Beginning a summer transformation plan is always a daunting task, especially if you do not have an easy to follow or scientifically backed transformation plan to guide you.
So far, my 28 Day Bikini Body Transformation Challenge has helped hundreds of women get ready to wear their bikini for the summer, using female specific techniques, diet plans and workouts. This article contains some of the key rules on what you should focus on to get your summer transformation underway.
Set Realistic Goals
Every year when the weather gets warmer and we don’t have to wear as many clothes, people get a huge burst of motivation to begin dieting to be ready for their holiday or just to walk around in clothes that they feel comfortable in.
If we are honest with ourselves, we have all been there. You look on social media to find a diet to follow that a celebrity has done and then within a week, you have to stop because it was too hard.
To stop setting yourself up for failure, you need to ensure that you have clearly planned out long and short-term goals to achieve and ensure success. Know why you are doing it.
Here is a questions I ask clients.
a. What is your Ultimate goal — what would you like to realistically look like?
This question should determine exactly what you want and where you want to be to ascertain if it is actually feasible in an allotted time frame. For example, losing 20 pounds in twelve to sixteen weeks and subsequently keeping it off is feasible, doing the same amount of weight in three weeks is not.
You need to make sure that you are setting yourself up for success by choosing long-term goals that are in-line with what you want to achieve and are also actually achievable.
Once you have determined your long-term goal, begin to create short-term goals that will propel you towards your long-term ones.
By creating small goals to hit along the way, you will not only be able to keep yourself accountable and motivated, but you will actually be achieving success often, rather than waiting for months and hoping for the best.
Decide How You Will Do It
The easiest way you can begin your journey to a summer transformation is to adjust your diet to be in line with your main goals, the body you want to achieve and other key factors such as your hormones and activity levels.
When many people get the motivation to begin a transformation plan, they automatically either reduce calories far too drastically or totally eliminate their favorite foods overnight.
For 95% of people, this just leads to excessive hunger, boredom, and even metabolic adaptations and damage, slowing down their metabolism and impacting their hormones.
This is one reason people do so well in my 28 Day Bikini Body Transformation Challenge over the long term, compared to a regular diet. Firstly, We optimise the diet to the individual’s calorie needs, so calories are not restricted drastically low or high — they are just exactly where they need to be. Next, we build a sustainable and enjoyable plan built on balance, so they enjoy their daily meals and do not crave bad food.
Increase Your Protein & Vegetable Intake
Some other basic tips to get you started include choosing foods such as lean protein and fibrous vegetables. These two staple food groups play a vital role in being able to both reduce calories and ensure success on a diet. Increasing your lean protein intake has numerous benefits:
1. Protein intake directly increases your metabolism. Due to the nature of how proteins are structured, it requires much more energy just to metabolise them, so you will expend more calories by consuming protein.
2. Protein is satiating, meaning you feel fuller after eating it. Again due to the way proteins are structured, they take longer to digest and can lead to feelings of being fuller which may help during a weight loss diet.
3. increasing your protein intake will contribute to build or maintain your muscle. Complete protein sources such as meat or dairy have all essential amino acids needed to build muscle proteins. By increasing your intake, you provide your body with the necessary building blocks to either build or help maintain muscle.
Vegetables also provide three different unique benefits for weight loss.
1. Vegetables have a very large volume to calorie ratio meaning you can consume a large amount without having a large impact on your calorie intake. This is really important when applying calorie restriction because it can offset hunger.
2. Vegetables often have a very high fibre amount. Fibre is essential when it comes to feeling fuller from your meals and can potentially help you consume fewer calories, resulting in weight loss.
3. Vegetables are often micro-nutrient dense. By consuming many vegetables, you are ensuring that you are consuming ample amounts of micro-nutrients that are essential for health.
Choose The Right Form Of Exercise For Your Goal
All too often when people begin a diet, their first step is to start doing cardio as it is known as the best fat burning exercise.
While you can certainly drop pounds doing cardio, it is not as optimal in the traditional sense when compared to training with weights, especially if you want a lean and toned summer body, rather than just a skinny one…
Studies have proven time and again, that weight training causes a greater amount of calories burnt, both in the actual training session and also for up to 48 hours after the gym.
Another key benefit of weight training is the ability to increase lean muscle mass and give you a more athletic, stronger, functional and toned physique.
Additionally by adding more lean mass you slightly increase the amount of energy needed to rebuild and repair muscle and also improve your carbohydrate tolerance and insulin function.
However, an alternative to traditional cardio which I base my entire class routines on in my gym is HIIT or High Intensity Interval Training.
This type of cardio incorporates very intense short sprints with relatively short rest times and has numerous benefits such as boosting fat burning hormones, your metabolism and even helping maintain muscle mass.
In fact, some studies have even indicated an increase in fat burning for up to 48 hours after the workout and even a boost of fat burning hormones by up to 1200%.
For an optimal plan and transformation this summer I recommend combining HIIT and metabolic resistance training.
Choose Evidence-Based Supplements
While diet and exercise can certainly help you achieve the body you desire, using supplements that actually work may help fast-track the process and make it easier to diet.
There are many different supplements on the market that don’t have any strong evidence supporting them. Rather than wasting your time and money, I am going to share a few of my favourites that have dozens of research studies proving their benefits.
For fat loss or your summer transformation plan, I suggest using supplements that do have substantial evidence and numerous benefits, such as caffeine and high strength Green Tea.
These two supplements have had many studies indicating that they actually work. Additionally, they act synergistically or improve the benefit of each other when taken together. My own product called Fat Burn Juice is a drink that can be consumed throughout the day or prior to working out and contains both caffeine and green tea, plus other key components such as BCAA, a super green and berry complex, all in the correct ratios to help with weight loss. In short Fat Burn Juice helps burn more fat stores by increasing hormones called catecholamines, boost your metabolism to burn total calories and also reduce your hunger to help you lower calorie intake.
Along with these, I also recommend the following research proven supplements for the most high-end supplement protocol (remember to master your diet and training before jumping onto supplements).
Creatine Monohydrate
Whey Protein
Probiotics
Fish Oil
Stay Consistent
Along with all the points discussed here, the most important factor is for you to build a plan that you can stay consistent with.
Even the world’s best fat loss plan will fail to work if you binge eat or drink copious amounts of alcohol every weekend, stop dieting after a couple of weeks or get bored of the training.
Rather than wasting your time and potentially damaging your metabolism, build a plan you could see yourself staying with for the whole duration and then transition into a sustainable and healthy weight maintenance plan.
Consistency is key — if you cannot see yourself on your current diet in two or three months’ time, then you are set up to fail…bottom line!
Get Summer Ready
Mastering the topics discussed will progress you further than 99% of people and give you a highly effective fat loss plan and summer physique.
Because you have made it this far down I know that you are serious, so if you are struggling with your weight loss and are feeling depressed and down, message me below and I will get in touch with you.
As always, if you did like reading this article, please like and pass it to someone who may benefit.