Here’s a sensible way think about your waist.

You do want a trim figure, don’t you?

OK then, let’s talk about food. I believe that the best way to lose weight and keep it off forever is to eat yourself slim – here’s how…

Summer foods, like fruit and salads contain far fewer calories than winter foods like pies and puddings. So that’s a positive “hint” about what to eat.

Then there’s your body; more of it is visible when you wear your summer clothes. This means that the incentive to trim and tone your body is much greater in the hot months.

These are two powerful reasons why it is more sensible to make July 4th your Good Slimming Resolution Day - much better than January 1.

But there’s a more practical reason to start slimming in the summer.

It’s this - when you spend the summer months eating loads of salad, fruits, nuts, whole-grains, fish and lean meats, guess what will happen?

Eating healthy foods will become a habit.

And that is the secret of a permanently slim figure.

This is what’s been happening to me over the last three months. I discovered, quite by accident, that I could easily wean myself off white bread, that has no nutritional value, butter, fatty cold meats and burgers.

Simply by changing my daily menus and starting to eat healthy grilled fish, muesli, salads and fresh fruit the pounds started to melt away.

It has amazed me how many new things I have found to eat. I make a different salad for my lunch every day. I vary between, tuna, salmon, bean, soft cheese, sardine, egg and anchovy, to name but a few.

Replacing coffee with green tea seems to have created real benefits. I suspect it’s doing without the milk I used to put in coffee that has worked the miracle on my waist. The total saving is about 2 pints of milk a week.

Water is the best drink for slaking your thirst. When you get hot and thirsty, drink water. After a few times you’ll find that water tastes really good and it is the perfect accompaniment for every sort of food.

The biggest benefit of drinking water is that you don’t drink sodas or colas that contain a lot of sugars. Think of all that sugar turning to fat on your butt!

A real blessing about starting to slim in the summer is the wonderful array of summer fruits that just keep coming on stream. Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, cherries, blackcurrants, grapes are all amazingly low in calories. You can eat copious quantities with virtually now damage to your waistline.

Beware the cream – that will do serous damage to the figure!

I think I would have lost a lot more weight, more quickly if I hadn’t been doing quite so many exercises. But I really enjoy my “home gym” exercises and they have definitely toned up my muscles. I feel stronger and more energetic as a result. The trade-off for being more muscular is that the muscle you put on weighs more than the fat you have taken off. You look better but you don’t lose weight quite so fast.

But, it’s worth it because you feel so much fitter and more confident.

I signed the Slim Pledge on May 20th and I’m now 17 pounds lighter and a whole lot fitter. I know this to be true because I am much faster round the tennis court and I don’t puff and blow after a hard point.

My overall conclusion is that slimming is more mental and emotional than it is physical. The real battleground is between your mind and your stomach.

Some days I get very insistent messages from my stomach at regular intervals saying, ”I’m hungry!” And then it will qo quiet for a few days to lull my mind into a false sense of victory, before coming back even more strongly and vociferously.

That’s when I use my self-hypnosis and breathing exercises, but more about them in another article.

For today I just want you to start thinking about making July 4th your Slim Down Resolution Day.

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