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Spring is almost here, and you and your friends are likely
gearing up for the annual collegiate pilgrimage euphemistically
called spring break. You’re probably headed to the beach,
or at least someplace with a pool and Jacuzzi, for a week
of total hedonism. Your transportation has been arranged for
months, you know exactly where you’ll he staying and
you’ve even located the hottest nightspots in the area.
The only thing you forgot to do is get into peak shape!
With three weeks till you depart, you’re in a chaotic
panic as you realize you aren’t the same person who
showed up on campus in September. Winter’s cold, dreary
days may have even packed a few unwanted pounds onto your
formerly taut physic. Desperate, you make a pact with yourself,
refusing to eat until you fit into your favorite jeans. After
a day of drinking only a few bucketfuls of water and half
a dozen cans of diet soda, you give up, exhausted, hungry
and frustrated.
Well, don’t throw in the towel yet if you aren’t
exactly in perfect condition, this article may he just the
ticket. Keep in mind that although you can’t make miraculous
changes to your body in three weeks, you can make some subtle
modifications in that time to sharpen your physique and improve
your appearance. These measures in no way replace a year’s
worth of hard work in the gym, but since your friends are
going to drag you to the beach anyway, you might as well do
what you can to avoid looking like the NCAA pie-eating champion.
The Final Countdown
1) Start a simple diet. The key word here
is simple, with an emphasis on balanced. You may he able to
shed a couple of pounds a week simply by cleaning up your
eating habits. Stop eating all fried foods, oils, butter,
margarine, chips, sugar and other refined foods. I suggest
you consume four meals daily, two consisting of meal-replacement
drinks and the other two being low-fat meals.
Most meal-replacement drinks supply 250-300 calories with
approximately 30 grams of carbohydrates and roughly another
30 grams of protein. They’re also packed with a full
array of vitamins and minerals. Your two low-fat meals should
combine low-fat proteins such as egg whites, chicken, turkey
or fish with one complex carbohydrate like potatoes, whole-grain
bread, yams, rice or pasta and a serving of vegetables. Have
a large salad with one meal. Eat slowly, and try to leave
the table knowing you didn’t consume an excessive quantity
of food.
2) Exercise moderately. Sometimes the starver
gives up, realizing he or she must eat, but compensates with
a ridiculous amount of exercise. Excessive dieting and excessive
exercise are equally insane. Take the smart approach and spend
exactly one hour a day in the gym. Split the time evenly between
30 minutes of weight training and 30 minutes of aerobic exercise.
This could burn off another 3 pounds of fat in the coming
three weeks.
If you haven’t been hitting the gym regularly, this
exercise may have an additional benefit; by improving what’s
called your muscle tonus (an increase in muscular electrical
activity commonly referred to as “tone”), your
body can appear firmer. Your muscles probably won’t
get any bigger, but you can reduce your jiggling to a minimum.
Then, of course, you have the always-popular “pre-pool
pump.” While an astoundingly large number of men are
familiar with this technique, almost no one will admit to
using it. At its simplest, it involves doing a couple of sets
of push-ups or curls immediately before you step out the door
of your hotel room; more complicated rituals involve decathlon-style
full-body workouts to engorge every muscle with as much blood
as possible. If you absolutely insist on doing this, I’d
suggest the former. Either one will be temporary, and a couple
of sets of push-ups is less likely to leave you exhausted,
cramping and sweating like a Clydesdale in a sauna.
3) Tan. People who love to tan believe it
makes them look better, and in a lot of cases it does If you
choose your local “electric beach,” three weeks
is plenty of time to get a very solid base. Having a base
tan can also minimize your potential to get sunburned when
you’re outdoors on vacation. If you tan easily, you
may get quite dark within 10-14 visits, but don’t try
to do it all in one or two sessions. You’ll either end
up with barely noticeable results or, if you opt for a UV
marathon session, you’ll probably be peeling just in
time to hit the real beach.
Remember, when you subject yourself to enough rays (natural
or artificial) to elicit a tanning response, you’re
technically causing skin damage. In fact, says the University
of California at Berkeley We//ness Letter, “Tanning
lamps will soon be on the list of known carcinogens.”
A government panel recommended that ultraviolet light, both
from the sun and artificial sources, be put on the list, says
the newsletter. If you decide to use a sunless tanning lotion
instead, give yourself enough time to apply several applications
so you can achieve the desired amount of bronzing.
A reminder about sunscreen: Use it. If you
bake yourself to a crisp the first day of spring break and
end up covered head-to-toe with Noxzema and watching soaps
in your hotel room for the next six days, that’s one
thing. If you wind up getting skin cancer, that’s a
whole different ball game and yes, young people get it, too.
Choose a sun screen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of
15 or higher.
4) Drink lots of water. Water is nature’s
diuretic. Increasing your water consumption to 2 gallons a
day can help you shed a few extra pounds of unwanted water
over this 21-day period. If you dislike plain water, add a
slice of lemon or mix in your favorite flavor of Crystal Lite.
5) Shave. Have you ever noticed that runway
and print models, both men and women, are devoid of body hair?
Shaving away any body hair that may normally be exposed when
you wear a bathing suit can make your body look sharper and
leaner. Imagine a bodybuilder like Shawn Ray with a thick
mat of hair on his chest he might still look muscular, but
much of the detail would be obscured.
You can accomplish this shorn look in one of several ways,
depending on the coarseness of your hair and the sensitivity
of your skin. A cream-based hair remover can cause skin irritation
and patchy results for many people. For those with thick hair,
try barber’s clippers or the shortest setting on a heard
trimmer to remove the heavy stuff, then follow up with a disposable
twin-blade razor while showering. Be sure to use a moisturizer
on your skin following the shave and unless you’re a
masochist, by no means use an aftershave lotion unless it
has little or no alcohol.
6) Buy the right bathing suit. Men have it
easy: Oversized swim trunks that extend to the knee are popular,
and loose-fitting, surfer-style corduroy shuns and a tank
top are appropriate beach apparel and offer effective camouflage
for the muscularly impaired.
For women, this issue is a bit more complicated. Bikinis reveal
more of your physique than one-piece suits, so if you have
something to hide, you may not want to be stingy with the
material. Bikinis with wide straps instead of strings will
probably be most flattering for women who are concerned that
they’ve “missed their peak.”
Make sure your suit fits properly; if it fit great six months
ago but now looks like skin on bologna, you may want to invest
in a new one to avoid creating embarrassing rolls where fabric
meets flesh. Women can also enhance their appearance (Or conceal
flaws) by adding a colorful waist wrap to a bikini.
One-piece suits with vertical stripes can create the illusion
of a slender or taller physique; one-piece suits with a cutout
in the midsection may he an appealing compromise between a
bikini and a one-piece.
7) Get a haircut. Politicians have the most
perfect hair on earth, and these men and women obviously understand
the importance of appearance. A fresh haircut conveys the
message that you’re neat, clean and concerned with your
health. A new haircut might not get you elected class president,
but it may improve the look of your student body.
8) New clothes. Professional makeover artists
could make a downright chunky individual appear lean with
a change of wardrobe. New jeans, T-shirts, a skirt or shirt
can make you feel better about yourself, and that’s
half the battle in looking simply irresistible as you head
off into that perfect spring-break sunset.
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and Tanning
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Body Ready For Spring
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