Skinny for the Summer

Spring is here! And while it might not feel like it at the moment, we will soon put away our jackets and shed all of our layers for clothing that shows off our figures. Now is the perfect time to start thinking about your diet and exercise routine and to get back into shape for the beach!

To get into shape, you need to eat right AND exercise. One cannot exist without the other. Rather than obsesses about crazy workouts or counting calories, the most important change you can make to promote weight loss is to alter your environment and your habits in order to make weight loss and health second nature. According to Dr. Mark Hyman, “the key to changing habits is to understand how change really occurs. And for the most part, it occurs by design, not by accident or wishful thinking. It occurs by transforming the unconscious choices we make every day, shifting them so that the automatic, easy, default choices become healthy choices, not deadly ones.”

The old adage, “you are what you eat,” hits the bull’s eye when discussing diet. While the amount of food is important, the types of foods we eat are just as important. Sugar is toxic, and it is very important to limit foods with extra sugar in order to see weight change. Many people have food cravings and find change to be extremely difficult. As stated before, in order to change your eating habits, you must change your environment. Do not keep candy, chips, and sugary items in your house. Place fruits and nuts within easy reach. Make fruit more accessible by cutting it up and displaying it. Do not go to the sections of the grocery store where you may be tempted to buy unhealthy items, and avoid restaurants or shops where you have a weakness for their unhealthy choices. Serve meals in portions and put away leftovers, and use smaller plates to eat less. Find new recipes online and keep condiments handy in the house to flavor food. Also, plan your food and snacks in advance so you never have to “cheat” and so you are never left hungry and have to grab something unhealthy. Change is possible if you have a plan!

Similarly, you need to have a plan for exercise. Make sure to set aside time to go to the gym and workout. Make it a priority and schedule it into your calendar. Exercise should be easy, so find your obstacles to working out and create a solution to them! Also remember that cardio is not enough to change your body; resistance training is necessary to boost your metabolism, increase muscle mass, and burn fat. Work with a personal trainer to learn how to safely exercise and have him make you a routine to follow. Change your current habits and start your routine to see results!

It is all about having the motivation, ability and a trigger to change. We live in an unhealthy world, so we need to create our own healthy environment and design it to make it easy to do the right thing. That is how we create health, and it is the key to success in weight loss and transformation of mind and body.