Champion's Mojo for Masters Swimmers
The award-winning podcast for Masters swimmers, adult athletes, and fitness enthusiasts who strive for peak performance and personal excellence. Hosted by world-record-setting Masters swimmer and Health and Performance Coach Kelly Palace, each episode offers inspiring stories, expert insights, and proven strategies to help you unlock your champion mindset—in the pool and in life. With nearly 300 episodes and a track record as one of the top-ranked swimming podcasts, Champion’s Mojo is your go-to resource for motivation, success, and well-being. Ready to dive in? We’re here to champion you!
Champion's Mojo for Masters Swimmers
8 Point Plan to Finish 2024 Strong During the Holidays and Set Up Success in 2025, EP 263
What if the key to swimming faster in 2025 lies in how you navigate the holiday season? In this energizing episode of Champion’s Mojo, hosts Kelly Palace and Maria Parker share eight actionable strategies to maintain fitness and motivation between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. With the average American gaining up to 10 pounds during the holidays, they provide expert advice on avoiding setbacks and staying on track to crush your fitness goals.
From setting a January swim meet as your motivation to practical tips like keeping tempting foods out of reach, Kelly and Maria dive deep into the art of balancing holiday indulgence with athletic discipline. They highlight how inspirational reads and listens can spark your drive and discuss the importance of yoga, stretching, and body work to enhance recovery and prevent injuries.
Whether you're aiming to shed a few pounds, build strength, or simply stay consistent, this episode offers valuable insights and a fresh perspective on making the most of the holidays to set the stage for your best year yet. Don’t miss this motivational roadmap to finishing 2024 Strong and making 2025 stronger, leaner, and faster!
Email us at HELLO@ChampionsMojo.com. Opinions discussed are not medical advice, please seek a medical professional for your own health concerns.
Hello friends, welcome to the Champions Mojo podcast. I'm your host, kelly Pallas, and, as usual, I'm co-hosting with my wonderful sister-in-law, maria Parker. Hey, maria.
Speaker 2:Hey Kelly, it's great to be with you. We've just been enjoying a great conversation before we hit the record button, so I'm excited to share with our listeners.
Speaker 1:Yes, so it's the day before Thanksgiving and we have been talking about setting ourselves up for a great 2025. And a lot of people wait until January 1 to make some plans, and you and I feel really strongly about, really strongly about starting a little earlier and looking at the the these next. You know, eight weeks is is a crucial time when you can really backslide on your training, your fitness level, your ability to perform, your ability to train and and we feel like we wanted to put this out there what we're doing, uh're doing and hopefully inspire some of you guys to think about things that you want to be doing, and these are the things that we're going to be doing.
Speaker 2:Right, and you know, for me this is something I think about because my birthday is early in the year and my birthday is an important day for me. It's in February, so I'm often going through the holidays thinking I do not want to feel bad in February. So this is a great time to to take kind of advantage of. The holidays offer a lot of advantages for us. Sometimes I think we use them as excuses to, like you said, backslide or, you know, to overeat or whatever. But it's also an advantage. You have more free time, more time to you know, think and do, do the things that you want to do. So you should think of these these next six weeks as a great opportunity to start some some good habits.
Speaker 1:Yes, so we've come up with eight things we're going to be doing. We discussed them at length as the sister-in-law and elite masters athletes that we are. So you know everybody can adjust as they see fit. But so so my first one, maria, went. Oh, no, is my first one.
Speaker 1:Between now and January one, I want to lose five pounds of fat. Of course you don't want to just lose five pounds on the scale, you want to be lean. I want to lose five pounds of fat, and here's why I'm putting that out there as a goal. But the average American between October 31st, halloween and the 1st of January gains 7 to 10 pounds. So if I just have the goal of okay, I'm going to try to lose weight during the holidays, then maybe I won't go back for a second you know piece of pie, or maybe I won't overeat when it's just, it's like saying, oh, I want to break 530 and the 500 free. You know, that's that's kind of a stretch goal for me. But if I aim for 530, maybe I'll go 535. And that's what I'm doing with this lose five pounds.
Speaker 1:Also, I will say that many of the swimmers that we interview you know that have done elite performances. One of the things we ask them, maria. You remember and I'm specifically thinking of Amy Rieger she just blew everybody's doors off and did some amazing times as she turned 60. And we asked her what was one of the secrets. She said you know, I lost that five pounds that I just needed. And so you know, I'm not saying that that's something that is a must, but I feel like if I just put that goal out there to lose some weight, maybe I won't gain the seven pounds that could happen, maria. Okay, why did you give me a big?
Speaker 2:oh, Well, I think you know people, this is a sensitive topic. But I think the people who don't need to lose five pounds because they're you know people this is a sensitive topic. But I think the people who don't need to lose five pounds because they're you know they're ripped they already know the tips and tricks for getting through the holidays without gaining seven pounds. And you know I just. But you know, I think, take this as inspiration. You don't have to give in to every, you don't have to accept every piece of sugar loaded carbohydrates that's offered to you. And for me, you know, a very simple thing is like, just don't keep it around the house. Like, yeah, on Thanksgiving we're going to have pie, I'll have a piece of pie, but I'm not storing the leftovers in my fridge, I'm giving them away. And that keeps me on track for what you're talking about, kelly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and, and one of the secrets that I do, when you know, tomorrow again Thanksgiving, tons of tons of stuff and Mark and I are in charge of bringing all the desserts, so we have five pies for about 20 people, and but is I try never to go into a big buffet type situation, starving, like I don't you know, I just go in hungry but not starving. So maybe before I leave for that, I will, you know, drink a little, have a little small bit of yogurt or eat five almonds or something. You know that it's that I'm not starving when I get there is kind of one of the ways that I'm able to to not just overeat like crazy. So anyway, that was number one, maria, you, you came up with number two. Tell us about that.
Speaker 2:Well, I think. I think again, this is a great opportunity. Your schedule's different than it normally is, but you really need to stay consistent with your training, and that that doesn't mean you have to do the training at the same time. You know, if you're, if you can sleep in or whatever, take advantage of some of the midday daylight, do that. But don't stop training, and for a lot of us, this means you know training on travel days and training when we're.
Speaker 2:You know training on on days when there we have guests, for instance, and I, my family now and extended family, they all know that I'm going to work out. That's just part of it and we try to include that as part of our. For instance, tomorrow is Thanksgiving and it's going to start out with a big run, a big family group run. I'm not running because I've had knee surgery, but I'll be keeping the grandkids while everybody else goes for a run, and I just think if you establish things like that, that's going to get you through this holiday and also all the holidays coming. Don't forget to train. And also this is a tip I tell myself If I don't train, I'm going to feel cranky and irritable, which is not how I want to feel in the holidays. Training keeps my mood good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. Of course, if we're looking at the holidays, sometimes you just think, oh, this is the time to kind of let down and relax. And yeah, we definitely should relax and enjoy family and enjoy traditions and enjoy the social part of it. But yeah, you can get that with your training group, or maybe go to your, have coffee, your, your training group, but keep the training going. It's just like, don't make the excuse of this is and and obviously you know, pools are closed on Thanksgiving day and maybe even New Year's Eve. I mean Christmas Eve and Christmas day. But if you can't do you know the exact swim you want to do. Well, then go for a long walk or, you know, do something to keep moving, turkey trot, but but keep that you know the exact swim you want to do.
Speaker 1:We'll then go for a long walk or, you know, do something to keep moving turkey trot, but but keep that, you know, keep your cardiovascular fitness and your strength going during the holidays. So consistent training, All right. So that's number two. Number three is it's kind of cool if you can do one simple little strength training move, and this is something I'm going to do again. These are things Maria and I are doing to be ready for January. I am in the middle of a sit-up streak. I do 100 sit-ups every day, which isn't a lot, but if you think about it at the end of the month, what is that?
Speaker 2:3,000, you know that is 30 days.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's 3000 sit-ups. Swimming is highly core driven, so I just do a hundred. I do the um Navy seal sit-ups, which is where I I tuck my feet under our sofa and you know the the weight of the couch holds me up and I bring my chest all the way up to my knees and I try to do, you know, 60 of those in in two minutes and then I'll go on and do another 40. Sometimes I'll do a straight 100, but I usually just do 60. And Mark can't do those sit-ups. They hurt his back. So he does crunches and he does 100 every day.
Speaker 1:But start a streak, whether that's sit-ups, push-ups, you know, if you can't do full push-ups, you can do pull-ups, you can do pull-ups. You can do, you know, assisted push-ups, where you're just on your countertop and you're slanted in. But just if you just continue that, that's something you can easily do in between hanging Christmas bulbs or you know, baking goods or whatever you're doing with your family or over the holidays you can say, oh, I got to keep my streak going and just get out the Excel spreadsheet and just check it off.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that. Or put a little star on your calendar and it's not forever. Just imagine yourself doing it till January 1st, and what a great thing to have done all those sit-ups or whatever. I love that one, kelly. I love a streak.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, so that's number three.
Speaker 2:Maria, you got number four, which is, yeah, number four is during this holiday season, when things aren't so maybe regular, with your swimming team or with whatever team you're on, pick one technique in your sport swimming that you really need to work on Just one technique. So whatever it is, for me it would be kelly asked me what would your technique? For me it'd be flip turns. I'm terrible at flip turns, um, but if I work on that consistently just during this period, not necessarily the whole year or whatever, but just during this period, it's like a little mini block where I'm going to work on this one technique that I know I need to work on. What are some some other techniques, kelly, that people could specialize in that they might have trouble with?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's a great thing, maria. I love this one and I'm going to be doing this one too. Again, you and I both kind of agreed that we're going to both do all eight of these that we came up with for us. But I think technique if you take one, take your, but I think technique if you take the place, you know you need the most work so that you want to see the biggest result. So I know I need the most work on my butterfly, but I don't care about my butterfly. I don't want to do butterfly, I don't.
Speaker 2:So I'm not going to work on that.
Speaker 1:It's not going to be butterfly. It's not work on the thing that you're the worst at. It's work on the thing that will most improve the event, or the stroke, or faster, you know, on a base 25 where you know I'm generally known as distance person, but I want to be faster. So I want to work on the technique, my sprinting technique, you know when I'm higher tempo. So I'm going to be working on tempo. I'm going to be working on tempo. I know Denise has a little tempo trainer so it's not always easy for me to use or put on, but I have it, I love it, it shows my tempo. So I'm going to be working on tempo and I think that's going to make the biggest difference for me in my events.
Speaker 2:So, whatever your events are that you want to work on, it could just be a really strong push off the wall right, it just just push off the wall it could be one dolphin off each wall, streamlining it could be streamlining.
Speaker 1:It could be dolphining, it could be your tempo, it could be your, your catch, it could be your start, it could be streamlining um, off the start, getting into a hole. I know, you know, a lot of master swimmers will be very flat on their dives and so, yeah, just I think we've covered. You know what that one is. So that's number four. Um, number five this is something over the holidays that I think will be really easy to do, but it just makes a huge difference for me, um, and that just makes a huge difference for me. And that's to read or listen. Read or listen to something inspirational. And you know this is not meant to be self-serving, but it is a. It's a conversation Marie and I just had, and the podcast right before this is the Michelle Kuvan Kupfer interview.
Speaker 1:So listen to podcasts or books that inspire you. I had, of course, we interviewed Michelle and it was very inspirational. But I went back and listened to the final finished product of that podcast, which I think is podcast 262 for us, our very last one that we produced. That's 262 for us, our very last one that we produced. And after I listened to Michelle talking about how hard she was working and kind of her injuries and overcoming her flip turn, dizziness and all this. I thought, gosh, that just inspires me to go swim. Another book that I've been listening to is called the Comfort Crisis and it is phenomenal. It's a great book, michael Easton, or is it Michael Easter? We can put that in the show notes, but that book also when I listen to that, it inspires me. So during this time it is going to be harder to get motivated. So find things that you can read or listen to that are going to get you down to the, to the workout.
Speaker 2:I love that and I think that's that's that's a great thing. Listen a little bit every day, I love it, and if you're in the car or on an airplane, great opportunity for uh to listen, or if you're a reader, read.
Speaker 1:All right, that was number five. Number six Maria.
Speaker 2:Oh, this is a great one. This is kind of like my birthday. Put a meat on the calendar for January and you need to do this right now. Go find a meat in January. This is probably, for me, the biggest thing to keep me training. If I know there's something coming up early in the year that will keep me training through the holidays, it's because if you take a whole week off in December, it's going to just crush your, your, you know your, your, your fitness and so if you have a meet, meet that's going to keep you getting up and keep you helping you be consistent in your training.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think this probably is the most powerful one of of all eight number six here, but it's just like they're all the okay. All the January meets are posted. You can go to clubassistantcom, google Club Assistant, master Swimming All the meets are there. They're also posted on your local, you know, master Swimming websites, your local LMSCs. The meets are out there for January. There are tons of them and some are short course meters, which is, you know, a great venue to do. Most of them are probably short course yards. But put a meet on the calendar, or put two meets on the calendar, because you know, you know, when there's something on the calendar, you're, you're gonna, it's going to motivate you to get down to the pool. So, um, that is we're, we're both doing it. So that's, that's, that's a, that's a really peak one. Um, all right. So that was your number six.
Speaker 1:My number seven is schedule some time to do body work. You know that. You know maybe you're watching Christmas movies or holiday movies or just hanging out chatting. What's wrong with doing some serious deep stretching, working with a massage gun, but really taking care of your body and the the sitting, just sitting. You know, when you're visiting. Why not do like Mark and I are into this thing called primal squatting. So when we are talking sometimes we'll get in the primal squat. If you don't know what a primal squat is, just Google it. It's great for your lower back, for stretching. You know your quadriceps or hamstrings. You know massage gun. Obviously you could get a massage if you want to do that. But take care of your body because you're you know, the more you take care of your body, the less you're going to be injured, the better you're going to feel. In practice, all that, all of it comes together. But I think taking care of our bodies through stretching, yoga, massaging, is important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was going to say, extend that to yoga and massage. That's with this. With your consistent training and your streaking on whatever it is you're doing, you're going to need a stretch, and and and. I love that, you know, just take time for body work and it's something you can do socially, you know, while you're, while you're visiting with family. So, okay, that's great. Oh, last one. This is this one is really Kelly's, but swim really fast once a week.
Speaker 1:You need it, Maria, but you agreed to it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agreed to it, but this is something that's kind of consistent. It's not just for me. You know, most people know that my main sport is cycling. This is true for any sport Like, especially those of us who have sort of slipped into the endurance, like you know, long and slow, because we like the fitness and we like the psychological getting getting out there and doing it fast once a week, hard and fast once a week. It just it's good for you, it wakes your muscles up, it's it'll, it'll improve everything. And this is true for swimming and cycling and running and any sport that you do. You know, bring some, bring some bounce into it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that that is number eight. Get really fast once a week whether like you know in any sport, swim fast once a week.
Speaker 1:And you know some. You know obviously a lot, of, a lot of uh training schedules. Seasonal training schedules have kind of these big yardage blocks over the holidays and that's totally cool. I mean, if you're, if you're consistent training includes swimming a lot of yards over the holiday season, that's cool. But you still, you still should swim fast once a week. That's what we're going to try to do, which is is really fast, Like we're talking, you know eight fifties on five minutes all out, or you know 10, 25 on two minutes, just as fast as you can go again, getting that tempo, getting that speed, feeling what it feels like to to be completely exhausted, mark was.
Speaker 1:Mark was saying to me the other day he's like, oh gosh, I saw, I saw you doing those hundreds on that interval. And he said I looked over and you were floating on your back just sucking air and I was like you know, if you can envision yourself that exhausted where you're, just like, you cannot even stand up in your lane, you just have to throw your body back, you're floating on the water and you're just sucking air in because you're so exhausted. That's the type of effort we're talking about there, so that sounds like fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know, Maria, that's right right up your alley you love this stuff.
Speaker 1:Well so, anyway, these are what we're going to do and hopefully, you know we'll. We'll see how they go, but it's, I think I think these are, I think these are some powerful things that have, um, listeners out there. What are you guys doing? You know, uh, drop us an email or post it on Instagram. We're going to, you know, post an Instagram. That's usually where we, where we are and um, we so appreciate you guys. You know, on Thanksgiving we're, we're really grateful and thankful for you guys being with us.
Speaker 2:Uh, we're going into our sixth, sixth year in 2025.
Speaker 1:Maria, what, what are your thoughts on our great yeah?
Speaker 2:absolutely I'm, I'm and I, you know, I think, spending some time reflecting on being able to swim, being able to ride, being able to run such a great thing to be able to, and if you're grateful for it, then you're not going to give it up easily.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So all right, Maria. Well, we will not be together on Thanksgiving, but I will be with a bunch of our family who will miss you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, have a wonderful time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but we will see each other soon and I love you so much.
Speaker 2:I love you too, kelly, take care.
Speaker 1:All right, bye-bye.
Speaker 2:Bye-bye.
