Tips and tricks to stay in shape and stick to your diet

Hello in August everyone ! The month of vacations, beach,sun, fun and parties. however, we shouldn’t forget also about eating right and having a physical activities.. I know, I know, gyms are closed and heat is sucking the last will out of us to do any sporty activities, but still! let’s try to focus here and try to stay in shape, so when September arrives we do not have to kill ourselves in hard work-out routines in gym or starve.

Here are some useful tips and tricks I learned from my fitness trainer, nutritionist and mother Google. Maybe it will help you too. (Not going to describe you diet plans, just want to share with you some of advice I learnt lately and felt the need to pass them as they helped me as well.)

calculate your daily calories maintenance level(don’t trust the generic ones which asks for your height and weight), try this one for more accurate results;
calculate your protein intake – click here;

Ideal Daily Protein Intake: 0.8-1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight.
1 gram of protein contains 4 calories

remember that Protein deficit slows down your methabolism, make you lose muscles and person starts to gain weight and get’s fat.

calculate your daily fat (yes, you heard read me) is necessary for a normal body function, as long as yo uare not taking it too much and is the “right fat” – click here;

Ideal Daily Fat Intake: 20-30% of your total calorie intake.
1 gram of fat contains 9 calories

calculate your daily carbs inatke: clik here or just

Total Calorie Intake – Calories From Protein & Fat = Calories From Carbs

1 gram of carbs contains 4 calories

To lose weight, the most healthiest way (not supporting crazy diets, starving, or something that is not getting along with my lifestyle. As a wise person once wrote – the diet and work out should be arranged in your daily life not your life should be arranged according to it), is to lose -20% of your daily calories.

The Ideal Daily Caloric Deficit: 20% below maintenance level per day.

to sum up you should make a list, or 2 if you prefer, with your ideal daily calories, protein, carbs and fat intake, if just want to stay in shape and follow up what you eat and/or the list in order to lose some weight.
also recommending to read carefully the page, there is some great explanations what is what, why it is helpful,useful in really understandable way.

and than you just have to try to stick on your terms. if you want to be more accurate and write down all the stuff you are putting in your mouth (and trust me, it will shock you, once you will, because we tend to eat a lot more than we think, telling you from my experience), than the best way, i have found so far is to keep on track of it.
a good solution is this one – it is an online page as well as an application in your phone where you can record everything you eat, make your goals, write down your exercises etc.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/
(however, I personally found out that my recommended daily calorie intake was too low and I would probably ending up eating a table, by the end of the day, so I preferred to calculate it my way (see above). but still a good way to keep on track with stuff you eat so try it yourself if it is suiting you. (I am currently using it, but knowing my laziness, I believe that unfortuantelly this will end in 2 weeks)..

..for this reason I have also made myself 4 different food menus which I am sticking to and that can be combined, varied and changed so you don’t get bored with your meals and still enjoy them and still stick to your goals whatever it is – maintaining you weight, loosing it, or gaining some.

of course, snacks and some cheat meals are OK as long as you are not going wild and not making them too often. (we all have birthdays, gatherings, parties and well, some weak moments, lets be honest, when you just want something sugary).
I have some real nice, sweet, low calorie recipes to share with you as well from my trainer which I am going to share with you some other post as I need to translate them from Latvian 🙂 however, Latvians or who understand Latvian 🙂 click here. I personally tried the Health Muesli with oranges and I must say it tasted great as well as perfect snack after gym. next week is coming up my bf’s bday so planing to make a Strawberry – yogurt cake (just 102 kcal per 100g). so will try to document this moment as well! 🙂 should look like this.. :

GYM – Workout – getting active

This is really important part, as we all know that being active is not just fashionable but it is a necessity to stay in a good shape, look good, feel good and have a good health.so the best thing to do is to try to be active, moving, taking part of some lessons, make it part of your free time activities, etc. like:

taking stairs instead of escalor, elevator (it is a great calorie burner as well!! so every minute you burn a calory. so imagine if in a day you take together 5minutes of stairs burning 5kcal per minute it is already 5min x 5kcal = 25 kcal burned. 🙂 )
doing homeworks (cleaning, cooking, organizing, hoovering,washing,etc.) you burn 160 kcal per hour
going for a walk burns 280kcal/h, so just go for a walk with your friends instead of staying in on couch
dancing – 400kcal/h (personal my favorite – great way to to get your spirits back is to dance the night away, have fun and to socialize and make your new shoes more comfy – so everyone is a winner)
riding a bicycle – well that’s an awesome workout 600kcal/h in fast speed
swimming – 600kcal/h (so let’s go to a beachhhhhhhhhhh! ) ^ ^

doesn’t Kate Moss look amazing? a motivational poster 😛

these are just few, but as you see everything you are doing,yes,even sleeping and thinking, burns kcal, so you just have to get up and start moving and summer is the best time to do that. call up your friends and hop in a train to the closest beach, lake, organize a bike ride, go for a walk, take the stairs, go dancing – there are endless possibilities to stay fit and even lose some weight even if you a hate gym and doing exercises.

than there are some really good advice I learned about what to do and eat before training and after it – so called Pre and Post workout Nutrition. (see more here), but below you will find some of my trainers suggestions:
Nutrition Before training

EAT – Protein – Carbohydrates (at least 2-1 h before)
Drink cup of black coffee 30min. before workout (will give you energy and tonification for 2h and help to burn calories)
Drink a glass of water right before the training
Avoid – Fat (or not more than 3gr)

During the training do not forget to drink plenty of water – 1 l per hour, drinking by small sips.

Nutrition After training:

you should eat right right after training first 20-30minutes. if you will not eat anything next 2 h, your workout will use the sense.
you have to take again protein and Carbohydrates not fat. (anything sweet you eat right after, even sugar, will not go right to your belly fat, so this is the time when to eat something really sugary and get a benefit out of it.

For the protein would be the best solution of Protein shake for those who cannot eat anything right after workout (but for choosing Protein you should better consultate with your nutritionist or do some good research on whey protein.)

the best thing would be to drink some sweet juices: grape 38g (155kcal) or cranberry 31g(115kcal) juice (better organic).
I could not find non of both near my gym, but I found this nice solution – Fruit Sticks 40g pack contains 28g (121kcal), so i substituted. and let me just say you – it also tastes good. check it out here:

Na-nature addicts – fruit sticks

SOOOOOOOOOOOOO, I think these tips are enough for a beginning building a healthier eating plan or just improving the one you already have.

Will keep you posted and hope it will be useful a bit 😉
Stay inspired and stay active! It’s all about moving and striving for better results!