By: Chere Bork

It seems that the ingredients for the best summer ever are being outside with people you love doing something you enjoy. So, why do summertime events always, always involve food? Because our mothers taught us “food is love!” Even going to the beach for a few hours or to a friend’s pool can involve a few hundred extra calories when you’re not even physically hungry, which can lead to scale unhappiness. The way to predict your future is to create it! Notice, the words eat and ate are in the word create.

Here are five tips to help you predict and create health and happiness with your scale this summer:

1. Remember “sometimes foods” and “every day foods.”

The highest calorie summertime “sometime foods” are ribs, brats and hamburgers and pasta salad glued together with mayo. Ribs are the highest fat content meat that touches your lips and stays on your hips. Think lean loin for “everyday foods” and opt for pork or beef tenderloin. The typical fat content of a brat or leaner hamburger equates to the fat content equal to your favorite candy bar — about 15 grams. Save half the fat by buying turkey brats or turkey burgers. Another easy way to create your future, healthier self is to mix in wild rice or chopped fresh cherries or blueberries to decrease your fat content.

What’s a picnic without potato salad and coleslaw? Boring! A “baby portion” of only ½ cup provides about 150 calories and 10 to 15 grams of fat. Save calories with light mayo or low fat yogurt.

The average brat, baby portion of coleslaw, potato salad, corn on the cob and beer dinner goes for 1140 calories and 57 grams of fat. Remember the average adult requires less than 2000 calories a day and 65 grams of fat.

2. Eat a new vegetable or fruit each week.

Shop the farmers market each week or finally make the decision to try an organic fruit or vegetable at your favorite grocery store. I recommend starting with either organic carrots or organic strawberries. You can taste the difference.

3. Buy fruit and vegetables and cut them up and store them in opaque containers in your fridge.

Out of sight is out of mind. I can still hear my dad screaming from the other room, “get OUT of the ‘fridge you are wasting electricity!” Imagine having your family open the fridge and wanting to eat brightly colored antioxidant-rich fruits and veggies. It is hard to eat a watermelon sitting whole on the counter.

4. Eat your summertime calories; don’t drink them unless it’s water.

Cabins, deck parties and get-togethers usually involve alcohol. Alcohol calories add up fast and even faster when someone is putting another beer in your hand or filling up your wine glass. Calorie counts to remember: regular beer — 150 calories, light beer — 100 calories, 4 ounces of wine — 100 calories. Alcohol does not fill you up like real food. The average 150 pound person has to walk 15 minutes to burn 100 calories. To keep your cancer and heart disease risk down, remember the 2005 Dietary Guidelines recommend one drink per day for women and two drinks per day for men.

Water hydrates you and also can fill your need to hold something in your hand while everyone else is holding their beer or wine cooler. Add a lemon or lime wedge, or a splash of cherry or orange juice and serve on the rocks. Brew your favorite tea and serve it over ice with a dollop of honey if you need something sweeter.

5. Plan ahead and don’t go to a party ravenously hungry.

Once you get hungry it is a lot harder to make healthy choices … and to notice when you’re full. Eat something before you go to your BBQ or day at the beach. Great choices include a source of protein and fat like peanut butter on either high fiber toast or celery. Or try a hard cooked egg and slice of high fiber toast.

Make the decision to predict your future this summer by creating a healthy happy one. Remember every day is a new choice. Summer is delightful and nothing tastes as good as feeling confident and in charge of your life. You only have one life; imagine if it was one you loved! Start to create it today!

Chere Bork MS RD LN is a health and life balance enthusiast, national speaker and Wellcoach from Eden Prairie, who helps people, discover their purpose to live happily and healthfully ever after. Her Web site is www.cherebork.com.