It’s almost that time again, the one every woman holds so dear….swimsuit season! Now don’t shudder, cringe, and berate yourself for not spending more time in the gym because, first of all, I can promise that your body is much better than you think it is, and secondly, a few minor adjustments to your diet can make a huge impact on the way you look and feel.
Kimberly Snyder is a nutritionist to Hollywood’s top celebrities and New York Times bestselling author of the books “The Beauty Detox Solution” and “The Beauty Detox Foods.” She is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to health, beauty and nutrition and whenever I have an issue (from feeling tired to battling bloat to dealing with breakouts) I go to her for the answer!
Read on for Kim’s amazing, and super easy, tips for getting your body bikini ready!
1. Use coconut oil as your main spread, butter for desert and for cooking. Coconut oil is an unprocessed, cholesterol-free oil that contains Lauric Acid. Overall, coconut oil stimulates the thyroid, increases your metabolism and helps you burn stored body fat! It also has a much higher smoke point than olive oil or other vegetable oils, so it will not become rancid when you cook with it. Go for the raw, unrefined varieties.
2. Eat your watermelon! Watermelon is a natural cleanser and diuretic. So it will help eliminate excess fluids from the body, and keep bloating and swelling down, as in the heat many of us tend to gain unattractive water weight. The watermelon will further cleanse the digestive tract to keep everything moving along, so you don’t hold on to weight-inducing toxins and waste!
A watermelon smoothie is a great replacement for a breakfast or lunch. Even though watermelon is 93% water, and very low in calories, it is also high in B Vitamins, which are necessary for energy production. So it is an easy to digest energy-booster (like the Green Smoothie). My recipe is on my blog: kimberlysnyder.net.
3. Use Stevia or Raw Agave Nectar as your main sweetener, and cut out all refined sugar as well as artificial sweeteners, including Splenda, Equal and Sweet ‘n Low and all products that contain them. So yes! The Diet Coke must go. The glycemic index is a measure of how various foods affect our blood glucose levels. Stevia is 0 on the glycemic index, and raw agave is a fairly low-glycemic raw plant sweetener. In contrast, ALL artificial sweeteners are high on the glycemic index, around a rating of 80 (on a scale of 0 to 100). Even normal sugar only scores a 70! Artificial sweeteners can also stimulate your appetite, increase carbohydrate cravings, and stimulate fat storage and weight gain.
4. Be sure to drink water and other liquids as little as possible while eating. Drinking while eating is a sure way to bloat out, as you are impeding digestion by diluting the Hydrochloric acid and other digestive enzymes in your stomach. And remember, the harder to digest, the easier it is to gain weight! So drink you water and other large amounts of liquids 20 minutes on either side of a meal.
5. Replace your dairy with unsweetened almond milk. Most people have a very difficult time digesting dairy, whether they realize it or not, and it can leave the acidic byproducts of difficult digestion- including mucus and toxins- behind in your system. It is a huge energy drain, and will bloat you out. Why put your body through that? We know now that dairy is a highly inefficient way to absorb calcium, since it is pasteurized and difficult to absorb for humans. So you can replace your milk with almond milk, cheese with well, anything else!! I make nut cheeses and pates. Cheese is the worst for weight gain! If you must consume yogurt, switch to Kefir.
For more amazing health and diet tips, visit kimberlysnyder.net.
Written by Sabrina Alexis
