Summer is just around the corner whether you’re ready or not.
Its that time of year when everybody realises that in just a few short weeks it’ll be time to dig out your swim shorts or bikinis and reveal your body in all its glory to the watching world.
I understand that these words will have chilled a good few of you to your very core but let’s not panic yet.
There’s still just over 6 weeks until the start of June and whilst ideally you’d have been preparing your body all year for this moment, all is not lost.
I’m going to put people into 3 categories here.
Group number one, the almost there’s.
These people already train and have been doing so on and off for most of the year. They have a great base and really they just need a massive kick up to the arse to finish the job. In 6 weeks you can and will look awesome. If you really get your head down that is.
The second group, I’m going to call these people last summers left overs.
About this time last year, you had an epiphany and it went somewhat along the lines of what I mentioned earlier. You realised you had a holiday coming up and pressed the panic button.
Upon doing so you began to smash the gym and your eating was on point for most of the summer. Obviously we know miracles aren’t possible so you didn’t come out the other end looking like a model but you’d really shaped up and looked 100% better than you did.
It gave you the confidence you were looking for before going away, job done. Unfortunately once your holiday was out of the way you struggled with motivation and the health kick, along with your motivation, gradually tailed off.
Your diet became less strict and gym sessions slowly tailed off coming to an end around September/October time.
You managed to keep somewhere near where you were in the summer until the Christmas binge hit and slowly but surely you’ve been creeping back to where you were this time last year.
Well… you’ve done it once and you can do it again. Chances are you aren’t back to square one and with the right training and guidance you could still get in even better shape than you did last year. Hopefully you can keep it up this year and next year you might make it into group number 1.
Finally we have the number 3’s.
These are the people who haven’t trained for years and let’s be honest here, things have probably gotten a little out of control.
You dread this time of year and everything about it. Your confidence is already shot and the thought of being half naked in public does little to help.
I’m not going to lie to you. This probably isn’t your year; but next year very well could be.
I’m not going to bullshit you and tell you in 8 weeks you’ll be swanning around the pool with sun bouncing off your abs because it isn’t realistic, you’re 3 stone overweight and you haven’t exercised in years.
If you really want to make a positive change to your life you need to stop worrying about the short term and begin to imagine the long term.
You are no different to any of the other categories you still need to start now. In 8 weeks you will feel much much more confident, you will have lost weight and you’ll feel better than you have done in years but that should only be the beginning.
If you carry on throughout the year and listen to what we tell you, this time next year you might actually be looking forward to bikini shopping.
The main reason for creating these groups was to give people realistic goals and ideas of what is achievable.
The steps you need to take to get there are going to be relatively similar in reality.
So here’s my top 5 tips to help get lean for summer.
No.1. Act NOW!!! You’ve already left it too late so join a gym, an exercise class or start running. Whatever floats your boat… but you need to start now.
No.2. Seek nutrition advice. Most of what you read in the media is absolute crap. Nobody ever got lean reading the daily mail. Switch it up and consult someone who actually knows what they’re doing.
It’ll save you loads of wasted time as well as helping you achieve your goals much faster. Don’t be conned though and end up paying through the roof for overpriced diet plans.
Here’s a secret… you can still eat ice cream and get lean. Who knew?
No.3. Be more active in your day to day life. Exercising for just one hour a day can actually be detrimental to your weight loss if it causes you to decrease your regular daily activity. Aim for 10,000 steps a day on top of what you do in the gym.
No.4. Find something you enjoy doing. Everyone’s different here; it doesn’t matter what it is just find it and do it. As long as it gets you off your arse and moving you’re good to go. This will also help you keep it up in the long term. You know… like those other 10 months you forget about every year.
No.5. Train with a friend or other like minded people. It’ll stop you getting bored and you’ll probably learn to enjoy it as a social experience. You’ll keep each other motivated and it makes it harder to slack off if you’ve got someone to drag you along.
Bonus tip.
Find a goal and stick with it. Nothing will halt your progress quicker than flicking between goals with no direction. Be single minded.
Dan
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