Podcast #23: Holiday Special! Thanksgiving’s Five Fattiest Foods and Our Top Holiday Fitness Tips

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Nutrition, Podcast

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In this week's Podcast Episode #23, I host a roundtable with personal trainers Mark Cavallaro and Jolene Wilkinson. During this episode, we talk about very practical and easy ways to maintain fat loss and fitness during the holidays and Thanksgiving. If you're trying to lose fat or get fitter during the holiday season, you won't want to miss this episode, which includes:

-The top five fattiest foods and perfect substitutions

-Smart strategies straight from top trainers at Pacific Elite Fitness

-How to make food less likely to get stored as fat

-Tricks for staying motivated to exercise

-Ways to make “Holes in Your Calendar” for fitness

Also included in this podcast is an answer to the following listener question:

I listened to podcast #21 where you gave your 1-2-3 secret to fast fat burning and basically, you advocated 20-30 min @ 60% MHR an on empty stomach.  My question is that I work out 5x a week at an hour each morning – 2-3 times full body weight training and 2-3 times high intensity cardio at 85-95% HR or interval training. To increase my fat burning potential, how do I use this slower, steady cardio technique?  Should I continue with my current workout program and then tack on an extra 30 min of steady cardio?

Thanks always,
Tina

Here are the shownote links from topics mentioned in this podcast:

Order The Original Gymstick (use the 10% discount code at minute 10:58 of this week's podcast!)

Bodybuilding for Skinny Guys – Click Here To Go From Zero to Huge in 20 Weeks!

Triathlete Interview Form – Fill This Out to Find Out More About Multi-Sport Coaching

Fitness Interview Form – Fill This Out to Find Out More About Fat Loss & Fitness Training

And finally…

Jolene Wilkinson's Health(ier) Cranberry Chutney Recipe
1 cup water
1/2 cup stevia (sugar substitute)
1 (12 ounce) package fresh cranberries
1 cup apples – peeled, cored and diced
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

In a medium saucepan combine the water and sugar substitute. Bring mixture to a boil over medium heat. Add the cranberries, apples, cider vinegar, raisins and spices. Bring to a boil, then simmer gently for 10 minutes stirring often.
Pour mixture into a mixing bowl. Place plastic wrap directly on the surface of the sauce. Cool to room temperature and serve or cover and refrigerate. Bring chutney to room temperature before serving.

Yield: 20 serving

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2 thoughts on “Podcast #23: Holiday Special! Thanksgiving’s Five Fattiest Foods and Our Top Holiday Fitness Tips

  1. Spokane Al says:

    I enjoyed and appreciated your podcast on holiday eating. I do wish I was a bit more like the coaches featured in the show who don’t seem to like much of the holiday food offerings.

    My problem is that I really enjoy it all. So while implimenting the ideas presented, our tri club also has a holiday zero weight gain challenge that helps me.

    Each week we report on our forum of our weight gain/losses over the previous week and net change from the starting date. This really helps me in that I work hard so I don’t have to post a gain over the holiday season. And while I tend to traditionally put on a pound or two over Thanksgiving, that public reporting makes me work to take it off so that I hit New Years Day with a net no change or a small weight loss.

  2. Jessi says:

    I listened to the podcast and was interested in the Thanksgiving/holiday tips. I was hoping that it wouldn’t be a podcast full of “just don’t eat it” so-called tips… as that is the obvious. I think for most people, we’re trying to minimize the damage and knowingly go into the meal sacrificing some of our normal eating choices for tradition and ‘Aunt Gertie’s famous ______”

    Although I didn’t think Mark’s input about just eating turkey is all that useful/realistic, there were several tips I thought were helpful for me.

    1) getting a workout in early in the day

    2) eating healthy and normal throughout the earlier parts of the day (+ glass of water before the meal)

    3) skipping the dinner rolls (as those are an ‘everyday’ food)

    4) using a smaller spoon to dish the gravy

    5) eat slowly

    6) go for a walk before eating dessert

    For most people, families are potlucking the meal so there often isn’t the option to change the ingredients or to do so without an ensuing riot. I think many families have long standing traditions about Thanksgiving foods, so I tend to chuckle at tips about changing up the mashed potatoes for plain yams as I envision the heart attack of my father-in-law.

    I applaud you for doing both the hard core and the not-so-hardcore suggestions, however, and appreciate that I didn’t waste my time listening to a healthy tips podcast telling me basically not to eat Thanksgiving dinner…duh. I like the 80/20 rule. That’s doable for a lifestyle of health and fitness.

    Liked the ideas too of making holes in the calendar.

    Thanks for all the info.

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