Lifestyle expert and fitness guru Andrea Riggs spends her days training both celebrities and everyday It Girls. Here she offers her favorite tips for maintaining an active lifestyle to help you stay fit and fabulous.
- Satisfy workout cravings. Working out increases your metabolism and appetite, especially high-intensity interval regimens which are ideal for building lean muscle tissue. Following exercise, try to immediately consume quality calories to help satisfy your appetite and help restore your energy levels. An 8-ounce glass of 100 percent grapefruit juice and a serving of nuts within 20 minutes of exercise can help healthfully satisfy your workout-fueled appetite and keep your metabolism running steadily.
- Get Results. If you’re looking to amp up your fitness routine in preparation for a special occasion coming up, adopt a 21-day at-home fitness routine that alternates cardio and strength training to see a noticeable reduction in inches. Start with 20 repetitions of three total body toning exercises (such as kettlebell circuits or even just push-ups and squats) and schedule a brisk daily walk, jog or bike ride. Steadily increase the number of strength training repetitions and the length of cardio every three days.
- Sleep if off. Getting adequate amounts of sleep may help regulate your appetite and control food cravings1, both when you exercise and when you are at rest, so make sure you get enough sleep at night. You can even try scheduling a 15-minute power nap about an hour before a workout to help you feel refreshed and energized throughout.
- Work out at work. Incorporating a little bit of physical activity into your workday can go a long way toward keeping you both physically and mentally healthy. Try keeping small squeezable hand weights at your desk and sneak in sets while talking on the phone or checking e-mail. Not only will this help build and strengthen lean arm muscles, it can also be a great stress reliever. Or, if you are already on your feet and don’t sit behind a desk, try doing squats or knee-bends throughout the day to avoid cramping and stiffness in your legs.
- Change it up. Alter your fitness routine every couple of weeks to get the most out of your sweat sessions. Your body adapts to familiar activities, so an unchanging workout becomes less and less challenging as time goes on. Keep things fresh by alternating the treadmill with a bike ride outside or a spin class at the gym. Varying your workout will ensure that you are exercising all of your muscles rather than working out the same muscles each time.
1. "Obesity: Causes" MayoClinic.com. 9 Oct. 2010. Web. 2010 © 1998-2010 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research (MFMER). <http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/obesity/DS00314/DSECTION=causes>.


