The countdown to your holiday is on, and whether you've left it a bit late to get beach-ready, or you want to make the most of the final few weeks, we’ve the perfect plan for you. Here's how to fine-tune your beach body without a crash diet.
Drink More Water
The easiest thing you can do to close in on your beach body goal, is to start drinking more water. This small step could dramatically improve how your skin looks, how flat your stomach is and even how much body fat you can lose in a few weeks. Drink at least 2 litres a day, ideally 3-4 litres. Drinking more water will help your body digest food, extract nutrients, clear toxins, expel waste, and mobilise fat.
Up The Intensity
With just a few weeks until the beach, it's time to up the intensity of your workouts. Don't make the mistake of adding more volume, as this could stress your muscles and cause the body to hold more fat. Instead, make what you’re already doing really count. If you run, turn the sessions into HIIT or sprints. If you lift weights, add more weight to the bar or reduce your rest periods. If you do classes or boot camp, put more effort in and choose higher intensity options. Rather than adding an extra session into your training schedule or making sessions longer, just work harder and smarter.
Burn More Calories
Think outside the gym, and burn more calories throughout your day by adding in a daily walk, doing 30 minutes of gardening after dinner, de-cluttering a room a day or clearing the attic. Any bit of extra movement and activity will count, and could mean burning extra calories.
Get Great Skin
Improve the look, tone and texture of your skin by exfoliating regularly or dry body brushing. Combined with your extra water intake, this should make a massive difference to how you look and feel, when you unveil your beach body.
Yes, You Can Tone
It's unlikely that you'll build significant amounts of muscle in a few weeks, but you can definitely tone up what you've got. Create a pumped up look with full-body workouts and a mixture of lifting weights, body weight exercises, and high repetition workouts.
Beach-Body Nutrition
There's plenty you can do in the kitchen before your holiday. Eat vegetables with every meal (fruit at breakfast if you can't face vegetables first thing). Get 25-30g of protein with every meal, including breakfast. Eat 3-4 times a day with no snacks in between. Cut out extras like milky lattes, sugary drinks, and sneaky handfuls of nibbles whilst browsing the kitchen. Eat whole, natural foods as much as possible and aim to prepare and cook your own food.
Beauty Sleep
Finally, don't underestimate the power of sleep. Go to bed earlier, leave your phone and tablet out of the bedroom, and get good-quality consistent sleep every night between now and your holiday. This could really help you drop more body fat, feel less hungry, experience fewer food cravings and make healthier choices; all of which will get you closer to your beach body ideal.
Do you think that you can help people to achieve their short and long-term fitness goals? Why not become a personal trainer?