Automate Your Diet and Fitness Routine

Staying fit isn't easy, but if you automate your diet and exercise routine, you'll find it easier to hit and maintain that healthy number on the scale. Here's how to do it.

Automate Your Food Shopping

Shop no more than once a week and use a shopping list. Head directly for those items, rather than strolling up and down every aisle where tempting food lurks. Many stores offer home delivery and their websites allow you to save your shopping list for future use. Consider this option, since it will keep you out of the store and less likely to purchase a treat that might sabotage your diet.

Automate Your Meal Planning

When trying to lose weight or maintain your weight, it isn't necessary to cook like a chef and plan a wide variety of meals. Keeping a balanced diet in mind, plan a simple, weekly menu that includes healthy foods that you enjoy. Then repeat! Oatmeal with blueberries is a healthy breakfast that lowers cholesterol, stabilizes blood-glucose levels and contains antioxidants, so if you love oatmeal, eat it five days a week and have a protein shake the other two! If you enjoy a tilapia filet with pecans and French cut green beans, have that every Monday. Alternate bettwen a salad and an open-faced tuna or grilled chicken sandwich each day for lunch. On the first day of every month, enjoy a special treat, and then get right back into your automated menu. By removing the 'what should I eat' part of your menu, you will be amazed at how easy it is to stay on track!

Automate Your Kitchen

You know the foods that belong in a healthy diet and those that don't. The obvious first choice is to not buy fattening foods that will beckon you from the pantry, but realistically, there will be some items in your kitchen your family enjoys that you shouldn't eat.

Automate your kitchen by creating sections in your pantry and refrigerator: A section for you and a section for the rest of your household. When you are ready to fix your meals you'll know exactly where to go for your special items and it will become automatic to head there when you are hungry. Sure, you could reach into your kids snack area, but doing so will trigger a guilt response and remind you to get the heck out of that forbidden zone.

Automate Your Workouts

Variety in your workouts can keep it more interesting, but that doesn't mean you can't automate your exercise plan. Do stretches and side bends for five minutes every morning. Walk your dog every evening after dinner. Head out to the pool with your family, and swim laps or do water aerobics on weekend days. Do walking, marching, and dancing exercise moves during the news. Use hand weights during Everybody Loves Raymond. Whatever your plan is, schedule it on your Outlook calendar or cell phone and set up reminders until it becomes second nature.

By automating your diet and exercise routine, you'll think less about doing the right things, and actually do them! It takes 15 to 20 times before something becomes a habit. Start today and by the end of the month, you'll be on auto-pilot!