Fit Beach Bod: Getting Rid of Winter Weight and Snapping into Summer Shape

With summer upon us, it’s a great time of year to peel off your beach cover-up and feel toned, strong, healthy and more confident than ever. No matter what time of year, or what shape you’re in, you should always rock your suit. But for those of you ready to get whipped back into shape, I have formulated a 2 week plan that keys in on low-carb nutrition and metabolism-boosting cardio training. It will leave you feeling radiant, toned and re-connected to your body. The best part is, you can do it all from the beach!

The exercise routine targets your endurance and core muscles. If you fully commit to the routine, plan on getting immediate results. For optimum results, continue the routine for a few months and add resistance and strengthening. It will boost your performance for surfing, swimming, and paddling. The possibilities are like an endless summer.

There are four simple things you need to do:

• Improve your diet: Break up with carbs, eat nutritious plant-based foods, drinks lots of water, and rest.
• Cardio: 30 minutes, 5 days a week (minimum)
• Core Strengthening: 10 minutes, 5 days a week (minimum)
• Stick With It!

“You simply just need to cut out carbs and tiny chunks of time daily and visualize a toned healthy you. If you believe you are capable of anything, which you are, follow through with this new routine, and you’ll be on your way to a healthy hot beach bod!” 

Part 1: Diet and Sleep

BREAK UP WITH CARBS! Don’t get me wrong, I love pasta, bread and sugary carbs too, but it’s only a few weeks, and it makes a huge difference. You want your body to burn fat, not carbohydrates. Once your body gets used to not craving carbs and sugars, your insulin levels will adjust, and you’ll feel less cravings and hunger. High carb foods to avoid include sugar, breads, and alcohol from your diet for 2 weeks. Especially avoid junk food like chips, cakes, pizzas, and ice cream. Although grains, beans and legumes are nutritious and contain protein, they are also carb-heavy and can spike blood sugar and insulin–which is not good for weight loss. Replace carbs with plenty of healthy, nutrient-dense foods.

ADOPT A PLANT-BASED, LO CARB, MACRONUTRIENT DIET. Focus on plant-based nutrient dense foods like organic greens (kale, broccoli and spinach), seeds, nuts, avocado, eggs and tempeh. Chose macronutrient foods high in protein and healthy fats, such as omega-3 fatty acids found in flax seeds. Experiment with a Ketogenic plan. The “keto diet” focuses on high fat-to-carb ratio, where the body produces ketones in the liver to be used as energy (vs. burning sugars). The health benefits of a Ketogenic diet are many: it lowers your fasting blood sugar and insulin levels, helps reverse insulin resistant conditions such as type 2 diabetes, PCOS, fatty liver and Metabolic Syndrome, cools inflammation and in turn, leads to better overall health.

Eating right should be good for you and the planet! For a climate-friendly fat-burning keto diet, avoid cow products and unhealthy fats (i.e. artery-clogging trans fats) as much as possible. Try home cooked organic vegetarian or vegan keto recipes. If you prefer animal products, chose local sustainable seafood and seek out organic free-range chicken from trusted farms and brands. If you stick with beef, go for the grass-fed options. For red meat, I recommend grass-fed organic pastured buffalo (bison), ostrich and emu.

DRINK 7 CUPS OF WATER A DAY. As carb intake is lowered, the kidneys will start dumping excess water being retained as a result of the former higher carb intake. Drink water instead of juice, dieretics (like coffee and alcohol) or soda, even if it’s diet (soda interferes with weight loss and deteriorates your bones).

CONSIDER GETTING A BLOOD TEST and metabolic profile from your doctor. Discover your whole body baselines: What nutrients or electrolytes are you lacking? What is your fat to muscle ratio? Is your blood sugar or bad cholesterol levels too high? After my blood test, I discovered I was deficient in vitamin B and D, so I adjusted my diet accordingly.

GET LOTS OF REST. Shoot for 8-10 hours of sleep a night!

Part 2: Cardio

For five days a week, your routine will include 30-40 minutes of cardio intervals followed by 10-20 minutes of core strengthening reps.

-Running Intervals-

Add sprint intervals to your normal jogging (beach/trail/track) workouts. You can also apply this to paddling, cycling, elliptical machine, etc.

Do-Anywhere Cardio Intervals, 5 times a week, 30 minutes. (For a more advanced option: add 10 minutes steady moderate or slow rate to beginning or end of interval training). Use RPE to find your pace. At RPE 5, you should be slightly breathless; at 7 or higher, speaking more than a few words becomes difficult.

-Swimming-

Whether it’s freestyle or butterfly, swimming is one of the best ways to build and preserve muscle mass, optimize cholesterol levels, and lose fat. For a fat burning swim, I recommend a continuous swim using any swim stroke. You will burn fat when you swim at a continuous moderate to high intensity level. Shoot for 30-45 minutes:

1. Warm Up: Do a 5-10 minute warm up. Use this time to gradually increase your heart rate and to warm your shoulders for the swim.
2. Next: maintain your swimming pace for a minimum of 10 continuous minutes. Then increase your intensity for another 10-20 minutes.
3. Cool down with a slow-paced 3-5 minute swim at the end of your fat-burning session to settle your heart rate before you return to land.

“Swimming is, hands down, the best water workout for you. It has low impact on your joints, works muscles on your lower and upper extremities and, depending on how long you’re swimming, can definitely improve your cardiovascular ability.”–Gunnar Peterson, C.S.C.S., a personal trainer based in Beverly Hills.

Part 3: Core Strengthening

A strong center makes everything better. Plus, who doesn’t want tight and toned abs?

CORE  STRENGTH WORKOUT:

Mix and match the following exercises for 10 or more minutes. Assess where you are at physically, tailor your core reps accordingly, set a goal, and work hard for it!:

Plank Crawl (10 sets, up and down)

Superman Series (5 sets, hold superman as long as 1 min)

Side Plank 5 sets (R/L each)

Reverse Plank (With Leg Raise) 15 reps

Reverse Crunch 15 reps

Circle Crunch 2 sets of 15 reps (R/L)

Part 4: Stick with it!

For lasting results, stick with this routine for a few months, and your fit beach bod will be here to stay.  Add other sports and cross-training. Consult with a physical trainer on how to increasingly add resistance and strengthening for your personal fitness goals.

Most importantly, keep up the good work!