Lifestyle -- 11 days ago
Words: Violet
Here we are again in the few months before summer when everyone begins to remember those New Years resolutions we made vowing to eat healthier and exercise more. Despite the fact that said resolutions bit the dust almost as soon as the sun rose over day one of 2014. don’t panic though, there is still time to get beach ready!
Let’s start this off as simply as possible… Pick a date in the summer that you have to be ready for. Pick the day before your flight abroad, or the date of the event you have to go to but don’t start this ‘Fit for Summer’ program without picking a date and writing it down somewhere visible!
Next pick how you’re going to measure your success and be realistic. Whether it’s your weight, waistline or just your image reflected… Take your measurements and write them down or take that ‘before photo’! Now that we have set and defined our goals we can start and easily measure and reward our success.
When it comes to your approach to fitness, success will come with consistency and simplicity. Aim to complete some form of exercise 5 days a week. This could be as simple as a 45-60 minute dog walk or 15 minutes of tabata (interval training) at home. Tabata training is designed to keep your workouts as short and as intense as possible, so a 15 minute workout will boost your metabolism, engage your muscles and help to increase your BMR to help burn more fat.
To do a tabata workout perfectly just clear a space at home and complete the following until your run out of time, breath or have completed 12-16 minutes.
Body Weight Squats, Glute Bridges, Burpees, Jumping Jacks, Plank, Crunch, Press ups
Each of these should be completed in 4 twenty second intervals with 10 seconds rest between each and a 45-60 second rest between exercises. Stick to these timings as your fat burning potential lies in pushing yourself to keep to them!
Finally, let’s take a quick look at your nutrition. In your lead up to summer you are likely to want to reduce fat and increase muscle/body tone. To do this in the most efficient way possible you should start each day with a big glass of water followed by a breakfast high in protein and fat…not cereals and other carbs. So, grab some eggs, or some fish or chicken with veg. Try your best to avoid foods you know are bad, like crisps, and rather snack on 2-4 rice cakes with some cottage cheese, avocado and smoke salmon – Delicious!
Your meals should make you satisfied not full, so eating every 3 hours keeps you topped up rather than overfills you. The idea is to keep the fire that is your metabolism, burning all day rather than letting it die down in between meals. The holy trinity of carbs is brown rice, quinoa and sweet potato so stick to them and only them in no more than 2 meals a day.
This healthy lifestyle will have your satisfied and energetic. Furthermore , you’ll be loosing weight and gaining muscle tone all at the same time. Getting fit for summer doesn’t have to cost you a thing!
Take those measurements and start today … Go for a walk, squats tomorrow!
By Glen at Matt Roberts, for more information visit: mattroberts.co.uk
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