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We all know new year only means one topic of conversation amongst us girls… diet and exercise! We weren’t surprised to hear that most people who start crash diets in the new year fall off the wagon after just 15 days!

So we're here to help kick start your new year regime with some tips from Louise Whyte a personal fitness trainer from Penelope Fitstar who specialise in women’s outdoor personal training and classes. Here are her top 5 tips to starting and maintaining a healthy fitness routine:

1. Find an outdoor boot camp in your local park. Rope in some friends and sign up, if you know you are meeting friends you will all have the motivation to turn up. Also if you have a laugh you’ll be more likely to stick with it.

2. Don’t worry about expensive gym membership just head out your door in your trainers. Exercising outdoors will give you other benefits too; more calorie burn, vitamin D from sunlight plus you will get that lovely outdoor glow.

3. Don’t crash diet, you will feel miserable. Instead eat small and often making healthy choices, swap fast food for salad filled wraps, ditch fizzy drinks (even diet ones) and try to carry healthy snacks with you to avoid unnecessary temptation.

4. Make your resolutions realistic. Don’t say you are going to run every day, never eat chocolate or drink alcohol, you are just setting yourself up for failure. Exercising 3 times a week, limiting yourself to 1 bar of decent chocolate on a Friday and only having a couple of drinks on a Saturday is much more achievable.

5. Get as much walking into your day as you can. 1 hour of fast walking will burn 226 calories which is almost a 4 bar kit-kat, this could be as easy as walking to and from work or power walking in your lunch break.