Maybe you’ve been away already this summer or perhaps you are one of those lucky ones with a holiday still to come.

At this time of year the ‘beach body’ countdown is unavoidable. But often the excitement of looking forward to a sun-kissed summer holiday is offset by the fear and anxiety about exposing your flesh.

The image you have of yourself isn’t quite what you thought it would be (Ursula Andress in Dr No emerging from the water). Because of this, your stress levels are rising, as it is only weeks to your break. In an attempt to get yourself ready you reckon it’s time for a beach body bikini blitz.

You may join a gym in the hope of shaping up. There you will be seduced by the rows of treadmills and endless variations of classes. If you look at many of the women on those treadmills you’ll also notice that none of them really has the beach body you want.

Many of the trainers in these gyms will create a progamme something like this: 20 minutes on the cross-trainer, 20 minutes on the treadmill, followed by 10 minutes of something else. Or they’ll bring you into the ‘ladies only’ section of the gym, where the pink dumbbells reside.

Most trainers don’t realise that you need to challenge women more in order to get their body shape to change. Trainers need to stop being afraid of pushing women to gain muscle, which will boost metabolism and change the way you body looks. This is not just a bikini blitz – this is a beach body all year round.

You might be recommended to cut back on your calories, practically starving yourself, as the focus becomes a number on the weighing scales. Sorry to burst your bubble but this plan will never yield permanent, beach body all-year-round-results.

What you should do instead is a metabolically demanding strength-training programme lifting challenging weights. In addition, you need to drop the continuous aerobic cardio sessions in favour of calorie-guzzling interval sessions.

Get back to basics in nutrition and eat fresh vegetables, lean proteins and healthy fats.

It’s important to change your mindset and to focus on how your clothes fit and how you look and feel – don’t obsess about a number on the scales.

This programme I’m suggesting will boost your metabolism, change your shape, give your confidence a kick-start and give you a beach body that lasts all year round.

Get out of your comfort zone and into the weights room – you can’t walk to weight loss on a treadmill. It’s not challenging enough unless you are obese and initiating a training programme after a long period of inactivity.

Most women don’t know what their bodies are capable of because they tend not to push themselves hard enough. They’re conditioned to think they can’t do push-ups or chin-ups, for example.

Stop pounding your body with hours of cardio, stop starving yourself and get to know what hard work feels like.