10 Tips

I was reading this great list from Metabolic Effects, 64 Tips To Stay on a Healthy Lifestyle.
It got me to thinking about what my list might look like. 64 was a huge number so I just went with 10. 

So here are 10 tips we all can use to jump start something good!

1. Eat a breakfast that consists mostly of protein and a little bit of carbs and some healthy fat. If we have a heavy workout scheduled for the morning, add a little more carbs. 

2. Drink water! Try to drop as much of the sweet and artificial drinks as possible and just drink plain ol' H2O. (Sweet drinks can trigger cravings for sweet food and we all know about artificial sweeteners.)

3. Slow your roll! What is the hurry? Your body wasn't built in a day, so slow down and be patient with your fitness goals. 

4. Consistency is a great goal! Just keep plugging away. Being consistent over the long haul will translate to changes. I promise! 

5. Surround yourself with positivity. If you commiserate with folks that are negative Nellys, it will have an effect on you. Stack the cards in your favor when possible and take a chance that the positivity will rub off on you rather than the negativity. Here is a good article from Zen Habits that addresses this as well.

6. Be kind to yourself. As best as we can, stop the negative self talk. This one may take a long long time to grasp, but it is well worth the effort. Once you start to be your own cheerleader, you are the winner!

7.  Weights are our best friends. It is a straight up lie that women cannot and/or should not lift heavy weights. We will not get bulky and we will not hurt our lady parts. However you may discover a whole new level of awesome. 

8. Set down and make a plan. Start small and add to the plan every week or two. What's the quote, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." True story!

9. If it doesn't work, throw it out! If you are following someones plan and it doesn't work for you after 3 or 4 weeks, get rid of it or tweak it. Give it a fair honest-to-goodness try, but don't stick with something that may not be right for you. We are all different and you have to find your formula to success. 

10. Enjoy life now! Stop waiting until that magical nonexistent day when you are perfect and everyone around you is perfect and all the stars are alined to do those things you want to do. Perfection will never come this side of Heaven. It is a fairy tale. Live today while you have it and squeeze every bit of goodness out of it you can. You'll be surprised how your life can change when you stop waiting and start doing. 

So there we have it. Just a few of the things that I think can really help in changing many aspects of our lives not just fitness. We are more awesome than we know.

What kind of change could we enact if we just believed we could in the first place?

So what are some things that might be on your list?