Beach, here I come!

One of the perks of staying in a regular fitness routine (or making fitness your job, like me!) is that your body stays swim suit-ready all year round. It's not a last minute effort to lose 10 pounds before an upcoming vacation. With that said, I don't know many people out there, even fitness professionals, that feel 100% confident to be on a beach at the drop of a hat.

Once you're beyond the fitness level of health, strength and endurance, you start fine tuning-- for example working on performance for a certain sport or skill, increasing mile pace, sculpting your body. Fitness at this level is an ebb and flow. There may be a month or so where you feel at your peak fitness in terms of how many pull-ups you can do, how low your body fat percentage is, or how your abs look, but you can't be expected to sustain those things at that level all year round.

Jillian Michaels has a great book out called "Making the Cut." It's targeted for people who want to lose the last 5-10 pounds, not major weight loss. She includes a workout and diet plan for 30 days to either kick-start a program or finish up strong. I've never done the program, but I like that even she talks about how she follows the plan when she has a photo shoot or big event coming up, to reach her peak appearance. Many of the exercises she includes are also in her "Hot Bod in a Box," so I know from doing those, that your body's tone and definition can increase in just 8 weeks.

A beach vacation is one of those times where I want to feel at my peak fitness. For me it's not so much about how I look to other people in my bathing suit--once you're married, who are you trying to impress out there anyway?! It's about the confidence and inhibition to just relax and either lie on the beach or take a walk through the waves and not worry about a thing--other than stepping on sea creatures. Plus after several few weeks of hard workouts, it's good to see the results pay off and to be able to enjoy a week away from the routine.

Luckily, this year as I gear up for 2 vacations, one in July and one over Labor Day weekend, I will be right in the middle of my marathon training, which has a natural way of keeping extra fat off. The biggest thing I do before vacations is eliminate desserts from my diet. Sweets have always been my weakness, so I probably end up eating a few less calories, but I always notice the change in my stomach--my weight usually stays the same, but because bloating is one side effect of sugar, my stomach looks and feels flatter. I also log all of my food and exercise in the weeks leading up to vacation, starting at least 4 weeks out, that way I make more of an effort to keep both in line.

18 days until my toes hit the sand. Not that I'm counting...