Motivation Tips:
I believe it is really important to understand your motivations for exercising and/or eating healthy. Whether it be to get fit and toned, to lose weight or just to feel more confident. You need to understand what your aims are and how you want to achieve them. For me, it's about getting fit and tone and having that flat stomach and great legs I've always wanted. What I have done to help keep me focused is made a collage of how I want my body to look. I've included old photos of myself as well as photos of other women and motivational posters. The photos of other women aren't all models that are a size zero but more of curvacious women with toned bodies, something I find more achievable, personally. I have put this collage on my wall near my bedroom door so every time I walk out the door I can see it.
If you love social media like facebook, twitter or whatever than you can also find fitness or health pages that post daily motivational images. For me, I use Instagram daily and have found a page called "fitnessforladies" and she posts numerous photos a day about motivation, healthy eating and exercise routines. It's a great way to motivate yourself.
Obviously, you need to find your own vice that will motivate you to get to where you want to be as this method doesn't work for anyone
Exercise Tips:
Things you must always remember when exercising is that your body needs rest in order for you to gain the full benefits of your routines. That is, you should do weights every second day and if you want to exercise everyday, you can do Cardio. This also allows you to prevent the risk of injury and you don't get burnt out. Stretching is also of utmost importance to prevent injury and to help your muscles recover. You should always finish your routine with stretches.
Research has shown that traditional crunches work faster at
engaging the abdominal muscle than using any machine at the gym. I
suggest stick with the basics! Every personal trainer I've ever spoken to believes that if you do those traditional exercises correctly (eg protecting your lower back whilst doing crunches) then you can gain just as much reward, physically, as using gym equipment.
If you want to change up your routine and put in something different to break the week up, I suggest hunting down a good Yoga venue or even trying a class of Kickboxing, Cycling or Zumba. Kickboxing is by far my favourite class to attend as it's fun and you'll be amazed at the muscles you feel being used. I also love doing Zumba with my friend once a week as it's a good time for us to catch up and we have lots of fun mucking around doing the dances as well as getting fit.
There are a range of classes that can be found at gyms or even privately without memberships. Check out your local shop windows and bulletin boards or your local paper! Most communities centers have privately run exercise classes.
Healthy Eating Tips:
Now if you're anything like me, you find it hard to stick to cutting out the sugars. Dieting has never been my strength but I've found a way to slowly cut it down. You have to think of it more as healthy eating than dieting.
I first started by cutting down the size of my dinners. I think this is important as Australian's tend to have their biggest meal at dinner and don't usually use the energy that they've consumed. I did this by getting a smaller plate for my dinner and obviously, no seconds. Feeling full is somewhat psychological and Australian's tend to think subconsciously they aren't full unless their plate is clean, which steams from childhood and having to finish your dinner before you could leave the table/have dessert.
Whenever I have a craving for a sugary snack, I opt for a 'Sencha Sensation' tea that I bought from T2. It is a sweet green tea with fruity flavours and is a nice change to regular green tea. There are heaps of different green teas you can get ranging from sweet to nutty.
You also have to see food as a energy source and not a reward or answer to boredom. If you are bored and want to grab that biscuit or chocolate bar, think to yourself "Am I really hungry? Do I actually want to eat this?" and either resort to a cup of herbal tea or glass of water.
Fun fact: you burn more calories drinking a glass of water with ice in it than a room temperature glass of water.
Alternatively, (taken from "fitnessforladies") you could have a shower or do 20 situps or paint your nails.. the possibilities are endless.
Recipes for healthy delicious food are never hard to find but here are my tips on deciding what to eat:
WATER: You should always try to drink 8 cups of water a day. Take a drink bottle with you wherever you go and you'll be surprised how much you drink. Also if you love your coffee, you should have one cup of water to balance the caffeine and you should have 2 cups of water for every 30 minutes of exercise. That does sound like it adds up to a lot but really it isn't and your body will thank you for it.
BREAD: Try not to have more than one serve a day. If you have toast in the morning then don't have a sandwich for lunch. You should aim to have 3 bread free days a week.
FRUIT/VEG: Eat as much as you like of these and don't stress about portions as long as you're not coating them in oil or fats. You can have dried fruits as a snack and at lunch you should eat your fruit first followed by your lunch. Try and avoid fruit in the late evenings. Nuts are also great but you want unsalted, raw nuts and remember that they do contain (good) fats so avoid things like peanuts and stick to nuts like almonds and walnuts but no more than 60g a day.
Always try to look for healthy alternatives to your favourites. Like Rice cakes for chips, frozen yoghurt for ice cream, mineral water for soft drinks (soda). And if you like your alcohol, keep track of how much you drink and for each glass (standard drink!) you need to do 10 minutes of cardio. There is no reason that you can indulge every now and then but it should be kept to a minimum, eg only have two biscuits instead of half a packet. And remember if you stock your pantry with healthy foods you can't be tempted by sweets.
When you're out at a restaurant and scanning the menu, choose things that aren't fried (eg chips) and I suggest not ordering pasta. Opt for things like fish, meals with salad and remember although you have to pay for it, it doesn't mean that you have to finish off the plate even when you're full. Main meals at most restaurants are oversize and can undo a good day of healthy eating leaving you feeling bloated and uncomfortable.
So those are my first tips for getting yourself motivated and a brief overview on how to attack healthy eating.
