Have you been hanging out by the pool lately? Enjoying swim suit season as much as I am—not!?! Well, it’s not too late to get your waistline back in to proper proportions. Here are some tips that I’ve found to help me jumpstart my metabolism and ultimately lose those extra pounds:

• Control your portions! One of the best ways to shrink that waistline is watching how much food you are taking in. But what’s a healthy portion? A neat tool that’s literally right at your fingertips can help.
  • Your thumb = 1 oz (2 thumbs-1 Tablespoon: condiments, peanut butter, spreads, sour cream, cream cheese)
  • Your palm = 3–4 oz (cooked meats: burgers, chicken breast; canned fish: tuna)
  • Your closed fist = 1 cup or 8oz (cold/hot beverages)
  • Two handfuls = 1 cup (breakfast cereal, soup, green salads, chinese food, mixed dishes, i.e., macaroni and cheese, stew, chili)
  • A handful = ½ cup (pasta, rice, mashed potatoes, hot cereal, fruit salad, berries, beans, cottage cheese, pudding, tomato sauce)
• Eat 3 portion controlled meals a day and 2 or more healthy snacks.
• Eat protein at every meal—46 grams of protein per day.
• Eat a vegetable or fruit at every meal. In fact, eat as much as you want when it comes to organic greens and vegetables, as long as they aren’t coated with unhealthy fats—like butter!
• Include healthy fats in your diet, particularly foods rich in omega-3’s. Avoid trans fats.
• Target no more than 60 grams of carbohydrates a day (15 per meal and 7 per snack) while your metabolism heals. Check those labels and recipes!
• Limit dairy products to 4 servings a day, preferably organic. 2% or skim is good.
• Completely avoid soft drinks (including diet sodas) and juices with high-fructose corn syrup. Limit use of artificial sweeteners. I feel a headache comin’ on, but only for a few days!
• Drink 6–10 glasses each day of filtered water, seltzer, or herbal teas. It’s amazing how just drinking water alone for the recommended amount for a week can reduce pounds (water weight)!
• Eliminate/taper sugar, sweets and junk food from your diet. Ouch!
• Eliminate/taper alcohol — the ultimate “sugar buzz.” Taper…
• Eliminate “white food”: white sugar, white flour, white cereal. The discrimination!
• Maintain a calorie deficit to at least 500 calories below your current intake, but not below 1200 calories per day. It takes a 3500 calorie deficit to drop one pound. You can do it!

In addition to what you eat, a few positive lifestyle habits can really make a difference in how you feel. It helps to get healthy before you can lose weight and keep it off. Once you create a health foundation, your body will naturally seek and maintain its ideal weight. Remember that a safe and healthy weight loss is 1–2 pounds per week.

• Shop the outside aisles of the grocery store—the healthy stuff.
• Buy organic and local whenever possible. Pay attention to chemicals, heavy metals, and bacteria in your environment. Shop at farmer’s markets and specialty food stores that have a wider range of healthy foods.
• Stop weighing yourself. Use your dress size as your gauge.
• Start exercising. A 45-minute walk 4–5 times a week is great.
• Get 8 hours of sleep — no exceptions!
• If you recognize that you have a habit of emotional eating, get some counseling. The underlying emotional issues create other health problems too. And they won’t go away without intervention.
• Reduce the stress in your life to the extent you can. Make time for yourself to compensate for when you can’t.
• Above all the dietary and lifestyle choices you make, learn to love and accept yourself. Focus on your health, not your weight. And if you wander from your personal blueprint for health, forgive yourself and step back toward balance. If you can’t do it all, do what you can.

The best way to jumpstart your metabolism is to eat well (which includes taking a daily multivitamin), and to eat regularly and often — just watch that portion size!

If you can choose to eat and drink healthy, natural items versus processed (boxed) foods and fast foods, manage portions, and manage your calorie intake, you’re on your way! We’d love to know how you are doing on your journey to healthy eating. Here’s to good eating and drinking!