Albert K. Park

           For the last week I have had tons of things bogging down my mind. I guess it's that time of the year when things get a little hectic. Not to mention right after I wrote the lower back pain article I ended up hurting my lower back. Real smooth Exlax, yeah I know. But more importantly there is a lesson to be learned in that and another article to be written on the importance of dead lifting form. It's coming soon.
          Another annonyance of stress has been the increasing fear of "dun dun dunn". The Thanksgiving Dinner! Everyone I meet and all my clients are really worried about how much this one glorious day will effect them. Meaning how long they will feel the effects. Below I am going to give you some bullet points to follow in order to easily get through this holiday without gaining an easy 10 pounds. Afterall Christmas feasts and parties are just around the corner.

• Before the holiday try eating healthy: Since we are all expecting a gut busting holiday that will lullaby even the crankiest babies to sleep, why not prepare your body to process all that goodness. What do you mean? I mean helping to naturally raise your metabolism through diet and exercise. Try eating 5-6 smaller meals each day which will force your body to continually process foods all day increasing metabolism.
• Avoid overloading on the sweets and carbs: Trust me I know the best foods are sweet and carb packed so I am not saying eliminate these completley. What I am saying is don't overdo it. Maybe this year you will have extra vegetables, no not the ones covered in marshmallows, but the green things.
• Make sure you watch how you eat the leftovers: This is where the majority of the weight americans pack on to their midsection comes from. It's not from that one feast but the 10 feasts that come during the next week. Don't worry I used to do and probably will still do the same thing, but try with me this year to really limit this. Usually we will pile on the goodies onto a microwavable plate, zap for 2 minutes, then have a thanksgiving feast repeat. Next thing you know, it's two hours later and your waking up in front of the t.v. confused and hungry again. This is what we want to avoid. Try smaller portions that have a minimal amount of sweets and carbs.

• Get back on your workout regimen: This is a vital aspect of maintanence. You can get really comfortable with missing a few workouts after thanksgiving, afterall you are coming back from seeing family and friends. You also have a weeks worth of leftovers waiting for you at home, something you look forward to even more than the weekends now. GET BACK TO WORKING OUT! Get back on your work horse asap before the fat finds a home on your hamstrings. Focus on one workout at a time. Come see me if you want and I will definitley make sure you get back to it.

     My gag reflexes fired as I spit out my mouthpiece and slugged some water. The comments on the article were right, this was no joke despite it looking easy. This is the beach body workout for fat loss by Craig Ballantyne that was posted on Nate Green's Blog. I did it with my Kickboxing Mouthpiece to restrict oxygen and incease oxygen capacity, dumb idea to try it the first time. Whatever here it is, maybe you can try it after flooding your glands with turkey gravy.

Beach Body for Fat Loss

• Repeated Vertical Jumps - 8 reps
• Pull ups - 2 reps before failure
• Lunge jump - 6 per side
• Close grip pushups - 5 reps short of failure
• 1 and a 1/2 Bulgarian split squats - 10 reps each side
• Regular Pushups - 2 reps before failure
• Bodyweight rows - 15 reps
• Bodyweight squats - 25 reps
• Mountain Climbers - 15 reps per side
• 1 arm KB swings - 10 per side

Instructions:  Perform all the way through until done. Rest 1-2 minutes and perform for 2-3 sets. Or as many times as possible in a 20-30 minute window.

Each round took me around 4-5 minutes. So it is a pretty fast and effective workout. Definitley works the entire body and a great way to burn fat.