Vince Leveille is a Pro Online Fitness coach with an expertise in post pregnancy weight loss. Contact him at [email protected] for a free fitness/nutrition consultation. Follow his blog at www.vfitness.us.
Today’s moms have significantly more responsibilities than their grandmothers, from working outside the home, maintaining a household and raising a family often fitness is the first thing that gets thrown to the wayside. Healthy meals turn into fast food on the go for today’s busy soccer moms. Shopping and preparing healthy organic foods get replaced with faster, easier processed foods. Going to the gym daily gets replaced to driving to dance class and play dates. Too many of us have lost the focus on living a healthy lifestyle. Unfortunately the result is an ever increasing obesity rate and an even faster childhood obesity rate increase. So how can today’s busy mom get it all in? Is it possible to do it all AND focus on fitness and health? YES it is. By utilizing technology and social media today’s super moms can use time effectively and be the example for their children and do their part to end the trend of obesity.
HOME WORKOUTS
Going to a gym on a consistent basis often times just isn’t feasible for today’s mom. For the more rural areas a fitness facility isn’t even an option. With today’s gas prices and higher gym fees it’s just not in the family budget. An easy solution is pre-made home based fitness programs. Today’s DVD fitness programs are not the Jane Fonda workouts of old. They are excellent options that often come with specific meal plans and workout calendars. Some require simple equipment and others need no equipment. There are options for every level of fitness from the elite athlete to the morbidly obese. No excuses. There is something for everyone. Some even come with your own personal online fitness coach to keep you motivated and answer any questions you may have.
TECHNOLOGY and SOCIAL MEDIA
Personal trainers and nutritionists are an excellent choice for some people, unfortunately they are expensive. Hiring a personal trainer can cost anywhere from $40 – $100 per hour, double that for a nutritionist. It is possible to get the benefits with a fraction of the cost, if not free. Using private groups on facebook with other moms doing the same home workouts, going thru the same trials and tribulations can provide great motivation and help keep you accountable in your workouts and nutrition. Posting pictures of healthy meals within the group can not only force you to eat better, it also provides ideas for future meals. The facebook group ends up being a massive support system to help everyone thru their journey of changing to a healthy lifestyle.
Weight loss is 75% nutrition. (Notice I did not say ‘diet’). Fad diets are short term solutions and rarely keep the weight off. So how can one get top notch nutrition information for free? It all starts with knowing what you put in to your body. Websites and smart phone apps like myfitnesspal (www.myfitnesspal.com) are very user friendly ways to use technology to log all food and drinks. By consistently logging food you can see where your weaknesses are. Your fitness coach can help you with setting goal numbers for calories, protein, carbs, sugar, etc. By simply hitting close to those numbers you will lose weight if that is your goal. Using a website like http://www.thefresh20.com/ can help the busy mom with planning healthy meals on a budget. This site will not only save you time in food shopping, it also will save you money with their weekly themes that use the same food items.
Today’s busy mom’s CAN have it all with a little organization and utilizing technology in their fitness/nutrition. Weight loss is not an easy process. There are not secrets other than putting the right things in your body in the right amounts, and consistently working a fitness plan. It takes work…but you’re worth it!!