Combining good nutrition with fitness is necessary to achieve a healthy lifestyle.  Living a healthy lifestyle can mean maintaining a healthy weight, reducing your risk of a chronic disease, becoming more active, and improving your overall health.

Whether you are new to fitness, are a fitness enthusiast, or a committed bodybuilder or elite athlete, having a nutrition plan that compliments your time in the gym is extremely important.  The foods you eat and their nutritional value  are an integral part of achieving fitness gains.  Bodybuilders and elite athletes alike have long known there is a direct connection between fitness and nutrition.

The challenge becomes maintaining a focus and commitment to both.  What steps can you take to achieve both?

Five Tips to Successfully Focus on Both Fitness and Nutrition:

• • Tip #1 – Plan each day in advance:  Take time to define your daily fitness goals, determine your nutritional needs, and how the two co-exist.  Do not prioritize fitness or nutrition above one another.  Plan for ways  in which the two complement one another.

• • Tip #2 -Find a digital tool to track both your fitness and nutrition:  Today, there are many digital tools that can help you plan for, track, and measure both your fitness and nutritional activity and consumption.  From mobile applications to online content, to access to social communities – explore how technology can become an integral part of achieving your goals.

• • Tip #3 – Counting calories is no longer enough:  Consider not just calories in/out, but the nutrients that help support your increased physical activity (i.e. – protein, carbs, and fat per meal).  Move beyond how many calories you need, to which and how many nutrients you need.

• • Tip #4 – Start with small, incremental changes:  Small changes, made incrementally over time, can lead to big results.  Take small steps to achieve a fitness goal, and combine it with a small step taken to eat more nutritiously.  Big gains will be sure to follow.    

• • Tip #5 – Celebrate small wins:  It is easy to become overwhelmed when setting out to achieve both your fitness and nutrition goals.  When you do achieve a goal, or make a gain, be sure to reward yourself!

Finding the right balance between fitness and healthy nutrition will go a long way towards achieving a more fit and healthy lifestyle!