Shaun Stafford: New Year Health Plan

Article by Shaun Stafford

One of the great things about starting a New Year is that it provides each and every one of us an opportunity for a fresh start. An opportunity to wipe the slate clean, and to look forward into the bright prospect of a better 12 months than the one we have just finished.

It also gives you the opportunity to grab your health and fitness goals by the horns, and steer yourself on a more proactive and productive path to the one you have just recently trodden…

Take these simple tech tips, tricks and hacks to make sure that you keep on track with your New Year’s goals and end 2018 in your best shape yet.

Do What You Love, Love What You Do

Whether you love exercise or loath it, it is commonly accepted that if you are looking to get fitter and in better shape, it is one of those necessary evils.

However, it doesn’t have to mean pounding away on the treadmill or fighting over the dumbbells in the free-weights area: research shows that if you are doing something you find fun, you are more likely to keep doing it…

So rather than slogging away doing a program you don’t enjoy and will probably quit after a week or two, why not just track your progress doing activities you enjoy?

If it is running, track your time spent in a certain heart rate zone or the total distance covered on your jog. If you love Zumba or spinning, why not try and burn a certain amount of calories each class you attend? If you just love getting up from your desk and being mobile, why not see how many steps you can complete or floors you can climb in a day?

The Samsung Gear Sport & Gear Fit2 Pro allow you to track everything from your heart rate to how far you have run, how many calories you have burnt to have many steps you’ve taken in a day… so you can focus on your progress doing more of the stuff that you love, and less of the stuff that you don’t.

Input & Output

If one of the things that you are looking to do this year is lose some excess weight, or shape up a bit from the over indulgence of Christmas, you can never go wrong by getting your head around the simple equation of “Calories In Vs. Calories Out”.

To get a march on this, you need to be consuming slightly less fuel than you are burning, or as the fitness community would call it, be in a “calorie deficit”.

Now for this to be effective it has to be small enough that you are not starving your body and have no energy to function, but significant enough that your body starts to burn fat… and the commonly accepted value is approximately 500kcals a day or 3500kcals per week.

If you can consistently consume 500 calories a day less than you are burning, then your weight should drop by approximately 1-2 pounds a week. Simples.

However, people often go wrong when it comes to calculating not only how many calories they are eating or drinking, but also how many calories they are burning just by being alive! Why leave this to chance when there is technology out there that can accurately measure both of these things for you?

The Samsung Gear Sport and Gear Fit2 Pro not only track your total calorie expenditure for the day (including resting metabolic rate & additional exercise completed) but they also sync effortlessly with phone apps like MyFitnessPal that can track the calorie levels in all the food you are eating.

If you use these simple tools and can keep it up over time, you’ll be reinforcing all the good work you are doing in the gym and really fast track your way to some amazing results.

Move To The Beat

We all know that music can be incredibly powerful when it comes to impacting your mood: certain songs can leave you upbeat and full of energy, so let’s use this to our advantage when it comes to getting you more active.

Download a playlist of your favourite tracks, transfer them to your Gear IconX 2018  Wireless Ear-buds and get to it. The great thing about this bit of tech is that all your music (up to 1000 songs) is stored directly on the earphones so that you don’t even need to bring your phone to the gym when you are training. That’s one less distraction.

Also, being completely cord-free and navigated by simple tap controls, these ear-buds are so user friendly that you can just focus on training and being energised by your favourite music, without all the conventional hassle that used to accompany listening to your music in the gym.

Your favourite tracks will keep you motivated when the going gets tough, so you stick to it and keep pushing forward towards your goals.

When it comes to shaping up and getting your foothold with a new fitness regime, every bit of help and support counts. Take advantage of some of the amazing technology that is available, and make 2018 your best year yet.