Top 10 Summer health and fitness tips

The Summer holidays are approaching fast and losing a few pounds is often top of the agenda.

With this in mind, we’ve put together a quick list of ‘Top Ten Summer Health and Fitness Tips’.

We hope that these tips will not only help you lose those extra pounds, but they’ll also form a major part of your healthy, active lifestyle going forward.

1. Drinking Water

Drinking water is vitally important and a fundamental part of living a healthy lifestyle.  If your body dehydrates you’ll find yourself feeling more tired and hungry than you’d normally feel. You should get into the habit of taking a bottle of water (ideally a litre of water) to the office with you and taking small sips as you go through the working day.

2. Plenty of Fresh Air

Getting plenty of fresh air is a key part of living a healthy, active lifestyle. You’ll find that a break in the day for some fresh air and exposure to natural daylight will really help you to remain focused. Get out of the office at lunchtime even if it’s only for 20 minutes to take a break and get some fresh air.

Being cooped up all day can make you feel lethargic so a step outside, combined with some sun (if there is any), will provide some welcome Vitamin D from natural light to help you stay on track with your new found healthy living.

3. Take A Class

Join a local gym or take a fitness class.  Having a weekly or bi-weekly focus by taking some kind of exercise or fitness class, whether it be boxercise, pilates, zumba or – for the really energetic amongst you – circuit training, will not only mean that you’re involved with people with a similar mindset, but you’ll also find that losing weight will be much easier as you’ll be burning many calories as you work out.  Obviously the more active the exercise class you undertake, the more calories you’ll burn.  Not only will you be extending your social life but you’ll be getting fit at the same time.

A regular class that you stick to maybe once or twice a week is better than frenetically hitting every exercise class that you can find and doing so for a week or two, then quitting.  Find an exercise class or a local gym that you can fit in with your existing lifestyle, otherwise you’ll easily find excuses for not going.

4. Planning Meals For Fitness

Planning meals in advance will not only help you to stay on course with your new ‘healthy living regime’,  it will also help you avoid ‘binge eating’, when you suddenly feel that you’ve not eaten that day.

Meals at set times of the day are also important, and you should bear in mind the old adage ‘eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a knave and dinner like a pauper’.

This essentially means that your breakfast should be something which will set you up for the day, eat a medium sized lunch and don’t overdo it at dinner time.  Eating later in the day will also mean that it will be difficult to burn off those extra calories before you go to bed.

5. The Power Of Positive Influence

Mix with positive people.  The ‘negatroids’ out there can really drain your energy and it’s even believed in some quarters that negativity can actually make someone feel ‘weaker’, whereas a positive attitude which is encouraged by surrounding yourself with positive people can appear to have the opposite effect – making you feel strong and fit.

Try to keep yourself upbeat about the positive steps you’re taking to not only get yourself slim in time for Summer, but the very real changes you’re making towards a healthy, active lifestyle.

6. Spicy Activities

Spice up your activity.  If you find an exercise activity that you genuinely enjoy, you’ll find it much less of a chore when you hit the local gym. Try something new and see if you like it. Cycling, Boxercise, Running, Cross Country, working out on some new gym equipment. Whatever takes your fancy.

The key is to find something which you don’t really consider ‘hard work’ and you’ll stick with it much longer – you might even find that you pick up a life long interest.

7. Goal Setting

Set a realistic fitness goal.  Goals are a fundamentally important part of any plan.  Set yourself a realistic goal though, one that you can just reach with a little push.  Set some milestones along the way to tick off as you pass them.

8. Broadcast Your Goal

Don’t keep your plans to yourself. Tell people (family and friends, colleagues, pets, anyone who will listen) about your goal. This will really help you to stay on course. It’s far too easy to slip off the path if no-one knows you’re on it. You might even find that the people who you tell will encourage you along the way.

9. Relax

Chill out and realise that losing weight and getting fit needn’t be stressful.

Build healthy living into your lifestyle rather than making it a dreaded ‘must do’ all-encompassing obsession.

You’ll hopefully find that losing weight and staying trim happens naturally (as long as you implement other tips).

Try to keep weighing yourself to a minimum interval of once a week as you’ll find that your weight can fluctuate throughout the course of a 24 hour period by up to 2 pounds. Better to just get on with it and hopefully you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

10. Sleep Is King

You’ll be amazed at what a good night’s sleep can do, so make this a big part of your plan. Rest allows your muscles and your body time to recover from whatever activities you’ve been taking part in.

Drop a comment below if you’ve got any other tips to add!

Photo credits Flip flops Healthy meal Relaxing