Our definition of a mentor is someone that inspires you to reach your fitness goals and helps you along the way. This could mean someone in your circle of friends or someone who is an expert in fitness and healthy eating.

Experts include bloggers, podcasters or authors. Look for someone who knows what they are talking about and can give you valuable tips, pointers and techniques to help you along the way.

Photo: jetheriot on Flickr

Why a health or fitness mentor is important

Mentors can help you in so many ways.
1. They share information like healthy recipes, workout routines and ways to keep up with your goals.

2. They are up-to-date on the latest and most current advice and trends in their industry. This is their field and they do tons of research, so take advantage of their knowledge.

3. They can recommend new ideas on challenges you are facing.

4. They will motivate you when you need it.

5. They can help you learn about eating healthy by giving you tips on cooking techniques or recipes that give you more energy.

6. They can also give you new ideas on exercising more effectively or even quicker.

How to pick the right health or fitness mentor for you

Health and fitness mentors are everywhere. You need to find one that you resonate with and feel that they can help you reach your goals.

Here are three ways to know if one is right for you –

1. They inspire your trust. If you don’t trust a mentor you are certainly not going to follow their advice. You need this in order to get to your goals.

2. The mentor knows about health or fitness. You can find someone that knows both or just one. It seems that people who are fitness experts are stricter with their diets. So you’ll have to find the right balance. This could mean that you’ll get fitness tips from one person and cooking tips from another. There is no right or wrong answers.

3. The most important job of a mentor is to motivate you. Reading tips and actually putting them into action are two different things. You need to do more of the second one then the first if you want to reach your goals.

4, Know what media form you like the most. This might mean blog posts, recipes, YouTube videos or audio. Some people will have all forms, but more than likely they will only do one or two.

So who will it be? Do you have someone in your friend’s list already? Is there someone in your community you could reach out to? Perhaps someone who has already accomplished the goals you’re beginning work on? Or maybe it’s a professional, locally or online. This personal has the expertise you need and answers to your questions.

Think about who would be a good fit as a mentor for you and then reach out!