I can’t believe we are halfway through January already! I hope everyone is off to a fantastic start on their New Year’s Resolutions, and you’re beginning to feel the difference…it doesn’t take long to feel the benefits of healthy living, that’s for sure!!

Here are tips 5 and 6 for you this week!

Tip #5: P-R-E-P-A-R-E

It’s a good tip for anything in life, because being prepared goes such a long way! For healthy living specifically, it makes your day go smoother, (especially for early-morning exercisers) and can really help you accomplish those goals.

If you have to exercise before your day starts, lay out your shoes, clothes, headphones, keys, water bottle (like I’ve shown below)—whatever you need to accomplish your workout. If you workout after work, don’t forget to pack your bag so you aren’t tempted to go home and risk skipping your workout. You’ve worked too hard to set yourself up for failure that way!

Another topic to talk about here is MEAL PREP. Perfect for busy moms!! I can’t stress enough how much time it saves me, and how convenient it is (once you get it done of course). It’s easiest to do your meal prep at the beginning of each week. Start with meal PLANNING (referring to last week’s post.) Write out your meals for the week, and all the ingredients you will need. You’ll then have to shop for what you don’t have. I like to cut up all of my vegetables, make a big fruit salad, and grill a few pieces of chicken at the beginning of each week. You can even go so far as to portion it out, and put it in single serving size containers so you can just grab and go!

Tip #6: Foolproof your plan

Think about how you are going to handle temptations to skip your workout or have that extra serving of dessert. This is a very important part of your goal that needs to be thought about before hand.

There are a lot of things you can do to make sure you don’t give into temptation: designate an accountability partner you can call when you feel like giving in, or get a gym buddy you know will be waiting on you. Think about your ultimate end result. Visualizing your results can be perfect for helping you keep your portions and diet in control. Keep a list of motivating quotes, pictures, and tips for those days that you feel like giving up. Don’t keep junk food in the house, or if you do, keep it out of sight!

This is goofy example, but this summer I was really serious about my diet. Someone in the office I was working in bought me some M&Ms, but I couldn’t have them. So the guys at work STAPLED them shut so they would know if I cheated. Those M&Ms sat there all summer!!

Another way I foolproof my exercise plans, is set this as my background on my phone. You could use anything that motivates you.

Foolproofing your plan could be the difference between meeting your goals and setting yourself up for failure before you even begin this healthy living lifestyle.

I hope you’re well on your way to getting those New Year’s Resolutions resolved. Chime in on the comments section to let us know how your healthy living goals are going so far this year! We’d love to know how you’re doing!!