Now that the long and grueling month of January is finally over and we slowly rolled into February, a lot of you might be jumping back on the wagon of carrying with you New Year resolutions. Maybe January was just a "trial year" for some of you. Losing weight and getting fit is the number one to-do on everyone's list of goals, and I'm here to list all the tips, tricks, and food to eat for those looking to get back on track.
1) Buy a food scale. It may seem tedious and rather annoying, but you'll thank yourself in the end. If you decide on tracking your food and counting your calories and macronutrients, getting an exact weight on food to get those exact calories to log will make reaching your goals much easier. There are nutrition labels on almost everything which also labels the calories for the specific serving sizes. Get comfortable with taking the extra few seconds to read those over.
2) Download a fitness app. Tracking your food in different apps available is an effective way to make sure you're staying on top of your eating goals. Some apps, like the popular MyFitnessPal for example, has a section where you can set your calories and food intake to tailor your goals, whether it be to lose weight, maintain weight, or gain weight for those looking to pack on some muscle.
4) Make protein your best friend. Protein is the biggest staple in someone's diet. For those losing weight, protein satiates you so you don't get hungry, and it also helps maintain muscle so you don't lose it as you're burning your fat. Protein also helps people looking to bulk-up become bigger and much more muscular, as it is a macronutrient that serves as a building block in recruiting lost muscle fibers after a workout.
5) Don't fear carbs. You're probably used to hearing how bad carbs are for you. On the contrary, that's opposite the case. Carbs serve as a re-supplement of energy that's been lost after you work out. Stick to the complex carbs, like whole wheat bread, pasta, brown rice, etc., etc. Those carbs are a lot more filling than empty carbs like sugar and practically anything overly delicious that you know for a fact isn't good for you.
6) Do some conditioning work. Conditioning work is a great way to tone up your body, increase your agility, speed, and performance. Box jumps, jump rope, interval sprints, kettle bell exercises are all great ones to implement shortly after you finished your workout session. Google has an insane amount of different exercise tips and ideas as well that you can get a basis from.
7) Lift weights. Lifting weights doesn't just make you muscular, it can also help to shed fat, tone you up, and maintain muscle while you're losing weight. If you set your calories so that you are eating in a deficit (burning more calories than you are taking in) then lifting weights will help all the more in burning that stubborn fat and revealing your maintained muscle.
8) Do high-intensity interval training or HIIT. HIIT is a great fat burner. It includes doing extraneous bursts of speeds of a certain cardio exercise, followed by a minute of walking or cool down. Do that on and off for 25-30 minutes. Different HIIT workouts include treadmill sprints, outdoor sprints, and even jump roping or rowing.
9) Pick a goal. Whether you're looking to lose weight or get bigger to appear more fit, tailor your needs to achieving that goal. For losing weight, you need to make sure you decrease a few hundred calories from the baseline calories it takes for your body to maintain your weight without gaining or losing a single pound. If you would like to get more muscular, you need to add a couple hundred calories above what it takes your body to maintain your current weight. For example, someone whose body maintains its weight by eating 2500 calories would adjust their caloric needs pertaining to their goals from that number right there. Lose weight? Maybe eat 2100 calories. Gain weight? Crank it up to 2900 calories. Your body is your experiment, and there's plenty of online calculators to also do the work along with you.
10) Be patient. We all heard it, "Rome wasn't built in a day." Well, neither is your body or anything of that matter that you're looking to keep improved for the long term. Take it easy and take YOUR time. This is YOUR goal.
11) Live. When it comes to achieving any type of goal, don't wait until after you achieved it to live a happy life. Life is about the journey and going from there and the different experiences you face while working towards your dream. Take it easy, splurge every once in a while, and treat yourself. While not every day is guaranteed, there's plenty of days ahead of you to jump back on track.
