The 3 S’s of Summer are coming! Shorts, Sleeveless Tops, and Swimsuits!

For many American homes Memorial Day is the gateway to the summer season. However, summer solstice takes place on Sunday, June 21st and is considered the first day of summer resulting in the shortest and longest day of the year. With less than 4 weeks away, there is still time to get your body ready for summer 2015.

The summer month’s often mean barbequed meals, dining out more frequently, more outdoor activities plus weekend and vacation plans that often include time at the pool.

Is your body ready for summer?

I recently created a list of things to do to get ready for my summer and discovered that my list could have 1 or more ideas that cold help others get ready too.

Take one tip at a time and see how your body feels, looks, and most importantly make sure you’re enjoying the summer!

1. Move out the comfort foods and move in summer’s sensations.

Clear your cupboards of pasta and the fridge of winter root veggies. Take advantage of the succulent, lighter and lower calorie, higher nutrient foods of summer such as, tomatoes, cucumbers, sugar snap peas, summer zucchini, butter lettuce, bell peppers, and a multitude of fragrant melons.

Instead of noodles try summer squash saute by using a julienne peeler or Veggetti grater to create zucchini pasta. For best results, saute strips 2-3 minutes to avoid them going limp. Saute in olive oil add garlic and fresh basil along with artichoke hearts and discover how good it feels (and taste) to eat the lighter fare of summer.

Experiment with Super Salads – salads that pack so much into the bowl that they are a meal in themselves! Besides lettuce and lean choices of protein add rice or lentils for slowly absorbed carbs; fresh fruit like grape halves or berries add fiber and even with heart-healthy olive oil, go lightly since at 120 calories per tablespoon that super salad can equal the calories of a super-sized fast food meal!

Between lightening up our eating and moving more, losing weight over the summer months often happens without much thought.

2. Upgrade your H2O supply!

Take your refreshments to the next level. Humidity, higher temps, more activities put our bodies in the dry zone. Don’t wait until you’ve lost 1-2% of body fluid (very easy to do) since this creates feelings of fatigue, stops you from completing workouts and even confuses you into thinking you’re hungry! The best choice is water but if plain water leaves you flat create spa water by infusing water with a variety of fruits, vegetables and spices.

Infused water blends are easy to create when you purchase an infused water bottle or carafe. Look for BPA free and one designed to make it easy to clean.

Don’t stick to adding only fruit, try flavoring water with vegetables and/or herbs. Try adding mint, ginger, basil or lavender. Some infusions taste stronger when infused for at least 24 hours (always refrigerated).

One of my favorites is strawberry, lime, and grapes. Don’t forget to cut off the rind of the lime and lemons to stop your water from becoming bitter. Cut the fruit into small pieces and discard the pieces after 24 hours.

3. Sculpt your shoulders to show off your beautiful summer sleeveless clothes.

That little indentation just below the shoulder allows the deltoid muscle to pop out and gives arms the sculpted look. It doesn’t take hours in the gym to create this effect. Just commitment and patience. In 4-6 weeks you’ll see the difference. Don’t worry you won’t bulk up – impossible for us ladies (unless we take steroids). Start with this one exercise:

Stand up and hold one dumbbell with each hand in front of your hips, palms facing each other.

Raise the dumbbells to your sides until your arms are close to being parallel to the ground and lower them back down after a short pause.

Try to maintain the angles in your elbows still throughout.

Start with a dumbbell between 5 and 12 pounds. It should be easy enough to complete the movement 12-15 times but feels hard on those last 2-3 lifts. Complete the 12-15 repetitions 3 times (or 3 sets) with 30-60 seconds rest between. Goal is to complete this 3x/week for the next 4 weeks and you’ll see that “deltoid dimple” start to bud!

4. Prepare your body for vacation fun!

Planning days of endless walkabouts in New York, Seattle or San Fran? Or maybe hiking in the hills of Colorado or the trails of Northern Arizona? Are your legs ready for it? Make a plan to prepare your legs for all that walking while creating shapely legs.

Having an end date in mind to reach your goal of strong legs to carry your through those long airport walks, endless hours of shopping, and planned activities, is a great motivator for following through on your commitment to the gym, local hikes or bike rides. Keep the vision of you walking the streets of your favorite city or hiking nature’s own stair master with ease and strength!

In addition, focusing on strengthening your legs may come with an unexpected benefit, losing a few pounds. Adopting behaviors to become healthier often sets in motion the desire to continue on with more changes that help with weight loss.

Don’t forget: Small hinges open big doors!

5. Make yourself look and feel more energetic by embarking on a 30 day challenge

Has winter foraging left you with some fat storage you’d like to shed for the summer? If so give yourself one month to jump start your transformation.

Why do 30 day challenges work? Having a defined time to create something gives us a    sense of urgency. We don’t procrastinate since the clock is ticking. Thirty days is enough to see a change in our energy levels, weight, body measurements, moods, skin clarity, sleep and more.           

What does it mean to eat clean?

This nebulous term has many meanings. As a Nutritionist and RD, eating clean means to me to select foods that are minimally or have minor processing, no use of antibiotics or hormones, void of artificial flavors and colors, nutrient rich for the calories the food provides, and maintaining a balance of carbs, protein and healthy fats that leads to a healthier body weight and other measures of health such as, fasting glucose, LDL -cholesterol, and insulin levels.

Claiming 30 days to follow a cleaner eating lifestyle can be transformative for some people. They’ve grown accustomed to chronically feeling tired, dealing with daily joint pains, stomach issues, difficulty in losing weight; and are taken back by how as each week goes by they feel their body (and mind) responding to the elimination of highly processed foods.

If you start June 1st by 4th of July you can celebrate your freedom from the grip of addictive foods. Imagine how good it will feel to have the energy to enjoy the summer weekends doing the activities you love!

After reading this month’s “5 Tips to Get your Body Ready for Summer” ask yourself “if I only did one thing to get my body ready for summer, what would that one thing be?” I’d love to read your comment and start a conversation that may be the support others need too.

Discover how easy it is to get started!

It’s easier to do with the help of a nutritionist or even with an entire group of like-minded women to cheer you on.  Take the first step and click here to schedule your complimentary session “The SMARTER Weigh to Slim Down.” I’ll share  what a 30 day challenge would look like for you and the results you can expect.

Take your next step toward weight control!  

If you’re tired of losing at the weight loss game discover a SMARTER Weigh to win the game! click here to sign up to receive my complimentary report “5 SMART Strategies for Successful Slimming.”

The report is for you if you’re a woman in mid-age experiencing unexpected weight gain or struggling to lose weight like never before. Discover the top 5 strategies I use and share with clients so they can begin to take back control of their weight and health.