The Fitness and Nutrition Grind - Tips to Staying on Track

You've started your new healthy regimen and you're excited to look and feel better. Now the key is sticking to it. Life can throw you a curve ball or two so staying on track can be harder than you planned for. Consistency to weight loss, energy gains and overall health is a key factor if you're going to see success. The guidelines below give you a basic set of tools to use in everyday life that will help keep you motivated and in your healthy mindset.

Set short and long term goals that are truly attainable. Don't be unrealistic with your goals. Failing will only send you on a path to destruction. Instead, set goals that you know you can achieve in a reasonable amount of time.

Chart your progress on a daily and weekly basis to help you understand what is working for you and what is not. This relates to both nutrition and fitness. Charting your progress will give you the opportunity to make small changes to your plan as you go. It's okay to adjust if you find that something may work better. Remember, keep this experience positive and don't place limitations on yourself.

Variety, balance, and moderation are key in your diet. If you want to indulge in your favorite meal it is ok every once in a while. You should incorporate all of the food groups into your meal plan for a healthy diet. Use a variety of fruits, vegetables, and grains to provide different flavors in your meals to keep them interesting.

Add as much color to every single meal as you can. This ensures that you will get plenty of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals.

Protein, carbohydrates, and fat should be included at every meal for a balance to keep you feeling full until your next meal. This will prevent mindless snacking or just choosing what ever is readily available from a vending machine.

Continue to use your food journal; this will allow you to be aware of any unnecessary calories putting a halt on your progress. Also, it will make you think twice before putting a particular food in your mouth, knowing you will have to record it later.

When eating out look for eating out restaurant guides online or preview the menu online first. This will allow you to pre-plan the meal you're going to order and ensure it is healthy and within your calorie range. Additionally, once you arrive, you could look for the healthiest menu item, most restaurants provide a salad with grilled chicken or shrimp that you can pair with other healthy options, or you could ask to have your meal prepared using a healthy cooking method, baking, grilling, poaching, or steaming.

Investing in a lunch box is ideal. Packing your lunch and snacks for work or traveling will ensure that you will always have portioned healthy food available.

Plan to move you body every single day. This doesn't mean you need to do 7 intense workouts in a week but try to plan some type of fitness each day. Your house, the park and the beach are all no or low cost places that can be turned into your personal gym. Exercise tapes, studios in your area, and personal trainers are great ways to make sure your workouts are what you love. Working with a partner holds you accountable and will make you work harder. You should continue to exercise for at least 30 minutes to one hour per day.

Most importantly, have fun with health and fitness. Make sure you are enjoying the process by eating foods that you love and not depriving yourself completely as well as involving yourself in fitness activities that inspire you and make you want to come back for more.

Margot Rutigliano is the owner of Vita Vie Retreat. She has been a fitness trainer, wellness coach and healthy living adviser since 1999. Vita Vie Retreat is a fitness retreat offering healthy lifestyle transformation programs for men and women of all ages and fitness levels. For more information or to contact Ms. Rutigliano, please visit http://www.bvretreat.com/.

View the original article here

Zumba Fitness Total Body Transformation System DVD Set

Shed pounds and have a blast in the process with the Zumba Fitness Total Body Transformation System DVD set. Loaded with red-hot dance steps, pulsating Latin rhythms, and easy-to-follow routines, this invigorating dance-fitness "party" will have you movin', groovin', and shakin' the weight off to the sexy, exotic rhythms of salsa, cumbia, samba, merengue, and more. Each routine features interval training sessions that combine fast and slow rhythms with resistance training, helping sculpt and tone your body while burning fat. As a result, Zumba fanatics can enjoy multiple long-term health benefits while having fun in the moment. Working out can be a lot of things, but it's never been known to be an exhilarating experience--until now.

The set--which comes with four DVDs and six total workouts--will work your body from head to toe, starting with the basics and then moving to your favorite targets, such as your core, thighs, and abs. The set also comes with maraca-like toning sticks to add some muscle to your body sculpting routines. The DVDs include the following workouts: Zumba Fitness Basics Workout, Zumba Fitness 20-Minute Express Workout, Zumba Fitness Sculpt & Tone Workout, Zumba Fitness Cardio Party Workout, Zumba Fitness Live! Workout, and Zumba Fitness Flat Abs Workout.

About Zumba Fitness
Celebrity fitness trainer "Beto" Perez stumbled upon the concept of Latin-inspired dance fitness in his native Cali, Colombia, in the mid-'90s. One day, he walked into his aerobics class and realized he had forgotten his aerobics music. Thinking quickly, he grabbed some tapes from his backpack, which included the traditional Latin salsa and merengue music he'd listened to all his life. Although it was tough to improvise a whole class on the spot, Beto rose to the challenge and gave birth to a revolutionary new concept in fitness: the Zumba Fitness Party. The class soon became the most popular class at his fitness facility. As of July 2009, the Zumba program is being taught at more than 50,000 locations in 75 countries, has sold millions of DVDs, and has changed the lives of Zumba fanatics worldwide, with an estimated 6 million participants taking Zumba classes every week.

Price: $69.95

Click here to buy from Amazon

P90X: Tony Horton's 90-Day Extreme Home Fitness Workout DVD Program

Tired of ineffective workouts that sound great but produce less-than-optimal results? Turn to the P90X Extreme Home Fitness system, a bundle of 12 sweat-inducing, muscle-pumping workouts designed to transform your body from regular to ripped in just 90 days. Hosted by personal trainer Tony Horton, the series of DVDs will help you get lean, bulk up, or grow stronger, with an endless variety of mix-and-match routines to keep you motivated. The secret behind the P90X system is an advanced training technique called "muscle confusion," which accelerates the fitness process by constantly introducing new moves and routines so that your body never plateaus and you never get bored. The more you confuse the muscle, the harder your body has to work to keep up. And the more variety you put into your workout, the better and faster your results will be. By breaking old routines and opening new doors, secondary and tertiary muscles are constantly being activated and developed.

In addition to the 12 DVD workouts, the P90X comes with a comprehensive three-phase nutrition plan, specially designed supplement options, a detailed fitness guide packed with valuable information on how to get the most from your program, a How to Bring It DVD that provides a quick overview of the system, a calendar to track your progress, online peer support, and much more.

The DVD Workouts
Each of the 12 highly diverse and intense DVD workouts focuses on either a specific set of muscle groups or a unique training technique.

• Workout One: Chest & Back. This superset chest-and-back-blasting workout emphasizes two classic upper-body exercises--push-ups and pull-ups--to build strength and develop shape. The combination of these two push and pull movements will help you burn loads of calories while simultaneously attacking, strengthening, and developing multiple muscle groups.

• Workout Two: Plyometrics. Get ready to go airborne. Offering more 30 explosive jumping moves, this intense cardio routine will keep you in the air most of the time. Plyometrics, also known as jump training, has been proven to dramatically improve athletic performance. If your sport involves a ring, rink, field, court, or track, this training will give you the edge. Just be prepared to "bring it" for a full hour when you leap into this workout, because there is no letting up.

• Workout Three: Shoulders & Arms. Nothing rounds out the perfect physique like a pair of well-defined arms and shoulders, and with its potent combination of pressing, curling, and fly movements, this routine will leave you feeling stronger and looking sexier. Whether you want to build muscle mass or just slim and tighten what you've already got, these targeted shoulder and arm exercises will give you the results you want.

• Workout Four: Yoga X. Yoga is a vital part of any fitness regimen, and is an absolute must for an extreme program like P90X. This routine combines strength, balance, coordination, flexibility, and breath work to enhance your physique and calm your mind. Yoga X will leave you feeling energized, invigorated, and maybe even a little enlightened.

• Workout Five: Legs & Back. Get ready to squat, lunge, and pull for a total-body workout like no other. While the main focus of this workout lies in strengthening and developing the leg muscles (quads, hamstrings, glutes, and calves), there are also a handful of great pull-up exercises to give your legs a quick breather while you work the upper body.

• Workout Six: Kenpo X. Kenpo X was created to give P90X users a high-intensity cardiovascular workout packed with lots of punching and kicking combinations to improve balance, endurance, flexibility, and coordination. During this workout you'll learn some of the most effective ways to defend yourself, while at the same time getting your body in peak condition.

• Workout Seven: X Stretch. Stretching is the one thing that will help you achieve a higher level of athleticism over a longer period of time. The X Stretch routine is an integral part of the program, as it helps prevent injuries and avoid plateaus. The extensive full-body stretches that make up this routine use disciplines from Kenpo karate, hatha yoga, and various sports to ensure that your body is fully prepared to meet all P90X challenges head-on.

• Workout Eight: Core Synergistics. Each and every exercise in the Core Synergistics workout recruits multiple muscle groups to build and support the core (lumbar spine and trunk muscles), while at the same time conditioning your body from head to toe. Loaded with a variety of fun, unique, and challenging exercises, this routine will get you moving in all directions to maximize your P90X results.

• Workout Nine: Chest, Shoulders, & Triceps. Packed with an array of moves that target both large and small muscles, this workout will do wonders for your upper body. In just one full sequence you'll get a healthy dose of presses, flys, and extensions to push you to the brink. The results will be a stronger, leaner, and highly defined upper torso that will leave you looking awesome, with or without a shirt.

• Workout 10: Back & Biceps. With a host of curls and pull-ups, this routine will make it fun to flex those powerful biceps. But don't worry, ladies--by using lighter weight, you can focus on toning and tightening these showcase arm muscles without adding the size that most guys covet. Additionally, this workout also provides some great back definition that everyone can appreciate. Regardless of your goals, you will achieve them in dramatic fashion if you dig in and max out your reps.

• Workout 11: Cardio X. This low-impact cardio routine can be used in a variety of ways to meet your P90X goals. Use it in addition to your standard P90X workload when you want to burn some extra calories, or as a substitute if your body needs a break from the program's high-impact workouts. Whatever your reason for using Cardio X, you'll find it a fun, full-throttle, fat-burning workout that will leave you feeling lean and mean.

• Workout 12: Ab Ripper X. The combination and sequence of movements in this unique workout taps into not only abdominal strength, but true core strength as well. Master these 11 highly effective exercises and you will achieve vital abdominal muscle strength to benefit your overall health and physical performance. You'll also develop that highly coveted six-pack as you take Ab Ripper X to full throttle. It's extreme work that's better than any machine in any club.

P90X Fitness Guide
This is your road map and your plan of attack for using P90X. Learn guidelines for getting started and essential tips for how to make the most of the program. The fitness guide provides you tips to reduce your chance of injury; a fit test; recommended supplements and equipment; detailed instructions for stretching, warming up, and performing exercises; and guidelines to help you select which P90X phase to complete, whether Classic, Doubles, or Lean.

The Nutrition Plan
Following the P90X nutrition plan is just as vital to your overall success as any of the extreme workouts in this program. Specifically designed to work in tandem with the P90X workout routines, this three-phase eating plan recommends the perfect combination of foods to satisfy your body's energy needs every step of the way. P90X is not about quick fixes or miracle diets. It's about selecting the healthy foods that you want to eat, and determining the portion amounts that will provide your body with the right amount of fuel to excel during exercise. The P90X nutrition plan offers three phases. Phase 1 is the Fat Shredder, a high-protein-based diet designed to help you strengthen your muscles while simultaneously and rapidly shedding fat from your body. Phase 2 is the Energy Booster, a balanced mix of carbohydrates and proteins with a lower amount of fat to achieve additional energy for performance. And Phase 3 is the Endurance Maximizer, an athletic diet of complex carbohydrates, lean proteins, and lower fat, with the emphasis on more carbohydrates. You'll need this combination of foods as fuel to get the most out of your final few weeks and truly be in the best shape of your life.

Tools to Keep You Motivated

• P90X Calendar to set your workout goals, track your progress, and stay motivated.
• Free Online Support Tools for access to fitness experts, peer support, and motivation.

What's in the Box?
12 DVD workouts, nutrition plan, fitness guide How to Bring It DVD, a calendar to track your progress

Price: $150.00

Click here to buy from Amazon