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#164 - Complete Guide To Staying Lean This Summer
21 Plays23 hours ago
Summer doesn’t have to be the season where you lose all momentum and start over in two or three months. In this episode you'll learn the practical strategies so you enjoy your summer and still hit your fitness goals.
We'll discuss:
- How to enjoy cookouts, vacations, drinks, and social events without going completely off the rails.
- Why most people fall off during summer and how to avoid the all-or-nothing spiral.
- How to set daily, weekly, and bare minimum targets that match your goals and lifestyle.
- Simple strategies for nutrition, alcohol, training, travel, and getting back on track after an off-plan day.
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Transcript
Introduction and Show Promotion
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome back to the Fit-ish Project with your host, Lathan Bass. We make fitness and health simple for regular people like you and I. We got the weekly episode as we always do for you. Before I get into that, if you can leave a review, if you have not done so, continue to share this with other people, help to grow this show and get it out to more of the people who can use this information to feel better, to look better, to have better health, live longer, better quality of life, all that good stuff that we all want from health and fitness.
Balancing Fitness and Social Life in Summer
00:00:31
Speaker
The topic for this week, we are about to head into summer. The weather is starting to heat up. Here in Iowa, we're having a full week of mid 80s up to the 90s. And so it definitely feels like summer.
00:00:44
Speaker
With summer comes a lot of struggles for people with balancing their fitness goals. A lot of people this time of year tend to fall off. There's two main times throughout the year where people really tend to fall off with fitness or health goals, and that is around the holiday season and then around summertime. And with summertime, you have just more things going on. You have cookouts You have drinks, you have vacations, you have weddings, you have some holidays, maybe some late nights, social events, all that good stuff. And with that comes more drinking, more eating, more social things going on, and maybe some missed workouts or maybe not being quite as dialed with your nutrition. And so when this happens, a lot of people tend to just fall off and go into that kind of all or nothing mindset where they're not really doing much of anything for their fitness goals or their nutrition goals or whatever the case may be.
Achieving Balance Without Sacrifice
00:01:35
Speaker
And that tends to hurt a lot of people because if you spend two, three months of summer not doing anything, not really focusing on nutrition, not really getting any kind of workouts in, you're not going to feel great. And it's also not going to help with if you have weight loss goals, if you have goals around just your appearance, that sort of thing. And so
00:01:52
Speaker
I wanted to do in a complete episode on how you can balance these two things because you absolutely can do both, but I think people really struggle to figure out how to do both. And people will tell you to find balance, but they never really actually explain what that looks like. So I'm going to lay it out piece by piece. And by the end of this episode, I want you to understand exactly how you can balance both.
00:02:12
Speaker
and also give you a plan to do so so to help you create a plan with clear cut steps in order to balance both this year so getting into this just why people tend to fall off during summer as i said more food more drinks more travel more social events those sort of things When people get locked into this all or nothing mindset, they tend to think if I miss one workout, the week is ruined, or maybe I had too many drinks on a Friday or Saturday. So that bleeds over into Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, where I'm not really doing a whole lot, or they go on vacation and then they come back and they really struggle to get back into it. I was having conversations like this the other day at the gym when I was training a group class
00:02:55
Speaker
Had a couple people who were coming off vacations and they had a really good time, but they were just saying how they were kind of struggling to get back into the routine with eating the diet that they want to eat and just getting that first workout in and getting that under their belt. And I think we all kind of have that. We all struggle a little bit when we get out of routine, have a little health alcohol, you eat a little bit more, not working out as much. you just don't feel quite as good. And so it can make it a little difficult to get back into the gym and get back into doing all those things that you were used to doing. But there's no real secret to it. It's just getting back into it as soon as possible. And you absolutely should have some time off. You should enjoy your vacations.
00:03:30
Speaker
You should be able to take breaks and not stress over it too much. And then when it's time to get back to it, you just get back to it. You don't think about how it ruined all your progress or you don't think about how you just gained a bunch of weight or you ate too much or you did this or you did that. None of that stuff is helpful. You should be able to enjoy the vacations and all the things that come with summer and things that are just going to continue to be a part of this lifestyle.
00:03:53
Speaker
And then when it's time to get back to it, you just get back to it. Don't let one day or one week of vacation turn into an entire month or the whole summer. Going into this, just understanding that and the expectations around this and understanding some of those traps that people fall into, I think is important to just make sure that you're not one of those people.
Setting Achievable Fitness Goals
00:04:12
Speaker
When we're talking about going into summer, I think it's important to always just talk about the expectations. Lots of times people will have a certain goal, but it doesn't really make sense. And what I mean by that is when you're going into summer, if you're somebody who has a ton of trips planned, you have a bunch of weddings, you have a bunch of stuff going on, and you really just want to enjoy yourself and not really think too much about like losing weight, then probably doesn't make sense to have that as a weight loss goal for the next couple of months.
00:04:40
Speaker
If you are somebody who maybe isn't doing all that stuff and you don't have a ton of stuff planned this summer and you do really care about maybe losing 10, 15, 20 pounds over summer, then that could be a really good goal for you. But I think people really need to think about what actually makes sense for them and what they're willing to do throughout summer. So you really have to dial in and just figure out what are your current goals and what is your lifestyle over the summer going to allow you to do so? Are you trying to lose weight?
00:05:07
Speaker
Are you just trying to maintain? Are you trying to build a little bit more consistency? Or maybe you're just trying to have a little bit more flexibility and you're not going to be quite as consistent. Are you trying to just not lose momentum? Are you having a bunch of vacations? Do you have different holiday things going on? do you have a bunch of traveling coming up? Is your schedule going to be more normal and regular or is it going to be a little bit more chaotic and You're not going to be in your normal routine. All those things will help you to figure out what your goal is actually going to be, because progress could look very different for people and balance could look very different for different people going into summer. So for some people losing five to 10 pounds to 15 pounds throughout summer is very realistic for others. Maybe not so much.
00:05:51
Speaker
Maybe they just want to maintain. Maybe they just want to get a couple of workouts in. they don't just want to fall off and that's progress for them and for other people this might actually just be that time to relax a little bit for the next couple of months you're just not going to be quite as consistent with it maybe throughout the rest of the year you're super dialed in you're on top of your stuff with your workouts your nutrition all that sorts of things you're not going to let things completely slide but you're just going to take your foot off the pedal little bit like that's a completely fine option too but i think it's super important to have an expectation and have a plan so that you can actually execute that plan because I've seen this time and time again and where people really fall into the struggles is when they have some sort of plan, but they're not able to stick to that plan and they just feel bad about
Planning and Mindset for Summer Fitness
00:06:35
Speaker
it. They feel guilty about it. And that plan might not even be something that's good for them or something that they can actually do. So make sure that number one, you want to.
00:06:45
Speaker
move towards whatever goal you have whether that is losing weight maintaining being more flexible really pin down on what that goal is going to be and then create a plan around that so that you can feel like you are executing the plan that you have in place sounds like a little thing but it makes a big difference when you have some sort of plan and you're able to execute that plan just the confidence that you get with that and you just feel a lot better about yourself when you are having some sort of certain goal and some sort of plan and you can actually execute on that plan and do all those things that you say you're going to do. So having the right expectation, I think is important when going into the summer. And then right along with that is just the mindset that comes with it. So I've mentioned the term balance a couple of times.
00:07:26
Speaker
One thing that I have always hated in the fitness industry or in just in fitness in general is like people will be like, oh, you need balance, you need moderation, you need this, you need that. That's something that I say a lot, but then people never really tell you what that actually looks like.
00:07:39
Speaker
balance does not necessarily mean 50 50. That doesn't mean like sometimes you're in, sometimes you're out. Sometimes balance is going to look like you're dialed in 90% of the time and then maybe five to 10% of the time you're a little bit more flexible.
00:07:51
Speaker
At other times in your life, depending on your goals and your lifestyle, balance may be being 70 80% consistent and then having a little bit more leeway 10 to 20% of the time. And then there might be other times where like you're actually not worried about fitness all that much at all. And you're not going to be quite as consistent in the gym or not going to be quite as dialed with nutrition. You may even allow yourself to gain a few pounds and you're okay with that, which is perfectly fine. I think one thing that people often forget once you have these good solid skills and these habits in place,
00:08:20
Speaker
it's okay to have a little bit of flexibility or have different phases where you're not quite as dialed in. It's something that I still do to this day. Like i'll I'll go on vacation or I'll take an entire week off and do a deload from like the gym, or I'll just take a few days off here and there that I wasn't planning on doing, but then I just know that my body needs those things. So then I'll take two, three days off, not really do anything or eat more than I was specifically planning on doing previous, just because it's something that when you're able to find that balance when you're able to implement some of this moderation it helps you so much more with the long-term goal which is just to be healthy and fit for years and decades not just weeks and months and so understanding that mindset understanding that balance and how that changes depending on where you're at with your lifestyle with your goals is important so think about that a little bit going into summer
00:09:11
Speaker
Making this a little bit more tangible, you want to set yourself up to be successful in the way that you do that is by setting some daily and weekly targets.
Daily and Weekly Fitness Targets
00:09:21
Speaker
So some daily target examples, this might look like having protein at every meal. This could be getting eight to 10,000 steps in your day. This could be a particular calorie goal. If you, maybe if you have goals around losing or maintaining weight, this could be making sure to do a daily weigh-in.
00:09:38
Speaker
If you're thinking about some weekly goals, maybe this is something around exercise, like getting two or three or four workouts in per week. Maybe you want to get two or three runs in per week. maybe your goal is to just make sure that you're meal prepping one to two times per week or weighing in three times per week cooking most of your meals at home and maybe only eating out one to two times per week but have some sort of daily targets the ones that i typically use for myself and with my clients are daily target goals and that is steps that is protein that is calories and then on a weekly basis i have some sort of workout goal so for me that's
00:10:13
Speaker
four times per week. For some of you, that may be twice per week or three times per week or whatever the case may be. But pick two to four goals, whether it be daily or weekly, and track and measure those goals so you can make sure that you are staying accountable and making sure that you are actually making progress on the things that you said you were going to make progress on.
00:10:32
Speaker
Again, I see this all the time. People have good intentions, but if you are not tracking things, if you're not really paying attention to these things, it's so easy to let those things start to slip. So have some sort of tangible metrics to measure and to track so you can make sure that you're making progress on the things that you want to make progress on. Because if you're doing those things, if you have daily targets or weekly targets, like if you're getting 10,000 steps in your day, you're hitting your calorie goal, you're getting in your three workouts per week, you're hitting your protein, you're absolutely going to make progress on whatever goal you are working towards. But if you don't actually know, if you're not really tracking those things, if you're not really measuring those things, then you may feel like you're doing a lot of good things.
00:11:12
Speaker
But if you have specific goals around making some progress, then you really do want to make sure that you're dialing things in and tracking those things so that you can make progress on those things. So once you have two, three, four daily or weekly targets, then you those are the things that you're going to continue to focus on.
00:11:29
Speaker
With that, I always like to also have a bare minimum plan some people call these bams so bare ass minimums these are things that you are going to do when things get hectic so obviously with summer as i've mentioned there are lots of things that come up you might have vacations you might have different social events you might have times where you are busier and you're just not able to maybe hit all those previous targets that you set for yourself so have some sort of bare
Bare Minimum Fitness Plan for Busy Summers
00:11:56
Speaker
minimum plan. And this does a couple of things for you. Obviously, it's going to help with continuing to make progress on from a physical standpoint. But this especially is super helpful from a mental standpoint and being able to just keep that momentum rolling. Because again, as people
00:12:11
Speaker
get into summer, it's very easy to let ah day off turn into multiple days off or week of vacation turn into an entire month off. And so rather than doing that, having some sort of bare minimum plan that you can do daily helps to keep you in that good groove and helps to keep you in the routine and helps to keep that momentum rolling versus trying to always stop and start when you're stopping and starting. it's just harder to get going but when you stay in it it's easier to stay fit than it is to get fit when you're out of shape it's easier to keep the weight off if you do it in a way that's sustainable than it is to lose the weight and so when you are taking this approach and when you're able to have these checklist things that you can do it helps you just keep that momentum rolling it helps to continue to make progress it's that one percent better mindset that i talk about all the time that's so crucial to making sure that you can stay consistent and making sure that you can continue to make progress because as i've said many of times everybody who's fit everybody who's achieved big fitness goals whether it be losing weight or getting strong or building a nice body like everybody falls off everybody has time off everybody takes time off or is forced to take time off it's the people who can get back on track quicker than others who make the best progress so Not letting one day or one meal or one missed workout turning to multiple weeks or multiple months of being off track. So have some sort of bare minimum plan. So this might look like if I get into a super busy time or maybe I'm vacationing or maybe I have just a lot of social events coming up. my bare minimum plan might be get two full body workouts in to get protein at every meal and to hit 8000 steps per day. Like I might that might be my bare minimum plan. And for me, I've always had this whether I'm in a fat loss phase or not. I've always had three core anchored things that I think about when it comes to health and nutrition.
00:14:04
Speaker
And I know if I do those things, if I hit those targets a good 80, 90% of the time, no matter what time of year it is, no matter what I have going on, no matter what the case may be, I know that I'm going to stay in good shape. I know I'm going to feel better. i know I'm going to be able to maintain my weight pretty well. And so for me, those things are to get at least 8,000 steps in my day, to get four strength workouts in per week, and to get at least 150 grams of protein per day. I know that if I'm doing those things, My nutrition is going to be pretty well in check because if I'm prioritizing protein, I'm thinking about how I can get enough protein. That means I'm probably planning out my meals and making better choices. I know that if I'm getting 8000 steps in my day that I'm being pretty active. And I know that if I'm getting four strength workouts per week that I'm able to build or at the very least maintain muscle and stay pretty active and feel good.
00:14:53
Speaker
So by having those things to always fall back on, I know that I'm not regressing, which again, I think is the thing that people struggle with a lot is this feeling that if they're not showing up, if they're have a week off or two weeks off or a month off or whatever, they feel like they're regressing so much. So by having this bare minimum plan in place, you can ensure that at the very least, you're not digging yourself in a hole. You're able to maintain on something that is doable, even when life does get kind of busy.
00:15:22
Speaker
once you have those daily targets or weekly targets and then you also have this bare minimum plan when things get kind of crazy now you can start to think about some different strategies that you can use so i thought it'd be really helpful to just go through some different things that you can do things that i've used in the past things that i've suggested for clients to use and have used in the past to be able to balance all this stuff and so you have some nutrition things that you can try We'll talk a little bit about training and how to balance
Nutrition Strategies for Summer Fitness
00:15:49
Speaker
things with that. And then we'll talk a little bit about alcohol because again, with summer, typically more drinking and things like that. and So we'll dive into these three. So nutrition strategies, as always, whether your goal is to lose weight, to maintain, to just feel good, prioritizing lean proteins, fruits, vegetables, mostly whole foods, mentally processed things, things that are higher volume foods is always going to be a smart choice. And this is no different in the summertime. Like Focusing on those whole minimally processed foods, lots of protein is going to help keep you full and satiated, going to help you with not overeating.
00:16:24
Speaker
Prioritizing that, trying to get at least 80% of your diet from that is always going to be a solid idea. So starting with that as your foundation is a good idea. One common strategy that I use quite often and that I've seen work with clients is to do what's called calorie cycling around, let's say, vacations or weekends or trips or things like that. So let's say you're somebody who you do a lot of things on the weekend when it comes to summertime. So one thing you can do is just eat less calories throughout the week.
00:16:50
Speaker
Basically, you're thinking about this like saving or budgeting calories throughout the week so that you have a little bit more flexibility on the weekend. So Let's say I'm a person who needs to eat around 2,500 calories to maintain my weight. Maybe Monday through Friday or Sunday through Friday, I'm going to eat 2,000 calories, so 500 calories less. That way, by the time the weekend comes around, I have an extra 3,000 calories that I can use on a Saturday. if maybe I'm going out to eat, or maybe I know that I'm going on a trip, or I'm going to be hanging out at the lake or having some drinks or things like that.
00:17:23
Speaker
And by doing this, you're still able to maintain throughout the week because you saved and budgeted some of these extra calories, you have a little bit more flexibility, and you're not just consuming a bunch of excess calories. It's super simple strategy, and it works really well, you just have to be proactive about it. So if you know you have a trip coming up, if you know you are a person who likes to do things on the weekends if you know you have a wedding coming up then just plan or budget for a few days or a week beforehand so that you can control and manage your calories and not worry about eating thousands of extra calories another strategy that i like to use throughout the summer time is to just skip a meal so just eat two meals instead of three meals like if i know for example let's say i'm going to go out on a friday
00:18:07
Speaker
Or I'm going to go out on a Saturday, I might push back my breakfast and eat more of like a late breakfast or just completely skip breakfast altogether or have something super light and then have. solid lunch and then have a solid dinner. And then I can go out and have some drinks or have some beers or go out to eat or whatever I want to do. And I've just saved a bunch of calories that way. So just eating two meals instead of three is super simple thing that you can do. You cut out one of your meals, you're cutting out 500, 600, 700 extra calories that you can now use towards whatever else you want to do.
00:18:40
Speaker
And then the last thing that I would mention just with nutrition strategies or things to think about when it comes to summer is just to be cognizant about your snacking. This is where a lot of people get caught up is just the random snacking, especially with like different social events. And there's typically food with all these social events. And it's just really easy to find yourself grazing or snacking on things throughout the entire day if there's food around. So just be intentional about it. If you're going to snack, just like be very cognizant about, okay, I've had, you know, a plate of this, or I've had enough of this, and I'm just going to cut off that snacking, or maybe just reduce it altogether. Just be smart about it, because those calories do add up very quickly. I know personally, I'm the type of guy, like if there's snacks around and I so and i get going on them I can eat those things for days. And it's very easy to rack up 2000 3000 4000 calories on snacks and just random things when you're not really paying attention and that food is out all day and you're just grazing on different things for six hours, eight hours, 12 hours throughout the day, you can add on quite a few calories by doing that. So just be aware of that and have a plan going in when it comes to snacking, whether that be
00:19:48
Speaker
I'm just not going to snack at all today or I'm just going have one plate and then I'm going be done. Have some sort of guidelines or rules going into it. When you're thinking about traveling in nutrition, because, again, a lot of trips and different things are going on in the summertime, maybe you're flying somewhere or maybe a road trip in somewhere.
00:20:06
Speaker
good option is always just to bring good quality things with you. So that could be like protein bars or protein shakes, fruit. If you like raw vegetables, that's always an option. Sandwiches, protein shakes, salads, those sorts of things are always good. You can take those things with you. You can find these things at a lot of even gas stations, or if you're going fast food route, you can find a lot of these things, sandwiches, salads, things like that, or Grilled chicken, veggies, zero calorie drinks, those are always really quality things that you can look for at fast food places too, because those are typically going to be pretty low calorie, keep you more full and satiated. So those are just some things to think about when you are traveling, just having some sort of easy options, either taking them with you or just having good things that you can turn to, whether that be from a convenience store or at a fast food restaurant or something, just have some sort of plan going into it. And then when it comes to just enjoying yourself and and not overdoing it, just make sure that you're actually eating the things that you enjoy. Again, kind of similar to that snacking thing, it's very easy to just eat everything that's around. And a lot of times you'll find yourself just mindlessly eating on things that like you don't even really enjoy.
00:21:14
Speaker
Eat the things that you really enjoy. And then the things that you're just kind of like, man, like it's whatever. Don't have those things. You're saving yourself hundreds, if not thousands of calories by actually only eating the things that you really want to eat. You enjoy those better. You have those things guilt free. And then you're just back on track with it the next day. And then the last thing that I would say about nutrition is like, there probably will be some times throughout the summer where you just blow it out and who cares? Like you just have have whatever you want to have, enjoy yourself guilt-free. Like you maybe eat too many calories. Like it's not a big deal. It's all about just getting back on track the next day. Even if you do completely blow it out and you have a bunch of drinks, a bunch of food, you have more to eat than you should had. Like you don't need to do anything crazy or extreme. You just get back on track the next day. And you're going to be good. That scale may spike up a little bit, may feel a little bit more bloated, be holding on to more water, that sort of thing. But you didn't gain two, three, five, 10 pounds overnight. Like you just didn't do that. In order to gain multiple pounds, you would have to eat 7,000, 10,000 extra calories just to even be remotely putting on any sort of substantial body fat, which we're not doing that on a consistent basis. So you don't have to worry about gaining pounds from a single day. Just get right back on track.
Managing Alcohol Consumption
00:22:28
Speaker
with nutrition kind of a subset category of nutrition is alcohol so if you don't drink alcohol this doesn't really apply to you but if you do drink alcohol just being aware of alcohol and how to actually balance this i know when i was going through my 100 pound weight loss i was in my early 20s and i was drinking pretty frequently was still able to lose a lot of weight now at 32 going to be 33 pretty soon i don't drink nearly as much but there's still different strategies that i implement and if you do have specific goals around maintaining or even losing some weight or just trying to just be a little bit more aware about alcohol and calories and things like that these are some really easy things that you can do to help yourself out and it's not that alcohol is going to completely wreck your progress or anything like that if you're being mindful about it and you're not just overdoing it or doing it too frequently you can absolutely make progress but
00:23:17
Speaker
you need to understand like alcohol typically when it is around, like it's not so much the alcohol, like, yes, you can get excess calories through alcohol and things like that. But more so than that is typically the decisions that come with alcohol. So a lot of people, when they're drinking alcohol, they're also eating and If you ever get the drunchies or you're just, you know, you're feeling it a little bit, you just tend to overeat. You tend to eat a lot. And so it's not necessarily the drinks that do all the damage, but a lot of the food and things that come with those. So when thinking about alcohol, just some lower calorie options are always good. Like seltzers are always really good. You can find those. that are 80 90 calories 100 calories most of them are under 100 calories so those are always a good option i mean if you have three or four drinks that's only 300 400 calories which is really not much at all so seltzers are always a good thing lighter beers are always a good thing you know your michelob ultras different things like that that are going to be Roughly around 100 calories, sometimes a little bit more, sometimes a little bit less for a 12 ounce beer. You can always go the liquor route and either drink it on the rocks or mix with zero calorie mixers. So things like club sodas or diet sodas or water with some lime, different things like that. Anything that's like low calorie, zero calorie, sugar free is typically going to be pretty good to mix liquors with. You want to just be cognizant or maybe avoiding more of like the sugary mixed drinks. So if you're having like a bunch of frozen margaritas or some of those really fruity type of drinks, those things typically have lots of sugar in it. And then with lots of sugar typically comes lots of calories. So just being careful about that, not turning one.
00:24:52
Speaker
day of drinking or enjoying yourself into a complete binge fest with food and different high calorie drinks and different things like that. Because again, you can still make progress if you're doing these things in moderation and you're not overdoing it. Understanding if you're drinking very frequently, like if you're drinking a lot and drinking multiple times a week it is definitely going to make progress harder. And just because alcohol tends to add extra calories, your workouts are probably not going to be as good if you're drinking multiple times a week or drinking a lot, sleep is going to be affected. And so all those things just make it not very conducive to making a lot of progress. And again, depending on what your goals are, you can be a little bit more
00:25:33
Speaker
flexible with having more alcohol or maybe reducing it at different times. But if you have specific goals around weight loss right now, or trying to just maintain even then just being more mindful about how much alcohol you're including in your diet is probably a good thing to do.
Maintaining a Workout Routine During Summer
00:25:49
Speaker
When it comes to the training side of things, so some strategies for summer, I think the most important thing is just to have a weekly plan. When you go into it, as I talked about, having some sort of target. So maybe that's two workouts per week. Maybe it's three, maybe it's four. Have some sort of target going into the week. And then when you do this, take a few seconds on Sunday to figure out, okay, How many workouts am I going to be doing?
00:26:12
Speaker
What days am I actually going to work out? And what time am I going to be doing that? And then scheduling, put them in your phone, put them in your calendar, be intentional about that. Look at your week, see if you have any interruptions going on or anything that's going to make it challenging to get those workouts in and plan those things in ahead of time so that you actually get those done. It sounds like such a simple thing. but time and time and time again every time i'm talking to clients or talking to people it's like these simple little things about taking five minutes to plan your workouts and put them in your calendar makes all the difference for people being more consistent and being able to actually get those things done so
00:26:49
Speaker
Know how many times you want to work out going into the week, what days and what time, and then actually schedule those things. The second thing I would tell you is to have some sort of backup plan. So a lot of times with summer, just more things going on.
00:27:02
Speaker
Look at your schedule. Maybe you want to get three workouts in per week. You're going work out Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. But let's say something comes up, having some sort of backup plan or maybe having a day where you can squeeze in another workout is always a good idea. So maybe something comes up on Thursday, you can't get it in.
00:27:19
Speaker
But Saturday morning, you have 45 minutes. So you're going to that'll be your backup time. And so having that in place, having some sort of backup plan in order to get the workout in again, small thing, but goes a long way. You could even do something like, let's say you're planning on getting three workouts in.
00:27:34
Speaker
but for whatever reason you can only get in the gym two times per week well maybe then you just combine two of those workouts like you cut out a couple exercises from each one and you combine it to hit the most important exercises in that way you're still getting in a good amount of volume you're still getting in the things that you want to get in and is it ideal or is it perfect not necessarily but you don't need to be perfect with all this stuff you just need to make sure that you're getting solid consistent effort, getting good work in, and you're still going to can you continue to make progress. This is actually something that I did just recently coming off holiday weekend, was going out of town and I just didn't have enough time to get in four times per week, which is typically my goal to get in the gym four different times per week. And so what I did is I combined my last two workouts of the week into one session. It took me an extra bit of time, but I knew I wasn't going to be able to get into the gym in
00:28:28
Speaker
on the next day for enough time to get the workout in that i wanted so instead of just cutting it out completely and just doing the three i combined two workouts so that i was able to still get my four workouts and is it ideal again probably not but does it get the job done absolutely so Having some sort of plan and then maybe you can't get to the gym and then your backup plan is just going to be to instead of lifting today, going do a bodyweight circuit at home. I'm going to do a 30 minute circuit, pushups, squats, pull ups, lunges, whatever, maybe some ab stuff where I'm going go on 30 minute run or do some cardio or something like that. Just have some sort of backup plan is always a good idea. And then the last thing that I would just say about training is just to reiterate that something is always going to be better than nothing. There's going to be plenty of things that come up in the summertime where time is an issue, where you have things going or just not ideal and you only have 20 minutes to get a workout in before you have to go and be at this social event or you maybe stayed out too late the night before and you're just not really feeling it. You don't have an hour to go to the gym. And so instead of doing that, you're going to go on a 45 minute job or walk or get out and sweat a little bit or do something like that. So something is always going to be better than nothing. So don't just completely wipe things off or just skip them altogether. Like do something so you can keep that momentum going and so you continue to make progress and you're going be just fine.
Enjoying Vacations While Staying Fit
00:29:50
Speaker
Another category that I wanted to hit on is just vacation and things to think about when going on vacation. Because again, a common thing throughout the summer, I get questions about this all the time. And I think the big thing is that people just don't want to feel like they have lost all their progress or feel like they're digging themselves in a hole just by going on vacation. Because before vacation, maybe you were super down there with nutrition, with workouts, all that stuff. And you don't want to feel like you're throwing all that down the drain and then you're starting back over at ground zero. So mindset going in to a vacation, again, I think is important. Understand that you didn't make all your progress in a week. You're not going to lose all your progress in a week. So you can relax a little bit. You should be able to enjoy yourself without feeling guilty or without thinking like, oh man, I'm screwing myself up or anything like that. Like enjoy yourself for that time. That time off is just as important as that time in the gym. Like you should be able to have some balance to enjoy yourself. Don't get in your head about those different things or just think about those things too much because you want to be able to enjoy yourself when you're on vacation.
00:30:51
Speaker
If you're somebody who doesn't frequently go on vacations, then I don't think it's a huge deal to like worry about getting all your workouts in or, you doing all those different things or keeping your diet super dialed in or maybe your goals aren't around those things where like you're trying to make a ton of progress right now and you're okay with being more flexible then go on vacation enjoy yourself if you want to work out do it if you don't then don't if you want to eat more than you typically would do it if you don't then don't but if you are a person maybe you're vacationing a lot or you just have specific goals that you're really wanting to dial in right now, like it's something that's super important to you, then understand that going in and then be a little bit more mindful about those things and be a little bit more detailed about those things. And just some simple things that you can think about just prioritizing protein, eating more fruits and vegetables, drinking lots of water, maybe you're going to get in one or two workouts in this week. walking a lot, being just more intentional about the things that you're eating. And then the big thing is like, once you get done with your vacation is just getting back to normal as quickly as possible. Like don't let week long vacation turn into two weeks after that of doing absolutely nothing or because you started eating a certain way on vacation, which you typically wouldn't eat. Don't let that bleed over into multiple days after vacation. Just getting back on track is all you need to do. The vacation is not the problem itself.
00:32:08
Speaker
You may see the scale spike up a little bit for multiple different reasons, like water fluctuations or different things like that. You're not losing a bunch of muscle in the course of a week or two weeks. You're not gaining a ton of fat in the course of one week or two weeks. You're not losing a bunch of strength. You're not losing all the gains that you got in the course of a week or two. So just getting back on track is all you have to do. Don't overthink it. Get that first workout and Get that first good day of eating back in, getting back on your habits, and you're going to be just fine.
Creating a Balanced Summer Fitness Plan
00:32:37
Speaker
And so putting all this together, building a plan going into summer, it doesn't need to be super complicated. First thing you need to do is know and understand your goal. Is your goal to lose weight or lose fat? Is your goal to just maintain? Is your goal to maybe focus on just building better consistency and better habits? Or maybe your goal is to have a little bit more flexibility, maybe allow yourself to gain a little bit of weight, five pounds or whatever, and you're not going freak out about that. You're eating a little bit more, you're maybe not working out quite as much, you're just having more flexibility. Like that's a perfectly fine goal to going into summer, but just know what that goal is. Decide on that goal.
00:33:13
Speaker
Step two, pick your daily slash weekly targets, whether that's steps, protein, calorie goal, workout goal, maybe it's a sleep goal or water goal, maybe it's a meal prep goal per week, or maybe it's I'm only eating out a couple times per week, just pick a couple daily or weekly targets that you can actually track and measure so that you know that you're moving towards whatever that goal you have is. Third thing is to make sure that you have some sort of bare minimum plan for when things do get a little bit busy. So maybe that's two lifts per week. Maybe that's 8,000 steps per day. And then maybe that's protein at every single meal. That could be your bare ass minimum plan when things do get a little bit hectic, or maybe you just don't have quite as much time throughout the summer. And then the last thing I would tell you is with this is just review that plan or tweak that plan each week. So every Sunday, just think about it for five minutes. It doesn't have to be anything crazy.
00:34:01
Speaker
Just take some time to intentionally plan out, okay, what does my plan look like this week as far as nutrition, as far as my workouts, as far as things that are coming up? Do I have events coming up? Do I have weddings? Do i have vacations? Do i have trips? All that kind of stuff. And then just take five, 10 minutes and have some sort of plan going into the week. And if you do that, you can easily balance this stuff and find that that middle ground that good moderation and be able to continue to make progress on your fitness goals without sacrificing enjoying your summer having fun missing out on different things like that so hopefully this was helpful hopefully you were able to gather a nugget or two again i think just the main point that i wanted to get across with this going into summer is you don't have to pick and choose whether you want to enjoy summer or be completely locked in in your fitness goals You can do both and depending on where you're at with your goals and what's important to you right now, where your lifestyle is at, you just need to have a solid plan going into it, know what that plan is, and then just execute on that plan. And with that being said, as always, I do appreciate you listening. You you can continue to share this, leave reviews, all that good stuff. And then the one-on-one coaching link, if you are wanting help from me with any of your fitness goals, you can check that out as well. Apply, see if you're a good fit for that. you can have a conversation. But other than that, again, I appreciate you listening and we will see you next week.