Step away from the chocolates. Cancel the date to the butter/cream/sugar restaurant. Celebrate your sweetie and your good health this February. Jewelery doesn't add to your waistline and neither do fun and healthy experiences you can share! I’ve got 10 tips to help you get back in shape and stay that way for many anniversaries to come.
1) Partner up with your spouse and motivate each other. As the adage says, “You are the average of the five people you hang out with the most.” So plan your entertainment, meals, and workouts as a couple and motivate each other when you’re having a tough or lazy day.
2) Set specific, realistic goals and have a set time period. Then identify and eliminate your barriers to exercise and eating well. With an easy-to-accomplish plan, you’ll even be able to exceed your goals. Plus, you will have to answer to your partner!
3) Get on the scale. Studies show that if you weigh yourself each day, you’ll keep your fitness and nutrition goals in mind. Skipping the scale for weeks at a time may lead to unconscious weight-gain. A weigh-in a day keeps those pounds away.
4) Try something new. Never took a spin or Pilates class? How about partner yoga? Never gone cross-country skiing or hiking? What are you waiting for? Surprise your body and learn something new together to keep things fun and your fitness on track.
5) Cut workout time in half. Don’t waste time standing still and doing biceps curls! Multitask instead by combing arm, leg, and abdominal exercises, like a curl, lunge, and twist. Then add a cardio interval. Multitasking workouts cut time while boosting metabolism, heart rate, and perspiration. Check out NikkiFitness.com for sample cardio moves and four challenging multitasking workout DVDs that take only 30 minutes to complete. More time for, um... a couple's shower?
6) Eat more. Think of food as a fuel, not as a gift, which means passing on food that’s high in fat and sugar, and taking just half of the portion you’d normally heap on your plate. Also, keep the tank half-full at all times with several small, healthy meals. If you never get famished, you’ll make wise choices with your head, not your belly. So have more dates over more meals, but share one portion!
7) Put one sneaker in front of the other. Many of us waste too much time saying we need to work out, dreading the process all the while. Trick yourselves by just getting dressed for it, putting on your favorite workout music, and not really thinking about what you’re about to do. If you take it one step at a time, before you know it, you’ll finish the cool-down and feel amazing. Maybe even have enough energy left for cuddling!
8) Too cold to go outside? The chilly weather and lack of daylight make this time of year tough on fitness resolutions. Heat yourselves up with a healthy slow-cooked meal and break a sweat inside with a new fitness DVD or a fitness channel on TV. There are lots of workouts that both men and women can enjoy together.
9) Reward yourself. When you stick to these resolutions reward yourself with something free or inexpensive that makes you both happy and inspires you to look and feel good. Maybe it’s a combined personal training session for you and your sweetie or a mini fitness vacation together.
10) Subscribe to motivational fitness sites or magazines. Whether it's a new and healthy dish you can make, news about a recent medical study, interesting moves to try at home, or another person's story about how they reached their goals, an inspiration will help you keep fitting in your fitness. You can read it out loud while your sweetie massages your feet after a week of running together.
NikkiFitness, Nicole Glor, is 34 year-old fitness expert on Fox and Friends, and the star of 7 fitness DVDs including new Hard Core Abs DVD, Fit Travel Workout DVD, Booty Camp, Red Carpet Runway Workout, Military Wife Workout, Baby Bootie Camp, and the Beach Bride Destination Wedding Workout (Amazon). Nikki's workouts have been featured in over 100 national media outlets. She is also an AFAA certified NYC personal trainer, group fitness instructor at Crunch in Manhattan, a 200 RYT YogaFit/Yoga Alliance trained yoga instructor, author of the upcoming book "Slimnastics", a fitness columnist for Military.com and a spokesperson for SilverSport antibacterial fitness products. Her "Slimnastics" workouts focus on multitasking toning and cardio intervals to cut workout time in half and boost metabolism. Get her newsletters, music playlists, video demos and DVDs at www.nikkifitness.com Search for "NikkiFitness" on Facebook and Twitter!
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