Karen Shopoff Rooff is a Cooper Institute Certified Personal Trainer and Certified Pre/postnatal Fitness Specialist. The mother of two young songs is the founder and owner of Balance Personal Fitness Training.

Any goal-oriented, driven person knows that having a plan makes life more manageable.  Winston Churchill went so far as to say, “he who fails to plan is planning to fail.”  Fortunately for me, I inherited the planning gene from my father.  As a certified personal trainer, my clients depend on me to develop a sound, logical, and progressive fitness plan to help them achieve their goals.  Doing so requires both high-level planning and detail-level planning so that I know how I am going to use the next ten sessions to improve my client’s fitness as well as what exercises each session will include.  There are also the workouts I suggest for in-between personal training sessions, which most of my clients refer to as “the dreaded homework.”  Although they grumble, they know that having a fitness plan (and sticking to it!) is key to their success. The more closely they adhere to the plan I develop, the more quickly they achieve their desired results.

Exercise, however, is only one part of the fitness equation.  Solid nutrition is a significant factor in a client’s success.  Because I am not a nutritionist or registered dietician, I cannot set out detailed eating plans for my clients.  That does not mean, however, that I set my clients adrift in the sea of food choices with no compass.  We work within the guidelines of the USDA’s food pyramid and dietary recommendations to talk about foods that will best fuel active bodies.  There is an incredibly useful website, www.mypyramid.gov, which describes nutritional requirements and can be individualized based on sex, age, and activity level.

For many people, keeping a food log for a week or two is an insightful and useful exercise.  During this period, I urge my clients not to alter their eating habits at all.  By tracking what is eaten, how much, when, and how one feels before and after eating, a person can improve her understanding of biorhythms, cravings, and the different ways food is used other than simple nourishment.  At the end of the logging period, my clients are usually quite surprised to see where their eating matches up to dietary guidelines and where it falls short.  After an initial assessment, I encourage my clients to continue to keep a food log, but now I want them to focus on their eating and try to eat within the USDA recommendations.

One of the best ways to be successful at changing eating habits is to commit to a meal plan.   It is often easier to establish new, positive behavior patterns—such as exercise—than break decades-old negative behavior patterns—like food choices.  This is why having a predetermined eating plan is so important: it helps to save you from yourself!  For those intimidated by the thought of meal planning or for those who do not have the time or inclination to do so, a service like e-mealplanning.com is indispensible.  In addition to health benefits, meal planning can be done to minimize food waste, thus shrinking grocery bills.  Who doesn’t want to be healthier and wealthier, too!?

I encourage my clients to plan also for snacking.  Many parents diligently pack snacks for their children before leaving the house, yet these same people do not think to take care of themselves!  Whether you choose to pack fruit, a cheese stick, pretzels, or raisins, a few extra moments of forethought can save yourself from yet another drive-thru window.  Again, having a plan allows you to take a healthy, economical action.

After another few weeks of food logging while on an eating plan, most of my clients feel healthier and much more confident.  Many of them eliminate the physical food logging task from their daily ritual as meal planning and eating according to the plan become second nature.  By eating well, my clients are better able to undertake the exercise programs I design for them.  In the end, it is the adherence to both healthy eating and an active lifestyle that are keys to lifelong wellness.  And the easiest way to get there, as with any journey, is to have a plan.