Stick With It: Christine Bullock's Tips For Enjoying Your Healthiest Year Yet
Fact: We all have bad habits. You might not like to admit to them, visit this remedy but there is a slight bit of you that knows exactly what your worst flaws are. Whether you bite your nails, sick have trouble keeping your bedroom clean, or aren’t as motivated as you’d like to be at work, these behaviors aren’t easy to forget about. It isn’t that we haven’t tried to rid our lives of these negativities, it’s just that diminishing a bad habit leaves room for another one to creep in and take its place. Well, hasta la vista, baby! It’s time for YOU to have your healthiest year yet.
No matter what your goals are, the time is now — Stick with it! Your healthiest and happiest year is just around the corner, and we have just the motivation to get you started. Christine Bullock, Fitness and Lifestyle Expert and Creator of Evolution 20, has 10 healthy, achievable, and life-changing habits to share with you. These simple routines are the first step in your journey towards achieving your ultimate physique and energy!
1. Shorten your workouts! Using the right mix of exercises can cut your workouts into a quarter of the time and still quadruple your results. High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) increases fat burning and metabolism for up to 24-hours after your workout. With HIIT you can sculpt your full body in twenty minutes while building muscle mass and thus increasing metabolism.
2. Rest! One of the best things you can do to increase your results is giving your body time to recover. I suggest one day per week as a recovery day. When you do not allow your body, or even specific muscle groups, to recover you will get diminishing returns on your workouts. (IE without recovery you will work harder and get less results.)
3. Eat burgers, fries, crackers, and pasta! You don’t have to cut your favorite foods out completely. Instead, find healthy alternatives such as a quinoa burger, parsnip chips, carrot fries, or kelp pasta. These foods are packed with nutrients that will pump up metabolism. Plus they are low in calories: a serving of kelp pasta only has around 6 calories - so indulge!
4. Prepare ahead of time. Schedule a variety of workouts in your weekly calendar and stick to them like you would any meeting. Mix up workouts (running, yoga, ballet, strength training) to get the best results—your body will not plateau and you will feel balanced and refreshed all week long. I like to start Monday with my most intense workout like cross fit or HIIT because I have the most energy. Then as the week progresses I add toning from Pilates or calming workouts like yoga toward the end of the week.
5. Sunday Starter. While eating breakfast Sunday, plan a weekly soup, salad, smoothie and one other entree like a grilled fish. I typically select seasonal dishes with six ingredients or less. This makes meals easy to prepare, easy to digest, and less expensive to purchase organic. Blend your smoothie each morning in 5- minutes or less. Freeze the soup in small serving size bags and pull out for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Snack on the salad for the first few days of the week. Cook your entree a bit later on in the week when you have time. You are bound to feel your best when you control the ingredients you put into your body and it does not have to take a lot of time.
6. Weekday Warrior. Feel confident next to any pro-athlete, by testing the same athletic boundaries in your personal workouts. Focus on increasing all manners of strength, including Power, Endurance, Stability, and Agility.
7. Hydrate. First thing in the morning drink a glass of warm water with lemon. It will help flush toxins (and therefore weight), balance your body’s pH, and wake up your digestive tract!
8. Be a leader. Going out to dinner with friends? Before you get to the restaurant, research the menu online and select the meal you will order when you arrive. Studies also show people tend to follow the first person that orders, so if you order healthy your table will more than likely order healthy as well. Be an example!
9. Get to bed on time. Set a realistic bedtime that works with your lifestyle and stick to it! I am up at 5:30 AM every morning so my body starts to shut down around 7:30 PM and I try to be in bed reading a book by 8:30 PM each night. If you are getting enough sleep, you should wake up naturally without an alarm. If you need an alarm clock to wake up on time, you may need to set an earlier bedtime.
10. Count your blessings. As soon as my eyes open in the morning, I like to remember what I am grateful for. This is the key for me to start the day the best way. It is important because it helps me to sort priorities and keep my mind on the bigger picture, rather than getting caught up in small stressors that inevitably pop up during that day.