Top 10 tips to shape up for swimsuit season

How to lose weight the healthy ‘weigh’

Chere Bork, a local speaker, life coach, registered dietitian and licensed nutritionist, offered the following tips for getting ready for swimsuit season this year:

1) Get active and stay active. Having physical activity 30 minutes a day or using a pedometer really works. Bork recommends using a pedometer to see how much you walk each day, then walk 2,000 steps more than what your baseline is. “I recommend increasing their steps by 1,000 a week,” she said, pointing out that 10,000 steps equals five miles.

“I’d highly recommend a pedometer, especially when you walk. You have to see what your baseline is,” Bork said. “Movement makes you smart,” she said. If you take a walk at lunch, you’ll get more done in the afternoon.

2) Eat lean protein at every meal. “Protein is the focus of new research,” Bork said. “When you eat protein, you feel full for hours.” She said there was a study showing that eating six ounces of pork a day can help maintain lean muscle mass.

3) Pay attention to portions. Bork recommends an easy tip – use smaller plates. And, she says, on that plate, fill half the plate with vegetables, a quarter of the plate with starch and a quarter with protein. Use measuring cups to do portion sizing. Eat one cup of noodles. Use a cup measure to put cereal into a bowl.

4) Eat breakfast. “It gets our metabolism going,” Bork said. “Our body is like a furnace. It starts moving and working. When people don’t eat breakfast, there are more episodes of eating. People eat more because there are more times they’re eating.”

5) Stock your refrigerator, pantry and freezer with healthy options. Bork recommends lean meats, unprocessed dairy, whole grains.

6) Reduce refined carbohydrates and replace them with vegetables. Bork pointed out that a half cup of vegetables has 25 calories, while a half cup of noodles has 80 calories. “You can still have the white pasta,” Bork said, “but remember that whole grains should make up half your bread, cereal and pasta choices.”

7) Make the most of filling foods. “All foods are not equal. Foods that are water-based such as soups or salads can actually make you feel fuller.” Bork said eating protein helps people feel full as well.

8) Be mindful of your eating habits. “Do you eat really fast? Do you have a rule that you have to clean your plate? Do you eat in front of your television?” Bork asked. “Losing weight is just mindful eating. Mindful eating is part of mindful living. Mindful eating is just living in the moment, noticing if you’re hungry or full and paying attention.”

9) Cut 100 calories. Bork said that 100 calories a day is equal to 10 pounds a year. “It could be little things like decreasing your salad dressing from regular to lower fat, that one piece of cheese on your sandwich,” she said. “It can be painless. It can be that you just put jam on your toast instead of butter. One teaspoon of butter is 50 calories. It’s pretty easy.”

10) Keep track of what you eat. “The No. 1 way to lose weight is to write down what you eat,” Bork said. She recommends keeping track of what you eat and keeping an exercise log noting how many times you exercise. “It’s recommended that you weigh yourself once a week,” she said. “I tell people to weigh themselves on Wednesdays.”

Bork said the weight-loss classes she offers fill up in March and April as people think about getting outside – it’s second only to January and New Year’s resolutions, she said.