Summer is quickly approaching and as the days have already become longer and the temperature has already been June-like the past few weeks, it’s only a matter of time before…dun dun dun… bikini season. Fear not, collegiettes! You can start making easy changes in your diet and exercise routine now so that you feel comfortable and sexy in your skimpy summer clothes in a month or so.
Diet:
I don’t particularly believe in dieting. Dieting is temporary. The rule should always be to never deny yourself of something. Everything is fine in moderation because if you continue to deny yourself the things you love, then eventually you’ll fall off the wagon completely! So instead of taking the not so healthy foods out of your diet all together, try to start replacing them with more fruits and vegetables, almonds, oatmeal, greek yogurt, eggs, etc. Making these gradual changes will ultimately lead you to a new routine where the healthy foods are what you’re eating all the time and the unhealthy ones are a special treat!
Exercise:
Eating healthy but not exercising is just as bad as exercising and eating like crap (pardon my French). You need to do both; especially if you want that toned bikini body. The trick with exercising is to make it part of your daily routine. Take an hour or hour and a half and pretend that it’s another class. That way you’ll always make time for it because it’s become a part of your daily life. Alternate days with working on cardio and then the off days working on strength training.
For cardio, I was always more of a runner but running isn’t for everyone and can sometimes be dangerous. A great cardio routine can be 30 minutes on the elliptical, 20 minutes on the treadmill (I like alternating running and walking on an incline if I do this) and then 10 minutes on the bike. 30+20+10= 60 minutes of solid cardio and the end of your workout for that day!
For strength, exercises like squats, lunges with a twist, the leg press, free weights and the rowing machine are great for women. And for those oh so difficult abs, Shape magazine online has tons and tons of awesome workouts that are incredibly easy to follow and incredibly effective. Most of them you can even sync to your iPhone so you can watch them at the gym while you’re doing them!
Don’t sweat the dreaded bikini season! Making lifestyle changes may seem monumental at first but if you stick with it, it eventually will feel like something you’ve been doing forever. So get out there and start working that bod!