1.)Map out a plan-getting in great shape requires having a plan of action. Without a plan a fitness regimen has no direction and will not succeed.

2.)Set goals-goals keep you focused and ensures progress. Make sure to set realistic, measurable, and attainable goals. Make sure to set short term, intermediate, and long term goals.

3.)Keep a dietary log-nutrition is the difference between somebody who looks in great shape, and somebody who just works out. Keeping a log will help to keep you more cognizant of what you are putting into your body.

4.)Get everybody on the same page-when trying to succeed in an exercise program, it helps to have significant others, siblings, children, etc aware of your goals. This can help with adherence as well as motivation.

5.)Lift weights-lifting weights will help to add muscle tissue, which burns way more calories at rest than body fat. Lean muscle will increase your metabolism and give you that "tone" look.

6.)YOU MUST DO CARDIO-you can lift all the weight you want, but the cardio will melt down that body fat so that you can see the fruits of your labor. Cardio must be done at least three times a week for at least a half an hour. Keep the intensity high, get in the target heart rate range.

7.)Be consistent-exercise and nutrition only work if they are done consistently. YOU MUST make sure you get your workouts in, if you do not, do not expect the results you desire.

8.)Be intense-anybody can step foot in a gym. Those that get the results reach deep, and give it everything they have.

9.)Have fun-the more fun you have in your program, the more likely you will stay with it.

10.)Don't give up-exercise adherence is very low, and for good reason. Exercise is not easy, however, those who do not give up or get frustrated WILL see the results.

How can Exercise help prevent Osteoporosis?

Recent studies have shown that the risk of osteoporosis is lower for people who are active, and especially those who do load bearing , or weight resistance activities at least three times a week.

How can exercise prevent osteoporosis? Muscle pulling on bone builds bone, so weight-bearing exercise builds denser, stronger bones. Exercise can help you maintain bone density in the later years of life.

The best exercises for building bone are weight resistance exercises. These include weight lifting, jogging and other activities that require your muscles to work against gravity. Simply walking although good for cardiovascular fitness, is not good for building bones. Thirty minutes of weight resistance exercises 3 times a week benefit not only your bones, but improves heart health, muscle strength, coordination, and balance.

If you already have osteoporosis it is important to learn what type of exercises you can safely perform to preserve bone and to strengthen your back and hips.

Men and Osteoporosis!

People often think that osteoporosis only happens to women, but that is not true. This disease also strikes men and can be a major health problem for them. In fact, I in every 8 men over age 50 will suffer bone fractures from osteoporosis. The likelihood of a hip fracture increase with age because the elderly tend to fall more often.

Men can experience significant bone loss as they age, and this can lead to osteoporosis. There are several reasons that men lose bone as they age: declining hormones, decreased physical activity, and eating less calcium may cause bone loss.

Osteoporosis is less common in men than women because men have larger skeletons, normal bone loss starts later in life with slower progress, and they don’t have rapid bone loss that women may experience during menopause. But despite these differences, men can be at high risk for this disease.

Teens and Bone Health

Nearly 9 out of 10 teens don’t get enough calcium in their daily diets. Bones are made up of mostly calcium, so lots of calcium is needed for fast growing teenage bones.

If teens don’t get enough calcium during the growing years, they are at risk for severe health problems, such as increased susceptibility to fractures, or osteoporosis later in life..

With childhood obesity on the rise, which contributes to high blood pressure and high cholesterol it is important for teens to participate in regular exercise weight resistance and consume a balanced diet.

Weight resistance exercise will build healthy bones and great bodies!..

Great Exercises to Tone the Lower Body

Keys To a Successful Fitness Program

Often people ask me what's the quickest way to lose weight. Well, unfortunately there is no shortcut or easy way to lose weight or tackle the problem areas, despite what most gimmicky products lead us to believe. But there are three keys that must be adhered to if you ultimately want to achieve success in your health & fitness program. Whether you're trying to lose weight, train for a 10K run, or just feel better.

These three components include: commitment, consistency and accountability. First and foremost, you have to be committed to your goals. To be completely committed you must to be willing to make lifestyle changes. Exercising at high intensities, multiple times each week is important but equally important is eating a sensible diet. Following a structured meal plan is imperative and has proven effective to meet the desired goal. Counter measures will lead to frustration, discouragement, and ultimately resignation from any program.

To really begin to start feeling and looking better you must exercise consistently. At the very minimum you have to workout at least twice a week - preferably three or four times. Consistency doesn't mean skipping workouts on a regular basis. If you plan on working out three times a week but miss a workout once every two weeks, that accounts for 26 missed workouts in a year. That's almost a whole month of not exercising!

Finally, you have to be accountable. Being accountable can include monitoring your diet by keeping a food log everyday (not once in a while), drinking plenty of water, and exercising regularly. Too often people think that since they worked out today they are "allowed" to eat an extra serving of dessert or have a bigger portion of lunch or dinner. By doing this you're adding back the calories you burned during your workout. This is not going to help you lose those extra pounds that you work so hard to burn. This is something to keep in mind being in the holiday season.

Top Ten Reasons to Perform Resistance Training


There are many benefits of adding resistance training to your exercise regimen. The following are ten reasons why it is important to add weight training to your fitness routine.

Reason #1-adding lean tissue through resistance training will help to burn more calories at rest.

Reason #2-resistance training increases bone mineral density and helps prevent against osteoporosis. Reason #3-resistance training increase overall muscular strength and endurance.

Reason #4-as we age, we lose a percentage of our muscular strength. Resistance training prevents the loss of muscular strength as we age.

Reason #5-exercising with weights can be a great stress reliever.

Reason #6-strong muscles prevent injury.

Reason #7-by strengthening your muscles, especially the back and abdominal muscles, posture will improve putting less stress on the lower back.

Reason #8-weight training combined with aerobic training, dramatically increases the metabolism. Reason #9-weight training helps to tone and create nice lean muscles.

Reason #10-it can be fun!!!

Top Ten Exercises for Toning the Upper Arms

When training the arms, it is important to take into consideration the anatomy of the upper arms. The upper arm is divided into two muscle groups, the biceps and the triceps. The biceps is the muscle group, which from an anatomical perspective, is the muscle anterior, or to the front of, the upper arm. The triceps is the muscle group in the back of the arm, or posterior anatomically. The term biceps indicates that the muscle has two muscular heads as opposed to the tricep which has three muscular heads. As a result, the triceps makes up the majority of the upper arm. So what are the top ten exercises to tone the upper arms???

TRICEPS 1.) Tricep Pressdown-the tricep pressdown is a great exercise to tone the triceps. Targets most of the tricep with an increased emphasis on the long tricep head. 2.) Lying tricep extensions (e.z. bar)-great for targeting most of the tricep, especially the medial head of the tricep. 3) Dumbell kickbacks-when performed correctly really isolates the triceps well. 4.) Close grip bench press-great exercise to increase overall strength of the tricep. 5.) Overhead tricep extension-really targets the long head, and helps to tone the tricep.

BICEPS 1.) Standing barbell curls-the king of bicep exercises. Great for overall strength and excellent for creating an overload on the biceps. 2.) Incline dumbell curls-great for isolating the biceps and the incline angle allows for an increase in the overload on the biceps. 3.) Concentration curls-excellent isolation exercise that allows for a great controlled contraction of the biceps. 4.) Preacher curls-helps to improve the length and the definition of the bicep. 5.) Hammer curls-works to improve the length of the bicep, and helps strengthen the forearms. Ask your trainer about these great exercises for the upper arms.

Warm-Up to Workout

Suppose you were told that you only had to add an extra five to 10 minutes to each of your workouts in order to prevent injury and lessen fatigue. Would you do it?

Most people would say yes. Then they might be surprised to learn that they already know about those few minutes called a warm-up. If done correctly, a pre-exercise warm-up can have a multitude of beneficial effects on a person's workout and, consequently, their overall health.

What happens in your body?

When you begin to exercise, your cardiorespiratory and neuromuscular systems and metabolic energy pathways are stimulated. Muscles contract and, to meet their increasing demands for oxygen, your heart rate, blood flow, cardiac output and breathing rate increase. Blood moves faster through your arteries and veins, and is gradually routed to working muscles.

Your blood temperature rises and oxygen is released more quickly, raising the temperature of the muscles. This allows the muscles to use glucose and fatty acids to burn calories and create energy for the exercise. All of these processes prepare the body for higher-intensity action.

Specifically...a gradual warm-up:

 

	Leads to efficient calorie burning by increasing your core body temperature
	Produces faster, more forceful muscle contractions
	Increases your metabolic rate so oxygen is delivered to the working muscles more quickly
	Prevents injuries by improving the elasticity of your muscles
	Gives you better muscle control by speeding up your neural message pathways to the muscles
	Allows you to work out comfortably longer because all your energy systems are able to adjust to exercise, preventing the buildup of lactic acid in the blood
	Improves joint range of motion
	Psychologically prepares you for higher intensities by increasing your arousal and focus on exercise

 

Where to begin

Your warm-up should consist of two phases: 1) progressive aerobic activity that utilizes the muscles you will be using during your workout, and 2) flexibility exercises. Choosing which warm-up activity to use is as easy as slowing down what you will be doing during your work-out.

For example, if you will be running, warm up with a slow jog, or if you will be cycling outdoors, begin in lower gears.

An ideal intensity for an aerobic warm-up has yet to be established, but a basic guideline is to work at a level that produces a small amount of perspiration, but doesn't leave you feeling fatigued. The duration of the warm-up activity will depend on the intensity of your workout as well as your own fitness level.

After the aerobic warm-up activity you should incorporate flexibility/stretching exercises. Stretching muscles after warming them up with low-intensity aerobic activity will produce a better stretch since the rise in muscle temperature and circulation increases muscle elasticity, making them more pliable. Be sure to choose flexibility exercises that stretch the primary muscles you will be using during your workout.

Make the time

In order to fully reap the benefits of the time you are spending exercising, you must warm up. Taking those extra few minutes to adjust to increased activity will ensure a better performance from your body and, in turn, will make your workout more efficient, productive and, best of all, enjoyable.

 

Your Knees

Knee pain can get in the way of our goals and put us on the sidelines but if we follow a simple program to keep the joints healthy we can avoid injury and enjoy years of pain free running. If you’re unsure on how to start a program, try hiring a fitness professional at your local gym or have one come to you. Good luck your program and keep enjoying your runs.

Many of my clients tell me that running causes knee pain. Some of them haven’t been able to run for years. Because running is an extremely effective way to lose weight, I try to correct the problem so they can run again. I’ve also suffered from knee pain and with some simple steps my knee pain was resolved. There are many different reasons that you may have knee pain and it’s important that you talk with your doctor before you start a rehabilitation program.

Build Lower Body Strength

The focus of a strength program is injury prevention and building a strong lower body.  This helps prevent many injuries, including knee pain. When planning a lower body program, the best exercises are compound exercises. Compound movements involve multiple joints that work together. Here are some examples of compound movements; squats, dead lift, leg press, and lunges. If you build a program with these exercises you will see big gains. When you first start out, make sure that you start with no weights or light weights. Lifting weights is safe if done correctly. If you’re doing big lifts for your lower body properly your body will start to correct its alignment. After a few weeks, your hips and knees will start to point straight ahead and your gait will start to correct itself. A great way to make sure that you’re doing the movements correctly is to get some objective feedback from a friend or a fitness professional.

Build Stronger Hips

The hips and knees work together to keep your body in proper alignment. People with weak hips tend to suffer from knee and back pain while running. When first training many of my clients I observed their knees caving in during a squat assessment. This can be easily addressed with some simple hip strengthening. If you see your knees caving in while doing a squat you can correct this with a few simple exercises before the problem turns into an injury. Resistance band squats, Tube walking and hip bridges can help correct knee alignment issues. After a week of following a hip strengthening program you should start to see your knees pointing straight ahead. This will help keep your knees healthy because just like your car your body needs proper alignment to prevent ware and tare. If you’re unsure if your knees are caving in you can use a mirror or hire a professional to assess this for you.

Foam Rolling

Foam rolling your muscles on a regular basis can keep you in the game. When we workout our muscles get tight and this tightness can lead to injury. A foam roller can break down tight spots in the muscles and help promote blood flow which can accelerate healing.

A friend of mine told me that he suffered from knee pain for over 10 years and felt hopeless when doing distance runs. From what he told me I concluded that the pain was coming from a tight IT band. After a week of foam rolling the IT band he said that his knee pain went away and that running was not a problem.

When you foam, roll look for the tight spots and roll over them slowly for about 90 seconds. When you first start foam rolling, you might feel very tender. If this is the case use lighter pressure and start adding more pressure down the road. After a few weeks of foam rolling you should see some results. Focus on rolling out the quads, calves, IT band and glutes. This will loosen up the lower body helping you to run loose and injury free.

Stretching

Stretching is very important in if you want to have healthy joints. Many of us lack flexibility and this causes our muscles to pull harder on our joints which can lead to injury. Before you run make sure to warm up with a dynamic stretching program. An example of a dynamic stretch is lunges. Lunges activate all the muscles used while running. When doing lunges make sure to use full range of motion, this will help open your joints and you will feel great on your run.

After you’re done running you should preform static stretching. Static stretching is when any stretch that is held from 20-30 seconds. You should feel a slight discomfort while doing the stretch. If you follow a stretching program for a few weeks you will start to feel better during your runs. You will slowly feel the tightness and your body will thank you for it.

Finding the Right Shoe

Incorrect shoes can cause knee pain and I’ve seen this problem with many of my clients. The are many kinds of shoes and everyone is different. When I first started running I picked a shoe with lifted heels and a lot of support in the shoe. This caused me to heel strike and I ended up with a knee injury. After the knee injury, I had to sit out running for a few months. After that I decided to read up on the subject and I found that there is a lot of different information out there. The best advice I can give is to go to a local running store and get fitted for a shoe. If the shoe isn’t right, then change shoes and keep trying. After a few shoes, you should find one that fits your needs. For me zero drop shoes worked. You might need something completely differ.

Get in Shape After Pregnancy

Women with babies don’t know what sleep is after giving birth. But you have to find time to sleep. The best way to go around is to sleep when your baby sleeps during the day. Go to bed early and adjust your sleep time with that of your baby’s. Babies sleep up to 18 hours in a day and so you can sneak in more sleep time for yourself.

We all know that giving birth comes with so many changes in the life of a mother that it becomes really hard to get back on track when it comes to fitness. Women go through bodily changes as well as emotional changes coupled with sleep deprivation. This combination of factors makes it next to impossible to lose that post-pregnancy flab.

If you have just given birth’ it’s understandable that your priorities in life have changed dramatically and now it’s more about the baby’s needs than yours. But that doesn’t mean you have to completely let go and not care about your fitness.

Here are some pro tips that will help you get back in shape and still spend time with your baby.

Note: Please refer to your doctor before following any of these exercises as everyone has different medical issues. Typically, 6 weeks after delivery should be fine for a woman to do these.

1. Keep moving

You don’t have to spend hours at the gym or take long walks in the park for this. You are good to go as long as you brisk walk as little as 20 minutes a day. Research shows that even simple exercise like walking is a great stress buster and reduces levels of Cortisol in the body. You will also greatly reduce your chances of having post-partum depression as well if you exercise regularly.

1. Work out with your baby

Keep your baby beside you and exercise away with these simple yet powerful exercises:

• • Crunches- start with 30 crunches a day and work your way to 100.
  • Planks
  • Lift weights
  • Squats (start with 30 and work your way up)

These are pretty easy exercises that you can build upon and do in the comfort of your own home. All you need to do is make a schedule and stick to it.

1. Eat right

You need to load up on all those vitamins and minerals in order to replenish your body and provide nutrition for your baby. You are still eating for two because whatever you will eat will affect your breastfeeding as well. So have as many fruits, vegetables and lean meats, nuts as you can because they will also help you stay energetic throughout the day.

1. Get some personal space

It is not selfish of you if you want to take a break from the baby. Just take out 15-30 minutes a day for yourself and give the baby to your spouse while you do anything that you enjoy. It could be meditating, listening to music, watching an episode of a sitcom or even taking a nap. This will reduce your stress levels and help you in losing weight as well.

Make sure that the personal trainer has all the education needed to help you reach your goals. There is no governing body to make sure that trainers are a good bet. You should always ask the personal trainer to provide documents so that you know what you’re getting from the personal trainer. Many personal trainers will allow you to try a session before you buy This can help you find the right trainer before you spend a bunch of money on a package. Try a session and get in the best shape of your life.

5 Reasons you Should Work with a Personal Trainer

When we set a fitness goal we come in with the best intentions but more times than not things just don’t go our way. After a few weeks of starting a program we may start to make excuses, be lazy or just give up on our goal and wait until next year. This just leads to more unhealthy habits and leads us to another year of feeling out of shape.

Hiring a personal trainer might just keep you in the game long enough to see some changes in the in the body which positively motivates us to stick to our goals and succeed. Working with a personal trainer can help you reach your goals for many different reasons. Personal trainers hold you accountable and keep you moving forward even when you want to quit. Personal trainers provide the knowledge and motivation that you need to get in shape.

Here are some reasons to hire a personal trainer and get in the best shape of your life.

They take you to the next level

Personal trainers will push you out of your comfort zone pushing your body harder and harder every week. After the workout, you will feel like you are working new muscles which keeps your body guessing. A personal trainer will track your progress and make sure that you are adding more weight or doing more reps. Personal trainers know how to shift gears with your program which will cause your body to change in a positive way. A personal trainer will hold you accountable to your goals and motivate you to lift more, run faster and workout longer.

Stop guessing

Working with a personal training will help you stop guessing how to get in shape. A personal trainer will ask you questions during your program to help you reach your goals. Many common questions that a personal trainer will ask are do you drink plenty of water, how hard are you pushing yourself when doing homework and are you tracking your food? These are just a few questions that a personal trainer may ask. Personal trainers will be tracking your progress as you move through the program this will keep you from wondering what you’ll need to do next in your program. A personal trainer will help you dial in your diet with apps like My Fitness Pal which will give you an outside perspective on changes you need to make. Personal trainers will give you an objective eye on your progress to help your workouts stay honest.

They hold you accountable

Personal trainers don’t put up with excesses, they will keep track of the goals you set and hold you to it. Personal trainers don’t care if you’re tired that day or if you didn’t have a great day. They will make it a point to motivate you even if you’re feeling down. A personal trainer is you coach and will let you know what it means if you cheat on your goals. Getting this kind of feedback can help us stick to our goals and remind us why we set them in the first place. When you have an appointment with someone to workout with you will be less likely to skip the gym. When you don’t show up you will feel like you’re letting yourself down and your trainer down.

They fix bad form

A personal trainer will help you with bad form which will help you get the most out of your workout and prevent injury. When we have bad form, we can only push ourselves so far with our exercise program. Using bad form can help us lift more weight in the short term but will cause us an injury or a plateau down the road. Hitting good form will help you joints feel great and you will feel younger. All your joints will be in proper alignment and you will be lift more than you ever thought you would. Bad form can cause injury which can set you back from your goals. Hiring a personal trainer make sure that you don’t have bad form.

Knowledge

A personal trainers job is to keep up with the latest news in the world of fitness. Personal trainers keep up with the cutting-edge tactics so that you don’t have to. You won’t have to look on the internet for fitness advice because with a personal trainer it is right in front of you. If you have questions that a personal trainer will make sure to find the most accurate information to help you. Hiring a personal trainer will build a program for you. Many programs are cookie cutter programs that may not be right for you. Having a custom workout built by a personal trainer will make sure that you’re doing the right thing for your body. Personal trainers have knowledge about exercise, injuries and nutrition which gives you a complete program to reach your goals quickly. Many people have questions and having someone there to address them will keep you on track.

The take away

Hiring a personal trainer can help you reach your goals quickly and be the thing that helps you finally reach your goals. Using a personal trainer will keep you focused and motivated to reach your goals. Personal trainers will save you time and frustration by saving you the task of building your own program. A personal trainer will keep things fresh with new creative workouts. The main reason to hire a trainer is because they keep things fun and you will look forward to meeting with them.

If that isn’t enough to make you feel better about your cheat meals, we really don’t know what is!

Have you recently given into your cravings and eaten that piece of cake that was literally calling out to you? Do you now feel excessively guilty for over-indulging like that and are worried about how it might affect your work out?

Or do you belong to the other side of the spectrum? Are you one of those staunch fitness enthusiasts that are completely against even the idea of cheat meals because it undo’s all the hard work in one evening? Or do you feel like if you take a cheat meal even once you won’t be able to stop yourself from falling off the fitness bandwagon entirely?

This blog is for the both kinds of people.

Though cheat meals can and do seem completely counterintuitive, especially when you’re on a strict fitness journey, striving towards a goal – they are in reality, a necessary part of being healthy.

According to various researches, cheat meals are actually supposed to be more beneficial for weight loss, than harmful. Here’s how:

It’s a Sweet Reward

When you work endlessly all week, watching your weight, working out regularly, managing your meals and eating just the right amount of calories, having a cheat meal is a very sweet reward for all your effort. It’s something to look forward to, something to reach for and strive for. A short-term goal, if you will. The fact is, by breaking up your fitness journey into week by week with a cheat meal as a reward at the end of it you make your fitness goals that much more achievable. It’s quite easy to make strengthen your resolve and continue going when you have a goal just looming right ahead, isn’t it?

It’s an Incentive to Get Back on the Wagon

If your cheat meal turned into a cheat day, or even a cheat week, don’t worry. It happens to the best of us. But the fact is, that you can use your cheat meal, and over-indulgence as an incentive to get back on the fitness track. When you feel guilty that you’ve overindulged and let go of your hard work, you can tell yourself okay now that I’ve had my time being lazy, I can easily go back into my fitness routine, re-charged and raring to go. When you use your cheat meals as motivators to do better the next time around, they don’t seem so bad, do they?

Helps Overcome Those Gnawing Cravings

We’re humans and we all have those deep cravings for our favorite bad foods from time to time. Sometimes, our cravings can actually get out of hand, making us lose control and eating way too much than you should. Pencil in that cheat meal and prevent those bad cravings from driving you insane during the week.

Aids in Balancing Hormones

You know the way that our body stores or loses fat has a lot to do with our metabolism and the body’s hormones, right? Well according to science, it’s been found that there are two basic hormones which regulate our appetite and food intake. Leptin suppresses our appetite while Ghrelin stimulates it. The caloric deficit that we create with a strict diet, it leads to a sharp decrease in leptin, increasing the Ghrelin levels causing us to constantly feel hungrier. The increased calories of a cheat meal give a temporary jolt to our metabolism allowing our hormone levels to balance out. This balance gives our body the opportunity to bring our appetite and cravings into check, leading to overall better fitness.

With that, it’s a wrap. Add these five foods to your diet, maintain a regular sleep cycle and an exercise regimen, remain hydrated, and keep stress at bay to ensure you continue adding muscles to your body. All the best!

1. Lean meat

Maybe it’s a primal thing because the majority of men love eating meat ever since the dawn of time. From cavemen during the hunter-gatherer era to the weight lifting jocks at the gym.

Red meat has been getting a lot of bad rap for the past many years but consider taking everything in moderation. If you have a 100 grams of lean ground beef then you are getting about 27 grams of pure protein. So head over to the steak house every few weeks and get some juicy protein. Let’s not also forget that it contains zinc, iron and vitamin b12.

1. Eggs

The staple for all breakfast lovers and muscle growers, eggs have always been amongst the standard go-to protein source for everyone. Drink them raw in the morning or boil them, but use their natural protein boosting nutrients. Eggs used to have a bad rap too back in the day for their effect on a person’s cholesterol levels but new research shows that yolks are not that bad after all and in fact it is encouraged to have a whole egg to get all of its nutrients.

1. Almonds

Almonds are among those plant based foods that have really high protein content. They are so versatile in terms of being consumed therefore you can come up with literally a dozen ways to incorporate them in your diet. If you are a vegan, then they are your best friend because you can drink almond milk. Just a quarter cup of these bad boys will give you about 8 grams of pure protein.

1. Cottage cheese

Cottage cheese maybe your best bet if you aren’t a huge fan of drinking milk but can tolerate its other forms. Many bodybuilders eat cottage cheese to get their daily dose of protein which they would typically get from other dairy sources. Only half a cup of cottage cheese gives you over 15 grams of protein and is low in calories as well.

1. Fish

Fish trumps all the muscle building meats out there because it is the leanest and healthiest option. It is a nutritional powerhouse because only a 100 gram serving packs over 24 grams of protein. It has omega-3 fatty acids that are essential in building strong muscle, good for skin, clears bad fat (triglycerides) from the blood and prevent a host of other diseases as well. So next time you are at the supermarket be sure to get some fresh salmon and tuna.

Traveling, in any form of capacity means waiting – waiting at the airport for flights, generally just waiting during the flight, waiting for trains, taxis, etc. And waiting usually translates to eating or mindless munching. Either avoid eating completely besides the three set meals of the day, or if you must, instead of opting for sugary confectionary products, pick healthier snacks instead. Protein bars, ready to drink shakes, or trail-mixes will do better at keeping those calories in check and in keeping you fuller for a longer time.

Who doesn’t like to travel? It’s safe to say that all of us look forward to our holidays where we can go visit new places, kick back and relax after breaking free from the everyday monotony. And with those holidays, most of us see our healthy eating and fitness goals fly right out the window – after all, it is a vacation, meant for us to enjoy and indulge ourselves.

But as enjoyable as the vacations are, along with relaxation another inevitable end result is vacation weight gain.

Those who travel for pleasure and some downtime can afford to indulge themselves while away from their hometown, mostly because they know that they will eventually get back into their regular routine as they return. But what of those who frequently travel for business, are travel bloggers, or are just out on a quest for world domination? How does one, who is perpetually on the go, stay in shape?

Here’s how:

Walk Around Town

One of the best ways to get in a workout on a trip, especially one that’s particularly jam-packed and doesn’t leave much time for anything is to walk, walk and then walk some more. Be sure to pack a sturdy pair of sneakers – they can be lifesavers on a long trip. Pick ones that are fashionable enough to go with a few of your outfits, are comfortable enough for you to walk hours in, and are strong enough to endure a solid workout should you get the chance for one. Ditch the private cars and the cabs and depend on your two feet to get your places – do that and there is no way you’re gaining anything.

Bike Tours

If you have a bit of a time to explore around the new city, town, or village, more so than you can manage on foot – instead of opting for a car or bus driven tour of the place, even if it is a hop-on-hop-off kind of deal, choose a bike tour instead. Cycling offers a great full workout and is a great way to commute, too. And if you can’t find a guided bike tour, we’re certain your hotel can arrange for a bike rental.

Seek Adventure Sports (if and when you can)

If you’re essentially on a lazy trip that may involve lots of sitting down, traveling to and from places, and basically lazing around, the best thing that you can do for yourself if seek adventure sports or activities as much as you possibly can. Have a meeting at 10? Wake up early and get in a hill-top hike before dawn. Are near the ocean? Get in some surfing. Try zip-lining, or kayaking or even short treks if you can find the opportunity for them.

Fitness Centers/Swimming Pools

We usually don’t recommend fitness centers at hotels – especially the ones that claim ‘state of the art’ status in very economical rates. Just doesn’t happen. But even if you want the most basic of fitness centers and have no other outlets to get in a workout, try and get in a run on the treadmill if you can. Otherwise, always try and opt for a hotel with a swimming pool. Even an hour of just basic treading water is enough of a workout to make you feel active.

Be Mindful of the Mindless Munching