… is almost every woman's dilemma going into the summertime.  You may wonder why I'm thinking about this when we had 4-6" of snow yesterday, but I bought a new magazine "Quilter's Home" over the weekend and there was the funniest little poll in it.  Their "Posse Poll" page asked the question, "What are you wearing this summer?"

2% answered a bikini (yeah right!) 7% said a two piece, 60% said a one piece and 31% said a BURKA!  I couldn't help laughing!  Hmmmm…. maybe if we created a cute enough fabric it might work?!

Basically most of us women aren't happy with our bodies for one reason or another.  Over the winter our "burka" is our sweats, but they have to come off sometime and when they do we often discover there's a few more pounds hiding there to deal with.

All kidding aside, it feels really yucky when our weight and/or eating is out of control and we just can't seem to turn things around.  We know that another crash diet isn't going to work — every time we do it we throw our bodies a little more out of whack and end up putting on more weight rather than keeping it off.  So what can we do differently THIS YEAR than any other year that we've tried?

I have a couple of suggestions from things I've learned on my 60 lb. weight loss journey over the past 18 months.  The good news is you CAN gain control over this area of your life.  One day at a time, one meal at a time, one choice at a time…

1. Those cravings you wrestle with are often your body telling you that you aren't feeding it good, whole, nutritious foods.  Even if you never count calories, but substitute whole foods for everything that you are eating, your body will become more nourished and quit screaming at you "Feed me!!!"  If you eat rice, make it brown rice.  If you have bread, make sure it is 100% whole wheat, if you want something sweet, have a piece of fruit rather than a candy bar.  Whole foods fill you up more, for less calories and they don't send your blood sugar skyrocketing then plunging causing you to crave.  Whole foods trigger your body's satisfaction mechanism rather than craving and keep you satisfied for a longer time.
2. NEVER, EVER, EVER DROP BELOW 1,000 CALORIES A DAY!  If you do, you will work against yourself as your body will go into "starvation protection" mode.  Your metabolism will slow down and your body will eat its own muscle rather than the fat you're trying to get rid of.  1200-1500 calories a day over time will do more to drop your weight off and keep it off.
3. Drink more water, clear soups or herbal tea.  Believe it or not, drinking 8 glasses a day will go a long way to filling you up, especially warm clear soups or flavored herbal teas.  The water also helps your body metabolize the fat and get rid of it more easily.
4. Add a little bit of exercise to your day.  Don't try some great big binge of working out, just add 15-20 minutes walking or working out in your garden but do it consistently.  It will produce more results than a couple of intense sessions that end with Bengay and enough pain to keep you from going back!
5. Read the calorie/nutrition menus at fast food places before you order.  You won't believe the calories and bad fats that are in almost anything you usually eat there.  Make wise choices when you eat out, especially if you eat on the run alot.  You can drop a lot of weight effortlessly if you change this one area of your life!
6. Sugars are in everything we eat.  Read the labels of your canned or packaged foods you'll be amazed (and probably disgusted too).  Sugar is a huge culprit in your uncontrollable urges to eat.  It raises your blood sugar level, then causes it to plummet which makes you feel shakey and crave another sugary snack that repeats and intensifies the process.  Replace white refined sugars with whole food sweetners like honey, molasses, and maple syrup and you won't have the same reaction.  These are real foods that nourish your body, while refined sugar is an anti-food that steals vitamins and minerals from you body in order to process it.
7. Make changes gradually BUT FOREVER.  Diets don't work.  Even if you lose the weight on a diet, you won't keep it off if you don't change the behaviors that got you there in the first place.  Change your life a little at a time, but again, CHANGE IT FOREVER and you'll feel so much better for doing it.  (Information learned through The Prism Weight Loss Program www.pwlp.com )

Summer's coming!  And this year I'm going swimming… in public… and I'm not going to wear my burka!

Audrey Jeanne Roberts