Get fit for Summer + Physique update

The jeans are coming off and the pale and untoned legs are threatening to be revealed. For many, summer is a daunting time, where the thought of putting on a bikini and revealing mass amounts of your body to random onlookers can be terrifying. It seems like, around September you start to notice titles on the front cover of magazines reading 'Get fit for Summer' or something of the like. It's almost suggesting that now is the time you should be eating healthy, exercising and taking care of yourself, don't worry about doing those things year round, but definitely make sure you are doing them at least a month before you are due to put on a bathing suit. Society's mentality here is all wrong! So instead of writing a blog on all the 'hacks' you should be doing in order to loose weight and achieve that stick figure social 'dream' bod, I'm going to tell you what I think 'Fit for Summer' means...

You do you hun!

For me 'Fit for Summer' means doing you and rocking it. I'm proper white, I won't be one of those tanned chicks at the beach unless I sunbake for years and increase my risk of skin cancer by 100% and that's not my ambition in life. If I don't want to look glaringly white, I put on fake tan. Years ago, wearing fake tan was considered 'embarrassing', "Umm are you wearing fake tan? I can tell that orange is not your natural skin colour!". But these days, no one bloody cares. In fact, most intelligent people wear fake tan, because, like me, they are no tinterested in melanoma. Do you do honey!

It's a lifestyle

Fitness or getting fit can certainly be one of those things that people do for a set amount of time in order to get set results...or, it can be a lifestyle. For me, fitness is a lifestyle. I aim to be healthy inside and out, have increased energy, strength and look and feel good in my body. For fitness to be a lifestyle, it means that I'm not focused on the numbers on the scale and there is no 'end date' to my gym going and healthy eating. I feel that thinking of fitness as a lifestyle allows for the implementation of healthy habits that are more likely to be sustainable.

Treat yo self!

On Christmas my mum makes pavlova and trifle. I will eat both. And I will probably have leftovers the next day. The holiday season is a time for food and a time where your fitness and/or health goals can often fall by the way-side. Treat yourself. Don't deprive yourself of food or drinks if you want them, it's not good for you mentally or emotionally and will likely lead to binging or feelings of guilt...neither of which fall into the 'fitness is a lifestyle' mantra. Eat until you are satiated and don't forget to move your body.

This Christmas season I have decided to do a four week bulk. My aim is to put on a couple of kilo's and build some muscle before doing a mini-cut. The bulk has been hard. I'm a small girl (Only five foot) and am not used to eating big meals. I have been using the Samsung Health app to help me keep track of my macro's and have been finding that I'm frequently under my desired intake of 2000 calories per day. Eating when I'm not hungry makes me feel sick. At the gym, I have been upping my weight and decreasing reps. This has resulted in some hectic sore leg days. In my second week of bulk I couldn't walk properly for a couple of days after a heavy leg session, making me realise also the importance of proper stretching after a workout. While I haven't noticed any remarkable differences so far in my overall physique, I am pretty happy to be challenging myself and to be patient and nourish my body to see optimum results.

#summer #loving #gym #grow #evolve #fitness #lifestyle #goals