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Does your upcoming vacation have you worried about your waistline? You should be.

The average person gains almost a pound a day while on vacation.

But that doesn’t have to be you. Most of the time extra pounds sneak up on you when you least expect it, so decide right here and now that your vacation will leave you slimmer than when you left.

All you have to do is have a plan.

As you embark on your next vacation adventure, use these 7 tips to come home fitter than when you left.

Trick #1: Cut Your Carbs
Vacation days are notorious for carbohydrate rich meals, and it’s a well-known fact that too many carbohydrates will quickly add up to unwanted pounds. Combat this fat-trap by choosing one meal per day to go carb-less.

Breakfast: This may be the most effective meal to use the carb-less trick, since breakfast often involves breads, pastries or pancakes. Skip the toast and fill up on egg whites and lean breakfast meats.
Lunch: A great carb-less lunch is a salad with lean protein. It’s so filling and satisfying that you won’t even miss the bread.
Dinner: Since you’re on vacation, you don’t want to feel deprived, so dinner is the hardest meal to go carb-less. But if you’ve indulged at breakfast and lunch then make it a point to cut the carbs at dinner. Stick with veggies and lean protein.

Trick #2: Be Active
If your travels keep you too busy for a workout, or if your hotel does not have an exercise room, make a conscious effort to be active everyday. Go on a brisk walk after your day’s activities. This is a great way to see a new city, and also a great way to burn off extra calories. Take the stairs instead of elevator in your hotel and any other buildings you visit. Go on a short jog in the mornings or evenings of your stay. If your hotel has a pool, swim a few laps each morning or evening.

Trick #3: Indulge with Control
Eating out is a must while on vacation. Whether you’re visiting 5 star restaurants or fast food diners, you are faced with the same problem: large portions. While the easiest thing to do with a large portioned meal is to simply eat it all – you are on vacation after all…right? – that isn’t the best for your waist.

When you order your meal ask the waiter or waitress to bring you a to-go box. Take half of your meal and place it safely into the box before you even begin to eat. This gives you no choice but to eat a healthy portion. If you would rather not carry around a to-go box then ask that your entrée be made into a smaller portion. If it is dinnertime ask for the lunch-sized entrée.

Trick #4: Don’t Eat Late
One of the easiest tricks for preventing weight loss is to simply stop eating 3 hours before you go to bed. This is especially effective while on vacation. So skip that late night indulgence and wake up looking and feeling great.

Trick #5: Snack Healthy
Have you ever noticed how travel days create the perfect opportunity for snacking? A coffee and muffin before your flight, a snack on the plane and then before you know it – it’s lunch time! Taking a road trip? This opens up even more opportunities for regrettable snacking…rest stop vending machines, gas station quickie marts and of course the never ending string of fast food restaurants along the highway.

This summer cut unhealthy snacking off at the pass by brining along your own healthy options. Dried or fresh fruit, unsalted nuts, health bars, cut veggies and low fat crackers are a good start. By filling up on these healthy snacks between meals you will end up eating less when presented with a less-than-healthy meal.

Trick #6: Avoid Fried Foods
While fast food restaurants are definitely convenient, with their low prices and quick service, this convenience is not worth the additional pounds brought on by chips and fries. As you enjoy your vacation keep this in mind: avoid fried foods. While this is always good advice to follow, it is even more important to abide by while traveling.

While vacationing you will likely burn fewer calories each day than you would burn at home, and you are consuming more calories due to your schedule of eating out. You are walking a fine line, and eating fried foods would throw you right over the edge. A gram of fat contains 9 calories as compared to the 4 calories that proteins and carbohydrates carry – so you can see that consuming fried foods will drastically increase your caloric intake.

If I still haven’t convinced you to pass on the curly fries, keep in mind that heartburn and indigestion are never fun…especially while on vacation!

Trick #7: Team up with a Pro – Yours Truly!
Well, fitness is my specialty…and since you are serious about creating a healthy and fit physique – guarantee your results by teaming up with me.

Together we will come up with a fitness plan that is uniquely yours, one that fits your lifestyle and brings you promptly to your goals – something that you will appreciate while on vacation and at home.

Call or email today to get started.

Recipe – Strawberry MicroGreen Salad

Microgreens are tiny leafed vegetables that are harvested when less than two inches tall. They have remarkably intense flavor and high levels of vitamins and minerals. Pair this salad with a piece of lean protein for an excellent, light meal.
Servings: 4

Here’s what you need:

3 cups organic microgreens
1 cup sliced strawberry
strawberry dressing (6 strawberries, 1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar, 1 teaspoon agave nectar, 1 teaspoon olive oil, dash of salt and pepper – blended)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Toss the microgreens with strawberries and dressing. Sprinkle with walnuts.

Nutritional Analysis: One serving equals: 124 calories, 6g fat, 8g carbohydrate, 3g fiber, and 2g protein.

It’s important to eat at least 5 or 6 times a day to keep your energy levels high. The problem is, most folks who have healthy main meals, will have unhealthy snacks in between.

Eliminating these unhealthy snacks could be key for your own body transformation, so let me give you 3 Super Fruit snack alternatives…

Grapefruit – With more nutrient per calorie than apples, and more than 100% of your daily recommended Vitamin C, eating grapefruit can prevent illness and ‘premature’ aging.

Avocado – (Yes! A Fruit!) Avocados help with growth and development of the brain and nervous system, thanks to their high concentration of unsaturated fats. They’re also jam packed with a wide variety of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients (add a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil and red wine or balsamic vinegar for a tasty treat).

Prunes – With TWICE as much potassium as a banana and packed with anti-oxidants, eating prunes can help maintain healthy blood pressure and keep you looking young – even though prunes look wrinkly!

Fact is, fruit is good for you and most fruit is also super tasty. So make it a habit to swap out your chips and chocolate bars for grapefruit and avocados. You’ll still get to snack and you’ll be helping your body.

Dear Friend,

Although most people have their own “best time to workout,” the morning is usually most popular because you get your “personal victory” first thing – and that makes your day so much more positive, productive…and fun!

If you’ve been struggling to find the time to exercise during the day, then morning might be the right time for you as well. The trick is getting out of bed, shaking off the cobwebs and getting started! I’m going to show you how — keep reading.

Yours In Health,

Dimitri Louis

How To Get Out of Bed For Exercise

Get a “Sunrise” Alarm Clock – A sunrise alarm clock has a big bulb on it that gradually gets brighter, until it reaches full brightness at your desired wake up time. This wakes you up slowly, as opposed to jarring you awake. It’s more natural and sets you up for the day feeling great and full of energy.

Remove Your Alarm Clock From Your Bedside – Sunrise alarm clocks aren’t cheap. A less expensive alternative to ensure that when you wake up, you get up, is to place your alarm clock at the other end of your bedroom. When it sounds, you have to get out of bed to turn it off. And when you’re up, you’re up!

Get to Bed Earlier – If you’re going to bed late then it’s going to be harder for you to get up early. That’s just common sense. Plan your workouts into your daily routine to ensure that everything gets done in good time.

Make Exercise the First Thing You Do – If you settle down to have a full breakfast, then you will possibly begin reading the newspaper, checking your e-mail or watching TV. Before you know it you’ll have missed your window of opportunity and it will be time for work. Start warming up right away.

Remember How It Feels! – Remember just how good it feels as you breeze through the day full of positive energy and confidence, invigorated from your morning workout. Exercise really does make everything better – even work!

The start of your day is a good indication of how the rest of the day will go, so use these tips, try exercising in the morning and see if it feels as great for you as it does for everybody else.

Quote Corner
“The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.” – Jon Hammond

Wow, I’ve been saying it for years and was glad to see the recent Today Show segment on “skinny fat”. Being thin is not an indicator of health. I love the two women that they featured; they were a good example of what skinny fat means. Some people are genetically thin, and yet carry a dangerously high body fat percentage. When you look at a smaller persons weight and how they look in their clothes it’s kind of hard to believe that they could be considered obese on the body fat chart. I’ve know many a thin person with lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Sorry thin people, you have to exercise and eat right too. If you missed the Today Show segment, take a look below. Would love to hear your comments.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Okay, it’s Friday evening again, and all bets are off. Or not. Don’t make every weekend an eating free-for-all. Truly, those two days of eating bliss can really undue the five prior days of hard work and discipline. If you really want to make progress, and not just maintain, toe the line on the weekends. If you feel you need a treat, treat yourself for just one meal, not all 6 meals. Have a Happy and Healthy Weekend!

Last Tuesday I decided to do a raw food cleanse to rejuvenate my body with live foods and to get rid of a lot of the dead stuff. I was a little apprehensive, but am happy to say that I enjoyed it tremendously. My diet consisted of raw vegetables and fruits. I made the most delicious salads, adding avocados and making a dressing using Bragg Liquid Aminos. I also did a daily natural protein shake. The watermelon was so succulent and sweet, God’s dessert. The foods tasted so amazing in their natural state. It really gave me a greater appreciation for food the way nature intended.

Many people are still unclear about how you develop diabetes. A recent Washington Post article talks about 10 Myths and the real facts surrounding diabetes. One of my favorites is that you have to be overweight to develop diabetes. Or, you can get diabetes from eating too much sugar. True or false. Check it out.

I think the greatest struggle that many of our clients have is being committed to really eating healthy. If you have a background of eating just about any and everything, with no concern for how it makes you feel or how it’s going to effect your body long-term, eating healthy is quite a radical change in behavior. Our new nutrition support group should help out a great deal. Behavior change involves a gradual movement and a great support system always helps. This is only the second week of our weekly support group conference calls and already I can see how valuable this service will be. Because your trainer can’t be with you all of the time, the support group kind of fills in the gap and gives you yet another layer of accountability. – Be Healthy, Kristine