Secrets to Fitness Success

Looking for an easy way to fast track yourself to those New Years goals?  Let's break things down into 5 easy steps to get healthier. 

My Facebook feed is blowing up with ads for so MANY 21 or 28 day challenges that its mind boggling.  The fitness world is surely filled with options, from Goat Yoga to Star Wars workouts 2017 had plenty of choices!  Even with all the different options out there= we all know that 88% of resolutions will be broken by February 1.

Here’s the truth.... Healthy Habits should be built slowly over time. In my own experience as a fitness instructor for 17 years, the most successful goal-getting fitness success stories come from ordinary people who made small changes gradually.  

I may be going against the grain here as a trainer, and by all means, if starving yourself on the next biggest Master juice "fast" or nutritional "cleanse" or Whole 30 tactic is working for you, please stay that course.  I see so many of you babes out there obsessively counting calories & macros or buying overpriced supplements. 

Truthfully, I was there as a fitness competitor,  constant cardio, restrictive macros and I never let a small cookie even pass my lips.  There was not much joy in my life at that time.  It really made me obsess over food and crave things MORE. 

Plus I believe you have better things to do than obsessively count calories in your oh so spare time.  Life should be spent doing things you love, so if you love multiple MyFitness App check-ins per day or sucking down chalky tasting protein shakes, stop reading…  

If not...... here are my Sustainable Fitness Success Tips

1.  Move Most Days!

Start small.  If you are new to exercises and want more to add more cardio- start with just 5 minutes of brisk walking or pilates  ab moves or yoga stretches.  Then build to ten minutes.  After a few weeks of ten minutes, you can build to 15 minutes per session.

Moving more can lead to - better mood and memory, boost in your immune system, and energy levels, and it can help you lose those last few pounds.

But in order to achieve those benefits, our weekly goals of 42,000 steps should be taken! For optimal health, you must strengthen train 3- 5 days and performs mobility and flexibility 3- 5 days per week as well.  This is very true if you are inactive at work most of the day….

I wouldn't ask a beginner to do all that.  I'd break it down into small actionable steps and every 3-4 weeks re- evaluate for success.   Starting with a five minute action leads to long term changes.

For more on this head to my blog post here…

2.  Hydration Hydration Hydration

It is so essential I said it three times.  Drink more water.  It is essential for digestions and all of your organs.  It gets rid of the waste in your body and carries the good stuff to your cells.  Science shows that drinking half of your body weight in ounces will keep you functionaing at optimal levels. 

Wake up first thing in the morning and drink a glass of it.  Carry a water bottle around and calculate how many ounces you need to drink the amount of fills you need to..  Drink two glasses before and after a workout.

60 % of our body weight is water.  75 percent of our muscle is water.  83 % of our blood is water.  Need I say more?

I also recommend trying a SodaStream for your home if they bubbles get you to drink more of it.

3.  Eat 3-5 Servings of Fruit Per Day

Lets up your antioxidants, and eat that rainbow!

I am not going to tell you what NOT to eat.  There's soooooo much of that online and I don't believe in one cookie cutter meal plan that works for everyone.  I also dont believe in restrictive dieting.  I DO believe nutrition should be sustainable.

Try to keep fruit on hand to snack on, if you want to balance the snack add a few heavy nuts or half an avocado in.

Cut and wash up lettuce and tomato and cucumber for every dinner you make as a side salad.

Eating more plants can lead to less cardiovascular disease, cancers, bowel diseases as well as lower your risk of getting the metabolic disease.

4.  Balancing Strength and Flexibility

Strength and flexibility goals are easier to track & hit than weight loss or “toning” goals.   Weight loss goals require more than one thing to happen for you to achieve them.  To hot weight loss goals you need to enact both a cardio and strength plan into your routine.  Then a eating habits and diet may need to be looked at.  

To succeed, you break that down into four goals

1. Get stronger and add more strength based moves in 2- 3 days per week
2. Cut out processed foods 5 days per week
3. Add cardio in 3-5 days per week to hit your 42,000 step goal per week
4. Lose weight

The easiest of these to achieve is 1 or 3, since you just need to move!  losing weight will most likely require all three to be done, which can be really really challenging if you are new to fitness or have a demanding schedule.

A simple way to track your strength for upper body- would be to count how many push-ups you can do fr 60 seconds.  After 4-6 weeks of doing the exercises-  test again. 

For core strength, the test is done using the full sit up for one minute.  For flexibility goals- take a pic of yourself in the stretch and then after consistent practice take a sweaty selfie again in the pose!

5.  Mindset is Everything

If you think you can’t, you can’t!  Also if you hate something you will be much much less likely to actually do it.  If you come to me saying you HATE pilates, I would not tell ya to try another class of it.  I’d help you  find movement YOU prefer- maybe HIIT or functional training or a TRX workout.  For many of you there is no exercise class makes them you want to jump out of bed in the morning.  When it comes to sticking to a routine find something that you at least Like a little.  

If we want to go a bit deeper into this… Studies show that positive thinking increases our immune system and how long we can live!  Staying stress-free can impact our lives. 

One of the reasons I have made my workouts so playful is that play brings joy.  Pets are another source of joy as is dance, music and art.  How can you incorporate more of THAT into your life in addition to your fitness goals?

If you love life don’t waste time for time is what life is made up of

Bruce Lee

If you are just starting your fitness and pilates journey, make sure to download my free ebook.  I want you to Strengthen Stretch and Smile with me all through 2018.