The road to a fit, lean and healthy body is anything, but easy! Tempting foods, nights out with friends, work schedules, convenience, vacations, commutes, and much more all get in the way of a healthy diet and exercise regiment. But you know what? They can't stop you! All they can do is make you need to add a little more effort. That's the fun part! What have you achieved in your life that was really easy? Can you even really remember it? Hardly! The easy things in life aren't the memorable ones.



They aren't the ones you write about or post, tweet, Google+, LinkedIn, bat signal, or pigeon mail to your friends. It is those things that required you to dig deep and really SUCCEED that you remember. Are you ready to succeed? Follow these two necessities and I promise you will!

 Necessity Number One:
               
Get a calorie activity tracker. How do you know how much to eat a day? What do you think you burned today in calories? 500? 5,000? 50,000? The answer is none of these!
               
Calorie trackers have come a long way recently and they are now more convenient and affordable than ever. There are a wide variety of brands but my personal favorite is the Fitbit Ultra. I am not trying to sell you on a specific one I just want you to be happiest with your choice and personally I was happiest with this one. It is extremely small and concealable and it tracks calories, steps, activity, sleep, and will flash motivational messages to make you get off your behind and step it up if it needs to. I suggest this product to all the clients I train and every single one has had nothing but glowing reviews about it!
             
As a Fitness Nutrition Specialist it really helps me provide my clients with a much more comprehensive nutritional guide if I know how much they burn all day. In addition, it also helps my clients work better on their own! I have honestly noticed my text message count drop as I no longer receive so many "can I eat this" texts from clients because with these two necessities they feel empowered to take it on themselves. And they SUCCEED! Go out and get one for yourself and feel free to do your own research to pick the right brand for you. Wear it, love it!

Necessity Number Two:
             
Track your calorie consumption. Not only do you need to track the calories you burn, you need to track your calories consumed as well. One without the other would not be helpful. Say you only followed rule number one; You've tracked your caloric activity and realized you burned 2,600 calories today. First of all great job! You did an excellent job in being that active. But then say you accidentally eat 3,300 hundred calories that day because you didn't realize how many calories were in the food that you ate.

Well you went over by 700 calories that day. And guess what, an extra 3,500 calories equals a pound of fat accumulation! And in one day your 1/5 of the way there! If you do this again 4 more days, you will have gained one pound of fat!In addition, it also helps my clients work better on their own! I have honestly noticed my text message count drop as I no longer receive so many "can I eat this" texts from clients because with these two necessities they feel empowered to take it on themselves. And they SUCCEED! Go out and get one for yourself and feel free to do your own research to pick the right brand for you. Wear it, love it!


There are a wide variety of brands but my personal favorite is the Fitbit Ultra. I am not trying to sell you on a specific one I just want you to be happiest with your choice and personally I was happiest with this one. It is extremely small and concealable and it tracks calories, steps, activity, sleep, and will flash motivational messages to make you get off your behind and step it up if it needs to. My Fitness Pal said you ate. Shoot for a 500-700 calorie deficit starting out and adjust accordingly according to your goals. Inversely, if you are trying to gain muscle and therefore weight, My Fitness Pal should read that you have eaten more calories than you have burned.
               
Following both rules is crucial. Once again however, technology has saved the day and come out with some amazing calorie consumption trackers. Before them we would have to write down all of our calorie consumptions by hand. Writing down every meal, every snack, every nutritional detail such as grams of fat, protein, carbohydrates, fiber, vitamin A, and much more would be a pain! Luckily programs now can do all of that for you... for FREE! You can use them on both your mobile device and the internet.

My personal favorite of the bunch is My Fitness Pal, simply because it finds almost every food I put into it. Some applications can't find the broad side of a barn-door when it comes to food searches. My Fitness Pal finds my food almost every time, and if it doesn't, it has a feature to scan the barcode of the food package you ate so it automatically can find nearly every food every time. Use this app after every meal and you will know exactly what you ate all day! Then simply compare that number to your calories burned on your Fitbit and you are on your way to fitness glory.
               
Just remember if you want to lose weight, you should have a caloric deficit; So your Fitbit should say you burned more calories than My Fitness Pal said you ate. Shoot for a 500-700 calorie deficit starting out and adjust accordingly according to your goals. Inversely, if you are trying to gain muscle and therefore weight, My Fitness Pal should read that you have eaten more calories than you have burned.

Putting them both together:
                 
These two simple necessities drive your success. Your diet is now like a healthy see-saw. Fitbit calories burned vs My Fitness Pal calories consumed. With these two powerful tools at your disposal, you are ready to takedown the toughest of fitness plateaus and motivational pitfalls. Stay strong and use your resources! Success is yours!