1.) Determine Your Priorities and Keep Track of Progress
Do you want to lose weight, increase endurance, or build muscle? Or all 3? Get a notebook and write your goal down, your weight, and your body measurements. Weigh yourself in the beginning of the day the same day each week. Use a fitness measuring tape for your measurements. Each week, by monitoring your progress you’ll be able to see your results and how they have changed and it will motivate you to be consistent.
2.) Plan Your Meals
To see results you can’t eat junk; your body will need good food in order to operate to it’s fullest capacity. You will need fuel to build your body. What you eat is one of the most important factors in reaching your fitness goals.
Plan your meals in advance and create a grocery list for the week. Look up recipes that are healthy and shop for food you know that will build your body. Start at the beginning of the week, and make several meals to get the week started. You will be less tempted to opt for unhealthy meals after work.
3.) Count Your Calories for a Week
This will show you what you are putting in your body, and help you understand how quickly you could put on extra weight by overeating and making poor choices. Use a popular app for your phone like MyFitnessPal or Lose It!. If you want to stay more accountable to yourself, you may want to continue watching your calories for a while to help you stay on track.
4.) Factor in the Numbers and Stay Under Maintenance
Start by using an online calculator to determine what your maintenance calories are. These are the calories that you take in each day in order to stay at the weight you are at. Add your total to your calorie counting app, if you decide to use one, and then each time you add your calories for the day you’ll see how many calories you are away from maintenance.
If you want to lose a certain amount of weight you could also use these calculators to determine how many calories to eat each day, versus just monitoring how close to maintenance you are.
5.) Workout at Least 3 Days a Week
Start a workout plan that interests you with a variety of exercises that focuses on each muscle group. You can find plans on websites like Body Building and Muscle and Fitness.
For an example: one day I work my back and biceps, the next I work my chest and triceps, and then I work legs on the third day.
Be sure you don’t work the same part of the body two days in a row in order to allow your muscles to rebuild. Abs recover quickly and can be worked two days in a row, but they don’t necessarily need to be exercised every day. A lot of exercises also target your core, and can count as an ab exercise.
6.) Get a Gym Buddy
Find someone to workout with consistently. Having another person to go to the gym with will encourage you and help you stay consistent. You could set personal fitness goals together and either compare your results, or have competitions with each other in order to get motivated.
7.) Get Plenty of Sleep
Most of us can honestly say we average 6 or 7 hours of sleep a night. Our bodies need plenty of sleep in order to regain energy, heal itself, consolidate memory, repair muscles, and release hormones to regulate growth and appetite. Sleep is essential. Don’t rob yourself of what your body really needs to operate at it’s best.
8.) Dress to Impress…Yourself
It’s important to be comfortable so you can move around at ease when working out, but it is also important to feel good about yourself in what you have on. If you like what you see in the mirror, you will be more motivated to keep going. It’s easy to throw on a t-shirt and shorts, but if you don’t like how you look in it you’ll just be distracted by how much you look grungy compared to the girl lifting next to you in her cute, coordinated workout clothes. It’s okay to spend this month’s budget on your gym clothes; you’ll be glad you did.
Photo Credit: http://www.fitbie.com/slideshow/fitness-motivation