As summer approaches, clothing is shed and what ever stored weight you’ve got form the winter months may melt away as you become more active. What you don’t want is for those few extra pounds to stick around and meet up with additional calories you ingest during backyard barbeques and family celebrations. How can you avoid summer weight gain? Rene Ficek, registered dietician nutritionist at Seattle Sutton’s Healthy Eating in Maple Grove offers up tips to help steer clear of calorie accumulation.
Drink lots of Water- Many times when people think they are hungry, they are actually just thirsty. By drinking lots of water throughout the day, you’ll lower the risk of overeating.
Daily Exercise- Plan your outdoor exercise for early in the morning or later in the evening once it cools down.
Smart Dining- When you eat dinner out, ask the server for a doggie bag and take one-third of your meal home for lunch the next day. Serve yourself one-third less at home too. This simple tactic can potentially subtract more than 500 calories a day.
Shun Sweet Drinks- Soft drinks, juice drinks and alcohol are a major source of empty calories. A 12-ounce beer has 150 calories; a 3.5-ounce glass of wine has 85; and a margarita packs an even bigger caloric punch at a whopping 680 calories for 12-ounces. Even worse offenders are creamy cocktails, such as brandy alexanders and mudslides — equivalent to drinking a rich dessert.
Ficek says there are many factors working against us during the summertime, “but the weather is usually good enough to get in some outdoor physical activity daily, and fresh produce is quite abundant this time of year too.”
