Weekly Challenge

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This week Mary shows you how to boost your motivation to get moving with some great tips that really work, so make a plan.

Here are Mary’s Five Top Tips that will help motivate you to exercise this week.

1.      Plan your week
Try writing down your exercise plan for the week. When will you do your 30-minute walk each day? When do you plan to do your strength workout?

2.      Plan your space
Create a regular space where you feel happy to exercise. Is it in your bedroom or living room? It doesn’t matter where it is but choose somewhere you feel comfortable. 

Decide which strength exercises you want to do this week from the workouts on the site – and jot them down.

3.      Plan your walks
For your daily walks, decide on your route ahead of the day and jot it down. We are more likely to do it if we have already made a plan. Look out for regular landmarks such as lamp-posts or telegraph poles and change the intensity of your walking between each one.  Move from steady walking to power walking and even slow jogging if you can.  This interval training technique is a great way to seriously up your fitness level and burn more calories.

4.      Plan to walk with a friend
Research shows that those who make arrangements to exercise with someone else will increase motivation and even achieve more than they might expect. The encouragement of others is likely to result in you going further, burning more calories and working your heart and lungs even harder.

5.     Plan your other activities
Think about any other exercise you could do during the week, whether it is gardening, sport or going to the gym. Jot it down on your planner.

Even if you don’t complete everything you have planned to do, it has been proven that you will definitely achieve more if you write down your goals.

Recipe of the Week

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Another recipe from the archives! This one comes from my  New Inch loss Plan book published in 1998.

INCH LOSS SALAD

Serves 1

Unlimited shredded salad leaves and chopped cucumber
1 apple
1 kiwi fruit
1 orange
1 pear
50g chicken or prawns

For the dressing:

75g natural yogurt
1 tablespoon wine vinegar
1 garlic clove crushed
½ teaspoon of mint sauce
freshly ground black pepper

Place the salad leaves and the chopped cucumber on a large dinner plate.

Lay slices of the various fruits around the dish and place the chopped chicken or prawns in the centre.

Make up a dressing with the yogurt, wine vinegar, mint sauce and garlic, and season to taste. Spoon over the salad.