Maintaining Your Beach Body in a Sea of Summer Eats

Whether you are still feeling bloated from everything you ate on the Fourth of July or you’ve been hitting the Dublin Mudslide a little hard to beat the heat, you may feel totally disgusted with your bikini body summer eating habits right about now. No worries! Redeeming yourself is a lot easier than you think.

By Holly

Drink Water
You know that feeling you get when you want to eat something but you don’t know what you want? That means you’re not really hungry. It could mean you bored, agitated, or excited. In the middle of this sweltering summer, though, it most likely means you’re thirsty. If you’re actually hungry, you’ll know exactly what you want. Then you should eat! If your stomach seems confused, it’s trying to tell you it wants water. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! Those cheese fries won’t make a thirsty body feel better, and you’ll be racking up a lot of unnecessary calories in the meantime.

Don’t Throw a Good Day Away
So you were off to a pretty good start. Maybe a veggie omelet for breakfast, a salad and a sandwich for lunch but then a half-dozen cream puffs or a bag of Reese’s Pieces found their way into your mouth. If you’ve got an all-or-nothing personality like me, you’ll feel miserable at “ruining” your good eats and drown your sorrows in a double cheese pizza, believing all hope is lost anyway. But it’s not! Everyone needs a guilt-free treat, at least once in a while. If you fall off your balanced eating plan, get right back up. Keep your later meals for the day a bit lighter to compensate.

Pack Your Own Lunch
You’re stuck at work or your internship for the whole glorious, sun-filled day. How do you feel better? The gals get together and order lunch, of course! A steady diet of lunch-time take out is draining your wallet while racking up calories. Brown bag something you feel good about eating and stick it in the fridge. It’s always more satisfying to eat a lunch you make yourself. Plus, there are no hidden calories and no hidden costs.

Snack Healthy
If you know you have  a long day and your eating options may be confined to what falls out of a vending machine (or those little fried-everything stands by the beach), plan ahead! Carrot sticks, apple slices, and peanut butter are not very temperature-sensitive and can be packed up in a Jif (pun intended).  So can granola, cereal, and plenty of other healthy foods that will satisfy your munchies.

Enjoy Summer!
Summer is not all ice cream and cook-outs. Grab your gal pals and just go, whether it’s mini-golfing, beach hopping, or just tearing up the town together in cute sundresses. Once you’re out and about, the last thing that will be on your mind is how much you’re eating.

As with life, summer is just too short to sit around worrying about food — or to  deprive yourself a few spoonfuls of good ice-cream. It won’t destroy your bikini body; I promise!