Okay so here is my whole New Years Resolution plan typed out although the video is probably easier to watch and understand haha!
So first off I start off by making sure I have a "Fitness Journal". At first I was just using a notebook as my fitness journal but I recently bought a cute decorated composition notebook. You can also decorate one yourself with inspirational pictures on the front. I think having a cute journal to write down all your fitness and health goals really makes you see updating it as fun and not work.
I set up my journal in a couple ways.
1. On the first page I always write my goals and reasons why I am doing this. I also write my starting measurements. This could be anything that you really want to focus on. I'm not really concerned with losing weight but I always like to take my weight anyway. Then I measure my resting heart rate. Then the measure parts of my body such as waist, hips, right thigh, left thigh, chest, you can measure your arms (biceps).
2. After that first page or two I start each day by writing the date, and then the week I'm on since I started the changes, and the day since I started. So my first day I wrote "Monday, January 4, 2010. Week 1 Day 1"
Then for each day I write "Excercise:" and then write whatever type of exercise or workout I did that day. After that I write "Diet:" and update as I go through the day "Breakfast: Nutritional shake w/ 4 strawberries and 1/2 banana" etc. Usually I write down calories if I know them because one day I realized that I ate way too many and another day I realized I ate only 1100 calories and going below 1200 calories consistently leads to an eating disorder and that is really bad. So be careful.
3. After Exercise and Diet I usually take some time at the end of the day to look over my day and write just a little note in the journal about how I feel I did that day, accomplished, disappointed, comfortable, excited, etc. Anything really.
I always drink however much water I feel I need throughout the day. I probably don't drink enough but as long as I feel hydrated I'm okay. Otherwise I would say 8 glasses of water a day is what most people say is good for you.
As for exercising, I don't like to push myself too hard either. When I do, I end up giving up early. So if you haven't seen my video yet go watch I tell you what I do! It's called the Couch to 5K program. It's for those of us who are not active or athletic and want to start running. I always hated running in middle school and high school so this really has helped so far! I'm on the end of week 4 right now and it is a 9 week program. The website is http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml they give you the information on how to do it!
You are supposed to run 3 times a week with a day of rest in between. So on those days of rest I try to cross-train. I do pilates which is great! I love it! I just bought a DVD from the bookstore called "5 Day Fit Pilates" I would really recommend it! Any Pilates dvd with the instructor "Ana Caban" is great. I love her dvds! You can also get them online from Gaiam.com or amazon, etc. If you have the money you can even take classes at the gym.
For diet I don't like many breakfast foods so I drink a nutritional breakfast shake from herbalife every morning. They are actually really delicious! The recipe for the shake I make is 1 cup of orange juice, 4 strawberries (frozen or non), 1/2 banana, and 2 tablespoons of the French Vanilla herbalife shake mix. Mix it up in a blender and then add 7 ice cubes and it is like buying a strawberry banana smoothie from the mall! Yummy! You can get the shake mix and lots of other great healthy products at
http://www.shopherbalife.com/vickya
Then for the rest of the day I really don't have any specific diet I just know to watch my calorie intake and make healthy choices.
I LOVE the website http://www.hungry-girl.com there are some AWESOME recipes on there that are low fat and low cal. Also there are two Hungry Girl books that I want to get so you can check those out too!
Okay so I hope this helps some people! (:
<3 Natalie
