It’s been a little over three months since our beautiful little girl entered our lives! She is officially out of the newborn stage (how did that happen so fast?!) Now that a few months have passed, I think it’s about time to get back into the grind of working out and living a healthier lifestyle.
I’m the type of person who is all in or all out. I find it difficult to either JUST eat healthy or JUST workout. I think they go hand in hand. If I work out every day, but then eat like crap, I find that I don’t stick to my workout regimen for as long because I’m weighed down by my poor food choices, get lazy, and would rather sit on the couch eating snacks then putting on my workout clothes and going for a run. Likewise, if I eat healthy without ever exercising, I don’t see enough of an effect and often tend to indulge much more often than I would if I were eating healthy AND exercising.
I know everyone is different, but that seems to be what happens for me. Therefore, to shed some of my extra baby weight, I’ve decided that I’m going to try to do both: eat relatively healthy AND exercise regularly. What a novel idea! ;)
One thing I’ve decided to do is to take it slow. It took me 9 months to gain about 45 lbs while I was pregnant. I can’t expect to lose it all in one month. I’m hoping that slow and steady will help me win this race.
To get started in my new healthy lifestyle journey I need some help. Here are some of the things that I’ve found extremely helpful to get started and maintain my new healthy lifestyle.
Find A Support System
First and foremost, I think it’s impossible to make a change, whether big or small, without a support system. My biggest support system happens to be my husband. He is ALWAYS there to cheer me on, provide motivation and encouragement, or even just listen to me vent or make me laugh. I think it’s essential for everyone to have someone to be there for them to help them make a lifestyle change.
If you don’t have a significant other to lean on, team up with a friend who shares similar goals, or even join a Facebook group or other type of online community that is in the same boat as you. There are tons of them out there! I’ve even met lots of new online friends using Instagram as well. Just start following people who use similar hashtags to the goals you have in mind.
Buy A Cool Water Bottle
Staying hydrated is so important when trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle. However, we’re all so busy during the day and it’s so easy to simple “forget to drink water” throughout the day. I know I’ve been there many times. Having a cool water bottle can really help you remember to drink lots of water every day.
The water bottle that I LOVE and use every day actually has a counter built in that helps you keep track of how many times you’ve refilled it. It’s amazing how sometimes half the day has passed and I realized I only refilled my water bottle once! That visual reminder is extremely helpful.
Check out the water bottle that I use everyday HERE.
Whether you get my favorite water bottle or a different one, it’s important to make sure you invest in one that is BPA free if it’s plastic. Sometimes the cheap ones at the Dollar Store are made with harmful plastics that you don’t want to drink from. I did have a glass water bottle at one point, but obviously I dropped it and it shattered (even though it said it wasn’t supposed to), so for now I stick to my plastic ones because I don’t trust myself with glass, especially with a baby around!
Create A Spotify Account
Music is so important to me. One song can literally change my entire mood. Any time I work out, or even just hang out and don’t feel like turning on the tv, I listen to music on my Spotify account.
One of the cool features that Spotify has is that you can browse the app for playlists of music that fits your current mood. For example, one of the mood categories is “Running”. When I selected it the other day, I noticed that you can select a playlist in the Running category that calculates how many steps per minute you are running and then plays songs that match your running tempo! How cool is that? I’m now hooked and I actually get excited to run more because I like to see which songs the app will match me to!
Spotify offers free accounts, but they have limited features. I recommend splurging on the premium account if you plan to use it for roughly $9 per month with access to mostly any song you can think of.
Invest in Decent Ear Buds
Years ago I used to dread going to the gym, and one of the reasons was because my earbuds always fell out of my ears while I was working out! I don’t know if it’s just me or not, but the apple earbuds that come with the iphone do NOT stay in my ears for anything.
Because of this issue, most of my workout would be spent either stopping to fix my earbuds or holding them in my ears while I worked out. Highly irritating and it often led me to cutting my workout short or just not working out at all because as I mentioned earlier, I can’t workout without listening to music!
When I found these earbuds, which have a different shape to them entirely, it made my workouts much more enjoyable because they actually stayed in my ears. :)
I personally use and love the Beats by Dr. Dre in Ear Head Phones, but shop around and find what works best for you!
A Reliable Workout App
I’m the type of person who needs to be told what to do when exercising or else I will do the same few exercises every day and get easily bored and lose motivation. That’s why I love having an app to help me workout.
I use the app Workout Trainer by Skimble. I love it for many reasons. First and foremost, I love how the app lets you filter to find a workout that fits your needs depending on where you are, how much time you have, and which body part you want to focus on for the workout.
There are so many different workouts on the app too that I feel as if you can go forever without ever repeating the same one if you so desired.
Also, this app lets you join specific programs that are tailored to meet specific needs. For example, when I was pregnant, I wasn’t sure how much exercise I should do and if I was overdoing it or not. Therefore, I joined the “Fit Mama – Trimester I and Trimester II” programs and I found them to be extremely helpful for guiding my exercise while being pregnant. Additionally, post-pregnancy, I just enrolled in the new Fit Mama program. So far, so good!
Lastly, whether you are enrolled in a program or not, the app lets you create icalendar reminders so that you never miss a workout when you plan ahead! I definitely benefit from this feature because when I get the reminder, I feel super guilty if I don’t actually work out since it was planned in my calendar!
Getting back into the swing of things when trying to live a healthy life can be difficult. Hopefully some of these tips will help you as they have helped me recently! :)
*Please note that this page contains affiliate links to different products and I receive a small commission that helps support my blog when someone purchases something from the links. I don’t recommend stuff I wouldn’t use myself. :)