If you want to lose weight or even just not gain weight over the summer holidays then these tips could help you achieve that. Instead of gaining a stone over the six weeks, the kids are off school you could stay the same by having a healthy summer.
Be proud of yourself for not gaining and aim for that at the worst. Remember you are only human and you only live once so it isn’t a crime to enjoy yourself. Follow these tweaks to enjoy yourself but not gain weight.
Always have a healthy breakfast
By eating a healthy breakfast you start the day filling up on something good. People who don’t eat breakfast tend to get hungry before they eat and then binge on something that gives them a quick energy boost. Start the day well and you will notice the difference.
Watch your drinks
Stay hydrated with water or squash whenever you can. I find whenever I don’t it is easy to mistake thirst for hunger. When choosing alcoholic drinks ensure you chose low sugar mixers where possible and avoid pints of beer as the calories soon mount up. Excessive drinking is an easy way to gain weight.
Plan meals and snacks for a healthy summer
Plan the family’s meals and snacks allowing for some treats. By planning you can buy healthier choices for ice creams for example and still all enjoy them.
Meal planning means the summer can be enjoyed as you don’t have to spend hours wandering shops wondering what to eat! You can have a healthy BBQ easily or a healthy picnic, so don’t feel you have to have a salad every day!
Research your days out
Some places you go won’t be ideal for a healthy picnic so you will need to eat out. With a little planning in advance, you can ensure you pick the healthiest place to eat.
Why choose a cafe with greasy fry-ups when you could have a jacket potato elsewhere? A little bit of research can make all the difference. Even if you choose the fry-up you have made that choice with all the knowledge possible.
Why not have healthy meals but then treat yourself to the perfect afternoon tea or cream tea? It would be much more rewarding than shop-bought sandwiches and probably similar on syns/calories!
Share your food
Don’t panic, I am not suggesting you give your food to your other half! My suggestion is to share what you eat online for a healthy summer. If you have to be open about what you are eating you are less likely to pile so much on your plate! Use Instagram, Twitter or Facebook to share your meals with your friends or weight loss group. Alternatively, just buddy up with someone who agrees to pester you if you don’t share a meal. Making yourself accountable will help you eat much more healthily!
Planning for a healthy summer
If you want healthy food for a relaxing summer where you don’t put on the pounds I have some great summer recipes to help. Be sure to get out the BBQ and put rubs on meats, marinate tofu or get that charcoal in to ensure that you have a great time.
Whatever you do be sure to plan ahead because we all know that when the weather is nice no shops have BBQ foods in anymore and the whole of the supermarket is full of people with trolleys of bread rolls and beer. If the weather is a bit questionable there are plenty of cool summer meals to make in the air fryer to avoid putting the oven on or settling for a Mexican salad or Greek salad again!
A healthy summer means a little planning ahead to ensure you can stay on plan and still have tasty summer foods. That way you can always save calories or syns for favourites, mine are low syn chocolate or Jaffa Cake gin!
If you hate meal planning then check out my summer meal plan or for cooler days my late summer/autumn plan.
More you may enjoy
To read all my posts with tips and experiences of various diets, exercises and lots more check out my comprehensive Weight Loss and Exercise section.
Some gadgets can make it so much easier to eat healthily this summer. Another suggestion is to grow herbs with the kids.
If you are looking to go away for the summer then do check out reviews and travel blogs such as Keene on Travel for suggestions to save money too!
Share food. haha that is so true. Too bad that I only have 2 kids with very small food consumption and we don’t have neighbors. I always finish their lefovers! sucks. haha
Hydration is the base to any healthy lifestyle, and Im glad you actually mentioned how important it is to just drink some water.
Ooooooooh love this. Totally need to save this for our family! We always need some tips on healthy eating!
This is so on point. I am getting better at drinking more water.
Yes this is so important. The drinks thing is a big one!
Yes! Healthy breakfast is so important routine that we need to do and these ideas are very helpful and amazing too. I am glad to know about it. Thanks for sharing! ♥
I drink quite a lot of water this summer to stay well hydrated. However, I have still some problems with planning my healthy meals, so there is still something to work on. Thanks! 🙂
When I am on vacation, I try to eat plenty of fruits and veggies. Then I also exercise every day.
I do try to watch it, but when I am on vacation, I tend to enjoy myself. I don’t want to limit the goodies 🙂 I figure the walking I do helps burn it off.
I try really hard to just drink water – but when I do have alcohol I try to make healthier choices. It can be hard!
Watch your drinks is such a big one! I never really thought about that until maybe last year..how much sugar is in a margarita!? It was shocking to me when I really thought about it, and I am so much more mindful of this when having a summer cocktail.
These are great tips, I always miss breakfast while on holiday so I will make sure not to skip it this time and to drink more water.
What a list of great ideas! Mistaken thirst for hunger happens to me all the time as I often forget to stay hydrated LOL.