Sara’s Top 5 Tips To Get Your Best GLOW

Starting a workout program can be a challenge, but even more challenging is sticking to it. We are often super motivated and ready to act when we’ve finally have enough; enough of feeling tired, feeling sluggish, feeling horrible in our clothes, enough of feeling frustration when we go out because we just don’t feel good about ourselves, enough of wanting to hide when the camera comes out, enough of hating everything in the wardrobe because it doesnt fit, makes us feel old, frumpy or both.

We start exercising and eating well, then life starts to demand more time and focus, the results are not as fast to change as we hope and then… well we fall back to old habits and nothing changes.. It is a cycle many know well. But it doesn’t have to be, here are my top tips for staying on track, being kind to yourself in the process and enjoying the results no matter when they show up.

1. Keep showing up for Yourself– This is so important that you build a consistent exercise and nutrition program into your week. It might be as simple as 2 exercise sessions weekly and regular meals daily, but the key is you make the promise to yourself and stick to it. Start slow with enough room to build more into your week, it feels far more motivating to add more workout time into your week than to take it away. So set yourself up for success and you’ll feel uber-accomplished at the end of each week. If you need to shuffle your days because of life then do it, by setting a minimum workouts per week, rather than named days to workout, you will feel better moving things around when you need to.
2. Eat smaller portions more often– Having energy for life, work, family and working out means you need to mange your food intake intelligently. Eat something within 20min of waking up, even if you are a self confessed ‘no breakfast eater’ you can have a banana in the very least. Fire your metabolism to work with your energy needs, rather than shutting down and going into starvation mode, which is the total opposite of what you want.
3. Get a workout outfit that makes you feel good- Covering up in sloppy clothes and drab colours will make you feel like you want to hide from the world. Even if at the start you actually do want to hide from the world. Setting yourself up to feel good with colours that lift your mood and a style that you feel good wearing can sometimes be the difference between getting the workout mojo flowing or sitting on the couch with a bag of crisps and loathing yourself. It doesn’t have to be expensive, just make you feel like you are on track and on the way to your goals.
4. Have 2-3 clear goals with a time frame that is short, middle and long term- Goals keep us focused, but they can also de-motivate if they are not set with clarity and reality as key factors. If a client came to me and said they wanted to be a size 6 in 6 weeks and were starting from a size 20, I would suggest that their time frames need review. The goals is great, but lets have a sporting shot at success by shifting the goal to aim for 6 weeks time regularly working out 3 times a week doing something they really enjoy, sleeping consistently and hitting some key nutrition goals. Then, perhaps a size 10 in 6 months and a review post 6 months from there. Now thats more workable and places the focus on short term results that can be achieved.
5. Find a workout you love– This is so important because doing things that are a chore is quite simply a bore. So to give your workouts you full focus and energy find a class, teacher or activity that you really enjoy and then stick to it, progressing your skills and fitness as you go. Try the Beginner GlowUp workout of mine and then progress to the advanced sessions.