Those frosty coffee drinks like frappuccinos seem like a great summertime treat, right? After all, most of us need our caffeine fix.

Brace yourself. “They can run 300 to 700 calories. bigger the coffee, the better. Case in point: Starbucks Orange Mocha Frappuccino Blended Coffee, promoted as a great way to start your summer day (especially when paired with reduced-fat Orange Crème Coffee Cake). But if you order their “Venti” size (24 oz), it’s 520 calories and 16 grams of fat. Add another 320 calories and 8 grams of fat if you succumb to the coffee cake.

But there are tasty, lower-calorie, and lower-fat — or even nonfat — Starbucks points those conscious of summer diets to other choices. A 16-oz. Starbucks latte made with nonfat milk delivers no fat and just 160 calories. At any coffee house, you can order a latte with skim or nonfat milk.

Summer Diet Blunder: Burgers and Hot Dogs

Some baseball fans can’t watch a game without a traditional hot dog. But a Dodger dog, a long-time tradition at Los Angeles Dodger games, packs 240 calories and 22 grams of fat – and that’s just the dog, without the bun, ketchup, or other add-ons. Of the 240 calories, 200 of them are from fat. And at backyard barbecues, cheeseburgers often play a starring role. Figure 360 calories with the bun – and nearly 20 grams of fat.

Summer Diet Fix

To lighten up, consider a turkey frank on a roll, for about 190 calories and 10 grams of fat. Or a veggie burger and bun, for about 180 calories and 4.5 grams of fat. Two other healthy options include a chicken breast without the skin, or grilled fish such as grilled salmon.

At the baseball park,if you find yourself considering the burger or hot dog fare: “Health-wise, you are probably better off with peanut,. they aren’t low-calorie, ,but at least peanuts have heart-healthy fat.

Summer Diet Blunder: Festive Drinks

Poolside, or at happy hour, a party drink such as a giant margarita can seem like a fine way to celebrate summer. It’s the sociable thing to do, right? “That poolside, nice, frosty beverage could become a weight problem that could make you spill over your bikini.. A regular-sized margarita has about 170 calories. But that’s for one that’s barely 3 ounces.

Alcohol is not a good way to hydrate. It actually dehydrates you. If you want an alcoholic drink, going with a glass of wine might be a better bet. A 3.5-oz. glass of wine is about 80 calories. A 12-oz. beer has about 117 calories.

And if it’s the festive flair of the drink — like the umbrellas topping off tropical summer drinks — you can customize a lower-cal option,. Other options: ask for lemon-flavored water with club soda for some pizzazz, or alternate an alcoholic drink with plain water or a non-alcoholic beverage.

Bent-over Row

We recently asked 36,000 ACE-certified Fitness Professionals to name their single most important exercise items.

Some answers were obvious (my body), while others were more abstract (daily goals, plenty of space).

Here are their top 12 exercise essentials:

1. Good shoes
2. Fun or appropriate music
3. Free weights
4. A positive attitude
5. Comfortable clothing
6. Lots of water
7. A supportive sports bra
8. Safe, well-made equipment (e.g., cardio machines, heart-rate monitors
9. Weight-training gloves
10. Enough time
11. A workout partner
12. Fresh, clean air and/or sunshine

Exercising willpower, if it is like a muscle then it should be trainable. According to the physiology of fitness if you over load a muscle, it should become stronger. Is the same true for willpower, current research says yes!

Researchers have put this to the test (Baumeister et al. 2006). This research model took a simple approach: ask participants to control one thing they are not accustomed to controlling, do it everyday. The findings just like exercise self control can be difficult and uncontrollable, but over time it became much easier and manageable. The willpower muscle has learned a new exercise and with practice practicing self-control becomes less likely to deplete willpower.

Take home message: Practice a single behavioral change consistently and over time the desired change will become automatic. The trick is to be patient and when you derail take a u-turn and get back on track.

Is there anything we can do to restore willpower? Yes, research suggests that getting enough sleep can restore depleted willpower. Trying to flex our willpower on little sleep is like trying to run a car on no gasoline. A boost in mood can also restore willpower, having a positive experience or watching a comedy. Lastly, reward yourself not after you exerted your willpower but before, using the mood boost to follow through. Think of these strategies as “booster shots” to help stay in greater control when trying to make any behavioral change.

Willpower is inherently limited, self –control depletes willpower in much the same way exercise depletes physical power. This observation comes from numerous studies that test the limits of peoples self control. In these experiments, people who exerted their willpower on one occasion struggled to do so a second time. The conclusion willpower does fatigue. Because willpower is limited, each act of self-control is a win or loses effort. For example, refraining from that piece of chocolate cake makes it more difficult to find the motivation to hit the gym.

Take home message: Set priorities and give yourself a break on the goals that are not on the top of our “to do list”. It is impossible to do everything well, find your balance, aim for progress and not perfection. Be ready to start again tomorrow, over a period of time I am sure you will see improvement.

Fatigue makes cowards of us all.
Vince Lombardi

An example of the typical diet requires you to avoid food you love and show consistent self-restraint in a world that encourages indulgence and self satisfaction as if it where an admirable virtue. Day in and day out this truly becomes a source of chronic stress.

Traci Mann, PhD, associate professor at the University of Minnesota who studies dieting says, “The majority of people will not be able to succeed at a severely restrictive diet because it is simply too hard “. Mann recommends making smaller, but more meaningful changes in their diets, such as pinpointing one unhealthy type of food and slowly try to eliminate it from their diet. A reduction of just 250 calories a day can result in a 1-2 pound /week weight loss. These small changes over a long period of time can result in huge differences without the stress of trying to do to much to soon.

Delegating one day a week “treat day”, can also replenish you willpower and reduce the stress from chronic dieting. Most people cannot give 100% consistently, by taking that break you satisfy a few cravings, avoid rebound binging, and ready yourself for an increase in self-control.