05 Apr Six-pack of diet tips to get a beach body

It’s swimsuit season, or it’s coming to a pool or beach very soon depending on what the temperatures are like where you live.
In order to not look like a beached whale or stuffed sausage in your swimming suit, you may need to tweak your diet and start exercising more.
When it comes to dieting, here are six simple tips to help slim down to a beach body:
1. Think natural – The more natural and closer to nature foods are the better. Build your diet around fruits and vegetables.
2. Quit drinking soda – You should really cut out all sodas, just because it says diet doesn’t mean it’s better for you than regular soda. Diet soda still contains lots of sugar and artificial ingredients and can still add weight to your body. Some studies have found that people who drink diet soda are still more likely to gain weight and develop diabetes than those who don’t.
3. Avoid white pasta – Choose whole grain pasta over white pasta as it will be lower in sugars and carbs.
4. Choose dark chocolate over white and milk chocolate – Two ounces of white chocolate can contain 320 calories.
5. Limit alcohol consumption – The benefits of wine are often trumpeted, however, be aware that if you’re trying to lose weight excess wine drinking can still pack on the calories. Limit your consumption to one drink during the week, two on weekends.
6. Choose sugar free products carefully – The label may say “sugar free” but like with lots of products marked this way the gum still can act like a sugar in the body because it’s loaded with artificial sweeteners.

At Home Fitness consultant Aaron Dorksen’s blog deals with a variety of fitness topics, ranging from workout tips, motivational ideas and feature stories on how exercise impacts people’s lives. E-mail him with comments, questions or ideas for future blogs at aaron@athomefitness.com