December Newsletter

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all had a very happy Thanksgiving with your loved ones.  We had two great challenge groups last month and are starting two more this month for PiYo and the 21 Day Fix. If you haven't checked out the awesome Black Friday deals Beachbody has going on you have through December 2 to do so!  You can still get P90X, Insanity: the Asylum Vol. 1, and Les Mills Combat among others. 

Also starting December 2nd the brand new Insanity Max:30 challenge pack comes out on discount! If you want to be in the best shape of your life you'll want to get this.  You know how they talk about maxing out when you lift weights?  Well, Shaun T takes this same philosophy and applies it to cardio and body weight strength training.  You go as hard as you can until you MAX OUT! There is a modifier and it's all about self improvement so anyone can do it regardless of your fitness level.

Here are some before and afters for the first half of the Insanity Max:30 challenge!

Our team put together a list of healthy gifts that would be fun to give or get!

20 Healthy Gifts for Friends & Family (or to put your Christmas list!)

1. Fruit basket, nuts, cheese, popcorn, dark chocolate, whole-wheat bread, Harry & David Gourmet Food
2. Fancy water bottle [like this one]
3. Exercise equipment [bosu ball, resistance bands, agility ladder, stability ball]
4. Gift certificates for an activity [horseback riding, dance classes, see tourist destination, hiking]
5. Cooking classes [preferably making something healthy]
6. Cookbook/book on nutrition [my favorite is the new cook book called Skinnytaste]
7. Personal development book or audiobook [Compound Effect or Push are excellent]
8. Fitbit or pedometer
9. Games that require movement [Twister, jump rope, badminton, basketball, tennis racket, roller skates]
10. Gift card for a massage
11. Gift card for live exercise class [like PiYo or Insanity!]
12. Exercise program [like PiYo, P90, Turbo Jam, or Insanity Max: 30]
13. Supplements [like Shakeology, P90X Protein Bars, or Quest Bars]
14. Juicer or blender to make healthy shakes
15. Bicycle
16. Quality fitness accessories and clothes [headband, lululemon,Nike]   
17. Giftcard to make homemade meals [Dream Dinners - they give you all the stuff to make a dinner]
18. Aerogarden [grow fresh vegetables and herbs in your house, black thumb approved!]
19. Subscription to magazine [like Health, Fitness, Cooking Light, Eat Well, Living Without]
20. Fitness Journal [like Lorna Jane and Blogilates]

8 Tips for Avoiding the Holiday Pounds

By Stephanie S. Saunders

It's that time of year. The leaves turn majestic hues of red and gold. The air becomes fresh and crisp. We can finally put an extra blanket on the bed and cuddle up with a cup of hot tea. Yes, it's fall. We just spent 8 months killing ourselves to get into that bathing suit, but now we've replaced it with a worn pair of jeans and a much more relaxed attitude towards food. After all, it's the holiday season, and no one'll notice a few extra pounds under layers of clothes. A little extra weight just gives us a New Year's resolution to focus on, right? Wrong. According to a recent study by researchers at Sweden's Linköping University, those 4 weeks of celebrating can actually lead to long-term weight gain. So how are we supposed to get through the holidays without causing weight gain? Here are eight effective ways to get yourself ready to beat the holiday bulge. 1. Buy clothes that fit right now This first tip might be a bit pricey, but it's a great motivational aid in staving off weight gain. A new addition to your wardrobe in a size that shows off your summer body can be all you need to prevent those extra pounds from creeping on. Imagine that beautiful holiday dress or great pair of pants, then imagine being unable to zip them up thanks to sugar cookies. Yeah, no one wants that. So before you begin the festivities, go buy yourself something perfect to wear to your parties and hang it someplace visible, so it serves as a constant reminder. Perhaps on the TV where you play your P90X videos, or in front of that treadmill that might be starting to collect a little dust in the corner, or on your refrigerator door . . . that way, if it doesn't fit quite the same way the next time you try to slip into it, you know it's time to get back to work. 2. Write it down We try to write down everything we eat, right? We spend hours each month staring at a food diary, adding up our calories, and seeing if we got the correct balance of macronutrients. And then the holidays happen, and our little book ends up in the bottom drawer. It's almost like we're hoping that if we didn't write it down, it didn't happen. Unfortunately, the scale doesn't fit in that bottom drawer. The truth is, if we would write down the not-so-perfect meals and treats, we could find a way to compensate for it, at least a bit. For example, you have a peppermint brownie in the break room at work, which you know is carbohydrates and fat. Eat one less portion of carbohydrate and one less portion of fat for your dinner. It's not ideal, but it'll help. Or perhaps you couldn't resist Mom's homemade scones for breakfast. You could plan on an extra 20 or 30 minutes of your workout tonight. The point is, if we write it down, and do the math, we can lessen the damage. It isn't a good long-term plan, but to help compensate for a few slip-ups, it can help. 3. Keep exercising Most fitness trainers will tell you the slowest point of their year is between Thanksgiving and New Year's. Sure, their clients schedule workouts with the best of intentions, but then they cancel them for parties and gift shopping. It's hard to remain balanced when you have a million things to do and gifts to buy. Yet the greatest gift you can give yourself is to stay focused on your fitness goals and get your workout in. Shopping getting in the way? Do it online and save some time. Parties getting in the way? Just show up later. Who cares if everyone else is a couple of cocktails ahead of you? You'll be healthier, and you won't have to worry about the embarrassing YouTube® videos in the morning. Just stay consistent, even if it's inconvenient. You'll be much less likely to look like Santa (both belly-wise and red-nose-wise) at the end of the month. 4. Eat before parties Most holiday parties don't focus on low-fat, low-calorie refreshments, so unless you're organizing the event, the best damage control is to show up with a full tummy. Make sure you eat your meals and snacks throughout the day, and try to eat a healthy meal before attending any party. If you're going straight from work, prepare a healthy and filling snack to eat on the way. You'll be a lot less likely to swim in mayonnaise dips and pigs in blankets if you're full. 5. Get junk out of the house The majority of people don't get into the car at midnight, drive to the store, buy the ingredients for cookies, bake them, and then stay up to eat them. But if those homemade cookies that Linda in accounting made for you are already on your kitchen counter, you better believe you'll find a way to justify it. Frankly, at 12:30 AM, after a rotten day, for most of us there's nothing like a few cookies to drown our sorrows. The secret is to get the enticements out of the house. Send them to work with your significant other, donate them to a bake sale, regift them to your 100-pound friend with the perfect metabolism, or just dump them in the trash. Linda will never know. If you have holiday dinner leftovers, box them up for your guests individually and send them home with them. If your family still sends you that Pepperidge Farm cookie assortment, invite a bunch of people over for a pre-party party and serve 'em up before the drinks. Don't be more wasteful than you have to, but get the less-than-healthy temptations out of your reach. 6. Offer to prepare healthy fare This suggestion won't be well received by those of us who'd rather spend Thanksgiving sitting around watching football than toiling in the kitchen, but if you do the cooking, you have the control. Your family could have a tasty and satisfying meal without ingesting thousands of calories and fat grams. The way the turkey is prepared, the type of stuffing, how vegetables are made, whether the cranberries are real, and countless other things can make or break the healthiness of a meal. There are tons of cookbooks out there, plus recipes in this and past newsletters, that can help you out. Yes, it does require a bit of work. But you work out with Beachbody fitness programs. You can do anything. 7. Choose wisely and proportionally Something occurs during a holiday meal. It's like a Las Vegas buffet—we feel like we have to eat some of everything. We feel almost like those foods will never exist again, and this is our last meal on the planet. This year, why not try to eat only your favorites, as in two or three items, and keep the portions to the size of your palm? If you're still hungry, try to fill up on veggies (preferably ones that aren't drowned in butter or cream-of-mushroom soup). If you want dessert, lean toward a small slice of pumpkin pie (220 calories) as opposed to pecan (a heftier 543), leaving out the hydrogenated nondairy whipped topping if possible. If you're going to have an alcoholic beverage, go with a flute of champagne (100 calories) as opposed to that rum-laced eggnog (with more than four times more calories, at 420). Just a few wise choices will save you a ton of calories, and probably a significant amount of heartburn as well. 8. Don't beat yourself up Quite possibly the worst thing you can do is beat yourself up over a bit of holiday indulgence. Yes, it does stink to backslide after working your tail off. But sometimes it doesn't stink as much as dealing with your mother when you turn down her brisket and potato pancakes. Sometimes, we don't have time to go to work, buy a Christmas tree, decorate it with our kids, make dinner, oversee homework, tuck kids in bed, and spend an hour doing INSANITY. We can only do our very best. Mentally berating yourself will only make you feel worse, which never helped anyone get back to their fitness program. So if you happen to gain that one extra pound this holiday season, be part of the rare group who actually follows through with their New Year's resolution and manages to shed it again. A week of hard work and a slight calorie deficit should do the trick. Resolutions don't come easier than that! Link: http://www.teambeachbody.com/eat-smart/nutrition-tip/-/ntip/17386/all/127/5/sugar