My Top 10 Fitness Tips
My Top 10 Fitness Tips
Getting fit can be a very daunting task. You start, you stop, and you get frustrated. You lose weight only to gain weight. You often think you'll never have the body you dream of. It can feel like climbing a mountain that has no end. Deciding you're going to fit and doing it can sometimes feel hopeless.
I've been on the hamster wheel of fitness myself and I can tell you, there are much easier ways to get fit than you think. Finding your footing while trying to lose weight and juggling your daily life doesn't have to be difficult. I, however, took every unpaved road, filled with potholes and hills, to get where I am today, and I'm grateful my journey went the way it did.
My many pitfalls made me a strong, resilient, determined wife, mother and business owner that has allowed me to become a fitness leader that can relate to anyone's struggles, as I've struggled with it all. I have had two babies and have undergone two spinal surgeries. I have quit fitness entirely and stood on stages in major cities with trophies in my hand at fitness competitions. I've been on both ends of fitness, and I found my way.
If I could go back to the beginning, I would've loved to have had this list to help guide me through the ups and downs of getting fit. These tips are honestly the best pieces of knowledge I have from all the years of victories and failures. Let these fitness tips be your compass on your journey to a healthy lifestyle.
BE CONSISTENT
When you workout, there are days you'll be filled with enthusiasm to get your exercises in. Then some days going to the gym is the last thing on your mind. Motivation comes in waves. It's either right there in front of you or way off in the distance, far from your reach.
It's completely normal to experience this, and everyone goes through it. Lacking motivation does not mean you're not meant to be fit or you're not capable of losing weight. It merely means you're human. So if you've felt this way, let it go.
Motivation doesn't just show up for you. It doesn't exactly come naturally either. Motivation is something that you have to create in your daily life. You have to work on being consistent with your fitness as that will help keep you motivated.
If there is one thing that I could teach you about fitness that far outweighs everything else, it's to be consistent. Even on days, you have no desire to work out; you still show up for your workout. I'm not asking you to do anything else but to work out for a mere ten minutes.
It may not be the best session you've ever had, but you still went and put forth ten minutes. When I do this, I always find myself feeling better and better with each passing minute, and I end up doing a better workout than I ever thought possible. Not always though. I sometimes put my ten minutes in and head home. But, I am consistent.
Being consistent keeps you in a routine that will eventually become a lifestyle that you don't even have to think about. You'll develop a daily pattern that fitness falls into and you won't even consider missing a workout. If this isn't happening for you, don't worry, being consistent will get you there.
You won't always have the best workout or the longest walk, but you're there, and you're moving your body. You're training your mind and body that daily exercise is a must. Each step and each rep is making progress, and you must not forget that.
If you exercise for three days then skip the next four days, your inconsistency will show and lead you to being disappointed that your body isn't transforming the way you had hoped. Your exercises don't have to be grueling; they need to be consistent.
The same goes for your nutrition. You can't eat well for five days then binge eat all weekend and expect your scale to be going down or hoping your abs are going to show up on a whim. You must be consistent. Now, please remember, not PERFECT. No one is perfect, and life certainly won't run smoothly every day, so you're going to fall off track here and there. That's to be expected. But as long as you're consistently showing up to get fit, you'll see the results.
LOG ALL OF YOUR FOOD
Oh, I could tell you horror stories of eating when I began my fitness journey. Back at the beginning of my working out days, I'd hit the gym and then head to Chick-fil-a and order a brownie to reward myself for exercising. I then went on to eating salads every night for dinner and not eating anything the rest of the night to eating nothing but pizza and doughnuts all weekend. I've done it all.
Again, what I would've given to know then what I know now and I guess that's why we call it a journey. It was a lot of lessons that I can now carry on to you and others. If there were only one thing I could teach about nutrition, it would be track everything you eat. This can be a real eye-opener when it comes to losing weight.
If you're currently guessing at what you're consuming in a day, I'm here to tell you; it's probably not even close to what you're supposed to be eating in a day. Most of my clients are either way over on their calories or way under the amount of calories their bodies need. Overeating and starving are both equally unhealthy for the body and will not get you the results you wish for.
You must know what you're consuming so that you're staying within your calorie needs. If you're overeating the number of calories your body requires, you'll gain weight. If you're under eating the number of calories your body needs, your body will retain fat to survive. The only way to know where you're landing is to log your food.
You need to be aware of the grams of protein your body is getting. If you're filling up on empty calories, you will not get a beautiful, sculpted body. Your body needs macronutrients and micronutrients to function and to respond to your daily workouts.
Know your numbers and track everything you eat and drink. Doing so will help keep you motivated and on track to reaching your weight loss goals. If you're not tracking, there's no way for you to know what calories you're ACTUALLY consuming. You might surprise yourself.
WORKOUT WISER, NOT HARDER
Back in my early years of fitness, I truly believed that jogging daily was the only way you could lose weight and be fit. Anyone that knows me will tell you, that if you see me running, there's something terribly wrong and you should call 911 for me. I despise running.
I had to learn how to change the composition of my body, increase my endurance and shed fat without jogging outdoors or run on a treadmill for hours on end. If that were the only way to become fit, I would've failed miserably.
Many of my clients have to come to me after attempting to go for daily jogs to lose weight. They'd go home from work, put their running shoes on and head out for an hour of jogging. Their knees would begin to ache after a few days, their backs would hurt, or the weather conditions would keep them from sticking with it. After a few weeks, they'd think they failed, or they hated it and quit with all of their goals of losing weight. Luckily, they wanted to give it another try and came to me for guidance.
It's a shame that so many people have tried this route to lose weight and threw in the towel before ever realizing there are much simpler ways of losing weight and changing how they look and feel. Getting fit doesn't have to make you feel horrible or take up hours of your day.
I found a passion for lifting weights. Working out with weights will quickly transform your body, and quite frankly, it is incredible at reducing your daily stress. It isn't always easy, and you need to give yourself time to fall in love with the process. Once you begin to see your body changing, it becomes an addiction. Your body is a blank canvas, and weight training allows you to sculpt your body, one rep at a time.
Weight training increases your muscle mass which in turn, boosts your metabolism. Your body has to work harder to maintain muscle mass. Fat merely lays dormant in your body, and there is no work involved in keeping fat because as you know, that's easy. The health benefits of muscle mass are endless. Muscles help keep your skeleton structure upright and wards off osteoporosis. You burn more calories AFTER lifting weights than doing cardio.
Many clients come to me with the fear that weight training will make them BULKY. This common myth couldn't be further from the truth. Did you know that muscles are long and lean? Fat is very wide and takes on any shape. Weight training helps you look slim and sculpted. Lifting weights give you the ability to build and sculpt a beautiful body that maintains itself.
Doing only cardio will require you to keep your running regimen up at all times. When you have built muscle mass, your body is continuously burning calories, so you're able to take days off and still maintain the body you've worked so hard on achieving. If you have no muscle mass and you take time away from running, your body will store fat. Weight training is superior to cardio for losing weight, transforming your body and keeping it off for the long term.
KEEPING TRACK OF YOUR WORKOUTS
It's very easy to start a workout routine and get into a daily rut of doing the same thing every day. It's one less thing we have to think about or readjust once we walk into the gym. You know it by heart and change can be hard. However, if you're wondering why you do not see progress or the body isn't reacting fast enough, it's most likely because you're not tracking your workouts.
We already went over tracking all of your food, and your workout regimen is no different. You have to keep challenging the body to get your body to react to the workout. If you continuously lift the same amount of weight, your muscles become conditioned for that amount and will not grow until you bump the weight amount up.
You may think you're keeping track of your workouts, but unless you write them out and slowly increase your weight amount or extend your cardio time, you honestly can't see where you're changing your routine. This simple trick will help you understand exactly where you're progressing and where you're the weakest. You can then turn your attention to your weak areas and help them along.
Take the time to log your workouts, reps, and weight amounts to keep your body working hard. You don't need to be extreme with changing anything; you're just merely adding. Varying the reps or the weight amounts tricks the body into thinking you've changed everything, without having to disrupt your regular regimen. Do these small tweaks every week or every other week. You'll soon start seeing the changes in the mirror.
INCREASE YOUR PROTEIN
Let's start with the health benefits of protein so you can clearly see the importance:
Better sleep patterns
Help reduce calorie intake
Helps to repair and rebuild muscles
Increases overall daily calorie burn
Increases strength
Reduced time recovering from an injury
Increases your potential for fat loss
Good for your skin, hair, and Cartlidge
Makes hormones, enzymes, and other body chemicals
Now you can understand why increasing your protein is vital to gaining results when dieting and exercising. Your body needs protein every day, but more so when you're on a fitness regimen. The muscles are continually being torn down while exercising and recovery is a vital part of seeing results. I know you've read a million different myths and fads when it comes to losing weight or changing the composition of the body, but the importance of protein is a fact. You need to consume protein every single day.
Plan your meals the night before so that you're sure to be eating enough protein. Science shows three to four servings, throughout the day, of lean protein increases fat loss so that alone should be an incentive to get your amount up. Our bodies need macronutrients, and protein is definitely king!
TAKE REST DAYS
When you begin a workout routine, you can become obsessed. You worry that if you miss a day, you'll slide backward and start gaining weight immediately. I used to fear that if I missed a day of exercising, I'd fall out of the habit of working out altogether, which has happened. But it didn't happen because I missed a day; it happened because I worked out nonstop and never allowed my body and mind to rest and recover.
It wasn't that I lacked motivation; it was my body was physically overworked, and I was mentally exhausted. Learning to take rest days allowed my muscle growth to increase, I was more active on the gym floor, and I fell in love with the process of working out and eating right.
The body will respond to diet and exercise, but you have to find a balance of working the body and allowing the body to rest. Now, I'm not talking about laying in bed or sitting on the couch for the entire day. That would be a recipe for disaster as you'll slowly fall into bad habits and walk away from your fitness journey. I'm talking about taking "active" rest days.
"Active" rest days are days where you step away from your usual workout routine but still keep your body active. I look forward to my rest days, and I'm sure to have something planned out. Planning these days are also a great way to get your loved ones to spend time with you while you're working on your fitness goals.
Here are some examples of "active" rest day activities:
Hiking Yoga
Biking Wake Boarding
Skiing Surfing
Kayaking Walking
Swimming Rock Climbing
Pick something that brings you joy and relaxation. Try something you've never tried before. Be open-minded and allow yourself to experience new things. You never know, you may find a new passion. You'll be burning calories, working your muscles and unwinding from your daily stress. You'll finish feeling refreshed and recharged.
Taking these small adventures will slowly introduce fitness to your family and may inspire them to take better care of their bodies. What better way to be a role model for your kids than to encourage a fit lifestyle, without making them do grueling workouts? You can give this incredible gift to your loved ones without being pushy or turning them against fitness. Take advantage of "active" rest days. They are a win-win!
IMPLEMENT HIIT CARDIO
As I stated earlier in this blog, I do not like long distance running. I also told you about the importance of muscle and why building muscle is the key to transforming your body. However, doing some cardio is essential to our overall health, as our heart is a muscle and must be worked to stay healthy. Doing cardio while trying to build or sustain muscle mass can be tricky and finding balance is key.
I mix up my cardio daily for several reasons. First, I get bored quickly, and when this begins to happen, I start to skip it altogether. I'll find excuses like I don't have time today, or I'm too tired. Keeping it fresh helps me stay on track and inspires me to keep it in my daily regimen.
HIIT is quick and super effective if done correctly. HIIT stands for high-intensity interval training. You do short bursts of intense cardio with a short break. Doing so will increase your heart rate and then allow it to slow back down, which is an excellent way of making the body burn fat without using your muscle mass as a source of energy. Science shows that taking the heart rate up and down continuously, for a short period, is the best way to lose fat and gain muscle, which is precisely what you want to occur when transforming your body.
Here are the different examples you can do HIIT cardio with your weight training:
Treadmill:
20 minutes--
30 seconds of walking/30 seconds of sprinting
Repeat this until the 20 minutes are up
To change this up and keep your body reacting, change your walk and sprint times. You could do 20 seconds of walking/40 seconds of sprinting.
You can do this exact setup on an elliptical. With both the treadmill and the elliptical, you can increase the incline or resistance, while keeping the time intervals the same. This too will keep the body guessing and reacting.
Ropes, rower, sleds, mountain climbers, burpees, jumping rope and jumping lunges are just a few that you can do with timed intervals. Change it up and try different things. The more you make the body guess, the better your body will respond.
All of these will increase your heart rate and get your metabolism burning away extra body fat all while maintaining your muscle mass. You can put these throughout your weight training session. Lift a few sets, then do a few minutes of HIIT and then return to your weights and then repeat it at the end of your workout. Mix it up and be willing to try different methods. See what works best for you.
TAKE A MULTIVITAMIN
When I began working out, I wish someone would've told me their top 10 fitness tips, and I needed one of them to be to take a multivitamin. I had no idea the importance of supplementing daily with multivitamins and what a difference they would make on my health.
There are many different vitamins on the market, and I love the ones you can customize into a packet. From fish oils to biotin, they are many vitamins that your body needs. From joint pain to your metabolism and hair health, multivitamins are vital to keeping your body performing in tip-top shape, especially when you workout daily.
Be sure to do your homework and purchase your multivitamins from credible companies. If you have aches and pains, look up which supplement works best for aiding in these issues. Ask your family doctor for guidance on vitamins and which would work best for you.
When you're exercising, your body requires different supplements to perform at a higher level. You're pushing your body to do more work, and it needs help with recovering fully. If you're currently struggling with an injury, you will benefit greatly from adding a daily vitamin.
REWARD YOURSELF
I don't know about you, but I need a goal to work towards. I need a light at the end of the tunnel. I like to know that if I keep on track and continue to push myself, there's a reward for me at the end. It doesn't have to be something extravagant, but something that I look forward to receiving.
It could be a new book, a massage or a weekend away, like going somewhere new to hike. I set weekly, monthly and yearly goals and I set the rewards accordingly. My weekly goal may be to drink a gallon of water daily, and if I accomplish that, I get a manicure. My monthly goal may be to work out five days a week, the entire month and I book a massage for my reward. My yearly goal may be to lose ten pounds and lift fifteen pounds heavier with my largest muscle groups. For this, I may book a weekend getaway.
People often ask me why I don't reward myself with food. I used to do this, but two things happened. One, I would deprive myself all week long, and when I did reward myself with something I loved to eat, I would find myself not stopping there. If I did this on a Friday night, the reward myself with the food thing would continue throughout the weekend. You see, I no longer deprive myself of the foods I love anymore. Every day, I eat something I crave. I make it fit within my calorie window, so I no longer walk around all week wishing I could have a delicious brownie or a doughnut. If I want a doughnut today, I'm going to track it, eat it and enjoy it.
The second reason I no longer reward myself with food is that it wasn't a big enough reward. I needed something that would make me work hard and stay on track, something I genuinely looked forward too. Working out is not easy and having something to push me is a must, even after all these years of training hard.
Some people sign up for a marathon or a fitness competition to keep themselves on track. Find what inspires you, motivates you and write it down so that you can see it every day and remind yourself of what you're working towards. Maybe you want better blood results on your next doctor visit. Write it down and work on it.
Be sure to pin this to your fitness board so they are ready for you to reflect back on with you’re having an unmotivated day! These tips will get you back on track!
DON'T BE RIGID
This is probably the most crucial fitness tip, and maybe I should've made it the very first tip, but I wanted you to finish by reading this and really soaking it in.
Getting fit and living a healthy lifestyle is hard. It can be very isolating and time-consuming. You'll have naysayers and constant comments from others. You'll struggle to keep your diet clean and all of your workouts consistent. You're human, and it's a task.
So here is what I want you to know, above anything. Don't be so rigid. Be kind to yourself. You'll fall off the wagon, and you'll throw in the towel. You'll eat bad for an entire day and feel guilty and frustrated. It's normal, and we all do it. However, it's the ones that forgive themselves and get back up that succeed at getting fit.
Be ok with skipping a workout. Don't beat yourself up if you ate pizza last night. Motivation will come to you and leave you. You must dig deep and let the bad days go. If you lack drive today to workout, go to the gym and put ten minutes in and leave being ok with just that.
You don't have to be spot on and hardcore every day. There will be days you go above and beyond, and there will be days, you're mediocre. What will separate you from others is allowing yourself to fail but always making yourself get back on track and making things happen.
If you go over on your calories today, don't go over tomorrow. If you ate a bunch of processed food on Saturday, double up on your water on Sunday and go for a walk. I cannot say this enough, learn how to forgive yourself and not punish yourself to the point of no return.
You have to find a way to enjoy the process, or you won't stick with it. If you're constantly rigid and hardcore with your regimen and you hate it, you'll fail. Show up consistently to work on your goals and allow some room for error. You'll undoubtedly succeed allowing yourself room to breathe, I promise.
“Balance is the key to everything. What we do, think, say, eat, feel, they all require awareness and through this awareness, we can grow. ”
I hope my top 10 fitness tips have helped you and allowed you to see where you can tweak a few things to get better results and stick with your goals. Maybe you're not struggling, but a few of these tips opened your eyes to more straightforward ways of getting yourself fit. Be consistent and remember that the road to being fit can be full of potholes and roadblocks. When you fall off the path, get back on track by using these tips for guidance and reminders that you're human, and it's all going to be ok.
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Hugs & Love,
Aimee
Aimee Schwinabart is the founder of The Purely Fit—online workouts, nutrition, and fitness coaching that actually work! She specializes in short (super effective) daily workouts combined with customized nutrition plans to help real people shed excess fat to reveal toned, lean muscles. The Purely Fit approach to looking and feeling great prioritizes small, steady, super efficient workouts and nutrition upgrades to help you stay with it once and for all!
