Turkey Day Tips!

Keep your cardio short & sweet:
I harp on it all the time, but keeping your cardio short and effective is important when you're time crunched. Whether you are running down the street, knocking it out on the treadmill or gliding around on the elliptical, shoot for 10-15 rounds of 30 second sprints followed by 30 seconds of rest. If you're not breathing hard and sweating by the end, you didn't do it right! With the proper dynamic warm up, a good cardio session should only last about 15 to 20 minutes max. This will be enough to keep your body in fat burning mode and keep you fit enough to run away from your creepy uncle without getting winded.

Don't eat like the Turkey may pop up and run away at any minute:
It's Thanksgiving, not the end of the world, so don't eat like it. Sure the food is delicious and there is lots of it, but that doesn't mean you have to cram as much food as you can into your stomach. If your holiday parties are anything like my family's then its likely you will be hanging around all day or you will be party hopping place to place. Either way you want  to eat smaller, more controlled portions and give your food a little time to settle before you go back for seconds. Keep your scoops of mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole and your turkey servings a little smaller than the size of your closed fist. This will be a good way to gauge a serving size and likely save you from indulging in hundreds of excess calories.

Combine Cardio & Weights with Cardio Strength Training:
Cardio Strength Training, a term made popular by collegiate strength coach Robert dos Remedios, is the art of eliciting an efficient cardiovascular response by using weight training. In a previous newsletter I talked all about complexes, density sessions and timed sets (if you didn't receive or read about these methods, e-mail me and I will send you the write up). These techniques are perfect for stressed out, time crunched family members looking to stay fit and sane through the holidays. Just like a good interval session, you can get your share of fat burning and muscle work with just 20 minutes of cardio strength training.

Snooze on the booze.
I've used this term before and I think this is a great way to save yourself from consuming empty calories and binge eating in a drunken holiday craze. The only other person more annoying than the creepy uncle in the family is the member who can't hold their liquor. If you decide to ditch the beer or wine for some water, tea or coffee, I can bet you'll eat less calories and you'll be invited back for Christmas.

Map out your workout sessions:
Even the best workout routine can get thrown for a loop when it comes to traveling and turkey day party hopping. You most likely know what your plans look like for the week and its important you set some time aside to get your "me" time in, just like any other day of the week. Plan to get a workout the day before, the morning of or the morning after Thanksgiving. Most of us have time off work, which should give us plenty of time to ramp up our metabolism with a workout, even if it is just 20 minutes!