Best Tips to Drop Weight for the Summer

Summer is officially less than a week away! Are you ready? Do you look and feel your best yet? If not, it’s not too late! Let’s talk about small actionable steps you can take to drop weight for summer! We’re going to get you feeling better from the inside out so you have the energy to keep up with your kids and the confidence to strut in that swimsuit or sundress this summer!

Best Tips for Dropping Weight:

1. Cut the sugar. I know, I know…those pretzel M&M’s make you feel better in the afternoon. I get it, really I do but I’m speaking from experience when I say that I dropped sugar for lent and literally watched the excess fat melt away. I started dropping weight pretty quickly and didn’t have a ton I needed to lose. This doesn’t mean you can’t occasionally indulge, but try to make it once a week if you do and perhaps limit yourself to dark chocolate or a set amount of something.

2. Throw out the crap. Literally, if you have bad food in your house, you will eat it or it will be a temptation. My trick is that I buy my hubs food that he likes that I don’t. If he wants cookies that week, then I buy raspberry cheesecake filled ones I detest so I won’t be tempted to eat it. (And, no, I don’t like raspberry flavors or cheesecake, total weirdo! 😉 )

3. Shop the perimeter of the grocery store. I have personally found that eating “clean” is how I feel the best and look the best. This means shopping the perimeter of the grocery store and mostly eating meats, produce, nuts, and whole grains. I add in occasional dairy to include Greek Yogurt or coffee creamer.

4. Get your sweat on! Do what you have to do to get just thirty minutes of exercise 4x a week minimum! If that means setting a timer and dancing in your house, grabbing a friend and going for a walk or hitting the treadmill while watching Netflix, just do it! Your body will thank you for it!

5. Drink like a camel. And yes, I mean water not wine. Try to consume at least 8 glasses of water per day. This should help you feel more satiated and help your body feel better overall. Try to cut out drinking on weeknights if possible to aid in your weight loss as well.

6. Eat one salad a day. Whether you swap your lunch or dinner for a salad, it doesn’t matter but it will make you feel better to get in extra veggies. If you forgo the salad, add in a juice to get in more vitamins and minerals in your diet that day! *Use a healthy all natural dressing like oil and vinegar or Marzetti Simply Dressed.

7. No more Low Fat foods. Did you know if you keep piling low fat crackers, low fat cookies or even “low fat” salad dressings on, they can actually make you gain weight? Many times when something is labeled as “low fat” it just means they’ve replaced the flavor in other unhealthy ways like sugar or tons of sodium.

Can you do it? Try it with me for 2 weeks. YES, that’s 14 days to get you started. That should help you break the cycle of bad to implement the good. After that, you will find it easier to kick start the good since your body will start to feel better and motivate you further towards healthy habits. Check in with me on Instagram to let me know how you’re doing!

*These are just my suggestions and as always I would recommend you talk to your doctor if you have questions or need help with serious weight loss.