Winter is the time of baggy clothes, multiple layers, and warm, calorie-dense food. As soon as winter’s over, it’s time to start pulling your spring and summer clothes out of storage, planning beach trips with friends, and potentially dropping the extra five kgs of insulation you gained while being holed up indoors.

It can take a few months to get shredded, but you don’t have to wait that long to look and feel your best. Here are some tips for making this summer your best summer.

Five Ways to Look and Feel Your Best for the Summer

1. Buy well-fitted and nice clothes. Let’s face it. The way you present yourself is important, and wearing nice clothes is the first step. Skip the baggy jeans and oversized shirts and opt for something classier for an instant improvement on your look and your confidence. If you’re not sure what style fits you best, there are plenty of options from personal stylists to once-a-month style-box deliveries to help you find new favorites.
2. Keep up with personal grooming. Whether you cut your own hair or go to a barbershop or salon, have a skincare routine or keep it simple, personal grooming is important. Having a personal grooming routine can make you look and feel younger while keeping your skin and hair healthy and giving you a clean, neat appearance.
3. Hit the gym. Whether you’re striving for weight loss or just wanting to feel more energized, going to the gym will help you look and feel great. A local gym will offer group classes and on-staff fitness trainers. Or, if you’re more of a homebody, you can hire someone for one-on-one personal training and develop your own home gym.
4. Fix your Diet. If you want to look your best this summer, you need to evaluate your diet. The truth is abs are made in the kitchen, not at the gym. Removing simple carbs and sugars from your diet while eating more vegetables, lean meats, and whole foods will lead to natural weight loss, and if you pair it with a workout program, you’ll see results in no time!
5. Be positive about yourself. We’ve talked a lot about physical changes, but we can’t forget the most important change you can make. If you have a habit of looking at your body in a negative light, you have to break that habit. Even if you lose 100lbs, if you’re constantly looking for things to change about your body, you’ll never be happy with yourself. Start with nixing the negative thoughts and replacing them with positive, uplifting affirmations.

Regardless of if your goal is to have washboard abs or just to feel comfortable in your clothes, these five tips will set you on the path to feeling and looking great all summer.