Summer is here! You worked hard throughout the dark, cold winter months and into the spring and your proud of your body as you head out in your shorts, tank tops and in your bathing suit. It would be a shame to just let all your hard work go to waste by doing nothing all summer, eh?
The distractions are many from June to September, but, it IS possible to maintain your fitness level (or even improve it) throughout the hot, hazy days of summer.
Here are 3 Tips to maintaining or improving your fitness level during the summer.
1- Plan your week before it happens. Spend a few minutes on the weekend looking at your week ahead. Decide what your focus for your training week is going to be (endurance, strength or performance training). Look at your PERSONAL schedule to see just how much time you’ll have on any given day and come up with the workout of the day for each and every day based on where you’ll be and what you’ll be doing.
Take advantage of the weather and learn how to exercise outdoors. It will have a great cross training effect and the change in environment will make you feel great.
2- Create a dinner “menu” for the week ahead. Make a list of the meals that you’ll be eating each night. Plan to make meals that you enjoy that are high in lean protein and contain a mix of complex carbohydrates and vegetables. For example…. Monday evening, Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Turkey Meatballs and mixed salad. From this list, write your grocery shopping list for the week. DO NOT LEAVE YOUR NUTRITION TO CHANCE. There will be plenty of times in the summer where you will have no control over what is being served. Control what you can when you can.
Also… get in the habit of making “too much” of the good stuff at dinner time. Freeze it or use Tupperware for an easy, fast lunch the next day.
3- Have a fall back or Plan B for both exercise and nutrition for the times that life gets in the way. There is no excuse for doing nothing.
Plan B exercise might be Pushups, Squats and Crunches for 15 reps of each repeated with no rest for 12 minutes. Plan B nutrition could be a can of Spicy Thai Tuna on a Flax Seed Tortilla with Spinach Leaves. Easy, effective and way better than “nothing”.
Take these 3 tips to heart over the next couple of months and you WILL be in amazing shape come fall.
All Canadian Fitness 