Best Way to Lose Weight in the Summer

The summer months offer both advantages and challenges to effective weight loss.

And it’s up to you whether this summer turns out to be “the best of times or the worst of times” for losing weight or maintenance.

But how can you possibly resist all of the designed-to-tempt-you, in-your-face fattening foods that you’re confronted with at picnics, amusement parks, fairs, ball games, weddings and during summer vacations?

After all, rich and tempting foods are a traditional part of fun-in-the-sun.

So does success require staying home munching on celery all summer? NO! Here’s the best way to lose or maintain your weight in summer.

Seven Healthy Summer Weight Loss Strategies

By getting clear about your weight loss and maintenance goals and by planning ahead, you’ll be able to say, “No thanks” to all the fattening fried dough, sodas, potato salad, hot dogs and cotton candy.

Whether or not you’ve reached your summer swimsuit target, here are seven simple slimming suggestions for a super successful summer.

1. Plan your summer to support your goal. You can’t expect to win the “battle of the bulge” without a clear strategy, especially since it takes changing a lifetime of old bad habits. So carefully plan your summer campaign and visualize a successful winning outcome.

2. Drink lots of “water, water everywhere!” Water has zero calories, helps curb your appetite, keeps you cool and hydrated in the summer heat and quenches your thirst better than anything else. So learn to love it. You can also add a twist of lemon or try herbal iced tea.

3. Exercise daily first thing in the morning. The perfect time to beat the heat with your exercise and weight training routine is morning. You can get your weight loss plans off to a great start, burn calories and rev up your metabolism before the hot sun makes you feel lazy.

4. Pack up healthy low calorie snacks to go. Don’t leave eating out up to chance. Take plenty of portable calorie-counted mini-meals wherever you go – chopped veggies, strips of cooked chicken breast, fresh fruit, low fat cheese or even a low calorie sandwich.

5. Focus mainly on low cal high fiber foods. Keep a bowl of raw baby carrots, snap peas, red pepper strips or lightly steamed cold broccoli, cauliflower or green beans on hand for snacking. Choosing from the list of vegetables helps you to fill up on high fiber foods.

6. Prepare portable tasty lean protein meals. Low calorie high protein foods are necessary to maintain lean muscle and help keep you feeling full. So add some grilled chicken breast, canned salmon or tuna, a few nuts, beans or low fat yogurt to every snack and meal.

7. Feast on fabulous fruit for sweet treats. Replace high calorie desserts with fresh in-season fruit from the list of fruits. You can also whip up an ice-cold fruit smoothie for breakfast (or anytime) with frozen fruit and low fat yogurt, skim milk or a good quality protein powder.

***Bonus Tip!***

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Write in a summer weight loss journal. Success (in anything) requires awareness of where you want to end up (your goal) and whether or not what you’re doing is working. This means keeping track of food, calories and exercise with the #1 best way – a weight loss journal!

If you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it. It’s that simple!

Since food quality, calories and exercise are what you need to manage, that’s what you need to measure – NOT your scale weight numbers.

As a result of consistently doing and eating the right things, you’ll find that healthy weight loss occurs naturally – in its own good timing.

And here’s the simplest way to go about it. Get a 5″ x 7″ spiral notebook and using a food calorie chart, write down everything you eat, the calorie count and how long you exercise each day. Don’t force changes. Awareness will help you to automatically take the next best step.

If you don’t believe in the extraordinary power of writing it all down in a healthy food, calorie and exercise tracking weight loss journal, just try it for a couple of weeks. You’ll be amazed at how well it works.