Is your body ready for the beach?

Is your body ready for the beach?

I watched an amazing episode of Iconoclasts the other night, featuring Eddie Vedder and Laird Hamilton. As many of you know, Laird is one of the best surfers on the planet and also happens to be one of Paul Chek's clients. Watching him ride some of the most powerful waves in Maui and do his workout (most of which included standing on swiss balls) inspired me to revisit the art of getting your body ready for the beach. So, I hope you try these three easy tips and get the lean, toned body you're after for the summer!


Make it a Big Bang: Strength training is one of the leading ways to get a toned, lean, fat-burning body. But did you know that certain movement patterns give you more bang for your buck? For a strength-training program that will get your body into shape without a lot of time at the gym, make sure every exercise you perform works multiple muscle groups in multiple planes of motion. In other words, instead of performing a simple bicep curl, try a push up on a swiss ball. Instead of a seated leg press, try a bodyweight lunge. By incorporating bigger movements such as squats, pushes, pulls and twists, you’ll burn through more calories in less time. What’s the difference? Traditional stationary machine exercises only work one muscle group at a time. This old-school training method is highly ineffective because our body doesn’t respond just to specific muscle training--our body responds to movement patterns! So when you lunge, squat, bend, push, pull, and twist, you use your muscle groups together, which improves your balance, ignites your stabilizing muscles, improves the health of your spine, tones your abdomen, burns more calories and most importantly, gives you a body you’re proud to show off at the beach.


Get crystal clear on what you want: The secret to successful weight loss not just for this summer but for life is all in your mindset. My most successful clients write down their health and fitness goals and have a very clear reason why they want to lean down, tone up and look and feel their best. A simple strategy for staying positive and keeping your goals in mind is to visualize what the new body you’re creating is going to look like. Once you can visualize yourself as your new, lean self, make a plan to get yourself to that vision. Write down the top five things you can do EACH DAY to get you to your goal. Whether it’s drinking more water, not going so long between meals, taking time to get a massage or hanging out with friends who support you, make sure you take action every day. Finally, exercise your brain and make sure that your thoughts are in line with your actions. It doesn’t matter how many workouts you do or how well you eat if negative thoughts are constantly weighing you down. Instead, stay positive about your goals and the new body you’d like to create and watch the amazing results that follow.

Eliminate these three foods from your diet: If you truly want to see a significant drop in body fat and are after that lean, flat stomach this summer, fully eliminate gluten, dairy and soy from your diet. Because more than 75% of the population is allergic to these three foods, by eliminating them from your diet you will eliminate inflammation, bloating, cravings, fatigue and the dreaded pooch belly…all of which will drastically improve the way you look, feel and function (both in your bathing suit and in your daily life)!