It’s hard to find motivation and balance the responsibilities of work and personal life, but having a consistently healthy lifestyle will leave your body looking and feeling amazing throughout the year.

Every year when summer season arrives, gym stations all over get flooded with new members who wish to achieve the perfect body. For the  most part it is an attempt to make themselves look attractive in their favorite clothes and gain confidence to show just a little more skin. People go nuts trying to find the right workouts and diet plans that promise to make them fit and fabulous in just a few weeks’ time.

There is nothing really wrong in wanting to get in shape for the summer. However, it’s essential to do so in a healthy way that encourages your overall wellness and doesn’t shove you towards unhealthy fad dieting or injury from excessively intense workouts.

Set goals

Goals have to be time-bound and specific. They need to be measurable and they need to have the right amount of ambition in a sense of “I’m always trying to be better than I was yesterday.” Most importantly, your goal needs a simple and easy first step. It can be as basic as setting a 7am alarm to make breakfast, or simply walking to work to begin with. Set complementary, smaller targets which are workout specific – like, number of reps, faster speeds, and longer holds – to give you milestones you can reach on the way to your bigger goal. This will keep you excited to push and push and push. You will reach your goals as you start to progress with your training and learn your thresholds. 

Nutrition

You want to eat fewer calories than your body burns in a day. The average person burns somewhere round 2,000 calories a day. In that scenario, you want to eat around 1,500 calories a day. Obviously, that’s going to vary from person to person, but if you consume any extra calories, your body has to create that calorie deficit by burning something. Ideally though, this is a lifestyle you need to adapt. If you truly want to look good all the time, you can’t be on and off the diet. You have to make consistent choices all the time. 

Exercise

Working out regularly will help you achieve both physical and mental wellness. Make body movement a part of your life and exercise at least 3-4 days a week. Try out different types of workouts and figure out what suits you the most. For instance, I hate doing cardio so I switched to weight training.  It is important for you to love what you are doing so you can stick to it without wanting to quit. There is absolutely no need to hit the gym every day. However, it is important to workout consistently if you want to see any desired changes.

I recommend everyone to go with weight training as it’s more beneficial than cardio in the long-term. It helps you build your muscle giving you that toned look, improved metabolism and improved overall health. The one thing that is not talked about enough — especially when you want to maximize your calorie burn — is that you have to work out the largest muscles in your body. A lot of men will think, "I want to work out so I’m going to do shoulders, arms, abs.” Those are all the smallest muscles of the body, and burn the least amount of calories when working out. You get greater benefit by working out your back and legs. Your legs have all of the biggest muscles in the body. So if you’re looking to get the most bang for your buck, don’t forget to do your legs.

What not to do

The main problem I see is people doing these ridiculous things, like a cleanse. If you’re cleansing to lose pounds, you need to realize that you’re going to drop scale weight, but that’s only because you’re shedding off your metabolism instead of fat. And when you start eating again, your body is going to rebound by gaining even more fat back. Also, don’t do something that’s crazy, ridiculously extreme, like, "I’m going to only eat lettuce and work out for four hours a day for three weeks." It’s really not healthy to you or your weight. So implement healthy choices throughout the year and you’ll look great all the time. And then when summer comes it’ll only be a slight ramp up instead of a complete overhaul.

Be patient with your physical transformation and stay consistent

It’s not uncommon to take up a new training program and notice only limited physical change within the first two weeks. Make sure you’ve taken a “before” photo on day one. They’re a powerful motivator when change does kick in. Trust me, I know it’s hard to find the motivation to constantly watch your body’s intake and balance the responsibilities of work and personal life, but staying consistent will have your body looking and feeling amazing. Developing consistency now will help you in keeping a healthy lifestyle and keeping that summer body all year round.