Article: How to get a Beach Body

It is that time of year again we are all thinking about our holidays, we all want to look good on the beach or next to the pool. So how do you actually go about getting the body that looks good in a bikini/trunks? The answer is simple really, a lot of hard work and keeping a close eye on your diet.This short article is going to look at some of the main points to consider, when looking to loose a few pounds and tone up ready to hit the beach looking great!

The key to all weight loss is in the nutrition, most importantly you want to avoid all the fad type diets that often appear at this time of year(such as the maple syrup diet, cabbage soup diet, etc…) in favour of healthy well balanced nutrition. Fad diets are on the whole are not realistic, and un-realistic diets can hardly ever be maintained.

Below I have listed what I consider to be the major factors that lead to having a well balanced diet:-

• Spread your calorie intake over five smaller meals per day (always start the day with a breakfast).
• Cut you fat intake as much as possible.
• Browns over Whites – Brown rice, bread, etc…
• Avoid sweets, sugar, chocolate and other empty calories.
• Increase the amount of vegetables you are eating (minimum of 5 portions per day).
• Increase the amount of fruit you are eating (minimum 2 – 3 portions per day)
• Drink water (2.5 litres per day)

To go with all the great, well balanced meals that you are taking on you need to match this with an increase in physical activity levels. This does not mean that you have to become a sprinter overnight to see results, physical activity includes anything that gets your heart going faster than it would be pumping at rest. So everything including gardening, walking up stairs, running, vigorous cleaning, going to the gym, playing a sport, playing around with the kids, all count as activity.

As with nutrition you want to set yourself safe and realistic goals, so if you have not done any exercise for a while start off with some more gentle activities, where as if you are already a gym user/player of a sport you could maybe start with a more vigorous form of exercise.

The general rule with this is the harder you work the faster you will see results (within reason). So for example if you walk for half an hour everyday it will take you longer to see results than if you ran for half an hour each day. This is where the balancing act comes in you have to push yourself but remember that exercise should not be painful. If you have gone to the point of pain you have gone too far.

Remember there are no miracle cures when it comes to losing weight and toning up, so keep in mind the general rule that if it seems too good to be true it often is. If you implement the general rules above you should be able to make some good fat loss in time for those summer holidays.

There is a lot of help out there now for people who would like to control their weight and keep healthy, try talking to your doctor, nutritionist or personal trainer for further information.

There is also a vast quantity of on-line resources available for those who are looking to improve their wellbeing. For links see http://foresight-fitness.co.uk/main/links.html.

Tom Godwin – Personal Trainer – Foresight Fitness Services (Personal Training + Corporate Wellbeing) - Manchester and Cheshire, UK

trainer@foresight-fitness.co.uk

www.foresight-fitness.co.uk