Today I want to discuss a few of the most underrated parts of a health and fitness regime. Many health, fitness and diet professionals love to talk about their programs and how they can help you meet a goal but they do not often like to talk about the importance of the various tools that can aid a client in helping themselves

Calorie Tracker:

I highly suggest that regardless of your fitness goals you begin your journey by downloading a calorie tracker to yoursmartphone. Many calorie trackers are 100% free. Counting calories is an important part of losing, gaining or maintaining weight, especially when paired with workout tracking. Knowing how much food you have consumed vs the amount of calories you have burned via apps like MyFitnessPal will keep you on pace to meet your goals, or at the very least, they’ll make youaware of what may be causing you to miss your goals. 

Some fitness professionals caution against counting calories but I strongly suggest you muster up the courage and confidence to confront your caloric intake every day.  If you avoid counting calories and rely fully on your workout routine to lose, gain or maintain weight, you will have a limited idea of what is preventing and/or aiding you most in reaching your fitness goals. You may end up with issues such as:• Finding that regardless of how hard or long you work out you have not gained or lost any weight. • Finding that you are lethargic during workouts because you may not realize you are at a severe caloric deficit • Not fully knowing what part of your lifestyle is really throwing you off of your fitness goals. A personal example of this is my alcohol consumption. Alcohol consumption especially IPA’s are frequently the reason that I go over my daily suggested caloric intake. Eliminating alcohol from my diet is often times enough to aid me in maintaining my specific caloric needs for any given day. I would not know this if I did not track my calories daily

The above are just a few examples of the issues that may arise in any fitness plan if you neglect to count calories. I personally prefer to pair my calorie tracker with a workout tracker such as mapmyrun. I will speak to this further in the next section.

Fitness Tracker/Watch/Band/Ring

Fitness trackers of any kind are a useful part of any fitness regime. They can aid in monitoring heart rate, distances, workout intensity, calories burned, hours slept etc. The technology inside fitness trackers only seems to be improving year by year and the options seems to be endless (Garmin, Apple, Samsung, Whoop, FitBit, Motiv, Misfit, Polar, etc). I cannot recommend any specific product, but I will say that at the very least, the product you purchase should track calories burned. Being able to have a solid idea of the amount of calories eaten and burned in a single day can make or break any health and wellness plan. 

Accessories:

Depending on your fitness goals, you want to ensure that you have the equipment that best suits your needs. Never allow your personal trainer or coach to make you settle for less. The “no pain, no gain” days of exercise should be long gone and for good reason. This is most evident in running or in any activity that is associated with running. It is not uncommon for trainers to suggest running or jogging to their clients without suggesting the proper foot attire. 

I have ran track and I frequently run as part of my profession and I can say from first hand experience that it is a bad idea to run distances, with minimal training in sneakers that are not made for running and/or designed for your feet. If you are beginning a running program, I highly suggest that you go to a running store and get your feet examined. There are stores like “Fleet Feet” that will examine your running ergonomics and provide a shoe to you based on your foot shape, arch and running style. Often times the service is free and you can take the information that you have received and buy a sneaker elsewhere that fits your foot. Doing all of this leg work will pay dividends in aiding in the prevention of knee, ankle and shin pain. In addition, on the more competitive end of running, there are studies that show that proper foot attire can even lead to increased performance.  

Running is a sport that I specifically mention because it is often times taken for granted how important footwear is in running. Wearing a good running shoe in a 5k isn’t as obvious a need as cleats in football, a bat in baseball or a stick in lacrosse. Regardless of your sport or goal, ensure that you are taking the time to ensure that you have researched all of your needs and are fully prepared to take on the endeavor. Nothing can be more discouraging to a fitness goal then not showing up without theright equipment or being injured because you didn’t purchase the proper gear.