Things That Help Me Survive My Fitness Journey

Today I'm writing about the things I use to help me along my fitness journey. Maybe they will be helpful to other people as well.

1. Extra Dessert Delights Sugarfree Gum

This gum comes in several flavors. My absolute favorite is Apple Pie, with Key Lime Pie coming in second place. Some people are grossed out by the concept of dessert-flavored gum, but I think it's awesome! I have a major sweet tooth, so whenever I feel a craving for something sugary, I immediately grab a piece of this gum. It satisfies my craving and keeps me from reaching for a cookie or other treat.

2. Tea and Truvia

As I mentioned earlier, I have a raging sweet tooth. Along with the gum, I use tea with Truvia to keep me satisfied if I'm hungry before my next scheduled meal (my favorite flavors are Vanilla Chai and Vanilla Caramel; you can find them in most grocery stores.)

Regarding the Truvia: I've tried a million different sweeteners and this is my favorite. I love the taste of Splenda but I like using a more natural product. Truvia is made from stevia, which is a leaf.

3. Lululemon workout gear

Lululemon = best workout gear ever.

Sometimes I use Lululemon purchases as "rewards", for example: I tell myself if I complete all the scheduled workouts for 2 full weeks, I get to buy a new workout top. Creating "mini-goals" can be very helpful.

4. Muscle & Fitness Hers magazine subscription

This is my favorite magazine of all time. It is filled with useful articles about workouts and nutrition, as well as coverage of the latest figure, bikini & fitness competitions. I find it extremely inspirational. Just about any time I'm doing cardio on a machine, I bring an issue of M&F Hers solely for motivation.

4. A cooler, food scale, and tupperware

Most competitors eat about 6-7 meals per day every 2-3 hours. If you do this, it can be hard to stay on track and always have your scheduled meals ready. Thus, I spend a few hours every weekend cooking mass quantities of food and portioning them out into tupperware containers (or plastic bags). I freeze them, and then they are ready to be grabbed and eaten throughout the week.

I use a food scale because it's really tough to guess quantities. 4 ounces of tilapia doesn't look the same size at 4 ounces of steak. I rely on my scale to keep me on point with my diet plan. My scale was about $25 from Amazon and it's been awesome.

5. Visualization Board

If you don't know where you want to go, how are you going to get there?

A visualization board is the answer to this question. It's a board with pictures of people I look up to in the fitness industry, as well as some motivational quotes. I also have a dry-erase board where I write down my goals.

On your own visualization board, you can put up pictures of anything you want for your life. They don't have to be fitness related. Put it somewhere where you'll see it often as a reminder of why you're working so hard.