Tools and Workout Plans!

Well, I already emailed out my Excel Fitness Trackers*, but that doesn't mean I'm out of fitness resources to share! Check out the things I have linked here, and then I will be out of fitness resources to share.

Before I continue, I would also like to point out that I first started getting in shape almost exactly a year ago, and I weighed about 45 pounds more then than I do now. Also, I can now walk up super steep Berkeley hills without feeling like death incarnate. I haven't done a whole lot to maintain things over the last couple of months, though, so I'm looking forward to getting back into it.

Here are the things I found helpful last year that I'm predicting will also be helpful this year.

Apps

Since most of us have smart phones now, I thought I'd start with some apps. These are awesome.

My Fitness Pal is a great website/online food journal, but it's extra convenient in phone app form! Since my phone is always with me, I don't have to worry about remembering what I ate earlier in the day in order to enter it online later - I can just put it in right at the table. Not only that, but the phone app can automatically scan the barcodes of any packaged food you eat, which saves time you would've spent search the database for it. I'm pretty sure we can follow each other on MFP too (whether through the website or the app), though I've never done that.

Runkeeper uses your phone's GPS to track your distance and pace while you run outdoors (you'll have to log everything in manually if you use a treadmill). The app will talk to you to update you on your average pace, distance, and time spent running, and if you input a running program it will also tell you when to change pace (for intervals, etc.). It can run simultaneously with any music program on your phone, too (I use Pandora to play ridiculous dance club music). You can also use it for walks, bike rides, and similar workouts. If you put in your weight, it will also calculate how many calories you burned during your workout. If you're going to use it, I recommend you run in one big loop instead of doubling back a lot or zig-zagging too much, because the GPS has a hard time keeping track of smaller changes in movement and that can throw the accuracy off.

Workout Plans

I like doing preset workout plans because they give me more structure, making it feel more like I'm accomplishing something instead of just flailing around. Pinterest is awesome for finding workout plans, in my opinion. Here are a couple that I really like for fitness beginners.

This plan from Prevention is a great one to kick things off with. It includes a low-impact strength routine plus a walking-based cardio routine for every day. It's not totally killer, but you still get great results from it (not sure if I actually "shrunk a size," but I did notice a difference). I started out with this one last summer and I liked it a lot.

Couch to 5K (C25K) is a really popular starter running plan. If you're totally sedentary right now (not even walking regularly), then I recommend you start with the walking plans from the Prevention plan before moving to a running plan. Then start C25K. Feel free to repeat weeks of the plan until you have them down before moving on - I repeated the first couple of weeks at least twice a piece when I started out. I haven't heard good things about the C25K app, so I just program mine into Runkeeper.

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And with that, you have all my recommended fitness tools! What are you guys planning to use? Has anything worked well for you in the past?

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*Which you hopefully got, because I haven't bothered to figure out how to make them available online yet.