Have you run out of time to get fit and healthy for this summer?
I would say absolutely not… it’s May and there is still plenty of time to get your body in better shape and your mind in better shape and get you feeling really good about your summer holiday.
Here’s what I suggest you do if your fitness levels are not great at the moment, the first thing to do is start increasing your daily life movement.
What do I mean by that?
I mean getting out there and walking, walking as much as you can, lifting some heavy stuff, whether that’s lifting your children up or whatever it is that you do – but start moving the body. Do compound movements – that is movements that involves multiple joints. For example, when you sit down in a chair and get back up again, you’re using the knee joint, the hip joint, and you’re using the ankle joint as well. You may also be using your arms to stable yourself. So that is an example of a compound movement.
Start walking more, lift heavy stuff, do compound movements and that will start to get your base level of fitness in much better shape.
One of the things I absolutely love recommending to people is running. Running or jogging, it’s not necessarily for everyone, but it’s a really great way of toning and what I love about it most is you immediately start seeing improvement straight off the bat. It takes about two weeks and you can build up a nice base of aerobic fitness and start seeing some progress with your running which is always nice.
You run a minute without stopping, then you do two minutes, then three minutes. People I know including family members have had some really good success with an NHS programme called the Couch to 5K.
Other things that you could try as well as different types of exercise, is find something you really love. For me, it’s boxing, it’s circuits, and it’s spinning at a place called Psycle if you’re based in London. Otherwise, you can find spin classes all over the country. There are all sorts of different forms of exercise. Another one I really love is called animal flow, which is a body wear exercise. That’s a lot of fun, but you need a bit of base fitness for that.
The key thing though is to find something that you really love and you really enjoy so you can get that consistency. But it just takes a few weeks to get that. It’s good to start now.
If you’re thinking about some of the aesthetic of fitness, then you’re going to want to watch what you eat. I’d recommend doing some testing to find out what your ideal personal diet is for you, but also just go back to basics. Minimise your refined carbohydrate, include lots and lots of vegetables and some fruits into your diet. Eat two, three meals a day, you could play around with time restricted feeding – which is eating breakfast as late as you can and dinner as early as you can so you’re just eating in a very short window of time.
Intermittent fasting works for some people as well. I don’t know you so I can’t give you a personal recommendation, but that’s worked pretty well for people and there’s some good science behind that.
So the upshot of this is it’s definitely not too late. Start moving your body, start paying a little bit more attention to what you’re eating, start paying a bit more attention to what you’re drinking as well. If you are thinking of trimming and toning, we drink a lot of calories in coffee, soft drinks, and things like that. Adding a little bit more water, be mindful of your alcohol, and good luck.
Let us know how you’re getting on. It is never too late to start looking and feeling better. If you’re watching this in May, summer’s a good couple of months away, so go out there and grab it!
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Leanne Spencer is an entrepreneur, coach, TEDx Speaker, author of Remove the Guesswork, and founder of Bodyshot Performance Limited. Bodyshot is a health and fitness consultancy that helps busy professionals get more energy by removing the guesswork around their health, fitness and nutrition. Visit www.bodyshotperformance.com or email [email protected] to register your interest in our services and connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.