3 Tips for a Better Figure-Friendly Halloween

3 Tips For a More Figure-Friendly Halloweennn

By Damon Reio, CPTnnwww.myhitechtrainer.com/physiquesptnn

As Halloween season is “lurking” right around the corner, there is something that you should know: pumpkin season (Halloween) is REALLY when the holiday weight gain starts! While the months of November through January is typically blamed for holiday weight gain, due to Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years, Actually, the pounds of fat start to get packed on in late October. The amount of sweats and treats that people consume is alarming. One of the main problems is the smaller “snack sizes” that the candy manufacturers have made available. Although it is the traditional purchase and eat during Halloween, these small snacks often are misleading to people. Eating several “mini” chocolate bars is something people see as “ok“ due to the smaller size. In other words, it becomes a lot easier to convince yourself to indulge in these gut-swelling goodies. This causes one to end up eating even more than they would if they were to indulge in the regular sized bar.

Let’s focus on what we can control while still having fun. Use the following three figure-saving tips that I have used with great success with my clients 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 amazingly fun and effective seasonal fat loss workouts involving only your body weight and you guessed it… a pumpkin! This orange fruit can be used just like a medicine ball except for the smashing or throwing aspect. If you don’t want to use a pumpkin, simply use a medicine ball or dumbbell. 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 transitionn

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

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

Exercise#4- Upper Body Pull: Pumpkin Bent-Over Alte
ating Rows @ 60 s max reps, 10 s rest and transitionnn nn- Perform this 4-minute circuit 3x for 12 total minutesn

Although this workout lasts for only twelve minutes you will burn a tremendous amount of calories and save yourself the time to justify the sweats 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! As mentioned in my popular article “Managing your Weight is Like Managing Your Bank Account,” the secrets 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 less 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, culinary quee
Naomi Nazario makes a fall-time classic, Pumpkin Pie, into a much more figure-friendly option. In her "Guilt-Free Pumpkin Pie" Nazario substitutes the loads of sugar with splenda and replaces 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:

Naomi’s Heavenly Swirls Cheesecake

Ingredients:nn- 4 Rectangular Packages of Philadelphia Fat Free Cream

Cheese (plastic container makes a lighter, softer cheesecake ifnnyou prefer)nn- 1.5 Cups of Splendann- 4 Whole Omega-3 Eggsnn- Walden Farms Calorie Free Chocolate Syrup (Optional)nn- Add Low Carb Light Whipped Cream to taste

Directions:

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

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix the four packs of cheesecakennwith the Splenda. After that, add one egg at a time. Mix with annnelectric mixer. Pour cheesecake into a pan coated with Pam. Ifnnusing the chocolate syrup, pour small amounts as you wish andnnhave fun designing swirls with a knife. Bake for 50 minutes or untilnnthe middle is almost set.

Place in refrigerator for 4 hours, or if you are in a rush, place innnthe freezer for one hour. A sliver (1/11 of the pie) can be used asnna treat. As a meal, women have 1/6 of the pie, men have 1/3 ofnn

3) Use Common Sense:nn nn- Only buy enough candy so that you expect to run out before the evening is over. It’s crucial to weight loss success to not have “trigger” foods lying around – the temptation is often too great.nn nn- Allow yourself just one piece of candy in the morning and then one at night. Skip any dessertsnnthat 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.nn nn- 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-laded treats that typify 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.nn nn