Here are my 5 personal fitness rules. Stick with them at least 90% of the time to keep your body healthy and hot.

Snacks are fine when you are aware of how much you’re eating in order to balance it with the rest of your meals for the day.

Fitness Rule #2: Stand (And Walk) When Possible

Have you heard the saying sitting is the new smoking? The idea is that a lifetime of sitting all-day-every-day is as harmful to your body as smoking. Think for a moment about how much of your day is spent sitting.

You wake up and sit down for breakfast. You sit on the drive to work. You take the elevator up. You sit for most of 8 hours at work. You take the elevator down. You sit on the drive home. You sit to eat dinner. You sit to watch TV.

That’s quite a bit of time spent sitting! Now imagine if you consciously stood for some of this time each day and took the stairs instead of the elevator. Over weeks, and months, it really adds up in calories burned, muscles engaged, and overall fitness and health.

Fitness Rule #3: Avoid Sugar

I might sound like a broken record about this one, but that’s OK, I’ll keep harping on this point until more people listen. Our bodies weren’t designed to ingest large amounts of sugar on a daily basis. When you regularly take in excess sugar the results are always the same. You. Gain. Weight.

The tricky part is that sugar is all around us, so avoiding it takes real vigilance.

Start with your morning beverage of choice. Does it have sugar in it? Most of the beverages that are blended and brewed at coffee shops are simply vehicles for ingesting sugar. Find a beverage that you enjoy without any added sugar and stick with the rule of not drinking sugary beverages throughout your day.

Fitness Rule #4: Keep Dinner Light

Who says that dinner should be the biggest and heartiest meal of the day? Instead, focus on enjoying light dinners that are centered around protein and veggies and avoid starches and carbs in the evening.

The recipe below for Beet and Grapefruit Salad is a great example. Add a grilled chicken breast to a serving of this vibrant, fiber-filled salad and you have a nutritious dinner that’s light and healthy.

Fitness Rule #5: Always Exercise

How often do you brush your teeth? Do you sometimes take a few weeks or months off brushing your teeth? Um, no. That’s gross. You brush your teeth everyday as an ongoing habit because you know that the benefits outweigh the slight inconvenience.

Can you see where I’m going with this? :)

Exercise only truly works when you do it as an ongoing habit because you know that the benefits outweigh the slight inconvenience. It’s part of keeping you healthy. It’s part of who you are.

At Senior Fitness Finder, the trainers on our Marketplace are here to help you reach your personal fitness goals. Visit our Marketplace and find a trainer today!

Let’s do this!