Surrey fitness - Trim down for the beach

Above: Gary Waghorn

It’s all too easy to hide the bulge during the winter; baggy clothes and dark colours can camouflage all sorts of over-indulgences. But, come the summer, when you find yourself staring at your skimpy, figure-hugging outfits and swimsuits, there’s nothing for it but to bite the bullet and do something about it.

So, where should you start? Well, firstly, you need to take a look at when you are eating. If you tend to have light meal at lunchtime and a large meal in the evening, see if you can swap them round for a month. As you begin to slow down for the night, so you stop burning so many calories. Eating heavily, and in particular a carbohydrate based meal, later on in the day increases your chances of storing the excess calories overnight. Either soup or a salad is a perfect evening meal.

You should also examine what you are eating. It’s a good idea to keep a food diary for a few days (weekends and weekdays); be totally honest and record everything that you eat and drink! This will show up any bad habits that you may have and give you the opportunity to make changes. If you do eat a lot of bread, give this up as it retains water and is of little nutritional value.

Oh, and drink water! It always amazes me how many people simply don’t drink enough. You should aim to drink two litres of water a day to keep you hydrated and flush the impurities out of your body. If you exercise hard, increase the amount that you drink.

Also, like it or not, you need to schedule in an exercise routine. You should be aiming to do at least 20 minutes of aerobic exercise, five times a week. This doesn’t mean that you need to go to the gym; you could take a brisk walk round the shops in your lunch hour or with your dog at the weekend, get off the bus a stop early or park further away from work. We all have a different optimum heart rate for fat burning, and you can work out your own by visiting the following website: www.brianmac.demon.co.uk/hrm1.htm

If you already do an exercise routine, try beefing this up by combining two exercises together i.e. squats and shoulder presses. This increases the intensity of the activity and thus improves productivity. Or, simply increase the difficulty by adding some weight to the activity. Cost effective hand weights can be purchased online or from many local stores such as Tesco’s.

Finally, remember that if you haven’t exercised for a while or are worried about any health problems that you have, do consult your doctor before you make any drastic changes.

Running for Charity

After my first article about running, I was contacted by the Surrey based Charity, Chase, which is a children’s hospice service that provides a network of care for families of life-limited children.

I am delighted to say that a team of 64 runners from Surrey completed the Marathon on April 22 with Mark Cranwell from Cranleigh recording a fantastic time of 2 hours and 55 minutes.

The funds that they raised will go towards the £3 million that the charity needs to find every year to keep this deserving service operational. Well done to everyone!

For more information about Chase, visit www.chasecare.org.uk

Get in touch

Do you have a fitness question? Maybe you’ve got a wedding coming up and want to know how to drop a dress size? Or perhaps you’re struggling to find an exercise that keeps you motivated. Drop an e-mail at the following address: gary@synergyredhill.com< and he will endeavour to respond to all queries.

...Or why not discuss sporting events in Surrey, and you're fitness and health tips on Surrey Life Forums.