7 summer calorie traps to look out for.

Summer tends to be the most fun and active time of year. All kinds of delicious and nutritious foods are fresh and abundant when the weather gets warmer. This makes spring and summer prime times to work on your weight loss, health, and fitness goals.

But the hot weather, along with picnics, cookouts and other parties that pop up on the calendar, present a variety of temptations that may actually pack on pounds and DEVASTATE your goals. You can avoid these pitfalls if you remember that you have better options that can be satisfying without being disruptive.
Here are seven warm weather weight loss mistakes, and better choices to keep in mind while you’re enjoying sunshine and good times this spring and summer:


1. Bathing Suit Dieting
Whether you’re at the beach or lying by the pool, you want to look your absolute best in your swimwear. That can entice you to try to shed a few extra pounds with a crash diet or to just skip meals. Crash diets are not only unhealthy, they tend to slow your metabolism, making it EVEN MORE difficult for you to drop more than just a few pounds. Even more frustrating, you are unlikely to lose fat in the areas of your body where you’d like to see a difference. And any weight you lose in the short-term will be regained as soon as you resume your normal eating habits.


Better idea: Hire a nutritionist or coach for a HEALTHY and SUSTAINABLE plan for your weight loss. Themightymiracleman rehab and training has a great coach on staff to help you. He advocates for FLEXIBLE dieting so you can still enjoy your life. One tip he suggests is downloading a food tracking app like MyFitnessPal. You don’t have to track EVERY little thing but it’s good to have a general idea of how much you’re eating.


2. Sweating the pounds off
When you exercise in the heat, you think you can feel the pounds melting off with each bead of sweat. And if you weigh yourself right before and after you work out, you may see a difference. That can tempt you to overdo it, leaving you too sore to move much the next few days which will hinder your progress. As soon as you quench your thirst and replace the fluids you’ve sweated out, you will see on the scale that you’ve lost little (if any) weight. Your body DOESN’T burn more calories when you sweat beyond your basal metabolic rate and those required for muscle contraction. On the other hand, when it’s cold and your body is trying to keep your internal temperature at homeostasis you do burn slightly more calories to maintain your internal temperature via muscles contracting even if it’s minute.


Better choice: Maintain a steady activity level EVERYDAY so you get in the 150 minutes of activity a week recommended by the fitness trainers and nutritionists at Themightymiracleman. The regular activity keeps your metabolism burning continually, even if you’re just walking inside an air-conditioned mall. DON’T FREEZE YOURSELF JUST BECAUSE YOU THINK YOU CAN BURN MORE CALORIES! I take NO responsibility for anyone who pushes their body past it’s limits and goes hypothermic. You’ve been warned…


3. More Smoothies and Frapps
On cold days, we warm up with coffee and tea. When the weather turns hot, most of us would rather have a cool smoothie or other blended drink to start the day or as an afternoon pick-me up. 


Coffee and tea are no-calorie “free” foods. Blended drinks from coffee shops and convenience stores tend to be high in sugar, and many are also loaded with fat. A 16-ounce serving may have more than 400 calories, 25 percent of them from fat.


Better choice:  Order unsweetened iced coffee (Themightymiracleman's go-to) or tea instead. Or build the perfect smoothie at home using fresh, nutritious ingredients at home. As a bonus, you SAVE MONEY!!


4. Drinks 🍺 
Casual evenings are ideal for hanging out with friends, enjoying beer, wine and other adult beverages. They are so refreshing in warm weather you can drink a few without feeling full. But even a light beer or white wine comes with ATLEAST 100 empty calories per drink, and the sweet drinks like hard cider and wine coolers that are popular today have as many 180 calories each. IPA fan?! 200+ calories per 12 oz serving…


Better choice: If you want to enjoy a drink or two, that’s OK but at least alternate each one with fizzy seltzer over ice with a lime wedge. Or better yet, mix up a stick pack of REDOX MIND, ENERGY, OR MOOD!! You still get to chill with your friends, but limit how many extra calories you get. Soda stream let’s you make your fizzy fun at home. Get it on Amazon here



5. BBQ outings
Eating outdoors is one of spring and summer’s pleasures. Backyard barbecues bring out so many favorite foods, including classics like potato salad and coleslaw. While those dishes start with healthful vegetables, they get weighed down with excessive saturated fats from mayonnaise and sour cream. Fat isn’t bad per se it’s essential to life after all. The problem is it’s so calorie dense it’s SUPER easy to overindulge. Even just a spoonful of sour cream or mayonnaise adds up to more calories and fats than you probably want. (Ketogenic diets are an exception) Also of concern, the LOADS of added sugar in popular barbecue sauces can heap calories on a lean chicken breast.


Better choice: Pick grain or bean salads instead of the creamy ones. Make potato salad with mustard or vinegar instead of mayonnaise. Enjoy the meats with rubs to add seasoning instead of sauce. 
For recipes just message us and tell us what you need. MENTION THIS BLOG POST AND GET IT FREE!!! (normally recipes found in books costing $15-50)


6. Loaded Salads
With so many fresh vegetables in season and abundant in spring and summer, salads are never more appealing. And there’s no reason not to enjoy AS MUCH of the non-starchy (NOT potatoes) veggies as you’d like. Just beware of bottled dressings that are laden with fat or non-fat dressings flavored with extra sugar. They lay on the empty calories, turning your healthy salad into a nutritional nightmare.


Better choice: Use light vinaigrette or even better, just drizzle on a little vinegar infused with herbs such as tarragon. At Themightymiracleman we like a dash of olive oil and some balsamic vinegar.


7. Not-So-Cool Treats
You may not be a kid anymore, but when you hear that familiar song of the ice cream man as he comes down your block you may still want to go running. Or maybe you’re just craving a cold treat on a hot day. Before you indulge, consider that a SMALL cone of soft-serve adds more than 120 calories to your day. Surprisingly, frozen yogurt can have even more—150 calories or more per serving at the big chains. ESPECIALLY if you load it with (not-so) goodies.


Better choice: Themightymiracleman has recipes for you that offer satisfyingly cool treats, like ice cream sandwiches and fudge bars WITHOUT the extra calories. Each recipe is scrutinized by our nutritionist on staff so you stay on track to your goals and a better quality of life.