That's Fit

Changing any lifestyle habit isn't easy. If you're looking to shed some pounds for summer and are switching to a healthier way of eating, you may find yourself staring at your pantry and wondering what to do. Take these tips from AOL Body and stock your kitchen with healthy staples -- having all the building blocks for healthy eating sets you up for success.

• Clean out your fridge, freezer, and pantry of unhealthy foods that can throw you off course.
• Stock your freezer with frozen fruits and veggies and healthy snacks such as edamame and veggie burgers.
  
• Fill your fridge with low-fat dairy, fresh fruits and veggies, lean protein, and a pitcher of water.
• Stock your pantry with a variety of whole grains, salt-free seasoning mixes, and healthy snacks such as fat-free popcorn.

For more summer weight-loss tips, click on the image below and check out AOL Body's Summer Quick Fix.

Small changes sometimes inspire me. A new candle burning on my kitchen counter, a new pair of pants with perfect slimming capabilities, and the always-thrilling new running shoes that all but bounce me out the door and onto the streets. Today, my inspiring change comes in the form of a new refrigerator.

My new Kenmore stainless steel fridge with French doors and a bottom freezer will arrive today to take the place of an old, dumpy white fridge with barely enough space to contain the food for our family of four. What space this rickety old thing does have is not very useful -- anything that sits at the back of the fridge ends up frozen. The freezer is crowded too. Pieces are falling off here and there. And a light inside just burned out. Clearly, this new fridge is in order.

I can't wait to stock my new beauty. First, I plan to rummage through everything I've got in my old model and pitch anything that doesn't fit my newish healthy lifestyle. Salad dressings that haven't been used in ages: Gone. Two half-used containers of chocolate frosting: Right to the trash. A coffee energy drink (energy is code for caffeine and sugar): To be dumped and recycled. Anything of a questionable nutritional nature will be ditched. All healthy items -- fruits, veggies, low-fat cheese sticks, chicken breasts, fresh fish -- will be rewarded with a new spot in a new fridge. I may even buy some new healthy stuff to fill the space of this seemingly gigantic appliance.

Yep, small changes (not inexpensive, just small compared to all things large and monumental) sometimes do the trick for me. Who knew? A fridge. How inspiring.

I live in a place where the growing season is scarce, so in the winter, my options are A) risk scurvy, B) rely on produce from sunnier places, or C) hit up the frozen foods aisle. I'm a big fan of frozen fruits and veggies -- they're easy to prepare and they don't go bad. But how nutritious are they compared to the fresh stuff?

Very, according to Prevention Magazine. In fact, frozen veggies are even more nutrient-packed than fresh ones. The antioxidant levels even go up when you freeze something. Really? That doesn't even seem possible somehow. Want to know more about frozen veggie? Click here.

What's in your freezer? Me, I have edamame at all times (yum yum!), frozen peas, frozen spinach and frozen strawberries for my morning smoothie.

There's a whole aisle devoted to snack foods in your grocery store, but next time you go shopping, skip that one -- it's just full of junk -- and head to the frozen foods section instead. There are a bunch of healthy frozen foods that can whipped up in a jiffy for a quick snack fix, according to this article from eDiets. Some examples?

• Steamed veggies. Now eating your veggies is even easier -- you just have to pop them in the microwave.
  
• Skinny Cow Ice Cream Bars. These tasty ice cream bars won't de-rail your diet so if you're craving something cold and sweet, pick up some of these.
  
• Sugar-free Popsicles. Popsicles are naturally fat-free and the sugar-free versions are almost calorie-free too ... and they're tasty too.
  
• Edamame. This is one of my favourite snacks. Steam them for a few minutes, top with salt and you have a delicious, nutritious snack,
  
• Garden Burgers. These veggie burger patties are high in protein and low in fat and calories. Plus, they're yummy.
  
• Kashi Frozen Waffles. Just pop them in the toaster, tops with some fresh fruit and you've got a delicious snack in a jiffy.
  

What's you're favourite frozen snack?

Sometimes I over-shop. I buy too many bananas, a loaf of bread my family never finishes, even ground turkey meat that sits in the fridge beyond it's expiration date. Sadly, these foods end up tossed in the trash. What a waste.

As first reported by Kristin Darguzas on ParentDish, American families trash, on average, 14% of the food they buy, mostly because it spoils. Never fear, though. According to this article, there are six measures we can take for storing our food for lasting freshness. Now these are some tips I can use. How about you?

• Refrigerate fruits and vegetables separately. Some fruits emit a gas that speeds the ripening of veggies.

Are you a fan of the frozen meal? Millions (tens of millions) of us are these days, as we try to balance eating right and healthy with the challenges of everyday life -- raising a family, our jobs, daycares, grocery shopping -- you name it.

So what to do? Well, become familiar with the ingredients inside many frozen foods (as pre-packaged meals) and learn to pick the right ones. When I say "right ones", I mean meals without a lot of saturate fat and calories. There are brands like "Healthy Choice" and "Lean Cuisine" that have these attributes, but the preservatives and other chemicals in those brands make me stay away.

Two brands I like? Kashi and Amy's Kitchen. Kashi makes a pretty decent lineup of cold breakfast cereals, crackers and even frozen meals with no preservatives and excellent whole-grain ingredients. Amy's Kitchen makes excellent frozen meals as well that are all-organic (99% of the time) and taste great without all the scientific-sounding chemicals in many brands. These meals are more expensive, but easily worth it. Try them out if you see them and see what you think.

Cookies, cookies, cookies. The little girl all dressed up in olive green came knocking on my door today dropping off the boxes of scrumptious treats that I love. Girl Scout cookies. Thin Mints are my favorites and most Americans agree since it is one of their biggest sellers. So how can I stay in a non binge mode and keep within a healthy diet with these treats sitting on the counter staring at me longingly. The best advice I can give is to freeze them. Yes Thin Mints hold up well to freezing. My father actually likes to eat them frozen better than straight out of the box. They are also great crumbled up in vanilla ice cream.

With the change in eliminating trans fats this year in their cookies, they are at least better for you but Thin Mints still have 150 calories per 1 ounce serving. To me if they are exposed on the counter, they are as good as gone in a jiffy. I can't let myself grab a whole sleeve out either or I am tempted to munch away. So I take the cookies out of their sleeves and put them in zip lock bags. That way it is easier for me to eat the morsels two cookies a day as an extra little treat. So a zip lock bag in the refrigerator lets me do that and the extra boxes will have to wait their turn in the freezer. Yummy.