How to Use Social Media to Get Fitter, Leaner and Stronger!

Make 2012 the year you take multitasking to a whole new level.

Think about it: You check your friend’s Facebook status while sending out emails to your staff; you feed your growing babies while texting your spouse to pick up dinner on the way home. So, why not put this useful and already applicable skill, to even better use? Use social media to boost up your workout, and get in shape quicker than ever.  Feeling lazy from your sedentary job, or like your couch potato way of life is causing you to fall behind in good health? Use social media to motivate you, keep you on track and hold you accountable.

The University of Georgia recently conducted a study about the influence social media has over the power of suggestion.  In this particular study, “71 volunteers watched others exert self-control by choosing a carrot from a plate in front of them instead of a cookie from a nearby plate, while others watched people eat the cookies instead of the carrots. The volunteers had no interaction with the tasters other than watching them, yet their performance was altered on a later test of self-control, depending on who they were randomly assigned to watch.”

Do you want to stop those late night cookie cravings? You might want to spend more time browsing through your friend’s status updates and less time browsing the food pantry.

This study demonstrated that by watching someone eat a carrot as opposed to a cookie, they were encouraged to do the same. How many times have you been inspired to work out, after browsing through your friends’ Facebook status updates and seeing their own body transformations? Whether you want to lose 20 lbs, eliminate sugar from your diet or become a devotee to a Saturday morning spin class, seeing others do it allows us to believe we can, too.

Social media keeps you accountable. So, when you start a strict diet of whole grains, vegetables and a high fiber meal plan, your virtual nutritionist will make sure you stay on track. Have you just started going to the gym? Start a blog, discuss workout tips with health specialists, download the Runkeeper App on your iPhone and use a monitor device like FitBit to track your progress (and afterwards, post it on your Facebook page!) Show off each pound you lose on your favorite social network, and get cheered along the way from friends who only want to see you succeed.

It doesn’t matter whether you have 100 or 10,000 Facebook or Twitter followers. Social media encourages and motivates a workout in us, even on those days we’d rather have a Snickers bar.  Ready to transform your body and mind? Use social media and feel, look and think your way to good health for the long term.