Olympic athletes do it. Stylists do it. Walt Disney did it. Martha Stewart employees do it. Seems everyone’s using “vision board” to direct their focus and achieve their goals. Using Pinterest to make a vision board is also a great way to get new fitness and healthy recipe ideas.

This USA Today article has some fantastic tips for using Pinterest to get new fitness ideas. Find inspirational quotes, workouts for each part of the body, full fitness routines, and motivational images. The best tip: categorize the workouts by weekday and build an entire workout routine. We should all try this, sitting down on Sunday to plot out the week’s workouts on Pinterest.

Notice how I don’t have too many image-related pictures on my vision board. My body type is pretty different than most and I don’t want to get caught up in the whole image thing. Mostly, this for me is about feeling, striving, being and looking healthy.

1. Cookie cutter fruit “lollipops.” Play with your food, my friends.

2. Jenn Shelton. The book Born to Run really introduced me to this fabulous runner. She runs ultra marathons that are like 50 to 100 miles!!!?!? And from what I’ve seen, she’s super fast, humble and unpretentious. And she used to study poetry. Love!

3. When You Lose Fat Chart: shows all the statistics about your body and how you reduce the chances of getting a myriad of medical problems by losing weight. If that isn’t motivation, I don’t know what is!

4. Healthy Sandwiches, Six Ways. Makes you look at so-called “diet” food in a whole new way. PB&J isn’t your only option, folks.

5. How to Run Diagram: I like to be cognizant of how I’m running so I can keep getting better, so this poster is a fine reminder.

6. Fruit Rainbow. Makes healthy food look fun, colorful, fresh, new and exciting. I think my Peanut would love these! (Hmmm, remind me about that on his birthday:)

7. Clear Your Mind. Go for a Run. This poster reminds me of how grrrrreat running makes me feel.

8. Fruit Smoothie in a Wine Glass: This picture got clipped off a bit. I just like that idea of serving a healthy “cocktail” of fruits in your finest glassware. Makes it seem like an indulgence rather than an obligation.

Check out this link from Shape Magazine about how Pinterest could change your life. I found this after I decided to do a post about vision boards, and it totally validates where I was going with this. Science is behind the “vision board” idea. Putting your goals in writing has always been a crucial step for actually accomplishing them. Putting your goals into concrete images takes you one step closer to fulfilling them. If you can actually visualize your goal, as in, know what they look like (taste like, feel like, etc), you’ll have a much clearer picture to work with and direct your attention toward.

The article even validates what I said above about not using too many image-related pictures. Adding images of perfect, tanned, airbrushed models is dangerous. Self-sabotage is not what we’re going for here.

What are you waiting for? Check out the Fitness eye-candy over on Pinterest. Or make an inspirational moodboard for other goals in your life with the same concepts in mind: financial, career-related, love-focused, food-minded, etc.

As they say over there, Happy Pinning!