How To Lose Weight Without Giving Up Your Favorite Summer Treats
Oh summer, it’s the best of times and the worst of times as a busy mama. On the one hand, there’s more time to spend with family and friends. On the other hand, it brings the stress of being seen in swimming suits, shorts and tank tops. These wouldn’t be bad things if you felt more confident in your body. But you gained some weight over the winter and now summer means it’s time to go on another diet. I don’t know about you, but for me, dieting or restricting calories over the summer just sucks.
I don’t want to be cutting out carbs or fat during the summer months! I don’t want to spend my precious summers with my kids worrying about what other people think about my body, or stressing that having an ice cream cone with my kids is going to ruin all my hard work.
I love summer. I want to enjoy it! Plus, my oldest daughter only has a few more summers under my roof and I want to focus on creating memories with her instead of worrying about the scale going up.
That being said, I also want to feel confident when I put on my swimsuit. I want to run and play with my kids without worrying about how my legs look in my shorts. I want to rock my tank top without constantly tugging on it to cover my tummy better.
The best way to have my ice cream cake and eat it too, is to find balance in my nutrition so I can enjoy the fun times with my kids and still see progress with my weight loss.
After spending a decade learning for myself and teaching hundreds of other busy mamas about health and nutrition, I’ve come up with these three tips to help you lose weight without giving up your favorite summer treats!
Stop labeling food as “good” and “bad”
We all want to eat healthily, but “eating healthy” is a subjective term. To some people that means exclusively eating whole foods and nothing else. For me, eating healthy means eating foods that help my body and my mind.
One of the first things I teach new clients is that there are no good or bad foods. Food is fuel.
You can fuel your body with cookies and ice cream and you can fuel it with chicken and veggies. Either way, your body breaks that food down and uses it to fuel itself.
That being said, the chicken and veggies will give you longer-lasting energy, macro and micronutrients, and keep you feeling full longer than cookies and ice cream. But that doesn’t mean you should never have cookies and ice cream!
Part of a balanced diet means eating the healthy food that’s “good” for us, but it also means making room for the fun food that makes us happy!
On the flip side, you shouldn’t have to eat foods that are “good” for you but make you miserable! If you love Brussels sprouts, then you should eat them! But if they make you gag, don’t eat them!! Not even for the sake of being healthy! There are so many foods available to us that we don’t have to eat something just because some rando on the internet said it was the key to health and happiness.
I also want you to release the food guilt about eating “bad” foods. How many times have you said, “I’m working out extra hard today so I don’t feel guilty about eating a cupcake later.” or “I’m eating just a salad for lunch so I don’t feel bad about eating pizza for dinner.”
It’s absolutely ok, and even good, to balance out fun, calorie-dense foods, with healthier foods but attaching guilt to it is completely unnecessary!
Letting go of the idea of “good” vs. “bad” foods lifts a lot of the guilt we’ve been taught to feel about our food choices.
Focus on protein first
If you want to start eating healthier this summer, then the place to start is with protein. Protein is one of three essential nutrients. Essential as in we need it to live (carbs and fat are the other two, just FYI!) Although it’s crucial to our bodies, most people undereat protein every single day for two reasons.
Protein doesn’t sound as appetizing as fats and carbs. It’s not a sexy macronutrient. But it’s vital for muscle growth, hair and nail growth, along with cell production!
It takes a longer time to prepare. It’s much easier to grab some fruit out of the fridge than it is to grab chicken! Most animal or plant-based proteins require preparation. Which makes it harder to consume with our busy, on-the-go lifestyles.
Like I’ve said, protein is hugely important and I don’t want you skipping it because it’s a little more work. So I’ve found some easy ways to add more protein to your diet! They might not be fun or exciting, but I promise if you implement a few of these you’ll start seeing better results!
The biggest habit I’ve created in the last 10 years is bulk-prepping my protein. Once a week I prep all of my proteins for the week. I usually pick 2-3 different types of protein (such as chicken, pork, beef, shrimp) and plan my meals around them. Then, I cook everything up at once so that during the week all I have to do is pull it out of the fridge, heat it up and serve it! It makes a huge difference.
Another habit I’ve added to my life is eating protein at every meal. It might sound overwhelming at first, but when you stop thinking of your side dishes as the focal point of the meal and think protein first, it makes it so easy! For example, one of my kids’ favorite meals is my protein mac and cheese. And although it does have more protein than traditional mac and cheese, I don’t let that be our entire meal. If we want mac and cheese, it should be more as a side dish, then we need to find a solid protein to go with it. I love pairing mac and cheese with grilled chicken! It makes it a very balanced meal and the whole family loves it! (You can grab my protein mac and cheese recipe here!)
Finally, I try to have quick and easy protein options on hand. The most convenient protein options are going to be more processed, like protein bars or protein shakes and there’s nothing wrong with these types of protein. But keep in mind that those won’t be as filling as whole food proteins because most of the proteins have already been broken down. I also love having Greek yogurt, beef jerky, deli meats and cottage cheese on hand when I want more whole-food options.
Don’t forget to enjoy your summer weight loss journey
I’ve saved one of my most important tips for last, enjoy your summer weight loss journey. I know how daunting it feels to try and lose weight, especially when everyone around you is focused on just enjoying themselves!
This is why I don’t like restrictive diets. They focus on what you can’t have or what you can’t do and in 20 years I don’t think I will be happy if I only focused on what I couldn’t do. I want to look back and remember all the good times and how I was healthy enough to enjoy them.
So this summer, instead of trying another restrictive diet that you only have to “stick to” until you go on vacation, or until you lose 15 lbs, or whatever end goal you have in mind, I want you to try to live a healthier life that fits in your current lifestyle.
To be absolutely honest, healthy living doesn’t have an endpoint. Not if you want to keep your results. So if you’re looking for a diet that you have to suffer through just for a few weeks, then I’m not the right person to help you.
However, if you want to lose weight and learn how to eat healthy for a lifetime, then you’re in the right place!
You can live a healthy life and a fun life! The secret to it is finding joy in the journey. Start by learning what brings you joy in your nutritional journey.
Is it ending your evening with an ice cream sandwich? (That was my daily treat when I first started macro tracking!) Or maybe it’s starting your day with a cup of coffee. Food can bring you happiness and I can help you learn how to uplevel your food so that it works best for you! You don’t have to cut out everything you love to live a healthy life.
Happiness can also be found in doing the work ahead of time so that your life is easier in the long run.
One habit that has brought me a lot of happiness is my weekly meal preps! I get my whole family involved in the process and so many memories have been made meal planning and prepping with my kiddos.
Don’t overlook the small joys of this process, either! Sometimes meal planning is a huge pain, but having an answer to the dreaded “Mom, what’s for dinner?” question makes it worth it! I don’t miss the anxiety and stress that, that question used to bring at all!
Mama, I want you to enjoy your summer. That means making memories around a campfire and eating s’mores and it means feeling incredibly confident when you go to the pool. And you can have both of these things!
For the last decade, I’ve helped busy mamas lose 40-65 lbs without resorting to shakes, pills, shots, or sacrificing their love for food. I’ve also helped women let go of food guilt and shame so that they can enjoy their lives! If this is what you’re looking for, then let’s chat. Schedule a free Healthy Mama Blueprint call and we can work together to reach your health and weight loss goals.
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