SonyaIt happens every holiday season. We stuffed our turkeys and ourselves. It’s the holidays and damn it we’re gonna celebrate since we’ve been saving ourselves for the past few years. After the champagne and the espresso martinis, we’re looking forward to starting a fresh new year when we can focus on ourselves. Ready to jumpstart your new year?
Let’s be clear, we are not here to talk about New Year’s resolutions. We all know how they turn out, right? They are lofty goals that are often unattainable or fizzle out at a drop of a cookie. But if you’re like us, you may be tempted to try the latest Tik-Tok lifestyle trend or whatever social media is telling us the quickest way to see results. Too good to be true? More often, yes. We’re now realizing that slow, steady and mindful actions with attainable results make for longer term success. But where do we start?
We know there are a lot of ways — (re)join a gym, fitness class, get back on that Peloton or whatever equipment you’ve invested in over Covid. It’s all good. Your intention is the first step.
Then, determine your goals and objectives. Is it to live a healthier lifestyle? Lose weight? Want more energy? What we have been learning is in order to get the results we desire we need to be kind to ourselves. Saying “I’d like to lose 25 lbs by March for my beach vacay” is not realistic for most of us. People will go to extremes but then end up giving up and binging and whatever weight we lose comes often will come back doubled-up.
Setting more attainable goals and small wins ARE wins for the long run. Remember life isn’t a sprint — think of it more as endurance training. Start with 5 lbs. in the first month. Track your food and water intake — most of us probably don’t even drink enough water in a day. I definitely don’t.
MyFitnessPal – a highly popular app used by millions worldwide can help keep you on track simply. It can help you be more in tune with what your body needs rather than what it wants. But hey, a couple teaspoonfuls of ice cream won’t hurt you now and then. The key is not about depriving yourself but it’s about enjoying and appreciating while also knowing when your taste buds are satisfied to stop.
Since 2005, the app has empowered over 200 million of users worldwide. The app helps with tracking not only what you eat and the calorie intakes but also how much water you drink and calories burned. What also makes it appealing is the app has evolved to include many of today’s most popular programs — keto, whole 30, and even intermittent fasting recently launched within the app. It helps track your progress but it’s also like having a nutrition coach, meal planner and food diary all-in-one AND easily accessible even on the go and even on vacation!
What’s also great about this app is the forums and positive non-judgemental spaces that are built within the app. We find positive encouragement is a great motivator whether it’s from our peers or other app users (yes, there are ways you and your circle of friends can support each other within the app!). Hey, we see enough negativity on social media not to mention filtered images that just make us want to dive back into that bucket of fries and chicken wings. And honestly, we’ve had enough of that endless bashing.
Stay tuned as I’ll be checking in with MyFitnessPal experts to cover a wide range of topics including healthy eating and tips on how to adjust our lifestyle that will be shared in upcoming posts. In the meantime, I’m signing on and excited to see what MyFitnessPal can do for me. I also learned that the app has just launched a new and free 14-day in-app challenge, Jumpstart Your Health with a team of experts including the very inspiring celebrity Ayesha Curry ! It will offer up tips and practical advice to help us step positively into 2023! You can learn more here.
Here’s some quick facts about the MyFitnessPal app…
MyFitnessPal is the #1 global nutrition and food tracking app for achieving health goals.
Users can log meals from a database of 14 million foods, track physical activity, and learn how to build healthy habits that stick.
With more than 500 recipes, 150 workout routines, and a variety of expert-guided meal and workout plans, users will have access to the support they need during their entire health and fitness journey.
Nearly 1,000,000 users achieve goals each year (about 2,000/users a day)
MyFitnessPal can be used by a user to follow any specific nutrition regimen, e.g., Paleo, Keto, vegan, etc.
The MyFitnessPal app is available to download for FREE on the App Store and Google Play store. To learn more, visit myfitnesspal.com or follow MyFitnessPal on Tik Tok, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter,Facebook and LinkedIn.