Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

Each week, I will give you step by step instructions on how to get into a swimsuit this summer. If you’re short on time, scroll down to the end and read “The Short Version” to get your weekly tips.

If you haven’t been following along with the program, it’s not too late to join in. Go back and do week 1 and 2’s assignments this week and you’ll only be a week behind.

• Starling Fitness » Get Into That Swimsuit This Summer: Week 1

• Starling Fitness » Get Into That Swimsuit This Summer: Week 2

If you HAVE been following along, your job last week was to wear your swimsuit around the house for an hour each day, totaling seven hours for last week. This week, you only need to wear your swimsuit and sarong for only about three hours. There’s only one catch.

You have to wear your swimsuit while you clean your house.

It’s best to just plan a three hour stretch so you can do all the normal chores that you might be spreading out over the week for this project. The reason I want you to spend a few hours in your swimming suit cleaning house is because it’s an EXCELLENT test of how your suit will handle something active like swimming, snorkeling or boogie boarding.

Notice how your suit feels when you are doing the following activities:

• Bending down to pick up laundry.
• Splashing yourself with water when cleaning the tub.
• Reaching above your head to put away dishes.
• Getting on your knees to clean out from under the couch.
• Sweating as you push the vacuum.

Whatever you normally do while cleaning, do it wearing your swimsuit and sarong. This will show you how well it will handle the beach or pool. Does the sarong keep falling off? If it does, you either need to learn a new way to tie it, a handy way to keep it attached or a new one. Does any intimate part of your body fall out when you are reaching or bending? Then you probably chose a suit that’s too tight and you need to go back to week one’s exercise. Save the tight suit for when you are thinner, but get a suit that fits you NOW.

If you feel a little embarrassed doing the house cleaning in your swimming suit, pretend that you are an island maid in Hawaii. If you were visiting Hawaii and a maid showed up at your door in a swim suit and sarong, you probably wouldn’t be that surprised. Imagine that you are cleaning a Hawaiian bungalow and enjoy your three hours testing out your suit.

The Short Version:

• Wear your swimming suit while you clean your house this week (at least three hours).

• If any intimate part of your body falls out of the suit when you are cleaning, buy a bigger suit.