Unless you’ve been hibernating in a dark room, you’ll have noticed the elusive on-off bursts of British sunshine have already started to creep up on us with a mini heatwave. Get out the factor 50!
Problem is though, because the British summer always seems to hit us with ninja-like stealth, we’re never prepared! So here’s 3 techniques we use in those last 21-28 days to get models ready for photo shoots that you can use to drop a few extra pounds before your mate’s barbecue at the weekend.
#1 – Drop the starchy carbs from your diet, and replace them with veggies.
Every gram of carbs you store comes with about 3 grams of water. Dropping the starches from your diet temporarily will drop that water making you look less soft and bloated.
Replace pasta with spiralled courgette, rice or couscous with blitzed cauliflower cooked in coconut oil, etc. You can even buy pre-made cauliflower cous cous and spiralised veggies in supermarkets now, so it’s even easier to ditch the starches!
Listen to what your mum used to tell you and generally up your intake of colourful veggies. Plus starches have about 20 times the calories of veggies, so it’s a quick way to lower your intake.
#2 – Drink more water!
The other reason you store water is because you’re not drinking enough. By upping it though, now you don’t need it any more, you’ve also got rid of your backup supply. So you need to keep hydrated for both of those reasons.
As a bonus tip, drink it ice cold. As well as quenching your thirst your body will need to heat it up to core body temperature burning extra fat. And when you’re into your last minute slimdown, every ounce counts!
#3 – Increase your protein.
Everything we eat and drink has what we call a thermic effect. That’s how many calories the food you eat burns being processed by your body. 20-35% of Protein calories are burned through processing vs 5-15% for Carbs and 0-5% for Fats. Plus, carbs are protein sparing, so as we drop the starches, we’ll want to replace some of them with lean proteins to keep hold of your lean mass – The stuff that makes you look shapely and sexy rather than thin and flabby!
Bonus tip!
If you want bonus ‘Lean’ points and to squeeze every last ounce out of your last minute slimdown, carb up the night before a big event by dropping your protein by about half and adding back in a serving of starchy carbs for 3 small meals after lunch. Get in a resistance training workout sometime that evening too.
This combination will help draw water and glycogen away from the skin and back into the muscles to make you look leaner!
Warning: Don’t jump on the scales the next morning though because, although you’ll look leaner and more toned, you will weigh heavier! 🙂
And finally
Obviously you’re not going to drop 2 stone in 28 days. Anyone who tells you you can is lying. But these tips will give you that last minute boost if you’ve taken your eye off the ball!
Anthony Punshon is a Body Transformation Expert and Worthing Personal Trainer. Anthony has helped hundreds of people get lean and toned with his programmes and Personal Training in Worthing.