‘ve been seeing a lot of the same common dieting mistakes lately and I wanted to write to you today to make sure that you are not falling trap to the same struggles.
Individually each one of these tips will help you gain or lose weight depending on your situation.
Collectively these 4 tips will help simplify your meal planning, food choices and weight loss. The goal behind each tip is to increase your digestion and energy which is extremely important during the summer months to avoid excess bloat and sugar cravings.
Drink more water
Now more than ever you need to increase your water consumption. Chances are you are already living in a dehydrated state through most of your life, but with the increased heat and more sweating you are going to be pushing even more water out of your system.
Aim to drink a minimum of 8 ounces of water hourly to help increase your digestion and energy!
Eat more fruit
Many people avoid fruit, especially when following a low carb diet. But eating more fruit in between and before meals can help increase your energy, hydration, digestive enzymes and increase fiber intake.
Aim to eat 1 apple and 1 cup of frozen blueberries each day. The best time is before activity or as a snack in between meals!
Eat more vegetables
If you are trying to lose weight and get more tone, ditch the starchy carbs like pasta, potatoes, bread and rice. Instead try to include at least 2x the amount of vegetables than the size of your meat with your lunch and dinner. This will both keep you full longer and also help your digestion to prevent bloating in the heat or during your workouts.
Aim to eat 4-8 ounces of meat and 8-16 ounces of vegetables at lunch and dinner. Increase or decrease your portion size based on your appetite and digestion!
Drink more smoothies
The BIGGEST problem I’m seeing lately is under eating throughout the day because of lack of appetite or busy schedule, and then overeating on snacks and bad choices later in the day. The hotter it gets, the more your appetite will decrease. This is when including smoothies into your day can greatly enhance your protein, fiber and vitamin intake each day.
Aim have at least 1 smoothie each day with a minimum of 1 cup berries, 25g protein powder and 1/4 cup of Greek yogurt. You can add other ingredients like spinach, carrots, apples, kale, celery, spinach, wheat germ, flax or chia seeds and so much more!
Fuel your fire
Right now is the time to simplify your eating selection to fruits, vegetables, beans, lean protein, nuts and seeds along with LOTS of water each day.
During the summer your body is craving to be fed quick and simple digesting foods so don’t spend as much time worrying about if you should be eating 3, 4 or 5 meals per day. Instead just continuously feed yourself these easily digestible healthy food choices.
If you are a person who tends to overeat or needs more structure, keep your daily calories around 10 x your goal body weight and use an app like MyFitnessPal to log your food.
The more you fuel and hydrate your body over the next 8 weeks with healthy choices the more energy, weight loss and happiness you’ll have!
Committed to your fitness success,
Derek Kuryliw, your fitness Yoda 🙂
