Creating A Fitness and Healthy Eating Routine

Making time for fitness and a healthy diet in your schedule/daily routine is crucial. Knowing where to start is sometimes daunting though! Here are three beginner steps. Before you get overwhelmed though, there’s no need to tackle all three at once! Start with one for a week, and then add another and so on. Once you are comfortable, they will seem like normal everyday tasks and you won’t think twice about them.

1. Track what you eat and your exercise.
2. Plan your workouts.
3. Plan your meals.

Okay. Let’s break these down!

Tracking everything! It sounds all-consuming – but it’s not.

• There are two FREE apps, My Net Diary (the one I’ve used for more than two years) or MyFitnessPal. Both will help you track food, and with My Fitness Pal, you can also see other people’s food/calorie count as well as add friends.
• Or, use a good old-fashioned pen and pad, if you’d like.

Plan your workouts. Load into your calendar, schedule it like an appointment!

• Join a group to help motivate you! (I lead a free running club for Moms called East Orlando Moms RUN This Town –some of our members only participate online, some are part of the group but don’t join discussions and some are very active – the involvement level is up to you!)

• Find classes at the gym (Spinning, Yoga, Pilates, Bootcamp, Cardio, etc…)
• Have a friend meet you to hold you accountable (This almost always works!)
• Online fitness sites with workouts you can do from home:
  • Fitnessista
  • Peanut Butter Fingers
  • Fit2Flex
• Monthly challenges. In last month’s blog post I shared abs, squats and planks – here are two more you can add to your growing collection!

• Free phone app workouts:
  • Skimble
  • Nike Training Club
• Popular workout DVDs:
  • InSanity, P90X, Les Mills Pump, Jillian Michaels 30 day shred, Bodyrock.tv, TurboFire, Chalean Extreme and many others that are out there!
• Jogging strollers: Sometimes this is the only option to get a run in. BOB strollers are the best out there and you can find them used and in great condition most of the time!

Plan your meals.

• Pre-prep lunches. Aim to have lean protein, complex carbs, vegetables in each meal. Cook your food ahead of time and then divide into containers for the week.

Plan snacks!

• Apple & strawberries w/peanut butter dip (1/2 cup peanut butter to 1 cup greek plain non-fat yogurt)
• Greek yogurt plus chia seeds
• Granola bar
• Cheese stick
• Laughing cow wedges/Special K crackers
• Pre-measured bags of popcorn (100-150 calories)

You don’t have to take all these steps at once – but start somewhere!