20 Secrets of Very Fit People

1. Keep a water bottle with you at all times and drink from it often. Water should always be your drink of choice. To kick things up every once in a while, try adding lemon, lime, cucumber, or a few berries to liven up the flavor without adding significant calories.
2. Look at exercise as a pleasure and a privilege, not a burden or chore. Think positively about the changes regular exercise will produce. Rather than obsessing about your next meal, get excited about your next workout!
3. If you keep good food in your fridge, you will eat good food. Eat well-balanced meals. Check out recipes online and be inspired.
4. Limit caffeine. Drink green tea instead. Avoid exposure to even secondhand smoke.
5. Focus on short-term fitness goals with an emphasis on completing daily exercise. Make it part of your daily routine, just like brushing your teeth and taking a shower.
6. Keep a daily log of what you’re actually eating. Note it down in a little food journal or your phone.
7. Enjoy an occasional (once a week) “unhealthy” treat, but never an unhealthy week or unhealthy vacation. Fitness doesn't take a break.
8. Enjoy contributing to the health of others by having a partner or friends to exercise with, as well as recruiting others who want to feel better and have more energy.
9. Avoid monotony by taking up new forms of exercising, or using things that keep you motivated and inspired, like new shoes or great music.
10. Subscribe to fitness magazines to keep focused on health as an overall way of life. My favorite are Muscle & Fitness Hers and Oxygen.
11. Invest in the right tools — your favorite brand of workout wear, good shoes, a portable MP3 player or iPod^®, fitness equipment (yoga mat/kettlebell/skip rope) or fitness DVDs and books.
12. Make it your goal to do some form of exercise 5 or 6 days a week. If some days you can exercise once in the morning (for cardio) and once in the evening (for weights), even better!
13. Don’t compare your body to others’. Instead, work to be your personal best.
14. If your diet is unbalanced, take daily vitamin and mineral supplements for total health.
15. Work to take your exercise to new levels of intensity. Add reps or weights. Push to the maximum each time. Leave the gym feeling like death but damn good about your workout.
16. Create an exercise schedule the day before instead of leaving it to chance or waiting to “find” the time. If you can't afford a personal trainer yet, get your fitness plan first. You can always ask for help on-the-go from fitness instructors at the gym.
17. Move beyond the boundaries of weight loss and into total fitness. Measure success by the way your clothes fit, not some number on a scale.
18. Stick with eating plans you can maintain indefinitely. Remember that no matter how hard you’re working out, if you’re consuming too many calories, you’ll never see the muscles that lie beneath layers of fatty tissue. Until you get nutrition in line, you're never gonna see results.
19. Get adequate amounts of sleep, at least between 6-8 hours. People who exercise regularly fall asleep faster and sleep more soundly.
20. Limit alcohol intake to special occasions.