Summertime parties, picnics, and cookouts present challenging situations to those trying to eat right. Don’t despair! Try these 12 tips to successfully stay slim throughout the summer season.

1.  Make the menu. When you’re hosting an event, YOU have the advantage! Make/ask your guests to bring food selections that you’re willing to eat. If you don’t need it, your guests don’t either!

2.  Don’t go hungry. You are more apt to overeat or make unhealthy choices when you are famished and are faced by many non-healthy options.

3.  Strive for balance & a variety of food groups on your serving table and plate. Serve a variety of grains, fruits, vegetables, and proteins.

4.  Take small amounts of food. Use what you’ve learned about portion sizes at home, and apply that to the foods you put on your plate.

5.  Eat fruit as a dessert.

6.  Don’t hang out by the food and beverages.

7.  Plan lower calorie meals leading up to the event, to leave yourself caloric “leeway”.

8.  Decide BEFORE you go out how many alcoholic beverages you’ll allow yourself.

9.  Don’t let what others do at the event affect your decisions. Stay committed to your plan and gain pride in yourself and your ability to maintain self-control.

10.  Attempt to stick to a meal and snack schedule to keep your blood sugar, energy and moods stable.

11.  If you are traveling, pack a cooler for a better selection of foods instead of being limited to the choices at convenience stores and roadside restaurants.

12.  Stay hydrated! Drink lots of water, and add a slice of fruit for flavor if you’d like.

Kara Paris, Personal Trainer

Most people who know me know I’m in to biking. Recently, I was asked how I got started.

When I was a kid my yellow Huffy with banana seat was my ticket to freedom. I could ride to the “candy” store or pizza shop without my parents. In college I had a knee injury and riding a stationary bike was the only thing I was allowed to do. I soon saw the benefit of the bike to get around campus so I bought a used one from the Michigan State Bike Auction. I’ve been hooked ever since.

For me, it has been a great way to relieve stress. There is something about the rhythmic churning of the pedals that propel me to ride 100 miles down in Chattanooga, TN, or mountain bike with my wife at Stony Creek in Michigan. The satisfaction of knowing that my body is the engine brings great satisfaction.

I like to ride on my own, but group rides cultivate a competitive spirit in me. There is instant camaraderie when at least two bikers meet. Drafting, pulling, communicating, encouraging…working as a team to finish the ride together. Getting dropped, hitting the wall on a group ride, is humbling, but is the fuel for trying to improve.

I rarely go out of town without the bikes and am proud that I can fit 3 bikes on the roof and 2 in the backseat of my Toyota Avalon.

Steve Smith

Slide boards aren’t just for Pacers and personal trainer. We also added them to our youth fitness classes. Here’s some video of the boys putting their best foot…to the slide.

We recently added the slideboard to our group fitness classes (a.k.a. boot camp) It is a simple, low-tech training tool but don’t let that fool you — it will kick your ass.

The slideboard targets the major muscles of the hip and lower back. It provides a dynamic range of motion, and develops balance, lateral mobility, agility, strength, and endurance. Here’s a quick demo:

Slideboard training is often used by athletes during the off season because the lateral movement is similar to the movements in many sports, such as baseball, football, basketball, and soccer (and, of course, hockey). Here’s a video of Pacers guard Danny Granger on the slideboard:

We’re using ULTRASLIDE slideboards and have been very happy with them.

If you haven’t been in class for awhile, stop by for a slide.

I (Lisa) just returned from a mini vacation to Mackinac Island with my sister.  Due to its geography, getting around the island, just over 7 miles in circumference, entails a lot of biking and walking. So even people who don’t intend to workout do actually get some exercise.

During my stay, I opted for biking on the road around the island. Navigating on the road can be tricky when the “horse and buggy crowd” is out. Getting out early allowed me to avoid that problem. There are also great trails for the mountain biking enthusiasts.

The property where I stayed had a great outdoor nature trail with 10 stations setup for different exercises.  Many of the stations included parallel bars, chin-up bars, a low bar for doing dips, and another stationary bar that I was able to use for doing a kip-up exercise.  I also utilized a cement bench.

The trail, though beautiful, wasn’t extremely challenging for us but with a little imagination and improvisation we fixed that.  By running hills and doing sprints along a nearby gravel road path we challenged ourselves.  We put in 60 minutes of work and got a great workout.  It sure beat using the treadmill or other cardio equipment in the “fitness center”.

If the vacation “home” where you’re staying offers a great place to exercise outdoors take advantage of it.  I don’t have anything against fitness facilities but getting outside to exercise is exhilarating and beats being cooped up indoors.