Category Archives: Motivation to stay fit

Find your motivation to stay fit

How to find time to workout regularly?

March 10, 2015Motivation to stay fitafter weight loss, healthy life mindset, lose weight, motivation, no excuse, successful weight lossChristina Marky

Can't find time in your busy schedule to workout? I was like you once, but managed to develop a way to workout 5 times a week for an hour or more! Want to know how I did it? I share my 5 secrets on how to find time to workout in your everyday busy life for a healthy life!

Just think of your workout time as a start towards a new healthy life. Here are 5 tips to get you started on your journey towards living a healthy life and workout regularly:

1. Limit your time spent online and on social media

Chances are that you are spending your free time online browsing the internet and/or checking Facebook. My excuse was that after a long and hard day at work I am too tired mentally and physically to do anything else but stare blindly at the TV screen or Facebook. If you still believe this, then I have news for you: schedule a workout session instead of turning on the TV or your laptop.

By the time you finish your workout, you will feel positive about yourself, and the thought that you did something for creating a healthy life in the long run fulfills you much more than looking at pictures of your coworker’s best friend’s summer holiday in Dubai from 2010.

Remember my words the next time you are about to turn on the TV or open a tab to start typing “fac…” and stop right there. Instead go to YouTube and type in the search bar “yoga at home” and click on that 30 minute workout video and follow the instructions! Daily workout done! Welcome healthy life!

2. Spend time with friends while doing a workout

How to find time to workout regularly? — This could be you and your friends jumping happily instead of sitting and sipping coffee while complaining about your day at work.

As being a very social person who enjoys spending time with her friends, I found really challenging to say no to my friends when they asked me to grab a cup of coffee with them after work. But because I scheduled my workout right after work, I had to say no many times. And I felt awful about it, because I didn’t want my friends to think that I don’t like spending time with them.

So I came up with this thing: whenever one of my friends asked me if I want to grab a cup of coffee with them, I immediately asked if they want to join me at the gym or take a Zumba class with me instead. At first they were really surprised, but there were friends who happily said yes to a workout opportunity. And there were friends who later asked me if they could join me to workout on one of my Zumba classes.

3. Try out different workouts to find the one you truly enjoy

It wasn’t a fast journey to find the right workout type that I enjoy and love. It took years to develop my current workout routine that is challenging enough so I don’t get bored. So take it slow, try out different workout types: Pilates, yoga, aerobics, running, gym workout, Zumba, weight lifting and many more. There are plenty workouts you can choose from! You can workout at home by searching for workout videos on YouTube or you can join a class to be around other people to motivate you. Try out anything that could take you closer towards living a healthy life you always wanted!

4. Schedule your workout in advance

The trick to sticking with a workout routine is to treat it as an appointment. So put your workout hours in your calendar. You wouldn’t miss an appointment with your dentist would you? So treat your workout session as that appointment: set your mind in that mode. Workout is equally important as your dentist appointments.

At first this will be hard, because everything around you will try to make you miss that appointment: family will ask you to do something important, friends will want to meet you for coffee and chitchat at that time, your phone won’t stop ringing. But you need to make it clear to yourself and to others: everything can wait an hour until you finish your scheduled workout session. This is the only way to get closer to living a healthy life.

Family and friends won’t respect your workout hours if you are not treating it as something you need to do whatever happens. You need to make that yoga class on Wednesday at 8 p.m. and everything else can wait for you to finish your scheduled relaxation.

5. Re-think your priorities

If you’ve read through this list and still think that you wouldn’t be able to fit a workout into your busy schedule, then you seriously need to re-think your priorities in life.

Just think about it: you believe in a healthy life mindset, and you would like to change your current lifestyle for it to be more healthy.

In order for you to make time for workout and live a healthy life you need to make it a priority in your life.

If it is important enough for you to live a healthy life, then you will find a way to make time for workout. [Tweet this!]

If workout and healthy life are not important enough to you, then you’ll find excuses. If you can’t fit workout into your schedule, then it means that you have other priorities in life which are currently more important to you than living a healthy life.

Take a time to re-think your priorities in life: what are the things that are more important to you currently than living a healthy life?

There is nothing wrong with that, just make it clear to yourself that you are not living a healthy life because you don’t want to. If you’d really want to, you’d find a way to make it happen.

Want to start going to the gym but you have no one to go with? You can go alone! Fear not! Here are 4 hacks to get you to the gym if you are afraid of going to the gym alone as a girl >>>

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Does weight lifting make you feel less feminine and sexy?

February 27, 2015Emotional issues after weight loss, Motivation to stay fithealthy life mindset, lifting weights, motivation, muscle, successful weight lossChristina Marky

We've all heard the misconception that weight lifting will make a woman big, bulky, and she will lose her feminine side. I've addressed these misconceptions earlier, so we've established that weight lifting won't make you accidentally look like The Rock. But what can you do when becoming physically stronger than most of the guys around you makes you feel less feminine and sexy?

Is it possible to stay feminine and sexy as a woman on the inside while weight lifting?

Yes, it is possible to stay feminine and sexy as a woman while weight lifting. But the real question is how? Spending time in the weigh lifting section of the gym among guys 3 times a week can influence not just your weight lifting abilities and body, but your perception of yourself as well.

Imagine yourself after few months of weight lifting seeing a guy with big manly muscles use the same weight dumbbells as you. Pretty self confidence booster, isn’t it? Now fast forward a few months of regular weight lifting, and you’ll be watching more and more guys using smaller dumbbells than you are. After 9 months of weight lifting there will be only few regular guys at the gym using heavier weights for weight lifting than you.

This is exactly what happened to me, and at this point when I realized that I lift more than most of the guys at the gym, I panicked. Suddenly I started to feel less feminine and sexy because seeing myself stronger than most of the guys placed me in front of them on that invisible weight lifting hierarchy ladder in my head. I’ve became one of the guys. Then I remembered:

My strength does not come from lifting weights, my strength came from lifting myself up when I was knocked down. [Tweet this!]

So how can you stay feminine and sexy on the inside while weight lifting?

3 tips to make you feel more feminine and sexy while weight lifting

Use these 3 tips to make you feel more feminine and sexy inside and outside of the gym while you regularly do your weight lifting routine.

Tip #1: Spend time with other women

Spending time in a gym weight lifting where most of the members are guys you are comparing yourself to and competing with is exhausting. All that manly energy and testosterone surrounding you while weight lifting may result in you ending up feeling less feminine and sexy.

What you need to do is get yourself among a group of women. By spending time with woman will make you unconsciously observe their feminine body language and movements, and after a few hours you will start to imitate them. Spending time with women will turn on your feminine side that you’ve put aside for weight lifting.

Tip #2: Be graceful

When out of the weight lifting room, make smooth movements instead of powerful ones!

You can teach yourself to be graceful and more feminine. Watch your posture: tighten your abs, move your shoulders down and back, away from your ears and raise your chin to be parallel to the floor.

To walk gracefully in heels or in any other type of shoes, do the following: take small steps, walk heel to toe not toe to heel. Don’t rush, lean slightly back while walking and visualize yourself walking in a straight line.

Tip #3: Dance

Dance classes are great for improving your feminine posture and teach you graceful movements. Just be sure to choose a dance class that requires you to learn sexy, feminine moves! It doesn’t have to be modern ballet, I suggest belly dancing, or my favorite, Zumba! After you learn the steps, you will be able to pay attention to your body movements in order for them to become calculated and fluid.

Get more useful tips on how to motivate yourself towards a more balanced lifestyle! Click here>>>

3 myths you need to know about weight loss before you start

February 19, 2015Motivation to stay fitafter weight loss, Body Image during and after weight loss, fit body, healthy life mindset, lose weight, losing fat, motivation, overcoming obesity, successful weight loss, weight loss problems, weight loss strugglesChristina Marky

Starting a weight loss journey is challenging. Check out what are the noob mistakes that you make after beginning  a weight loss program.

When you start thinking about weight loss while being overweight, you start with an idea in your head about weight loss. You believe that you know exactly what you need to do in order to achieve weight loss. You believe your only problem is starting and sticking to a weight loss program.

So what are the myths that every noob believes at the start of their weight loss program?

Myth #1:

I have to do an hour or more cardio per day for helping my weight loss

Noobs believe that doing hours cardio will burn off that extra pizza slice they had for snack. If you still believe that you can burn off extra calories you’ve eaten, you’re wrong. Here, let me prove this by giving you an example of how many calories you burn with cardio and how many pizza slices you’ve burned off*:

[table caption=”Burn off that pizza slice” width=”500″ colwidth=”20|100|50″ colalign=”left|left|center”]
Exercise type,Calories burned/hour,Pizza slice burned off
yoga,148 kcal,50% of a pizza slice
pilates,148 kcal,50% of a pizza slice
walking,177 kcal,60% of a pizza slice
belly dancing,266 kcal,93% of a pizza slice
aerobics,384 kcal,134% of a pizza slice
spinning,413 kcal,145% of a pizza slice
swimming,413 kcal,145% of a pizza slice
running,472 kcal,166% of a pizza slice
zumba,519 kcal,182% of a pizza slice
elliptical trainer,531 kcal,186% of a pizza slice
[/table]

* used MyFitnessPal’s calculator based on: a pizza slice has 285 kcal, a person has 59kg/130pounds.

So basically you can see that doing belly dancing for an hour will burn off that pizza slice that you had for a snack, but it won’t make you lose weight. Doing hours of cardio won’t help your weight loss.

Don’t get me wrong, cardio is beneficial for you because it can help you build endurance. It has many other benefits as well, as it can stronger your heart and lungs, reduce stress, make you feel more energized, help you increase bone density, reduce the risk of heart attack, make you sleep better and so on.

But relying solely on cardio for weight loss is naive.

Here comes the second myth:

Myth #2:

I must exercise to lose weight.

3 myths you need to know about weight loss before you start — You can sit on that machine for hours and it won’t make you lose a single pound

This is a lie. In reality: weight loss is only 20% gym and 80% kitchen. It means that you can lose weight by changing eating habits, you won’t need to step into a gym at all. However, everyone knows that exercising has many health benefits, so it is always a good idea to exercise. I am the spokesperson of healthy eating, but if your single goal is weight loss, you can always achieve it by eating less calories than you are currently eating.

I am not a fan of different crash-diets, detoxes, cleanses, but these also work for weight loss (even if they are unhealthy and bad for you in the long run) because the require you to eat at a caloric deficit.

You don’t see fat kids starving in Africa. So chances are, if you are twice as heavy as your healthy weight, then you are eating for 2 people. No matter how much you exercise, you can’t outrun your bad diet.

Myth #3:

Doing a bunch of ab exercises will give me defined six pack abs

No amount of ab exercises will give you great six pack abs. I learned this lesson by doing tons of ab exercises daily to loose my belly fat. It was successful until a point, where I could not lose the leftover belly fat from my bottom half no matter how hard I tried.

I had abs of steel, but they were invisible under that layer of body fat. So I seriously considered the truthfulness of the following statement:

Abs are formed in the gym but revealed at the kitchen. [Tweet this!]

So I’ve tweaked my nutrition, and bamm, visible abs! I considered myself a fool for not making the connection between body fat and visible abs, as well as for not thinking about the importance of nutrition as a component of having abs of steel.

Once I made a mistake of telling the girls at my Zumba Fitness Core class that they won’t get abs of steel by attending these classes once a week, but they looked at me in disbelief, like I was crazy.

Sure, they will strengthen their core and sculpt their abs, but they are expecting flat tummies and six pack abs at the end of the 4th week. Well, reality check: if you keep eating that pizza slice for breakfast every morning, no abs of steel for you lady.

So remember: in order to lose weight, start eating healthy, pick up healthy habits such as regular exercise. You’ll lose that fat in a healthy way for good!

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Fitness trackers are useless for gym workout: exercise routine before and after wearables

February 10, 2015Motivation to stay fitafter weight loss, fit body, healthy life mindset, lifting weights, motivationChristina Marky

Searching for the perfect fitness tracker? Don't know if you should get the latest model of that fitness tracker everyone is wearing? Let me share a secret: fitness trackers are useless for gym workout. Don't believe me? Read on.

I was excited just as you are for getting a fitness tracker for Christmas. A smart wearable was the big thing I thought I was missing in order to level up with my healthy living. But getting a wearable fitness tracker hadn’t affected my workout routine in any way. Trendy fitness trackers are made for lazy couch potatoes, not for people who work out regularly and already live a healthy lifestyle. In order to track your workout routine at the gym you will need a special fitness tracker that is not among the trendy ones currently on the market.

Find the right fitness tracker

Researched online different wearables and fitness trackers, and I’ve read tons of reviews each of the wearable. Different wearables have different functions that seem awesome at first: tracking physical activity, including calories burned, distance and what type of activity you are doing, such as walking, running, cycling.

I really believed that a fitness tracker would be of help in my workout performance and positively affect my workout routine.

Reading the specifications carefully revealed that the functions I would found useful, such as the heart rate monitor, does not work well when you move around… So what’s the point of measuring your heart rate when you just stand around? I want it to measure it while I am jumping around in Zumba class, so that I know how high is my heart rate when my face gets red. Got really disappointed while researching the fitness trackers: none of the fitness trackers functions could be useful during my gym workout, nor my Zumba cardio sessions.

Then it hit me: all the trendy fitness trackers are made for the lazy couch potatoes, not for our type who are already living healthy and exercising regularly. [Tweet this!]

The only function I thought I would find useful was the pedometer. But I already had a free app downloaded to my phone that worked as a pedometer.

Life after getting a fitness tracker

Although I really didn’t know for what I will be using a fitness tracker for, but it is the popular thing right now – everyone is wearing a fitness tracker. I figured I might as well get a stylish one and jump on the wearables bandwagon. After all, it was Christmas, and there weren’t much things that I needed or wanted anyway. Got to have a wrapped present, because simply saying “I love you” or “thank you for being in my life” is not a valid Christmas present in today’s society.

I settled for a Sony SmartBand fitness tracker, because it’s lightweight, stylish, and as its ad says: when a call or a message comes in, you feel it. Figured at least it will be useful on meetings when my phone is on silent.

How useful are fitness trackers in everyday life?

Fitness trackers are useless for gym workout: exercise routine before and after wearables — A fitness tracker for weight lifting is just as useful as these bands on your wrist.

Pedometer helped walk more daily. Had to be creative to figure out how to walk more to reach my daily goal. The secret how I manage to meet my daily goal of 10 000 steps: take stairs instead of the elevator, go for walk during lunch breaks, walk the dog more often, walk to the store for getting just milk even if it could wait until next big grocery shopping, walk to the market, walk to the bank and doing errands mostly by walking. After a few weeks, it becomes a habit. So I don’t have to think about it anymore, whenever I see an elevator and stairs, I take the stairs. Tip: identify opportunities in your everyday life for walks.

I use my fitness tracker in everyday life for:

Tracking steps
Smart wake up (my significant other looked forward to this function: no more early morning alarms waking him, my band vibrates to wake me while he stays happily asleep)
Letting me know when I receive a message or a phone call.

And that’s it, this is a complete list of the things that I use my fitness tracker for.

Fitness tracker useless in the gym

I found the fitness tracker totally useless in the gym. It did not track any of my fitness activities whatsoever. It only tracked my workout once when I used the running machine for warm-up instead of the elliptical. However, if you are a runner, then you will find fitness trackers more useful. But if you are going to the gym to lift weights and use the workout machines, having a fitness tracker on your wrist is completely useless. Pretty disappointing.

There wasn’t any difference in my workout performance before and after owning a fitness tracker. My fitness tracker just helped me get more aware of my everyday activities.

Will a fitness tracker be usefull with my workout?

Stay realistic: don’t expect too much from current fitness trackers. Here is a list of different exercises types and the usefulness of a fitness tracker for that exercise:

[table caption=”Fitness trackers usefulness for different exercise types” width=”500″ colwidth=”20|100|50″ colalign=”left|left|center|left|right”]
Exercise type,Fitness tracker useful,Remark
Aerobic exercises:,,
Running,Yes,Tracks time running
Cycling,Yes,Tracks time spent cycling
Walking/hiking,Yes,Tracks steps
Zumba,No,Can’t pick up the various steps
Tennis,No,Need special fitness tracker that tracks specific body movements
Anaerobic exercises:,,
Weight lifting,No,Need special fitness tracker still in early adopter phase
Flexibility exercises:,,
Yoga,No,Can’t track anything-showed me asleep while relaxing
Pilates,No,See yoga
[/table]

Right now, even the best fitness tracker in the world is still just that: a wearable tracker.

Let me recap: if you are a regular user, you will find fitness trackers useful. However, if you are exercising regularly, you will need to do a thorough research on the various wearables out there to find the a fitness tracker that fits your type of exercise.

So my advice when choosing a fitness tracker for yourself is to do your research: know what type of exercise you will be doing and what are you expecting from your fitness tracker, know the limitations of the device, read reviews, go see it how it fits your wrist before you buy it.

What fitness tracker do you have? How did you choose it? Is it meeting your expectations or are you disappointed like I am?

If you agree with me, share the blog post with your friends!

Afraid of going alone to the gym? 4 tips to help you go to the gym for the first time as a girl

January 20, 2015Emotional issues after weight loss, Motivation to stay fitBody Image during and after weight loss, body image problems, fit body, healthy life mindset, lifting weights, motivation, muscleChristina Marky

I was afraid of going alone to the gym as a girl. I was afraid of going alone to the “manly” section of the gym to start lifting weights. I remember planning to go to the gym alone for days. What occupied my mind was the moment when I’d step into the manly section of the gym to start my routine of lifting weights. I imagined that every person in the gym would look at me walking towards the weight rack, judging me. It was awful. It took me days to gather courage to actually go to the gym. But I wanted to go alone. I knew about the benefits of lifting weights for girls. I wanted to be that girl. The girl at the gym who is lifting weights.

Going to the gym alone to workout and start lifting weights can be intimidating for a girl. Here is a guide to get you on the road of going alone to the gym for the first time:

1. Pretend like you belong there

Fake it till you make it! Pretend like you know what you are doing. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t prepare yourself for your first time going alone to the gym. Pick out a workout plan that fits your level of fitness, know exactly what exercises you will be doing at the gym, in what order. Study the exercises you are about to do. Watch YouTube videos of proper forms of the exercises. Use the mirrors in the gym, they are there so you can check yourself and your form (and later to see your sexy body and flex your muscles!). Do everything that you feel like you need to do in order for you to feel ready for your first time going alone to the gym. Then just walk in and pretend like you belong there. Let me tell you a secret: chances are, the others are faking it as well. Also, don’t be afraid to stand around and stare at the equipment or look around to see if it is the machine you’re looking for.

2. Use warm up and cardio for making yourself comfortable

You need to warm up before engaging in any exercise activity. Use this time to calm your mind. If you are used to running, then use the treadmill to get your pulse up and watch other people around you. This will make you feel like you fit in with the gym locals. If your goal is to start lifting weights, then do what I did: use the weight room for warm up exercises so you can assess the situation before starting your lifting routine.

3. Have a workout plan

Know what you are there for. You surely have a goal set ahead of you (for choosing a goal, visit XXFitness FAQ). Whether it is losing weight and fat, gaining muscle and strength, improving your cardio and heart health or toning up your body, you will need a workout plan for it. Pick a workout plan in advance that works towards your goals. I started lifting weights with the Stronglifts 5×5 app, because having my phone with me at the gym and using the built-in timer for counting rest time between sets seemed like a good idea. Knowing that I can see the exercises on my phone gave me the courage to act like I knew what I was doing. Or you could just have pictures of exercises on your phone to remind yourself of the exercises you will be doing. Nowadays I just use 3 different post it notes with the exercises scribbled down with cute stick figures performing the exercise that I rotate on my 3-day workout days.

4. You are awesome for even thinking about going alone to the gym

If you’d have ever spent time in a gym, you’d seen that most people there are noobs. Not many people know what they are doing. So don’t be afraid to be one of the noobs. Everyone has to start somewhere. By having a workout goal and a workout plan, you are already in the scarce minority. Just look around among your friends: the reason of why you even thought of going alone in the gym in the first place is because there is no one around you to keep you company. So committing to going alone to the gym, you already placed yourself in the scarce minority of people that actually care about their lifestyle. Congratulations, by researching the proper form of exercises and attempting them you further narrowed yourself to make the awesome gym people cut!

Just remember: it takes one step at a time, and the first step is the hardest! Everyone at the gym had to start somewhere, so nobody in their right mind is going to judge you for being a beginner. Don’t worry, no one is there to watch you working out. At least not yet!

Found this guide useful? Get more useful quick tips on how to motivate yourself towards a lifestyle filled with healthy habits! Click here>>>

15 things I wish I knew before I started losing weight while I was obese

January 13, 2015Emotional issues after weight loss, Motivation to stay fitafter weight loss, Body Image during and after weight loss, fit body, healthy life mindset, Maria Kang, motivation, successful weight lossChristina Marky

anorexia vs phantom fat distorted body image — [Image courtesy of marin at FreeDigitalPhotos.net]

I have a confession to make: I enjoy being the fit girl! Not just because of my looks and health benefits of regular exercise, but also because of the things that I’ve learned during my journey from fat to fit girl.

Some of them are little, important things that I’ve discovered during my journey from fat to fit while other things came as a big revelation! Looking back I wish I knew all these things before I started losing weight while I was obese, because it would have made my journey from fat to fit more easy. And faster. Knowing all this, I would have jumped on the “get fit now” bandwagon a decade ago!

Becoming fit is not a destination – it’s the road that You’re on

The new year has started! Whoohoo! Back to my usual workout routine! The holidays gave me time to look back at my last year’s accomplishments. Going from fat to fit was the biggest achievement of my previous year! Becoming fit takes a lot of commitment and focus. You learn a lot along the way from fat to fit. Thinking back to my old fat self made me think of things I wish I knew before I started losing weight.

Sometimes it’s the journey that teaches you about your destination. [Tweet this!]

The things you learn during your journey from fat to fit are a valuable lesson. So what are these secrets?

15 things You need to know before You start losing weight

I figured that I’ll compile a list of 15 things I wish I knew when I was obese! Let it be a help on your weight loss journey from fat to fit. It doesn’t matter if you are getting started now or if you already made the first steps towards becoming fit and living a healthy life!

You don’t have to be fat. I wish someone had told me this when I was a kid. Seriously. I’ve spent my childhood, teen years and adolescence thinking I have to be fat, because I don’t have a choice.
You weren’t born fat. Have you seen a newborn? Babies aren’t born fat. They are fed into being fat. Trust me, it’s not your genes, it’s the amount of food that you eat.
Being fit is not just a temporary state. If you keep up with your lifestyle changes by developing healthy eating habits and make exercise part of your life, then you won’t get back to being your old fat self.
You can be a fit mom. This realization comes from the fact that my family was fat/obese. So I figured that I can get fit while single, but once I have kids, I’ll go back to my old fat self. Well, that’s not true! Check out my inspiration mom, Maria Kang!
The time you spend figuring out how to dress to cover up your fat body to look slim could be spent at the gym making your body sexy/fit. Think about this for a second. All that time and brainpower wasted into hacking your looks to make you seem thinner. Let’s get real: you’re not fooling anyone, but yourself.
Being fat is exhausting you. You may not be aware of it, but looking back I see now how little energy I had because of my bad lifestyle choices. One more reason to change from fat to fit!
Working out and exercising will make you feel in control of your body. By engaging yourself into any type of exercise or sport activity will make you more in control with your body. Yoga will help you with your clumsiness, running will tune your gross motor skills, Zumba will improve your coordination skills, weight lifting will make you carry your heavy groceries in one trip.
That voice in your head that feels ashamed of your fat body that you are trying to silence is actually trying to help you. The voice is trying to tell you that you are hurting yourself by getting any fatter. You lifestyle is bad for your health, and you know it. Deep down you know that being fat is unhealthy for you, even if you don’t admit it openly to others or even to yourself.
Being fat is your choice. Your choice only. So is becoming fit. So choose wisely.
Going from fat to fit isn’t emotionally harder than living as a fat person. I realized this now looking back at my mostly fat and obese life and the journey from obese to fat and then fit. Becoming fit made me struggle with body image issues, I couldn’t see my new fit body, I thought I was going insane. But being fat also had it’s emotional downs, and struggling with emotional issues while reaping the benefits of being healthy was way easier than it was struggling with being fat.
Being fit doesn’t mean spending endless hours on the treadmill or in the gym. I wish I knew this at the start of my weight loss journey. It’s the type of the exercise adjusted to your goal that is important, not the time spent with workout. I fell into the trap of exercising for hours exhausting myself, with no benefits whatsoever. Now my exercise is 3 days at the gym for 1 hours lifting weights, and on the 2 between rest days doing Zumba for faster, active recovery (it helps relieve soreness by stimulating blood flow and improving circulation to the muscles).
Being fit is more about your eating habits than working out. Weight loss is 80% nutrition or what you eat, and 20% exercise, also known as the 80/20 Rule. Yet again, wish I knew this at the start of my weight loss journey.
Being fit doesn’t mean that you can never eat sweets or junk food. Weight loss is more about eating less food than you used to. Just make sure that the healthy foods way overbalance the junk food that you eat.
You can start exercising or get into a sport at any age. There is no such thing as not being born as an athletic type – you make yourself an athletic type by engaging in a sport activity.
You feel awesome and accomplished after a good workout. An intensive workout is exhausting, but after it you feel like you accomplished something. You don’t feel depressed like after you finish stuffing unnecessary sweets in your face in unlimited amounts.

Follow me on my journey from fat to fit girl! Click here>>>

Bulletproof secrets to sticking with Your new year resolution

January 6, 2015Motivation to stay fitafter weight loss, healthy life mindset, motivation, no excuseChristina Marky

Coming up with a new year resolution is easy, and if you are anything like me, you’ve come up with tons of resolutions you’d like to make a reality in the new year. That is really nice, but what can guarantee that you’ll stick with your new year resolution in the long run and won’t drop it after a few weeks into the new year? I have the secret to sticking with your new year resolution right here, that I guarantee that will work:

Secret #1: Make it a habit

Making a new year resolution sets you up for failure if it is not based on observing your current habits. What you need to do is make behavioral changes. In order for you to stick with your new year resolution, you need to make it a habit. By taking up a new healthy habit or substituting an old, existing bad habit with a new healthy habit, you guarantee that you’ll stick with it in the long run. So instead of making new year resolutions, concentrate on developing healthy habits in the new year. There are 2 ways to do this:

Substitute a bad habit with a new, healthy habit
Take up a new healthy habit

It doesn’t matter whichever you choose; the important thing is to think of your new year resolution as a habit. This is key to making you stick to your new year resolution in the long run.

Secret #2: Take up one new healthy habit at a time

As a new year resolution, I started last year with a 30 day challenge of eating at least one fruit per day for 30 days. Seems easy, right? Well, it wasn’t! In order to keep up eating a fruit for 30 days, there were several issues I had to address, that I didn’t see coming. It seemed easy on the first week: I ate an orange, apple or a banana every day for 7 days. Then all the fruit I bought started going bad, because I bought a bunch of fruits that I couldn’t eat in a week. I ended up without fruit at the end of the first week. So I had to change my approach and buy smaller quantities of fruit. Then my appetite got better, and ended up eating more than one fruit per day, and again ended up without fruit at the end of the second week. After the 30 days were over, I figured that I like eating fruit, so I made this challenge a healthy habit and continued eating at least one fruit per day. On the next week, I forgot to buy fruit, because it still wasn’t a healthy habit for me to buy fruit during grocery shopping. Every time I had to write down exactly how much fruit I need to buy and which type during grocery shopping. It needed a lot of adjusting in order for me to develop a healthy habit out of my new year resolution. After 90 days into the new year I remember looking back and thinking about how challenging those past 3 months have been. But I stick to it, adjusted, and finally developed a healthy habit of eating one fruit per day. By making it a healthy habit, after a year, I still eat a fruit a day.

Now imagine yourself with 3 or more new year resolutions that you want to introduce in your life all at once. A simple thing as eating one fruit a day took me 3 months to shift into a healthy habit: I had a lot of adjusting to do until I came up with a right shopping plan that works for me and that doesn’t leave me with spoiled fruit or without fruit. I was ready to introduce a new healthy habit after that. Have I taken up 3 new habits at once, I guarantee I would have failed in all 3 of them in the long run. So figure out one new healthy habit, and when you see that you made it a habit and you can stick to it for more than a month, then move on to the next one.

Introducing 12 new healthy habits this year is quite an achievement, right? Way better than failing at 3 new healthy habits before the end of the first month.

Secret #3: Take it step by step – with small steps

Don’t make a new year resolution that is way too much of a challenge and needs you making huge changes in your life. You won’t be able to stick to any drastic measures in the long run. By making an surrealistic new year resolution, you are setting yourself up for failure.

Let’s say: You decide to lose weight by working out at the gym at least an hour a day 5 times a week while your current workout routine is going to a yoga class 2-3 times a month. It is guaranteed that you won’t be able to maintain that regimen longer than a week because of work and other responsibilities. You feel bad because you failed at the start, and you stuff a pizza, coke and delicious sweets into you face for the next month. You failed because you set yourself an unrealistic goal as a new year resolution. You can’t expect to go from working out once a week to working out 5 times a week. You need to make that shift gradually. First, make it at least 2 times per week to the gym or to that yoga class. Then, when it becomes a habit, raise the bar. Make it 3-4 times a week. You will need to overcome a lot of obstacles and figure out a workout schedule that works for you in a long run. Introducing new healthy habits is only possible if you do it with small steps.

Like these tips? Get more useful quick tips on how to motivate yourself towards a lifestyle full of healthy habits! Click here>>>

How to restart workout routine after winter holiday season

December 30, 2014Motivation to stay fitafter weight loss, healthy life mindset, motivationChristina Marky

Keeping up with a healthy diet and workout routine is impossible during the winter holiday season. The winter holiday season revolves around delicious food and stuffing it into your face. Devoting free time to be with family, visiting relatives or preparing for gatherings interrupts the usual workout routine schedule. If you are anything like me, not getting to workout regularly and eating healthy will drive you crazy. Yet it is really hard to get back on track once the winter holiday season is over. How could anyone expect you to not stuff the delicious leftover Christmas cookies into your face and go to the gym instead of curling up with a good book and hot cocoa?

Follow these 3 steps to help you restart your workout routine after the winter holiday season:

1. Weigh yourself

Poor eating choices during winter holiday season just happen. Every day of the winter holiday. Sweets, soft drinks, dessert, that one more plate of juicy steak. The pounds will just stack up on you secretly.

Look no further for motivation: weight yourself! During Christmas, I’ve put on 5 lbs / 2.5 kg in 2 days! Oh the horror!

I bet you’ll be running to the gym the moment you see those numbers on the scale moving up up up! It pissed me off so much that I’ve gained that much in such little time that I’ve immediately hit that Zumba Fitness class that evening and sweated like a donut at a police station!

2. Don’t think, just act!

Make the first small step: make it something easy. Don’t over think it, just do it. If it is that easy, you will not be able to say no in your head. Fill the water bottle. Put your dry fit t-shirt on under a sweater. Put on your winter coat, hat and boots! Go out the door. Head for the gym. Easy!

Once you make the firs step, you will feel more motivated to continue. Make it with small steps, one step at a time! You’ll get back on track in no time! Bye-bye winter holiday season pounds!

3. Track your calorie intake

Tracking calorie intake stops during the winter holiday season because it’s impossible to track all the delicious home made food prepared by family. Or you don’t want to track because you already feel bad for eating it and knowing it’s not a healthy choice. You don’t want to make yourself feel even worse about it when adding it to MyFitnessPal’s calorie counter. However, when you come to the point of regretting you poor meal choices after the winter holiday season, you will need to start to log your food again. Plus, if you eat the calories to maintain your weight, you won’t get fatter. Or just do what I did, and start eating at a caloric deficit, and lose those excess 5 lbs / 2.5 kg in 2 days.

If you haven’t already figured out how much calories you need to eat in order to maintain your weight, you can do it by heading to a Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) calculator here. It will help you figure out how much calories you need to eat to reach your goal weight.

Need even more support to get back on track with your fitness routine after the winter holiday season? Click here to get free access to more useful tips>>>

How to start a 30 day water challenge: the rules

December 16, 201430 day water challenge, Motivation to stay fit#noexcusewaterchallenge, healthy life mindset, Maria Kang, motivation, no excuse, water challengeChristina Marky

3 rules of the 30 day water challenge

Ready to start Your 30 day water challenge? Not sure how to get started? First thing first: let’s see what are the rules of the 30 day water challenge!

Rules of the 30 day water challenge seem simple: You should drink 1 gallon/3.7 liters of water a day for 30 days, no sweetened beverages nor alcohol are allowed for this period.

How to start the 30 day water challenge?

If you are serious about starting the 30 day water challenge, there certainly are more questions that will arise. Now let’s break down these simple steps of the 30 day water challenge one by one, and answer the big question:

1. Create a water drinking plan

If you are not much of a water drinker, then making yourself to drink 1 gallon/3.7 liters of water a day for 30 days will be tricky at the start. You will need to monitor your water intake, but eventually you will get used to drinking that amount of water. I suggest starting the 30 day water challenge by creating a water drinking plan for yourself to drink that 1 gallon/3.7 liter water a day. You can even have a weekday and weekend water drinking plan if your daily routine differs during the week. The trick is to create a water drinking plan for yourself that fits your lifestyle. The point of a water drinking plan is to plan the water drinking in advance – so you will be more likely to stick to it and meet your daily goal of water intake.

Creating a water drinking plan helps you develop a habit of regularly drinking water throughout the day. It is important if you are not used to drinking water.

Don’t drink all the water in once! In fact, you mustn’t drink more than 0.21 gallons/0.8 liter of water in an hour, because water poisoning is a real threat. You can prevent water poisoning if you distribute your water intake throughout the day.

Just be mindful of your water intake frequency: having a water drinking plan is a great way of achieving this.

2. Swap sweetened coffee, tea, soda, juices with pure water (or their unsweetened equivalent)

If you strictly follow the rules of the 30 day water challenge, then you shouldn’t drink sweetened soda/coffee/tea/juices nor alcohol at all. Swapping your sweetened drinks with pure water is great step towards a healthy lifestyle!

If you are finding this to be really strict, then start the 30 day water challenge by taking your coffee/tea without sugar, honey or artificial sweeteners. Swap soda and juices with water! Limit your alcohol intake to drinking 1 glass of vine or other alcohol 1-2 times per week as a treat.
[table caption=”Am I allowed to drink this during the 30 day water challenge?” width=”500″ colwidth=”20|100|50″ colalign=”left|left|center”]
Drink type,Allowed,Not allowed
Coffee,Yes if unsweetened,Sweetened coffee NOT allowed
Tea,Yes if unsweetened,Sweetened tea NOT allowed
Soda,Yes if soda water,Sweetened sodas NOT allowed
Juices,NOT allowed,NOT allowed
Milk,Yes if unsweetened,Sweetened milk NOT allowed
[/table]

3. Does water in my coffee/tea/soda/juice/soup count as water?

Drinks such as unsweetened coffee and unsweetened tea also count in into your water intake during the 30 day water challenge. You can also count the water in soups as well.

We agreed that you are going to drink water instead of juices and soda during the 30 day water challenge, so it is clear that water counts as water.

Soda is allowed only if it is soda water (sparkling water), a natural potable mineral water with high concentration of sodium bicarbonate, typically carbonated. Keep in mind, that flavored carbonated water contains sweeteners, so it is not allowed as a drink during the 30 day water challenge. You should stay away from any kind of soda beverages.

However, if you choose to treat yourself with that 1 glass of vine or other type of alcohol, don’t count them in your daily water intake.

If you’ve read this far, it means that you are ready to start your 30 day water challenge! If you have any reservations about drinking 1 gallon/3.7 liter water a day for 30 days, consult your doctor.

Need proof of the benefits of drinking more water? See my results of the 30 day water challenge>>>

Starting a 30 day water challenge? 4 alarming issues you need to address

December 9, 201430 day water challenge, Body image problems, Motivation to stay fit#noexcusewaterchallenge, body image problems, fit body, Maria Kang, motivation, water challengeChristina Marky

A lot of you asked about the 30 day water challenge I’ve completed, so here you will find answers from how much water should you drink during the water challenge to how often should you drink, as well as advice to 4 alarming issues you will come across during those 30 days.

If you are reading this, then it means that you are ready to start your 30 day water challenge and you need no more proof of the benefits of drinking more water. However, if you are still not convinced of the benefits, head over here to read about the results you could have after completing the 30 day water challenge>>>

The rules of the 30 day water challenge are simple: you drink 1 gallon/3.7 liters of water for 30 days. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But there are questions that will emerge after you start the 30 day water challenge – so let’s address them one by one:

1. How much water should I drink during the 30 day water challenge?

The starting rule is to daily drink 1 gallon/3.7 liters of water for 30 days. If you are anything like me, you have busy and hectic workweek and eventful weekends, and at some point you will just forget to drink enough water.

So start the 30 day water challenge by creating a water drinking plan for yourself to drink that 1 gallon/3.7 liter water a day.

My weekday water drinking plan was that on weekdays I drank 2×50 oz/2×1.5 l during my office hours from 9 till 5, and then drank my my 26 oz/0.75 l workout bottle during my afternoon workout. The truth is that this water drinking plan worked perfectly on weekdays, however on weekends I needed another plan to meet my water goal of 1 gallon/3.7 liters.
The weekend water drinking plan that worked for me was to drink a glass of water before and after every meal. On Saturday mornings I drank a glass of water right after I woke up, then 1 more glass after my morning routine of washing face, teeth, and dressing up for the day, and 1 more glass of water during/after breakfast. With 4 meals a day, I still had to fill my 26 oz/0.75 l workout bottle twice a day and carry it around with me to come close to my goal of 1 gallon/3.7 liters.
I recommend drinking just water, but at first it might feel too overwhelming and boring. This is when you can spice things up! If you are tired of drinking just pure water, try infusing water with various fruits and herbs! Your taste buds will thank you, and it still counts as drinking water! What I’ve found useful, is this water bottle that you can drag around with you all day and have different fruit flavored water every day!

2. How much water should I drink all in one during the 30 day water challenge?

Water cure — “Let’s cure him of those pesky electrolytes!”

Don’t drink 1 gallon/3.7 liters of water all at once, because water poisoning is a real thing. It happens when you wash out the electrolytes that your body needs. In fact, this was used as a way of torture in the Medieval century.

To avoid water poisoning, just don’t drink more than 0.21 gallons/0.8 liter of water in an hour. If you have healthy kidneys, they filter 0.21 – 0.26 gallons/0.8-1 liter of water per hour. See this list of risk factors for water poisoning. If you have your reservations about drinking 1 gallon/3.7 liter water a day for 30 days, consult with your doctor.

Don’t worry too much, because if you are anything like me, then usually you don’t drink enough water. So at the beginning of your 30 day water challenge, your main problem will be to get used to remind yourself to drink water – the risk of water poisoning won’t be on the table until later on. Only when you develop the habit to drink plenty water, and get used to visiting the toilet more frequently, you might face the problem of drinking excess amount of water in a short period of time.

Don’t let the thought of water poisoning discourage you in starting your 30 day water challenge, because drinking lots of water has many benefits. But just like all the other issues in your life, you must be mindful of your water intake frequency. You easily can prevent water poisoning if you distribute your water intake throughout the day.

So the next question that pops into your head should be:

3. How often should I drink during the 30 day water challenge?

Distribute your water intake throughout the day: drink water in the morning, before and after meals, during workout, during work and running errands.

During my 30 day water challenge, I was drinking 2×50 oz/2×1.5 l during my office hours, and a 26 oz/0.75 l workout bottle during my afternoon workout on weekdays. On weekends I usually failed to meet the 1 gallon/3.7 liters goal; tried hard coming close to it by drinking a glass of water right after I woke up, then 1 glass after my morning routine, and 1 more glass of water during/after breakfast, and drinking 1 glass of water before and after my other 3 meals.

Your goal is to get close to your daily water intake of 1 gallons/3.7 liters, but don’t overstress if you fail. There are days when you won’t make your goal, but that doesn’t mean that you won’t experience the benefits of your 30 day water challenge.

4. Does soda/coffee/tea/juices count as drinking water during the 30 day water challenge?

If you want to strictly follow the rules of the 30 day water challenge, then you shouldn’t drink sweetened soda/coffee/tea/juices nor alcohol at all. In fact, you could stop to drink sweetened drinks even after the 30 day water challenge is over! Changing your drinks from soda/juices to pure water is your best bet towards a healthy lifestyle. So during the 30 days, start by taking your coffee/tea without sugar, honey or artificial sweeteners. Swap soda and juices with water! Limit your alcohol intake.

During my 30 day water challenge, I drank one coffee in the morning without sugar and just a little bit of milk. Stopped drinking sweetened beverages a long time ago, and drank water instead, so that wasn’t a problem. However, I like to drink a glass of vine few times a week with my dinner – so I limited this to one glass per week. It was a special treat to drink a glass of vine for my romantic weekend dinners.

To sum it up: consider the water in unsweetened coffee or tea, but don’t count the once-a-week alcohol if you are choosing to have that fun drink.

Ready to start you 30 day water challenge? Way to go! If you have any questions about the 30 day water challenge before you start it or during it, feel free to ask it in the comments section below.