How To Get Swimsuit Ready!

rnAlright! So it's almost summer time! I can just taste it, the relaxing by the pool, warm weather, and vacations. If you're anything like me, summer is an exciting time, but it can be a bit tough making sure that you are "swimsuit ready" when summer time comes. Some of us let ourselves go a little bit over the winter time, trust me, I've been there, and fortunately I know exactly how to get you in summer condition. This way you won't be worried at all to go swimming with your friends, and instead will be excited to show them what you've accomplished! 1. Go To The Gym!rnThis is a huge one, too many times we get out of the habit of going to the gym, and it can become a drag trying to start again. You have to go the gym if you want to be summer ready. This of course is with the exception of following some workout from home programs such as Beachbody products or a few free HIIT programs available on Youtube. However, in my experience nothing beats going to the gym and lifting weights. It gives your body a nice toned look and can help you burn fat or build muscle depending on your goals. If you truly want to become summer ready I suggest you go to the gym. What should you do in the gym? Well it all depends on your goals, if you are just looking to have a lean cut up body I would suggest doing a classic push/pull split. Push/pull is just set up like this: Monday – Push exercises – things like chest (bench press) triceps (you push your arms away to work triceps) and shoulders as well as quads.rnTuesday – Pull exercises – things like Back, traps, biceps, and hamstringsrnWednesday – BreakrnThursday – Push exercises - same as MondayrnFriday – Pull exercises – same as TuesdayrnSaturday/Sunday – Break Simple enough right? I’ve gotten great results by following this type of system, it gives me the freedom and time I need to work out every body part, and gives me the time to recover between each exercise.rn2. Cardio!rnBesides working with weights you need to do cardio every single day. Don’t skip cardio, this will help you lose fat, look better, feel better, and it will give you more energy. I know a lot of people hate cardio so I always try to look for ways to liven it up. Try listening to an audio book, or switch up your cardio, do bikes on day, elliptical another, and jogging another. A different option that you have instead of cardio is HIIT. HIIT is high intensive interval training, it burns fat quickly and makes you work hard. It can be a bit tougher on the joints but if you don’t have joint issues or want to try it out you may want to consider programs such as Insanity, or check and see if your local gym has any classes. You can’t skip cardio though, I have had friends who ask me every summer how I get that extra bit of fat off of me. We almost always find that it comes down to cardio, it’s healthy for your body and makes you look good, why not do it?rn3. Kill the Sweets!rnThis is a huge one, you have to love your goals more than you love sweets. This doesn't mean that you have to cut all sweets out of your diet like I have, but it does mean that you need to cut down. I have a good friend who recently lost a ton of weight, its great! Good for him, I've been really proud of him. The other day he told me that he’s still disappointed because he has large love handles on his sides. While he was telling me this he was eating a whole bag of starbursts, when I pointed this out we both started to laugh. He told me that he guessed he didn't love looking good more than he loved starbursts. If you really want to have a good looking beach body you need to ask yourself the same thing. Do you desire to look good more than you desire junk food? Make the decision now to get rid of all of the sweets so you don’t have any options later on. I can tell you from experience it is easier to deny all sweets then to give into a little here and there. It gets rid of all rationalization and helps you look better a whole lot quicker. If you have a habit of eating sweets try to replace them with something better. In my experience using something like carrots or kale smoothies really helps me keep the cravings away. 4. Cut down on Carbs!rnThis is a pretty big one, if you haven’t noticed by now I’m not a huge fan of super low carb diets. However, I have notice that lowering your carb intake does seem to get you a more cut and lean look than the usual one. I don’t advise getting rid of all carbs, but you should try to get most of your carbs from vegetables. Vegetables are great, they give you energy, make you feel extremely full, and are super low calorie. Also feel free to eat some fruit, just not a lot of it. Fruit can be good but it can also be extremely sugary. I find that an apple a day is all I need, it helps me feel full and gives me a lot of energy throughout the whole day. Lower down your carbs and I promise you will be surprised at how much the fat will start to fly off of your body. So what should you eat instead? I like to eat a lot of meat products, and a lot of eggs, eggs are kind of my secret weapon when I’m dieting. They make me feel full, are full or good fats and protein, and they are low carb. You’ll be surprised at the differences that you can see. While supplements are not necessary I have found that using some products can really help me cover the cravings. For instance when I started doing some CrossFit I found that having some good crossfit protein really helped, this is of course optional. 5. Count Those Calories!rnThis is another big one that I can’t talk about enough. It’s hard to lose weight if you don’t know how much you should be eating! All you need to do is calculate your TDEE and at 500 calories below that. If you don’t know your TDEE don’t worry about it! Just Google “TDEE Calculator” and you’ll see tons of results pop up. Use any one of these calculators to figure out your TDEE, subtract 500 and that’s how many calories you should eat a day. How do you keep track of your calories? You can either write them down, or you can get an app such as MyFitnessPal. I find that using an app makes it much easier for me to keep track of how much I am eating, plus it’s always a good reminder to keep track whenever I open up my phone.rn6. Don’t Eat Out!rnThis is probably the hardest part for me. Avoid eating out, some people eat out as much as twice a day, this is horrible for your health and horrible for your body. If you don’t have time to make meals during the day because of work just make your meals over the weekend and pack them up. Don’t make up excuses, you can do this, you can avoid eating out. The problem is sometimes we love eating out too much, this usually causes us to cheat on our diets, get down, and then we binge eat and end up looking and feeling worse than before. Don’t let this happen to you, if it does get back on track. You can do this, all you have to do is plan things out correctly. If it helps you at all plan to have one cheat meal a week, I like to have one every Friday, it keeps me sane and lets me go out with my friends. You’d be surprised at how many of your friends will start trying to diet with you once they've seen your results.rnConclusionrnDieting and getting ready for summer is not as hard as some people make it out to be. Don’t get caught up in all of the hype and tension around the latest fad diets. Instead just follow the principles outlined above, they've been used by people for years because they work.rnThe key above everything else is hard work and consistency, don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise, just keep at it and you’ll start seeing some amazing results in no time.rnOnce again I want to touch briefly on the subject of “getting of the bandwagon”. If you fall and binge eat don’t worry about it, just get started with your diet again. Too many times we beat ourselves up and give up, don’t do this, you will thank yourself for not giving up later on. It always reminds me of the lines of one of my favorite movies (Batman Begins) “why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.” Don’t ever give up on yourself. In conclusion getting a beach body isn't as hard as some people make it sound. Get started now and in a few months when summer rolls around everyone will be giving you compliments. Feel free to comment if you have any other suggestions, or success stories for us.