As the weather gets warmer and summer gets nearer, I fall into a state of mixed emotions. I get super excited for weekend trips to the beach, but also utterly anxious about wearing a swimsuit in public. I get the feeling I’m not the only one who has started eating better and working out more in anticipation of the beach season.

Fitness

I turned to Cecilia Tobler, certified personal trainer and author of The Traveler’s Fitness Companion: Your Workout Formula to Go!, for her suggestions on how to kick start a workout towards attaining a beach body. The smartest and most effective way to lose weight is to follow the most basic rule: increase exercise and limit what you eat. Cecilia recommends combining cardio and strength training to achieve the best, and fastest, results. It’ll take a little discipline to get going, but once you begin to lose weight and become more active, you can progressively add calories back into your diet.  Not so bad, right?

Nutrition

Fill up with cooling foods during warm summer months. Juicy foods with lots of water content will help you to stay hydrated. Foods that are naturally blue, green, or purple are typically more cooling than similar foods that are red, orange or yellow.

These examples of cooling foods and spices are high in fiber, meaning they’ll keep you full for longer, and low in calories.

• Vegetables: summer squash, celery, radishes, cucumber, corn, green beans, peas tomatoes, sea vegetables, and leafy vegetables such as spinach, arugula, Swiss chard and lettuce
• Fruit: berries, melons, peaches, nectarines, grapes, oranges and apples
• Spices: fresh ginger, cilantro, and peppermint
• Grains: couscous, wheatberry, amaranth, and barley