One more week of school for the kids. Guess what? Summer is here. Are you ready to show off your new bathing suit? If not, then you may have started too late. Don’t be upset and just throw in the towel and say “maybe next year” make the best of it THIS SUMMER. Yes, summer is officially a week away, but it’s NOT impossible to lose weight this time of year.
Here’s the deal. There’s so much activity we can do outside. No excuse for missing some sort of exercise. Choose activities you enjoy. You'll be more motivated to stick with your workouts when you like what you're doing. If you’re interested in a class, try our Outdoor Bootcamp!
Summer means Cookouts, we love cooking outside. Just because you cook outside every night, doesn’t mean chips, booze and sweets every night. You can still enjoy healthy food, even on the grill!!
How about:
Turkey Burger, Lean Beef, veggies and more veggies, Salad, fruit, yams, sweet potato, and many more and plenty of WATER. These foods are not only filling, they taste great and yes are healthy and help you lose weight. Whoever said you had to have a bun with your burger—is it necessary every time?
Watch out for these:
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1. White Stuff. Foods that are “white” contain simple sugars, are usually processed (man-made), and easily lead to extra poundage. These foods and beverages include regular (non-whole grain wheat) pasta, rice and bread, soda, juice, candy and dessert in general, cane sugar or creamer, chips and pretzels…you get the idea. Choose whole grain wheat over white starches whenever possible, avoid sodas and juices, and eat dessert sparingly in moderation.2. Trans and Saturated Fats. These fats are found in full-fat meats like beef, chicken and pork, condiments like mayonnaise and salad dressing, full-fat dairy products like butter, sour cream, cheese, milk and yogurt, and vegetable oil. Cutting out these types of fats is essential to avoiding heart disease and maintaining a fit shape. Think lean cuts of meat like sirloin or filet, buy fat free chicken and take the skin off before eating, or cut the fat off of pork. With the exception of butter, fat free dairy products are not only a better alternative, they’re essential to your health as well. Choose fat free milk and yogurt as staples in your daily diet, and you’ll notice how much better you feel.
3. Alcohol. I can’t tell you how many clients have trouble losing weight because they just can’t cut down on the booze. The sad truth is you can work out every single day, diet all day long, run every day and you’ll still have a muffin top and a gut if you binge drink (more than three servings of alcohol) regularly. I know it’s tempting to sit on your deck at night and grab a bottle of wine. Save that for the weekend! Remember alcohol has 7 calories per serving. All of them are empty, meaning they provide absolutely no nutritional value whatsoever. And all of those calories get stored in fat cells. That’s why it’s so easy to gain weight from drinking. Limit your drinks to maximum two a week and notice how your body shrinks.
4. Ice Cream or Frozen Yogurt ---yes I would eat Coffee Frozen yogurt every night if I could. It’s so easy to over-eat this frozen pleasure. This one gets me! The only way I can successfully drop weight during the summer is cutting back to once a week…..we shall see……
5. Sodium in excess. Put the salt shaker away! By cutting out the sodium you can initially expect to lose 1 to 2 pounds, depending on your body size. But once you reintroduce the sodium, some or all of the water weight will return.
Ways to Reduce Your Sodium Intake:
- Relax! Stress causes you to crave salty, fat-laden foods.
- Read food labels for sodium content. Sodium can hide in processed foods in the form of monosodium glutamate, baking powder, baking soda, disodium phosphate, sodium alginate, sodium nitrate or sodium nitrite.
- Eat fresh, unprocessed foods.
- Put away the salt shaker or fill it with a salt-free seasoning.
- Use sodium-rich condiments sparingly.
- Leave out the salt in your cooking and use fresh herbs or chicken broth.
- Keep a steady flow of fluids in and out of the body to keep your metabolism moving.
- Stay away from fast foods!
- So-called diet foods touted as “healthy” may actually be very high in sodium.
So you may be saying, “It’s Summer, Forget about it!” But just imagine how great you will feel once you slim down and when you are on the beach; your bathing suit fits perfectly; you're walking down the beach with a smile on your face, being proud of yourself that you lost unwanted weight.
More importantly – feeling good about yourself…
And looking great as well!
Have a great Summer!!!!!
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