omega-3 Eggs
- Walden Farms Calorie Free Chocolate Syrup (Optional)
- Add Low Carb Light Whipped Cream to taste

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.”

3) 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 2nd Annual “Halloween PUMPkin Boot Camp” click here and reicieve my “No Tricks Halloween Cookbook” packed with healthy holiday recipes and treats as a BONUS.