8 Week Fitness Workout and Meal Plan for Beginners

I like to start with nutrition and fuel, as this is the most important thing to a healthy lifestyle. I believe it is foundation to all else we do through out our days. Our body's are machines and machines need the proper fuel to run at their peak performance. And guess what? Our body's are no different! If we feed our bodies junk, they will perform like junk. We will be tired, sluggish and lethargic. If we fuel our bodies with clean, wholesome food, we will feel great, have energy and be able to perform at our best.

Meal prepping meals for the week does not need to be a long drawn out and all day project .  With a few simple tricks and the right readily available items at your local grocery store, you can easily prepare a week's worth of meals in 30 minutes to an hour.

Fat-free foods usually supplement the fat with sugar.  Since we want to reduce the extra sugar that we are introducing into our bodies, we should actually avoid these foods and not be afraid of fats.

Here we review the veggie omelet breakfast option as a great way to start your day!

In this video, we review the lean steak meal dinner option.

In this video, we review the chicken fajita meal dinner option.

In this video, we review my turkey chili meal dinner option.

In this video, we review the salmon meal dinner option.

In this video, we review the chicken salad and mixed greens dinner option.

In this video, we review the seasoned chicken dinner option.

Drinking Water at the correct time of day maximizes it's effectiveness on the human body!

Aside from your regular drinking of water throughout the day, the below ideal times will help maximize the benefits of water consumption further!

• 2 Glasses After waking up

  • helps activate internal organs

  
  

• 1 Glass 30 minutes before a meal

  • helps aid digestion

  
  

• 1 Glass Before taking a bath

  • helps lower blood pressure

    
    

• 1 Glass Before going to bed

  • helps reduce the risk of stroke and heart attack

• A lot of the foods that we eat on a regular basis and think are healthy are easily ruined with excessive amounts of sugar added to them, leaving them not as healthy for us as we think.   

• Take a moment to take inventory of the foods that you currently have in your pantry and refrigerator to see if you can find any sneaky culprits. 

  • Don't forget to check your condiments and salad dressings too!

• Try to get into the habit of checking your labels and monitoring the amount of sugar that is in each food item.

**Remember** 1 teaspoon = 4 grams of sugar

Preparation is Key!

A big part of feeding your body the proper & healthy nutrition is through being prepared and having your healthy snacks already prepared to grab and eat when hunger strikes and you get a food craving!

• Prepare 14 zip lock baggies (or reusable storage containers) with a handful of almonds in each (or your favorite nuts) for the week.

• Cut up your chosen vegetables for the week and prepare 7 containers for the week.

  • Cut up & prepare extras to add to your omelette in the mornings.

• Prepare 7 zip lock baggies, with a handful of berries in each for your evening snacks.

I have prepared a quick grocery list that you can download, print out and take to the store to help you stock up on all the proper groceries for your  meals!

"When can I have my cheat meal?!"

When you're working hard and sticking to your meal plan, it is good to treat yourself and have that little "not so healthy" meal once a week.  Make sure that you stick to just substituting one meal a week, preferably following your workout if you can. You can indulge in your favorite cheat food such as a hamburger and french fries or pizza.

This is where I like to make sure that I "earned" my cheat meal and have been working hard all week, then it feels like a nice reward and makes me want to continue to push myself hard the next week again.

Wrapping up our nutrition section and onto our fitness section!

Time for the fitness portion of the course!  Be sure to download your workout plan before you hit the gym and begin your workouts.

Part of the fitness routine, we are going to do four thirty minute cardio sessions. For your sessions, have fun with it and find something that you love and enjoy to do, don't make it a chore.  If you do not like running on the treadmill, don't feel like you need to pick that.

If you get a lunch break at work, it's a great time to get your cardio in! Find a loop around where you work and go for a walk.  Whether it's a local park or neighborhood that you can do a 30 minute loop. Not only do you get your cardio in for the day, but you also get some fresh air and help break up your day.  Like I said, keep it fun. Now go crush it! You got this!

For this course, I want you to tuck your scale away in the closest and keep it there for these 8 weeks.  We want to focus our time and positive energy on improving how we feel in our bodies and  changing our life styles with new and healthy habits. 

Before you get started, take inventory of where you are today.  Make note of all of the following:

• Current mood

• Current energy level

• How many hours of sleep do you get on average?

• Current diet (record what you eat & drink for 1 entire day before starting)

• Take before photos

• Any other things that you want to note at this time.

Stretches

Before and after every work out, we are going to properly warm up and stretch to help prevent injuries. 

Regardless of what we are working out, these are a simple set of stretches that you can do before each workout. If you have any other areas that are tight or bothersome, discuss with your doctor or another Healthcare professional for additional guidance.

For years, I suffered from a stiff and sore lower back at the end of a long and busy day.  Since I started consistently stretching my hamstrings, I have had no pain!  If you are anything like me and suffer from lower back pain, try adding hamstring stretches to your daily routine and see how you begin to feel.  A great practice is to do a few stretches a few minutes before bed at night.

Ab Exercises

Here I show you three different abdominal crunch variations that you can do at the end of your workouts.  A strong core not only supports  strong and stable movements,  it also helps prevent back pain.

Sets & Repetitions

If you are easily getting all your reps in with each set, and by set three, you're getting all 10-12 reps, make a note in your journal to increase the weight the next time you do the exercise.

Rest periods

For this workout, pay attention to the clock.  In the beginning, we will start with 2 minute rest periods between each set.  During weeks 4, 5 & 6 we are going to cut down to 90 seconds.  Finally, for weeks 7&8  we are going to target 1 minute rest periods between sets.

In this video we review  our day 1 of our gym routine and show how to do each of the exercises of the workout.

In this video we review  our day 2 of our gym routine and show how to do each of the exercises of the workout.

In this video we review  our day 3 of our gym routine and show how to do each of the exercises of the workout.

WAY TO GO CHAMPION! YOU MADE IT!

I am so proud of you putting in the hard work and sticking it out until the end.

Listen in for my last and final challenge for you before you go.