Not quite where you want to be for the beginning of summer? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. We’re leaning on some advice from our top nutritionists on how to get your summer body in the best shape possible with some quick easy tips that will also keep you healthy for the long haul. Don’t miss out on trying these diet tips to help you look and feel amazing.

1. Cut Out Processed Foods

Believe it or not, processed foods might be just the thing that’s holding you back from hitting your body goals. Processed foods aren’t just microwave meals or tins of cookies. Any food that is canned, altered, stored or frozen can be considered a processed food. More often than not, processed foods are marketed as “healthy”, but they are usually high in sugar, unhealthy fats, and sodium. Many snacks, frozen meals or even yogurt can actually be very high in calories, filled with preservatives and offer very little nutritional value. The key to knowing which foods simply reading the ingredient label and avoiding a few key things:

• Food coloring
• Excess sugar
• High in sodium (more than 10% of the recommended daily intake per serving)
• Trans fats

If your body goals include shedding those last few pounds before summer ASAP then cut these out immediately and stick to whole foods instead. You can help reduce your dependency on unhealthy, convenience foods by meal prepping healthy alternatives ahead of time.

2. Reduce Your Sugar Intake

If you can cut out all unnecessary sugar from your diet, that alone can lead to losing about 3 pounds per month! The American Heart Association suggests an added sugar limit of no more than 100 calories per day, the equivalent of 6 tablespoons. Of course the focus here is added sugar and not the kind naturally found in fruit.

Excessive sugar consumption creates blood sugar spikes and when your body doesn’t use the energy from sugar, it gets stored as fat. Sometimes we aren’t always aware of how much sugar we are actually consuming on a daily basis. Here are some tips for cutting back on the sugar:

• Cut out processed, sugary foods.
• Be weary of “sugar-free” labels because sodas and other processed foods that make these claims are not necessarily healthy
• Look for different kinds of sweeteners in ingredients

Add up your sugar intake for a day or two to see how you measure up. Make a list of all the things you eat with sugar in them. You should be consuming less than 24 grams of sugar a day. Over that limit? Analyze your list to see where you can cut a few things out.

3. Don’t Skip Meals

It may seem like a good idea, but ultimately reducing your calorie intake by skipping meals will hinder your weight loss. Mostly because it is not sustainable. Eventually your body adjusts to the calorie deficit and will start to store more because it goes into starvation mode. You may even begin to feel sluggish and hangry––making it more likely to turn to processed junk food, thus back-sliding from your calorie intakes for the body goals you want to achieve. Try these tactics instead: 

• Balance out your plates at meals
• Calculate your macros
• Have more meals per day, with much smaller portions. This can help curb unhealthy snacking.

4. Fill Up on Protein 

Of all the macronutrients in our diet, protein is one of the most essential to help you with weight loss. That is because it refuels your body and rebuilds your muscle after a good workout. Counting on high-quality proteins to fuel your body is the cornerstone of any successful macro-based diet. This can help you keep hitting it hard day after day instead of letting your exercise regime get sidetracked. Keeping a diet high in protein will help keep you feeling fuller for longer. The less you are going for snacks, the more likely you are to stick to your diet and not veer off course into extra calorie pick-me-ups throughout the day. You’ll want to aim to get at least 50grams of protein per day if you are a moderately active adult. Learning to calculate and evaluate your protein needs will help keep you trim or bulk you up, depending on what your beach body goals are.

5. Supplement Your Nutrition

You can workout all you want, but if you don’t master your nutrition, you won’t hit your body goals. Nutrition is 80% of the battle. Making sure to use the right supplements is key to looking and feeling your best. You’ll want to make sure that your body is getting all the healthy BCAAs and EAAs it needs to keep running at 100% day in and day out.

Transformation Protein powder is packed with all nine amino acids your body needs. It is one of the few that is dairy-free and contains only natural sweeteners to help you get the results you want. Once you know the correct amount of daily protein intake for you and you’re taking the best supplements, it should be easier than ever before to hit your goals.