These Are A Few Of My Favorite (Fitness) Things

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens...bright copper ket....oh wait, that's someone else's list of favorite things!  

The list below contains a few things that I really rely on to keep me eating healthy, working out regularly and just generally motivated to keep making those lifestyle changes.  I thought I'd share them with you, and hopefully you'll have some to share as well - please feel free to post a comment!

In no particular order:

1. The Perfect Recipe for Losing Weight and Eating Great, an awesome cookbook by Pam Anderson.  Check out her recipe for mini-pumpkin muffins - I LOVELOVELOVE these yummy little muffins and frequently have 2 of them for breakfast with my morning latte.  I usually skip the orange glaze and sprinkle a few mini chocolate chips on top of each one a few minutes before I take them out of the oven - the calories are similar and I love the combo of pumpkin and chocolate.
2. My iPOD.  I'm honestly not sure if I could work out on my own without this thing - having all of my favorite workout music at my fingertips means I can make the most of every workout.  
3. Audiobooks!  When I was training for the 3-Day, many of my training walks were several hours long.  Although I did quite a few walks with my teammates, there were some that I did on my own.  These walks were also at a slower pace as I was building muscle endurance rather than cardio endurance, so motivational music wasn't all that necessary.  Listening to an audiobook felt like someone was walking along with me, telling me a story!  Some of my recent favorites include Eat Pray Love, Middlesex, Pretty in Plaid and The Help, all of which were downloaded directly to my iPod for a reasonable fee from Audible.com. 
4. Enell sports bras.  Even when I was at a nice healthy weight in high school, I was blessed with cleavage.  Fast forward 125 pounds and you can imagine just how...ummm...even more blessed(?) I am now.   Now think of how painful those blessings are when you are working out.  Fortunately, I came upon the Enell sports bra, which basically renders your chest motionless even during high impact activities like running or even jumping jacks.  They are pricey, but very well made and definitely worth the investment.
5. The Daily Plate on Livestrong.  This website allows you to track your food, weight and daily activity, and has an unbelievable list of foods from which to choose.  You enter your weight loss goals and the website provides an appropriate calorie target which you can supplement with exercise.  And as your weight decreases, your daily target decreases!  You can also generate reports and graphs of your daily intake and overall progress.  In addition to all that great personal stuff, you can form groups to share your 'plate' with friends to help keep each other motivated!  There are message boards and lots of informative articles about all aspects of fitness.  It's a great way to track your food, keep motivated and also learn a few things.
6. The internet.  Seriously, I search the internet daily for information about fitness, for like-minded people who blog about their experiences, and just for general information.  There are a ton of great podcasts & downloadable workouts out there (YogaJournal.com has some amazing yoga videos that you can stream absolutely free).  All of the major fitness and health magazines have websites with lots of articles as well as info that's not in the printed magazine, and at CookingLight.com you can get virtually all of the magazines recipes for free - with user reviews and a place to add your own personal notes.  And of course blogging has really helped me keep on track!
7. Wigwam Cool-Lite Pro socks.  These socks are blister-resistant (and believe me, when you walk 18 miles in one day without a single blister, you know the socks have something to do with it), cushy and durable!  They stand up to lots of abuse without showing any signs of wear.  I absolutely love them! 
8. My Wii!!!  There are so many great fitness games that you can get to go with the Wii - including the Wii Fit.  But honestly, my favorite is just the plain old tennis game that comes with the game console!  You're not going to get in killer shape using the Wii, but it will get you off the couch, having fun, and burning a few extra calories. 

So there you have it, my list of must-have fitness accessories and tools to keep me motivated and on track.  What's on your list?