Recently a few friends have come to me asking how I stay motivated to workout. First of all, it’s UNREAL to me that anyone would come to me for any kind of fitness advice. Second, just freakin’ do it! 

It’s so much easier said than done, but it’s true! You have to decide for yourself how bad you want it. Is reaching your goals worth keeping your promise to yourself to workout? Then just freakin’ do it! 

Here’s what I mean by that – don’t think, just do. If I have plans to go to the gym after work, the instant that I start thinking about it is the instant that I start talking myself out of it. “I’m tired today. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a night off? Maybe I should walk the dogs instead. Maybe I should go get a beer instead. That sounds nice. Way better than the gym.” Sound familiar?

So, I just don’t think about it. I just freakin’ do it! 

So here’s my advice – create a SMART goal – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timely.

Then, just freakin’ do it. 

For instance, here are my SMART goals for this week:
37,000 steps M-F
3,700 calories burned during my workouts this week
3-4 days of morning cardio
3-4 days of strength training at the gym

Each of those are SMART and they’re extremely do-able. Once I set my intentions and goals for the week each Sunday, I look at my calendar, and weather for the week and plan accordingly.

For instance, I know it’s supposed to rain Monday through Thursday this week, but the weekend is supposed to be glorious, and I’d like to spend it active and outside. So after looking at my work schedule and the weather, I devised this schedule:

Monday: Pound class (done!)
Tuesday: Morning Cardio (done!)
Wednesday: Morning Cardio (done!), Strength Training at the Gym
Thursday: Morning Cardio, Strength Training at the Gym
Friday: Walk/hike with the dogs
Saturday: Walk/Hike with the dogs
Sunday: Active Rest – light walk/hike with the dogs, Strength Training at the Gym

And I’m not going to give a second thought because to me, that gives me the opportunity to bail out of my plan and to fail. I’m going to just freakin’ do it! 

How do you balance eating fewer calories with eating artificial sh*t?

I’ve always been of the belief that eating “low-fat” or “reduced calorie” foods does more harm than good. For instance, if you eat a small amount of whole-fat cheese, it’s better for you than eating more low-fat cheese because of the artificial shit that they pump into those kinds of foods to make them lower calorie, while keeping taste.

However, I recently switched to “light” ranch dressing for my salads and I’m kind of struggling with it.

So … serious question – how do you balance eating fewer calories with still trying to eliminate eating artificial shit?