Trying to maintain the right balance for a healthy active lifestyle can sometimes be a bit tricky.Why not try something new? Searching for unique ways to modify your active schedule is often the small change that makes a big difference. Adding in some extra fun to your workout routine can help keep you on your toes and stay focused on achieving your fitness goals. Listed below are our top 4 favorite ways to infuse fun into your activity schedule.
Grab a Friend
Exercising alone can sometimes fell routine, and patterns of falling off track can start to take their course. Why not grab a friend and exercise together? Having a partner to workout with will make it so much more enjoyable and time will go by a lot faster. Plan to meet up a few times a week and make it into an exciting weekly routine. Not only are you making time to connect with your friends but also get your activity in for the day at the same time.
Exercising with a friend is also a great way to keep you motivated. It helps you stay accountable to each other, which will increase your chances of sticking to your exercise routine. You can share your personal goals with each other or even create a goal that you both wish to achieve together. It’s always great to have an encouraging support system, especially if you share the same or similar goals.
Once the workout is complete it’s time for a post-workout snack to recharge and hydrate. Recovery is an important and often overlooked component of a successful fitness plan. For this reason, I crunch my post-workout cravings with Pure Flavor® SNACK+™ veggie packs. They act as refreshing and replenishing health kit featuring nutrient-dense Juno Bites Red Grape Tomatoes, Mini Cucumbers, and Aurora Bites Mini Sweet Peppers. I often prefer the hydration benefits from Mini Cucumbers over a glass of water post-workout, mini cucumbers are 97% water, this means a tasty cucumber can help effectively aid muscle protein synthesis equal to a standard glass of water. SNACK+™ veggie packs also contain your daily dose of vitamin C from the Juno Bites Red Grape Tomatoes and Aurora Bites Mini Sweet Peppers. Vitamin C has been proven to help repair connective muscle tissue from all the tough work put in during strength training. Snacking together is much more enjoyable, and feels like a mini celebration for all our hard work. Not to mention, after a hard workout, we both prefer something refreshing, flavourful, and healthy to keep us feeling energized all day long!
Create Challenges with Rewards
Need a little extra push? Create a new challenge for yourself. Take your time to set and document your personal fitness goals. Design a workout routine and track your progress. Once you achieve your goal, it’s time to reward yourself!
For example, your big-picture goal may be to lose 10lbs in 2 months. Your reward at the end of your achieved result could be to buy a new workout outfit. You can even reward yourself more frequently by setting smaller, short term goals to help push you closer to your long term goal of 10lbs. At the end of every week, if you lose 2lbs, you can reward yourself with something that’s special to you!
Meal prepping healthy dishes and snacks is another way to positively challenge yourself and stay on track. Come up with healthy recipes and snack ideas that you enjoy and prep your meals for the week. Every day I aim to lead by example for my clients, creating positive habits like incorporating more fresh vegetables into my food plan has transformed my diet success. I like to slice up my own personal veggie platter in a bento box using fresh Pure Flavor® vegetables as a ready to go snacks for my busy day! Juno Bites Red Grape Tomatoes, Aurora Bites Mini Sweet Peppers, and Mini Cucumbers are all great choices to slice up and add to any of your favorite recipes and snack creations. If you need a hand finding recipes that work best for you, Pure Flavor® offers all sorts of recipes you can browse HERE and try for yourself. Like I always say, “failing to prepare is preparing to fail when it comes to healthy habits.”.
Try a New Class or Fitness Trend
Break away from the gym and try something new. Trying out a group fitness class or a unique fitness trend is a great way to do something new and exciting that gets you out of your comfort zone. Get signed up for a yoga class, dance fitness class, spin classes, or even a resistance class. You will have a chance to exercise in a different type of environment, meet new people, and have fun! Plus, you will learn something new from the trainers in class. Whether it be a new exercise, new techniques, form corrections, or even make a new friend. Mix in 1-2 classes a week for about 30-60 minutes each, I promise you will learn to love your new fitness schedule. Class content is always changing, and that keeps things so much more enjoyable.
Exercise Without Realizing it
There are so many other ways to contribute to your healthy active lifestyle, even outside of a gym atmosphere. When time is limited in our busy schedules, we are always exercising when we don’t realize it! Did you know that even doing house chores are a way to burn lots of extra calories?
You can go for a walk in nature, play outside with your kids, or go grocery shopping with the family, to name a few. All of these activities will help you burn calories, yet it doesn’t even feel like exercise. You can find your own way to burn extra calories each week, but be creative and have fun with it! Try creating a music playlist of all your favorite songs, turn the volume up and get moving! This Spotify playlist helps keep me happy and motivated to give it my all when I get moving, try it out for yourself and see what you think!
We have so many opportunities throughout the day to add more activity into our busy schedules. Take the stairs instead of taking the elevator ot park farther away in the parking lot to gain some extra steps. We are living in a world where everything is so much easier for us and much less movement is needed. Our bodies were made to move! Get up, get out, get active!
There are many great ways to infuse fun into your healthy active lifestyle. Take the time to come up with a great plan and figure out something that you will enjoy and want to stick with.
Remember, eating healthy is just as important as exercising and staying active. Maintaining the energy to stay on top of all your busy daily activities and exercise regimen takes commitment to your values and goals. Having a healthy diet and being mindful of what you feed your body is what will give you lasting results. Putting good quality food into your body before your workouts, after, or any other activity will provide you all the nutrition and energy you need to thrive everyday.
