Helpful Tips for a Healthy You

This past week I have talked to my sister and my best friend. Both want to lose weight, both have multiple toddlers that make life slightly chaotic, but both have a desire to change (and keep in mind, both look AMAZING even if they don't think so!).  The point of my blog is to help those that may not have the luxury of going to the gym two hours day, but still want to get fit. For today's post, I'm giving you some of my favorite sites that have some great tools to help you get there.

Self Magazine Fitness Calculators:  Find your ideal weight range, find out about how many calories you burned while playing with your kids, find out your happy weight, you BMI, how many calories you should intake. It's a great tool to find out you are doing okay!

I learned that the ideal weight range for my height is 108-145lbs! The estimation of how many calories I burned in a 60 minutes spin class was 760 (vigorous), and 660 (moderate), which I actually burned 700 calories in my class last night so it is pretty accurate! Check out this site! You will enjoy it!

FitDay: Here is an article on how many calories you need to burn extra a day to lose 5, 10, 15lbs, etc. I had read an article once that said if you wanted to maintain your weight, burn an extra 100 calories a day, if you want to lose 1-2lbs, burn an extra 250 calories a day. Want to drop 5lbs+, strive for 500 calories a day to burn. This article pretty much supports the one I read, plus gives you helpful tips of how to do it safely. Good article!

Calorie Count: If you are a dieter, this site is a great tool to find out how many calories you should be eating to lose weight by a certain date. I typed in for me if I wanted to lose 2lbs in a month what calories should I intake. Because of my activity level, it said 1700. If I was less active and wanted to lose more, it said 1200 a day.

Favorite Fitness Sites: We know I love stealing ideas for my workouts and there are so many amazing sites that have so much to offer.   SELF, SHAPE, and FITSUGAR offer exercises, recipes, lifestyle info, etc. CROSSFIT MAMA has stellar workouts that are all crossfit inspired, but some are super short! YOGA.COM has some great yoga routines for any level. This is only a handful of the amazing sites out there!

Great Fitness Apps: I do not have a smart phone, so I searched for recommendations on this one! Here is a great article from Men's Fitness.  Myfitnesspal suggested THESE. Huffington Post suggested THESE. I think having a built in pedometer in your phone is cool and strive to hit so many steps a day. Many of the fitness apps are free, but find ones that work for your lifestyle and your goals. Jon just downloaded one through Nike that keeps track of his distance and time when he runs. It tells him as he goes how far he's gone, and he uses that to hit a goal distance. Very cool if you ask me!

I feel like I'm only scratching the surface on the cool tools that are out there. If you find anything great, let me know! I'm always looking too!

ENJOY!