As I’m writing this, I’m in Morristown, New Jersey at a fitness business conference and it’s been awesome.  The elite of the elite are here and I’m hanging out with them and learning a tonne.  The one message that keeps getting relayed is plan, plan and plan.  Know what you want and go after it.

There’s a lot of talk about systems too.  Have a system.  Know how you are running your business and have a set up strategy of when to do certain things.

All of this talk got me thinking about people’s summer bodies.  Summer and staying healthy sometimes don’t really seem to mix, especially on the nutrition side of the coin.   We do spend more time outside, but are we really exercising effectively?

I know for a fact that the consumption of beer and ice cream goes up in the summer (hopefully not as a combo though).  What you need is a system, a plan to help you get through the summer while being healthy, but while still having some fun cheating too.

“It’s way too nice out to go to the gym.”

How many times are you going to say that this summer?  Well, the fact is, I don’t really care if you go to the gym or not.  You don’t really need a gym all the time to get a great workout.  You can join a boot camp like the ones I hold in Edmonton or you can work out in your home.

Here’s the truth about what your plan should be.  Don’t worry about having to spend hours in the gym each week.  Worry about spending 20 minutes, three days a week, exercising.  Like today at the conference, for example, about 50 of us did a 20 minute circuit workout and we were all dead tired.  It was killer.

We did five exercises and did them in a 50 second work to 10 second rest ratio.  We did each circuit four times for a total of 20 minutes and we were good for the day (we did the workout at 7 a.m.).

That’s another strategy you can implement.  Do your workout in the morning when you get up.  Don’t give me the excuse about not feeling up to it.  Just do it.  Get yourself in the habit of doing it and it will make sure your days start out great.

If you don’t have equipment, use your bodyweight.  Do a few repetitions of some push-ups and lunges and whatever else you want.  Just make sure it’s 20 minutes of hard and intense work.

“It’s so nice out.  I just want to hang out and have a beer.”

That’s cool.  Do that then.  I do.

Just be disciplined with your other meals and drink consumption throughout the week first.  Just because it’s summer, it doesn’t mean you have a green light to throw away your health.  It may be normal behaviour at this time of year, but you don’t want to be normal.  Being normal gets you normal results.  You want great results and a great life.

Living a great life full of growth and development means discipline is involved.  So be disciplined.  Don’t make excuses because it’s summer.

Having a drink every now and again isn’t really going to affect your health too badly.  It’s drinking a lot more than one night a week that will start getting to you, because with drinking usually comes chips, pizza, hotdogs, burgers, fries and whatever else.

A good solid action plan is to eat clean 85 per cent to 90 per cent of the time.  If that percentage seems high to you, then have fun staying with the body you currently have.  I guess that’s just a little tough love for you.  Remember, you have the ability to be great.