As Halloween season is ominously looming around the corner, the time is now for a big-time reality check: pumpkin season is REALLY when the holiday weight gain starts! While the month of December is typically blamed for holiday weight gain, the fact remains that the pounds actually start to get packed on in late October. The amount of eats and treats that people consume is alarming. One of the main problems is the smaller "snack sizes" that the candy manufacturers have made available. Eating several "mini" chocolate bars is something people see as "ok" because of their smaller size. In other words, it becomes a lot easier to convince yourself to indulge in these gut-swelling goodies and then you end up eating even more than before!

Well my rant aside, let's focus on what we can control. Use the following three figure-saving tips that we have used with great success with our own clients for keeping the pounds off while still allowing for the occasional indulgence this trick or treat season:

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, unless that's your goal! 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 @ 20 s max reps, 10 s rest and transition

Exercise#2- Upper Body Push: Pumpkin Push-ups @ 20 s max reps, 10 s rest and transition

Exercise#3- Single-Leg Lower Body: Pumpkin Lunges @ 20 s max reps, 10 s rest and transition

Exercise#4- Upper Body Push: Pumpkin Bent-Over Rows @ 20 s max reps, 10 s rest and transition

- Perform this 2-minute circuit 2x for 4 total minutes

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!

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 it's health profile. For example, culinary queen 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.

3) Use Common Sense:

- 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.

- Allow yourself just one piece of candy in the morning and then one at night. Skip any desserts that 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.

- 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 emotional 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. So, instead of using Halloween as a reason to justify eating a bunch of junk food we spin the seasonal event to spice up our boot camp 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.