If you aren’t thinking in terms of weight loss, you might associate summertime foods with ice cream and snow cones. But if you are thinking in terms of weight loss, you will most likely associate summertime foods with nice cool salads.
Salads are of course great diet foods. They give us most of the nutrients and vitamins that we need, and are healthy foods overall. Unfortunately, regardless of how hot it is, or how cool salad can be, eating salad day in and day out is rather boring – which means that you won’t stick to it.
Instead, you need a variety of foods. Some people manage this with a variety of salads, which also works. Salad doesn’t have to be boring. It also doesn’t have to be low calorie, so be very careful of this.
Salads can consist of just about any type of fruit and/or vegetable. The fruits and vegetables won’t hurt you…it’s the meats, the bacon bits, the croutons, the crackers, and the salad dressings that can really hinder your weight loss efforts. This doesn’t mean that you have to do without those things in your salad.
For meat in your salad, use boiled or baked chicken breast. Turkey can also be used, and of course any type of fish that is broiled or baked is also good. Avoid any and all fried meats, and avoid red meat. Leave out the bacon bits altogether.
Instead of croutons, eat crackers. Look for whole wheat crackers, as these are usually lower in fat and calories. Also, pay attention to how many calories each cracker has, and limit your intake of them accordingly.
Salad dressings are a controversial subject. Some experts believe that the fat free dressings are just as bad as the non-fat free versions. The truth is that none of those prepared dressings are really good for your waist line. First, think about why you want the dressing. Is it for the taste? Is the taste of the dressing supposed to cover up the taste of the other ingredients used in your salad? Try eating the salad without dressing and see how you like it.
Alternatives to dressing include squeezing a fresh orange over the salad, a few drops of vinegar or olive oil, and if nothing else, just using about half a teaspoon of your favorite dressing and mixing it in well with the salad so that the flavor is still there, without all of the additional calories.
While you do want to take full advantage of fresh fruit and vegetables during the summertime, you cannot ignore protein. Protein is essential to losing weight and getting in shape. It is true that most protein sources are higher in calories than non-protein foods, but if you don’t eat plenty of protein, you will find that it is not only harder to get the weight off; it’s also harder to get those muscles in good shape.
There is a good reason for this. Protein is what feeds your muscles. Without that nutrition, the muscles simply cannot function as they were intended to. This is why just about any doctor or nutritionist that specializes in weight loss will always say ‘remember, protein first.’
What this means is that after you’ve determined how many calories you will take in during the day, it is essential that you get the protein in first – before you use up all of those allowed calories on non-protein foods.
The good news for summertime dieters, however, is that most fruits and vegetables are very low in calories, depending on how they are prepared (raw is almost always best), which means that there is still plenty of room in your meal plan to get the protein that you need – without blowing the diet.
This is especially good news if you are sick and tired of diets that limit your intake of food too much – to the point where you always feel hungry. Nobody can stick to that kind of a diet for very long. We are designed to survive – and being hungry puts our survival instincts into gear, and before you know it, you’ve blown the diet.
Where it was once recommended that you have three square, well balanced meals per day, we now know that this doesn’t work – especially if you are trying to eat healthy and get in shape. Instead, experts agree that five or six smaller meals, spread throughout the day is the way to go. You will essentially be eating every two to three hours, and this benefits you in numerous ways.
So, what are the benefits of eating more meals throughout the day? Your body is never hungry. The survival instinct never gets called upon. You are constantly keeping your muscles fed. Your energy levels stay high. You don’t feel like you are being deprived of anything. Instead of feeling like you are cutting down on the amount of food that you eat, you will feel like you are actually eating more – and still losing weight. It simply works.
Now, don’t make the mistake of thinking that this means that you should eat five or six full meals. Remember the key is to take in fewer calories, with more protein, provided in more meals throughout the day – and this does mean smaller portions of food. But, if you remind yourself that you will be eating again in just two or three hours, it won’t really matter much to you – because you never feel hungry.
That is the key to successful dieting, but more importantly, it is the key to making lifestyle changes that you can stick to – for the rest of your life – so that the weight doesn’t reappear after a few months. When those pounds reappear, they tend to bring friends, and this is something you definitely want to avoid.
If losing weight and getting into shape is the goal, your best form of protein is chicken (white meat) and beans. Many people mistakenly think that protein means fat – or in tastier sounding terms – steak. This isn’t so. Eggs and fish are also excellent sources of protein. If you absolutely cannot live without beef, make it roast beef, and use caution. Of course, none of this does you much good if you are frying these foods in fat.
It’s also best to avoid processed meats when you are trying to lose weight. This may mean cooking more than you want to – especially in the hot summertime – but it is worth the extra effort. If time is an issue, cook ahead and use the freezer. Take just a few hours, one day a week, to prepare protein sources and freeze them. When you are ready to eat them, pop them into the microwave. Think of the calories that you will burn while moving around the kitchen preparing these foods.
Again, fresh fruits and vegetables are abundant during the summertime. Visit your local grocery stores produce isle, and plan to spend the bulk of your grocery budget there. Also take advantage of roadside produce stands. These fruits and vegetables are almost always locally grown.
If you aren’t eating the vegetables raw – and some vegetables are just plain nasty if they aren’t cooked – remember to steam them. Don’t fry them – steam them. Don’t add fats. Instead add spices. You can do wonderful things with a wide variety of spices to really dress vegetables up.
As for fruit, eat it raw – eat it cold. Nothing is better than a nice cool banana after a workout. Bananas are full of potassium which is extremely beneficial after a workout. Select cool apples, oranges, papayas, watermelon, pineapples, plums, grapefruit, peaches, and the list goes on and on.
Fruits and vegetables are essential, not only for weight loss, but for overall good health. They contain the vitamins and minerals that we need. They also promote healthy skin and hair, give us a great source of energy, and even aid in detoxifying the body. Make sure you eat as much of these wonder foods as you possibly can.
We’ve discussed what you should eat – but what about foods that you should avoid? That list is much shorter than the foods that you should eat – believe it or not. You should avoid anything that contains white flour, as well as anything that contains refined sugar. You should avoid anything that contains saturated fat. Avoid processed foods. Avoid eating fast food. Avoid caffeine and alcohol.
If you avoid those things, you’ve got it made in the shade…so to speak. The problem is that we’ve all become a bit spoiled to convenience foods and fast food. Those are habits that you will most likely need to break if you are going to lose weight, get in shape, and not gain any weight back. Again, it means cooking from scratch, which these days has become a lost art.
Many people use meal replacement shakes instead of eating. This is tempting in the summertime, because those shakes are nice and cold. While you can replace one or two small meals during the day with these types of things, you should not ever replace all meals with meal replacement shakes. This is incredibly unhealthy – and it won’t take long before you start feeling the effects of just how unhealthy it is.
You can take advantage of some prepared meals, such as Lean Cuisine frozen dinners. Be sure to read the labels. You need to know how much fat, carbs, and calories are in each meal, and while this is also tempting, don’t make every meal a Lean Cuisine meal.
This brings us to the great low carb or low calorie debate. There are some experts that say low carb is the way to go, while there are just as many that claim that low carb isn’t healthy, and that low calorie/low fat is the way to go.
The truth of the matter is, calories count. It takes 3500 calories to make a pound. This means that whether you are going low calorie or low carb, you have burn off 3500 more calories than you consume in order to lose one pound. No matter how you look at it, there is no way around this indisputable fact.
With that said, it doesn’t matter whether you prefer low calorie or low carb, as long as you do indeed keep up with the amount of calories that you are consuming ,and the amount of calories that you are burning off. Some people find it easier to stick to a low carb diet, while others find it easier to stick to a low calorie diet. It all comes down to which types of foods that you prefer the most essentially.
So, how many calories should you be taking in each day? That number is different for each person, based on numerous factors. How much you currently weigh, how much you want to weigh, and how active or inactive you are all matter. Your age even figures into it.
There are many different formulas that are used to determine how many calories you should take in, but because each person is different, and each person has their own preferences, and each person has different health concerns and dietary needs, the best thing to do is to make an appointment with your health care professional, and discuss your dietary needs, and caloric needs with him.