Summer Blues

With all the hype getting ready for summer and the excitement of warm weather and sunshine, it is easy to get romanced by plans and forget the reality. The reality is that summer means shorts, tank tops and bathing suits. If you neglected your fitness during the winter months this could keep you up at night!

Lack of early physical preparation is not the end all for your summer plans. You may be able to still make a difference and enjoy the warm weather more comfortably.

• Make a Plan
• Schedule at Least 30Min for Working Out
• Keep a Food Journal
• Find an Accountability Factor

With out a plan, you are planning to veer back off course. Map out what time line you are working on (when is your summer vacation, reunion, or party). Figure out how many weeks there are and if there is anything happening between now and then. Armed with this time-line you can really see how important each week is in your progress. Every week matters, every day matters.

Find at least 30 minutes, more if you can, each day for exercise. Your exercise should include both cardio and weights. Even if you are only doing 10 minutes of full body workout and 20 minutes of high intensity interval training cardio.

If you are working on a 30 minute plan, the 10 minute full body workout should have less than 10 sec breaks and maintain a elevated heart rate and go right into your cardio. If you have more than 30 minutes, divide the extra time between the two (for example if you have 40 min, do 15 min weights and 25 minutes cardio). Once you get to 45 min of cardio, just add the time to weights until you have 45-60min of weights BEFORE your cardio.

Keep a food journal. You may think you are eating clean, but when you write EVERYTHING down that you put into your mouth, it may shock you how many places you could clean it up. Focus on including a lot of lean protein and veggies with good carbohydrates and healthy fats!

Find an accountability factor. If you are like most of the population, you can easily talk yourself into or out of anything. If you have someone that is keeping you accountable, being a little tired or getting an offer for "better plans" will not be as tempting. And, if you can find someone who is serious about training to workout WITH you, that would be even better. Just make sure that if you do enlist a training partner, you don't end up talking and taking breaks. You should be pushing each other to work harder.

Armed with a detailed plan and the motivation to execute it, you should have some visible results when your done! Good Luck :)