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The Trainer’s Guide: Fall into healthy habits this season

Are you ready to Fall back into a healthy lifestyle, but don’t know where to start? If eating well and daily exercise took a vacation this summer, stop burying your head in the sand and get ready to turn over a new leaf this season.

Members Only.  Joining a gym has boundless benefits and allows members the freedom to choose from group fitness classes galore, top-tier certified training experts and amenities to ease the aches of an arduous day. Adherence is the number one factor that determines whether your fitness goals will come to fruition or end in failure. It is for this reason, that a gym environment provides one simple factor that rivals any at-home workout or run-of-the-mill race through the park - extrinsic motivation.

Surrounding yourself with members and staff who are working for a common, health-driven cause is an incredible motivator. Further, forging friendships through the gym community allows you to run with a fitness forward crowd.  Welcome to the club!

Goal Getter.  Create a winning formula through attainable, realistic goals. The road to success is paved with many obstacles; don't let yourself be one of them. So often our ambitions are sidelined due to lofty, impractical objectives that are impossible to attain. Keep it simple by choosing one long-term and four short-term goals.  For example, a healthy long-term goal would be losing the extra baby weight to fit into your favorite pair of pre-baby jeans. Four short-term goals could be exercising thirty minutes a day, three days a week, teaming up with a certified trainer to tackle fitness and nutrition obstacles, taking the stairs rather than the elevator at the office and making a healthy lunch the night before rather than hitting the pack-on-the-pounds pizza bar at work.

These are manageable goals that work when used consistently. These small building blocks will create a strong foundation upon which healthy practices can thrive. Long-term goals will become easier to hit when we feel good about achieving smaller milestones along the way. Don't be defeated before you begin.

Dear Diary.  You eat well, workout and still the weight won't wane. What gives? Consider dietary diary entries to track your food consumption throughout the week.  While this isn't the most appealing of tasks, it is 100% accurate at pinpointing where you may be biting off more than you can chew. For example, an avocado is one of the healthiest fruits on the shelf, however when eaten in excess it can crank up your caloric intake greatly.

Read more Sports Doc for Sports Medicine and Fitness.