Sean's easy fitness tips for Summer

Sharing ideas and hints of how to stay motivated in work, health and life can only help. Even if you decide that it isn’t the direction for you at least you have thought through and committed to another avenue.

With beach weather around the corner you know what they say, the best time to work on that summer bod is in winter! With that in mind Let us talk about exercise and diet this week.   

Here is a list of what I would say are the core values, the essentials, to getting yourself into a healthy lifestyle.

1. Achievability – There are plenty of diets, exercise programs that I think appear polished and flashy but at the end of the day, considering your workload, family and social routing, are unrealistic to commit too. So, make your goals ultra-achievable, and celebrate them. For example, it’s a Monday, you really should go to the gym and work off the Sunday pizza you had. Even a 15-minute excursion, pulling a couple weights, running a 2 kms is better than doing absolutely nothing. Do a bit, it’s more than you would have done watching television. Be happy for yourself too, no matter what the effort is at least there is some Then build from there.
2. Focus on the journey, not the destination – This is hard, we often see the chiselled abs and flat tummy and that’s what we want, but seeing that and yearning for it doesn’t get us there. No, forget about that completely. After each session, don’t look at your progress. Just be happy you did the work at the time. Focus on improvements of reps or distance, be proud that you achieved a higher weight, or ran for an extra ten minutes. Get away from the mirror and the scales. The results will speak for themselves once the process is established.
3. Give yourself rest days – it is IMPOSSIBLE to work out every day, seven days a week. If you do you will exhaust yourself, hate the exercise, routine, and stop. Worse, you will injure yourself and then you’ll have to rely solely on diet (no fun). Give yourself days off and enjoy them! Just make sure you max out at two rest days in a row.
4. Mix it up – keep changing the types of exercise. Literally keep the body guessing. Eventually you will find an exercise or sport that you truly enjoy and that you gravitate towards, meaning you will do it more often and therefore be much fitter. It also means you can give your body more of a rest, as a game of squash works different muscles from swimming a few laps.
5. Do not be embarrassed – Easier said than done but just be proud that you’re out there committing to a healthier you. If you are referring to the last point, who cares if you can only do six laps in the pool, and you’re wearing your old football short. Who cares! You’re exercising and everyone appreciates that.
6. Change your relationship with exercise – people often think of exercising as a chore, something to do before work or after work, to fit in because it’s a necessity. Change the attitude. Do it because you want to. Get your bloody pumping, your adrenalin flowing and your sweat going because you want to. The hormones will put you on the clouds afterwards!
7. DIET – so I know I left this point last but sadly it is the most important factor to losing weight and looking great. It’s difficult for me to comment as well. I am of the firm belief that bodies are unique, no diet fits all, it’s up to you to figure out what you can or can’t eat. Some people can eat carbs and not put on a kilo, which is great. Some of us can’t and you need to become educated in your own body. If you know you get bloated lay off the carbs and pursue a high fat or vegetable diet. If you can’t help but polish off a bag after a couple chips make the bag a smaller kid-sized one.

That last point is impossible. The first thing we can do to help our diet is eat less. Don’t starve yourself, but use a smaller plate. One piece of toast instead of two. Don’t fill the bowl with ice-cream, just a couple scoops.

Be happy with your lifestyle once you get into a routine. Celebrate the routine, enjoy the cheat days but when it comes to the crunch and the process… work hard!