Diet Tips for Summer

Diet Tips for Summer

Summer is here and that means the temptation to indulge in fun, fatty foods is here too. It can be really difficult to say no to hot dogs and burgers when there seems to be a barbeque every weekend and to keep driving past ice cream stands as they stand out on a hot, sunny day. Vacations also mean eating out which means tempting menus with tasty treats that would never find their way into your kitchen. The pressure that comes with wearing a bathing suit or lighter clothes can be overwhelming. So, what can you do? You want to stay in shape after you struggled through the winter months and you don’t want all your hard work to go down the drain. Consider these tips for dieting this summer and you should achieve a happy balance:

1. Stay away from the sodas. When you reach into the cooler at the beach or your next party, make sure you skip the sodas. Soda is loaded with sugar and calories that are empty. We know how tempting it is slug back a soda on a hot afternoon but this is one way you can keep your calories down. Jason Giambi, a major league baseball player, said a few years ago he cut out soda during the off-season and dropped close to fifteen pounds.
2. Drink water instead. Water is the answer year round and even more so in the summer. Aside from being devoid of calories, water is such a healthy drink in the summer to keep you hydrated throughout the day. 8-10 glasses of water are recommended. Water is a substance that goes through the body quicker than any other drink and helps in raising your metabolism levels.
3. Eat light. You should eat lighter meals and avoid eating snacks in between meals. This will give you the notion of feeling lighter instead of the full feeling you have after a heavy meal.
4. Stay away from spicy foods. The salts you intake from fruits and vegetables are organic in nature and are retained by the body. However, the salts from spicy foods are inorganic and need to be expelled from the body. Drinking plenty of water will help in this process.
5. Stay away from sugary foods. The sugar from fruits and vegetables are natural unlike the manufactured sugary foods that stay clogged in your system for days and days.

The water bottle image above is by Jenny Downing.

Is that a Tumor or a Belly?

I couldn't believe this story today, but a woman recently lost a whopping 140 pounds by having two tumors removed from her midsection. She had gone to the doctor for many years but the tumor had grown undetected. See the 140 pound tumor story here.

The unrelated photo here is by Gaetan Lee.

Losing the Last 20 Pounds

Candace, age 36, was forty pounds heavier after giving birth to her third child than she had been before children. She lost the first twenty pounds after going on a series of different diets but she was not able to lose the last twenty pounds of 'baby weight' even though her youngest child was now four years old.

But after starting a regular exercise program she has succeeded in losing the last twenty pounds. She started by taking classes at the YMCA and by lifting weights but the pounds really started melting when she started running with a friend. It was really difficult to do the three mile run initially but she saw results quickly and this was very encouraging.

She's gone below her pre-pregnancy weight and now weighs 115 pounds at her height of 5'5". See her story and photo here.

Photo of jogger via Eleanza

How to Dress to Minimize a Large Bust

Here's a nice video by Katie Stiles on how to dress to minimize and flatter a very large bust. She shows us five before and after outfits and tops.



Via Before and After TV

Flattering Clothes for a Larger Waist

Here's a video with Katie Stiles showing off five inexpensive summer tops that help hide a very slight post-pregnancy belly. They're all available at Eddie Bauer online for under $40.

Better than Weight Loss Surgery?

There's an encouraging article today in the Los Angeles Times about scientists working on a procedure that would be much safer than weight loss surgery. It involves disrupting the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve tells us when we're hungry, it's the communication path between the stomach and the brain. See the full article here. Here's an excerpt;

WEIGHT loss surgery works, but is so invasive and has such unpleasant long-term side effects that it's recommended for only a fraction of the obese population, and even many in that group are reluctant to undergo the surgery. In hunting for a simpler and safer alternative, researchers have zeroed in on a nerve that carries much of the communication between brain and gut.

Disrupting this communication, they believe, could lead to safe, effective and sustained weight loss -- mainly by cutting off signals from the gut that tell the brain it's time to eat....

Two different methods of disrupting the vagus nerve are now in clinical trials. One method, vagotomy, simply cuts the nerve and permanently disables it. The other, vagal nerve blocking, uses an electric current to periodically confuse the nerve and prevent it from transmitting signals. Preliminary results suggest that both methods help to safely reduce excess body weight by about 20% on average within six months of therapy.

photo by Marcusrg

Walking Off 50 Pounds

Allison has lost 50 pounds since January. She took the extreme measure of participating in a 130 mile walk (15 miles a day along a noisy highway) back in March to get her motivated.

These days she does a file mile walk each morning and belongs to Weight Watchers. See her walking story here.