Allure Beauty Reporter's Favorite Summer Diet Tips
Now that it's getting a little warmer and designers aren't showing as many tent dresses as they were last year (traitors!!!), it's time to rethink that Paula Deen special you were planning on whipping up this weekend.
Wait, scratch that: I won't speak for you. Maybe you've retired your bulky sweaters and are feeling fine and dandy about your spring figure. If you are, bless your little heart (and butt).
I, on the other hand, continue my grand tradition of the pre-bikini panic diet. Here, my top tips to keep me in my skinny jeans (or at least out of my baggy ones):
1. Carry a Thin Pack. Stephen Gullo, the patron saint of food/mind control, told me to carry a Thin Pack on busy days so I don't reach for the Doritos. My personal Thin Pack Ziploc bag holds low-fat, low-cal, and high-fiber treats like 25-calorie hot cocoa, these crazy G.G. Scandinavian bran crackers that kill my cravings, and Laughing Cow Light cheese wedges. While I admit it this kit doesn't taste like a McDonald's #5, knowing that I packed this little baggie is enough to guilt me out of the fast food line.
2. Charge up the old iPod. I don't know about you, but I can say definitively that I've never gotten runner's high. Making a playlist full of new songs (Madonna's "4 Minutes" does it for me these days) is enough to get me onto the treadmill for 30 minutes. It's a mental trick that works.
3. Look at recipes. Back away from the Toll House site, and kindly move over to epicurious.com. I troll this site looking for low-cal recipes whenever I'm trying to drop a few. Because cooking is fun and creative, it doesn't make my diet feel like a one-way ticket to Celery Stick City.
4. Break out The List. I have a terribly logical friend who always makes pros and cons lists for every move she makes. I adopt her nerdy habit whenever I need to psych myself up. The pros of eating healthy and exercising trump the cons, and seeing this on paper helps. I keep my list in an obvious place, on my refrigerator door.
5. Write down every bite. Sure, it's anal as heck but writing down what I eat really helps me with that whole "accountability" thing. The thought of seeing the words "the remaining eight inches of that loaf of chocolate babka" written in my own food diary is enough to make me leave the kitchen, or at least find a tasty substitute.
6. Water. It's zero calories and makes you feel full. Enough said.
What tricks do you have up your cap sleeve?
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