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

To be clear, losing weight is not the same as being fit. The end goal should be to improve overall fitness, which involves more than just being slim. Although the best results come when this effort is combined with regular exercise, it is possible for most people to make a big difference by reducing calories.

Losing weight and slimming down are not complicated. That does not mean it is easy to accomplish. For some people it may be like climbing a mountain. However, the formula really is simple: take in less calories than you use.

We’ve all heard the maxim: Failing to plan is planning to fail. It certainly applies to weight loss.

Planning ahead, like keeping a food journal, is one of the strategies taught in our weight loss class. It is another one of those principles that is so simple yet so difficult for many people.

Here is a list of 15 ideas to help with planning:

• Make Ziploc bags of snacks ahead of time.
• Plan dinners for the entire week at the start of the week.
• Schedule your workouts and don’t miss them.
• Make sure to have veggies and other healthy options on hand at all times.
• Keep sugary foods out of the house.
• Write down your meals and snacks the night before or the morning of.
• Have back up meal options accessible in the refrigerator or freezer in case what you plan fails.
• On a day when you have an event that will involve food (i.e. dining out, cook-out, wedding, party), leave yourself caloric leeway throughout the day to accommodate for a higher calorie meal.
• Write down all food and exercise ahead of time.
• Take food with you whenever you’re on the go.
• Plan meals before you go grocery shopping.
• When you’re busiest, make a few days’ meals at a time.
• Look up your menu options ahead of time when dining out and limit your choices before going out.
• Buy food for a week at a time.
• Create a calorie breakdown per meal and snack . Example:  1300 calorie plan

Breakfast:  300
AM Snack:  150
Lunch:  300
PM Snack:  150
Dinner:  350
Eve Snack:  150

No one is perfect. Expect to have days when all the plans fall apart or you get ambushed.  Pre-plan to the best of your ability. You will get better at it week by week.

Share your ideas, tips, or tricks for planning ahead.

Anyone trying to lose weight or decrease body fat (related, but not the same) needs to know how many calories they should be eating on a daily basis.

There are all kinds of formulas out there. Some are quick and simple, others are much more complicated. My favorite resource for this is Tom Venuto’s How Many Calories Should I Eat cheat sheet. In this document he outlines four methods for calculating your caloric needs.

“Eating for fat loss doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, it can become totally intuitive and unconscious fairly quickly if you understand a few basic principles of energy balance and rules of nutrition.”

He says the need to count calories will eventually become optional. That’s been true for me though there are times when you want to dial in your nutrition and counting the calories closely will help.

Determining your optimal energy requirements is essential for trying to really get lean. You’ll want to use one of the more complex, scientific formulas. For me, the Harris-Benedict formula worked well. I relied on it a few years ago when I was at my leanest. It does a good job of factoring in your activity level.

Be sure and test the formula to see if it works. For accurate results, be extremely disciplined.

Snacks are a problem for many people trying to lose weight. Are they a dieter’s enemy? They don’t have to be.

Problems with snacks come from failing to pick, plan, and prepare for success. In our Slim Down weight loss class we address this important issue.

PICK THE RIGHT SNACKS

Picking the right kind of snack will have a major impact on your fat loss efforts. An article at www.womensabworkout.com lists 4 healthy snack options: yogurt, peanut butter (natural), almonds, and blueberries. These are great snacks and all on the list of healthy snack options our Slim Down class participants get.

A few comments on a couple of these foods.

Be careful when selecting yogurt. Look at the fat content and whether or not there are added sugars.  Some yogurt brands have added fiber, which adds to the total calories, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Read the ingredient list on the peanut butter jar as well. Ideally, there will be two ingredients: peanuts and salt. Not really any need for more than that.

A few more simple, healthy snack options:

• Walnuts

Loaded with healthy fats. Try a handful with an apple.

• Hard-boiled Egg

Limit yourself to a couple of these a week or remove the yolk.

• String Cheese (low fat)

Another great protein source.

• Dry Cereal (whole grain)

Good substitute for chips and adds fiber.

You’ve picked well. Now it’s time to plan.

PLAN TO SNACK

We’ve all heard it over and over, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” This holds true with diet and fitness as much as anything. Picking the right kinds of snacks is a big part of the planning process. Another aspect of planning is working out your snack schedule.

Eating numerous smaller meals (5-6) throughout the day is a better idea than 2 or 3 big meals. Your snacks are part of this daily plan. The goal is not to let yourself get too hungry. For most people this means eating something every 4 hours or so. That means you should plan for a mid-morning snack, one mid-afternoon, and another at night. (The nighttime snack need might vary depending on your dinner time.)

You have your snack plan, now it’s important to prepare. A great plan will still fail without adequate preparation.

PREPARE TO SNACK

First part of preparing is somewhat obvious – go shopping! Stock your shelves with the right kinds of snacks (throw away the junk if it’s still in your pantry).

One of the things to stock up on is small bags or containers. Healthy snacks can still sabotage your efforts if the portions are too big. Take the time to weigh and count. Consider using some time over the weekend to get the next week’s snacks ready. The extra work will pay off all week long.

One more ‘P’ – PLANT. Stash a few emergency “baggies” at the office or in the car. These can bail you out when you’re feeling a little hungry or when the office donuts are getting passed around.

Snacks are the downfall of many dieters but they can be the key to weight loss success. Just pick,  plan, and prepare.

(I presented this topic to my latest weight loss class.  The group came up with some really helpful ideas on how to plan for and overcome obstacles to dieting.)

So many of us set goals to lose weight, improve our eating habits, and get lean.  What keeps us from achieving those goals?  OBSTACLES!

We encounter them everyday – while out with friends, dining with family, when we’re with co-workers – and we allow them to keep us from making healthy choices and losing the unwanted pounds.

What is the best way to tackle those challenges?  Identify them and make a plan to overcome them before they derail you.

Here are some ideas from the Slim Down class:

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