Generally, as the weather gets warmer we wear less clothes, so as summer approaches many people want to lose weight and get in shape for the beach. Below are 7 healthy eating tips to help you lose weight during the summer months.

Tip #1: Fresh Fruits are the #1 Snack

Depending on where you live, you likely see a significant improvement in the quality of the produce offered at your local grocery store during the summer months. Stock up on fruit once or twice a week. Take them to work, eat them as snacks, and eat them as dessert.

I don’t know about you, but for me a ripe mango taste just as good if not better than candy or a sugary dessert. And fruit will always have so much more vitamins, minerals, fiber, and water than any processed sugary dessert that comes in a box or bag.

Weight Loss Tip #2: Eat a Salad Once a Day

Just like fruit, the veggies tend to be fresher during the summer months. When you stock up on fruit, also stock up on veggies.

Preparing your own salad at lunch or with dinner is a great way to add tons of fiber and minerals to your diet without adding tons of calories. Starting dinner with a salad is a great way to curb overeating and support weight loss.

Weight Loss Tip #3: Careful with the Cold Drinks

During a hot summer day it’s so easy to reach for something cool and refreshing to drink, but you have to be careful that you’re not drinking too many extra calories. Sweetened Lemonade can pack over 200 calories for a 12 ounce serving.

A can of ice cold Coca Cola has about 140 calories per 12 ounce can. A cold 12 ounce beer has about 150 calories. And if you reach for a mixed drink like a cold Pina Colada while you’re sitting at the beach you’ll take in an additional 600 calories.

During the hot summer days try to stay hydrated with mostly water. Drinking mostly water is a great summer weight loss tip.

Tip #4: Careful with the Cold Desserts

Just like cool drinks, during the summer months it seems so easy to reach for ice cream after dinner to cool off. Ice cream tastes good, but it can really wreak havoc on your waistline. An occasional treat is okay, but try not to get the deluxe banana split with whipped cream, caramel, chocolate, fudge, and nuts. If you absolutely must have ice cream, consider sharing with someone else or buy 1 dessert for a group of 4. Less is more.

Tip #5: BBQ a Little Healthier

BBQ’s are a part of summer that so many people love, but a BBQ doesn’t have to be an excuse for you to pig out on all the bad stuff. Go light on the full fat beef, cheese, potato chips, coke, and beer.
Consider sharing a half of a hamburger or skip the cheese. Always seek out any fresh veggies, and limit yourself to one drink that is not water.

Tip #6: Eat Less When You Dine Out.

First, I will say that preparing your own food will help you to lose weight if you eat out often. But, when you do go out to eat during the summer months, try to eat a little less. You can cut back on restaurant calories by eliminating 1 or more courses.

Do you need the bread, appetizers, desserts, and drinks? Ask if you can have the sauce on the side, and try to order something tasty and a little healthy.

Tip #7: Aim to Eat 4-5 smaller meals throughout the day.

I know so many people rush off to work with no breakfast, and often skip or have a light lunch. Then at dinner it’s 1000 calories followed by another 500 calories of dessert. Your metabolism doesn’t like large meals. Try to eat 3-4 300-600 calorie meals and 1-2 100-200 calorie snacks throughout the day.

Hopefully, these simple eating tips will help you to lose weight. Of course, if you are really serious about losing weight then you will also incorporate exercise. Walking is a great place to start, and adding weight training will give you a significant boost. Get started and stick with it.

Most of us want to lose weight and/or get healthier than we are. Healthy eating plans are the key to that.

This doesn’t mean that eating healthily and making sure to take in balanced levels of nutrition are the only ways to lose those ten or one-hundred pounds. Starvation diets are popular, as are programs that completely eschew certain food groups at all times or certain hours or limit intake to only a few food types. These are only a few of your options, walk through the diet aisle in any bookstore and you’ll find a thousand more.

Because our bodies react to any drastic change in nutrition or calorie intake by processing more calories to make up for any lack, it is usually fairly easy to start losing weight quickly. Sustaining the weight loss can be at least as difficult as sticking to any radical dietary change, even harder is keeping a significant amount of weight off. Historically, a high percentage of people on diets regain at least the amount lost, if not significantly more.

This is not to imply weight loss through a change in diet is impossible. However, what is crucial to sustainability is changing our eating habits entirely. This means that rather than simply restriction or some other radical alteration, finding a healthy plan that can be stuck to, and which can affect an overall change in eating habits, is what will work best to take weight off, improve our health and keep it that way.

To that end, healthy eating plans are critical, not only to losing weight – which is not always the goal of a change in eating habits, thin people can be unhealthy too – but also to becoming an overall healthier person. All the nutrition in the world will only work if it’s combined with an active program for making it work.

The entire process of storing, retaining and recalling information is known as memory. Many a times we have thought about how bad we fare on our mental capacity to remember things but we seldom take it seriously however recessing memory is a serious health disorder. Action taken early can go a long way in restoring our mental health.

Experts have designed so many ways to overcome the disorder or improve the condition. One of such tools is called mnemonics it enhances our capacity to remember things based on similarity. It is the neurons in our brain that send and receive signals. The stronger neurons connections are the better the memory is. If we practice ways to strengthen and protect them it can go a long way in ensuring a better memory, which generally degrades with age and mental disorders such as stress. So one should try reducing stress and getting involved in leisure activities. Try to experience new experiences and skills and move away from routine functions. Try new adventures and challenges and give body and mind new environments to function. Exercise regularly and do include brisk walk and cardiovascular exercises to enhance blood flow to brain to enhance its growth. Stimulate brain by involving oneself in brainstorming puzzles and quizzes. Read thru various magazines and books and stay update with newspapers. Try retaining as much information as possible and recall on a regular basis by referring to them in conversation. Avoid medication such as antidepressants and sleeping aids, as they tend to dull our mind. One should also try to kick unhealthy habits such as smoking, drinking and getting involved in drugs/doping. Making sure to get adequate hours of sleep (minimum 8 hours per day) also ensures to help our brain stay active.

Memory can be long term or short term, few people boast of amazing memory they remember things as old as 20 years or more. Whereas some people might not even remember last week activities. It typically also depends on attention paid, it is researched that if one focuses for about 8 seconds or more the information is stored in the memory center of brain. Undistracted attention and avoiding multitasking also ensures information retention. Trying to involve as many senses to relate to information and recalling it by relating to it also helps in strengthening memory. Organizing information in a better way of referring back to when required for e.g. using address book or appointment diaries. Breaking down complex material into bits and pieces and interpreting them also helps in boosting memory.

Diseases such as diabetes and other cardiovascular diseases also affect memory. Stress also makes it difficult to concentrate and remember things. Eating healthy can help in restoring memory and generate healthy brain cells. It also helps to fight adverse effect of medication. Leafy green vegetables and legumes help to generate red blood cells that carry oxygen to the brain. Vitamin B, C and beta-carotene also acts as antioxidants and improve flow of oxygen thru body and brain. These naturally good substances are found in fruits and vegetables such as sweet potato, blue berries tomatoes, spinach, broccoli, green tea, citrus fruits, liver and nuts. Omega 3 fatty acids founds in cod liver oil and other fresh water fishes like salmon and tuna is good for cognitive functions. It is also found in certain vegetarian food such as walnut and flaxseed. On the other hand there are supplements to overcome deficiencies such as vitamin b and folic acid capsules or health food fortified with such vitamins. These foods if taken in adequate quantity can help boost heart functions that in turn supplies blood to brain and will improve neuron functions leading to better memory.

Many mental health problems begin during the teenage years, probably because it is such a difficult time. Teenagers deal with the daily stress of school, peer pressure, and relationships. They have the added stress of exams, learning to drive and getting their license, and impending college decisions. For some, there are also jobs and first monthly bills, like car insurance or cell phones. When combined with the day-to-day stress of home and family life, it can be overwhelming.

Fortunately, there are things you can do to help your teenagers stay mentally healthy.

Stay connected. It is easy for parents and teens to drift apart, sometimes living in almost different worlds. Make an effort to stay connected to your teen. If you know what is happening in their lives, you can spot warning signals that your teen is having problems.

Maintain communication. Keep communication lines open with your teen. While he or she may not always want to talk, they need to know they can talk to you. If you put your teen off, constantly interrupt, or belittle what he or she is saying, then your teen will be less likely to talk to you about the important issues in his or her life.

Try to understand. Although your teenage years may seem like a long time ago, you can remember what it was like to be that age. Take a moment to think about what it was like to be a teenager. Instead of belittling your teen’s issues, or pointing out how small their problems are compared to those of your adult life, try to understand what it is like to be a teenager facing the issues a teenager faces.

Seek outside help. Many parents are afraid to seek outside help, whether a counselor or a friend’s advice, because they think it will make them appear incompetent. Do not be more concerned with what the neighbors will think than you are with your child’s mental health. If your child is struggling with problems that you do not feel capable of helping them handle, find someone who can help you both.

Your teen’s mental health has bearing on his or her mental health as an adult. How they learn to cope and adapt sets the stage for their coping and adapting skills throughout life. Taking the time to help them stay mentally healthy now will continue to help them during those times when you are not there.

You can help ensure that the choices your teen makes are healthy ones. While helping your teen stay healthy requires a little work, the benefits of your efforts will last a lifetime.

Ask yourself these questions:

1. Do you delay trips to the dentist, even when in pain?
2. Do simple dental check-ups worry you?
3. Are annual cleanings a source of nervousness?
4. Has avoiding dental care resulted in bigger problems?
5. Does the sound of the dental drill make you cringe, even when imagined?
6. Do you wish going to the dentist were easier for you?

If you’ve answered YES to three or more questions, dental fears may be restricting you.

What to do?

Ask yourself: What is creating the fear?

Likely culprits are the influence of a dental-phobic relative; what you create mentally when hearing sounds of the dental office, smelling the smells, envisioning the drill, imagining pain, blood, and more.

If you dwell on these whenever dental work is advised, you probably perceived a negative experience with a dentist at some time in your life, or were influenced by a fearful relative.

Those most afraid of pain may neglect checkups, setting themselves up for more difficult procedures when they finally visit a dentist. It’s a vicious cycle.

But you can instead shut off scary mind pictures or dim them. Even shrinking in your mind helps.

If you frighten yourself with imaginary drill sounds, imagine them fainter, farther away, or turn them into another tune. (Yes, you really can do this!)

Do dental smells bother you? Replace them mentally with something that makes you smile, like kids’ fruit punch or peppermint.

Strangely enough, all of this is do-able. Find what’s easiest for you.

Surprising Truths that can also help:

- More-frequent visits are usually gentler visits. When teeth are cared for regularly,
fewer invasive procedures are needed.

- What you create in your mind is probably scarier anything you will experience in the dental chair – especially with today’s anesthesia.

- By intentionally altering your overall feeling about dentistry little by little, and increasing oral care at home, you can benefit from the rewards of less pain, fewer procedures, and even fewer appointments (with your dentist’s approval).

The question is how to achieve this when you fear the dentist?

One very good answer: Hypnosis.

Why?

- Hypnosis quells fears

- Hypnosis creates relaxation you can trigger at the dental office

- Hypnosis helps you alter scary mind pictures

- Hypnosis helps make dental sounds mean something different and better-or disappear altogether

- Hypnosis becomes a process you can do any time you’re in the dental zone, or anywhere else, when you sense fear or nervousness coming on

- Hypnosis can help you create positive, useful habits (like more frequent flossing, brushing, and hygiene, as prescribed by your dentist)

- Hypnosis can provide “mental rehearsal” to make the dental visit more palatable, including appointment setting, entering the office, noticing scents, seeing dental tools and feeling them in your mouth, hearing drill sounds, being given the diagnosis, getting an injection-and anywhere else your mind drifts

- Hypnosis can help you get comfortable with dental appliances more easily and quickly, including braces, retainers, bite guards and others

(Did you feel jittery reading the list? Then you’re among the Most Likely To Benefit From Dental Hypnosis.)

The irony is that the less you fear the dentist, the less scary your appointments are, the more comfortable you feel at the office, the less often you’ll need to come. The reverse is also true.

How to find a hypnotist who deals with dental anxiety or odontophobia? One solution is to ask your dentist prior to your appointment if he knows someone.

Otherwise, locate a local, certified hypnotist, ask about dental hypnosis, and make an appointment or two before your scheduled dental visit.

Many hypnotists who do this work now had their own dental fears in the past. If you saw all the crowns in my mouth, you’d know just how well qualified I am! ©2009 by Wendy Lapidus-Saltz. All rights reserved.