A New Year, A New You: How to get started :)

I hope everyone had a great New Year's Eve. I had a quiet evening: went for drinks at my boyfriend's friends' place and then to the Keg for a late dinner of steak and yumminess. Got home around 11 and the boyfriend was sleeping within a few minutes lol. I refused to go to bed before midnight so I found a countdown on TV, wished him a happy new year and crawled into bed at 12:05AM haha.

I had a friend message me asking me for some tips so I'm dedicating this post to her and anyone else who wants to start making changes and steps towards a better and healthier you.

First, I want to share my favorite websites for free workouts - no excuses. Also, most of them don't require equipment and are under 20 minutes. They are all great resources for food and recipe ideas as well.

Fitness Blender - www.fitnessblender.com
Millionaire Hoy - https://www.youtube.com/user/yaboymillhoy
The Fitness Marshall - https://www.youtube.com/user/TheFitnessMarshall
Zuzka Light - www.zuzkalight.com
Bodyrock - www.bodyrock.tv
Daily HIIT - www.dailyhiit.com
Melissa Bender - www.benderfitness.com
Chelsea - www.vivacefitness.com


My friend has a blog where she has recorded videos for beginners if you find that the above links are too intimidating. Her blog is http://lovesimply.sarahdmusic.com/ Don't be fooled though, her workouts still kick your ass ;)

For more food ideas check out my recipe tab. As I've mentioned before I love Michi's ladder, a tool from Beachbody. It's very helpful to plan balanced meals and snacks. I also found that using a calorie tracker such as My Fitness Pal will help you get on the right track and make you more aware of how many calories you are burning and how many you're consuming. It's quite an eye opener because there are many things I thought were healthy that were full of sugars and empty calories.

Check out the Fitness and Health information tab for some other great links from magazines that I've found over the last year. There are so many resources out there!!! And it's incredible how many magazines publish information on their website for you to use without having to subscribe to their magazine.

After a year and a half of this amazing and rewarding lifestyle here are some tips that I'd like to pass along:

• Prepare at least your lunches for the week on Sunday (or whatever day works for you)
• If you have the time, prepare your snacks and dinners for the week as well (no excuses if healthy food is ready for you to grab in the fridge)
• Allow yourself to have treats IN MODERATION. If you cut yourself off completely you risk losing control, binging, and then feeling awful. Have a treat here and there, again, in moderation.
• Make the time to workout. If this is a priority you should make it a priority. I workout as many days of the week as I can because I never know when I won't be able to after work. When I work early shifts I workout after work. When I work late shifts I workout before work.
• Results take time. Don't give up because you don't see a change on the scale or your body. It took time to gain the weight so it's going to take some time to lose the weight.
• Just because you worked out today doesn't mean that you're 'allowed' bad food. You're not a dog, don't reward yourself with food. **FOOD IS FUEL FOR YOUR BODY, NOTHING ELSE**
• Drink lots of water and cut out pop - even juice has a lot of sugar. I really only drink water and coffee with cream. I only drink diet pop if it has alcohol in it ;)
• Try to eat veggies with every snack and meal.
• REMEMBER: finding what works for you takes time. Everything I post on here is what works for me and may not necessarily work for everyone. Tweak your diet and exercise after 2 weeks if you're not noticing a change in how you feel. Some people prefer 3 large meals a day whereas I prefer 3 smaller meals and 2 snacks throughout the day.
• If you find that these are too many changes, try incorporating one or two of these into your life a week or 2 at a time. Drastic changes can be intimidating and overwhelming. Try starting with drinking more water and concentrating on what you're eating before you start adding exercise in. I lost 8 pounds by tracking my calories before I starting working out.
• My last tip: Try not to eat after dinner. This was probably the hardest habit for me to break. I love eating cereal before bed. But your metabolism slows way down when you're sleeping so eating before bed can damper your results.

I hope this is useful and if you have any questions please respond to this post or can you message me on my Facebook page.

-- Kelsey