Stay On Track To Meet Your Summer Fitness Goal!
It’s almost summer time! Which means the dreaded bikini season! I now have figured out instead of stressing about getting in shape the month before the pools open that I can maintain a fitness goal all year by being able to track my progress until I get to put on the little two-piece and feel incredible! There are a TON of cool fitness tracking documents on Office.com including one like this fitness tracker that lets me set a goal a couple weeks or months away to get there in a healthy way!
Keep your tracker on SkyDrive like mine and you can share it with your friends to keep track of your fitness plan together and motivate each other. You’ll also be able to access it anywhere online or from your phone so you can update it at any time, even from the gym. And for college students you can get 3 months of Office 365 free and an extra 20GB of SkyDrive storage when you sign up HERE.
Workout Ideas:
The tracker has a column for “calories burned” but how do you plan on burning those calories? In the summer I love being outside so I enjoy taking my exercising activities to the beach doing boot camps, hiking, bike riding, roller skating, playing soccer, beach volleyball and swimming. I enjoy doing things that I don’t consider “exercising”, something fun and engaging always makes the time go by quick and it doesn’t feel like you did any “work” at all!
Year round I enjoy taking dance class. It definitely keeps me personally in the best shape. It gets the cardio that my body needs, helps keep my brain sharp all while building strength and endurance. While again, I am just having fun and dancing my heart out! I also do yoga to stretch and lengthen my muscles and to relax my mind. Sometimes yoga places offer
pilates or yoga with weights! Those are great classes to take as well as the basic yoga. A couple times a week when I wake up I do a series of planks, pushups and squats to just wake myself up and release some endorphins before my day begins (and to look good in my jeans)
Recipes for Eating Right:
Don’t forget, the fitness tracker also has a column for your calories consumed! My favorite go to healthy recipes would be a GREAT green smoothie It’s an easy healthy green detox smoothie! It helps flush out toxins and beat the bloat! Put these items in a blender and enjoy!
Green Smoothie
4 green apples
1 lemon
1 bunch of kale
1 carton of unsweetened vanilla almond milk
I’m not the type of person to snack on carrots and vegetables all day :/ I wish I was! But I have a crazy sweet tooth! I’ve been doing a lot of research on healthy alternative snacks that fulfill the sweetness that I want. This snack I make on the weekends and keep in the fridge for those late night or mid day cravings.
Yogurt Covered Strawberries
1 lb. fresh strawberries
1 pint vanilla Greek yogurt
Parchment or wax paper
You can make them by dipping strawberries (halved or whole) in vanilla yogurt (Greek might be best, because it’s thicker), then putting on a sheet pan lined with parchment or wax paper and freezing. And there you have it! Yogurt-covered strawberries!
To stay in shape in the summer I find the best results come from actually enjoying and wanting to work out. Taking the time to do activities outside with friends is the best! You’re breaking a sweat and burning calories when you don’t even know it. Take fun classes that make you get outside of your comfort zone. We are only young and in shape once! So do it all while you can! Set goals by buying a bathing suit or jeans you’ve always wanted. Then put them on everyday and give yourself a deadline when you have to wear them in public! You’ll stay motivated then lol! Lastly, be proud of yourself for taking action in being active and wanting to be healthy! We tend to get hard on ourselves and overly picky about wanting to look a certain way. LOVE your body for the shape it naturally is!
