Healthy tidbits to live by: part 1

Whether it's winter, summer, spring or fall, there is always something you can do to make your routine a bit better than the day before.

Let's start with a couple of ideas:

PopSugar Fitness provides great 10-minute workouts that whip you into
 shape quick.
photo: Screenshot

1. Make exercise part of your daily routine.
• Morning, noon or night, whatever works best for you, get that workout in. Don't push yourself so hard because then you'll end up doing more harm than good. If it's been a while since you've last worked out, start off easy. Lower the amount of weights you lift, lessen the amount of time you do cardio. Gently work up to it. When you start feeling like your workout is getting too easy and you can breath regularly without huffing and puffing, it's time to kick it up a notch. 
• Plus, if you're eating healthy and working out, you'll hop back in shape pretty dark quickly.
2. Eating healthy, for your body.
• I don't like saying "diet," because most think that it's eating less, but that isn't always the case. Sometimes it's just changing the way you eat. Cut out sugars, soda and fast food.  Eating sometimes can feel like a science, especially when you start reading what is actually in the foods you consume. 
• Don't freak, it's easy to do that, just take it easy. Don't beat yourself up if you slip up and have a cupcake or two, just accept it and move on. Add 10 more minutes on to your next days workout if it'll help ease your mind.

exercise isn't the only solution

Only exercising isn't the final solution in losing weight..
Part of it also is your diet.
When I work out, I'm starving after, and it's so easy to pick up a nice lunch and eat it and think, oh I worked out, that's OK.

Truth is, even though you burned calories in your work out, you're just eating them back right after!

If you want to lose weight, you have to change your eating habits too, even if it's reluctantly. Just think about the postive outcomes if you do. : )

Reading Larry Krutka's Fitness blog on the everydayhealth Web Site, he says that an 16 oz sports drink can add on 40 percent of those calories you just burned off; looking at a 170lb person who burned 250 calories on an elliptical. Almost half of 250 calories burned, from a sports drink. WOW.

SOLUTION: WATER, it's probably the best bet to quinch your thirst and it also hydrates your body after sweating for 30 minutes.

keep it up

Out of personal experience, it feels great once you start to see the results of the working out and healthy eating...but the hard part can sometimes be keeping up the routine you just started.

There's that one week where it's just so busy it's easy to say, "oh I'll just work out tomorrow."
Then the entire week passes by and you haven't done an ounce of working out.

Staying motivated is definitely tough. Then while you do make it to the treadmill, or walking in the neighborhood, 30 mins just crawls by...Try a few of these things to keep your mind off of how long you're working out.

1.) listen to some music (no sad slow songs either, but some fast-paced, minute blasting music)
2.) find a friend
3.) consider your environment (pick somewhere fun, and safe, that provides satisfaction)

Those are just a few ways to stay motivated, but make sure you have your goal set before you begin working out so you know what your shooting for and your mind is ready for the procrastinating.

Check out more ways to stay motivated on the everydayHealth Web Site.