How to Lose Some Weight and Keep it Off For Your Dance Recital Or Ballet Exams

Writing this in mid-April, I'm thinking back to the tension that begins leading up to the end of the term ballet recital and ballet exams. And after that comes the summer swimsuit. Do you look long and lean enough? Dancers never think so.

Sugar is a great tranquilizer.

When tension starts to build over the coming ballet recital or ballet exams, the human brain knows what to do. However if you don't eat your cookies before a long rehearsal or dance class, you will wear them for a while.

So as stress kicks in, planning realistic goals to maintain your weight, or lose a little, is what will help you succeed.

For example, if you think you might want to lose four to five pounds, count the weeks between now and your performance.Calculate how many parts of a pound you want to lose per week.

A quarter or third of a pound a week is easy to lose by this simple strategy:

• don't eat any bread, crackers, buns, muffins, chips, pasta or potatoes

• make sure you DO have some healthy snacks with you at all times

• use a protein calculator to make sure you eat enough every day

• if you have to eat on the run, choose a wrap or lettuce-wrap instead of a bun

• keep a fork in your dance bag or purse in case you can't get a lettuce wrap, then you can eat out of the bun and discard it

• choose water, never a sugary sports drink

• in a juice bar, get vegetable juice with apple juice, but skip the frozen yogurt (unsweetened berries are okay to add)

Healthy snacks could be walnuts (two or three big ones are quite filling), an inch cube of cheese with celery, jerky (try to get the no-nitrate and no coloring added brands) or fresh fruit.

Make sure you sleep well. Most health food stores sell powdered calcium/magnesium which relaxes your tense muscles and also usually results in a deep sleep.

(If you have any kind of medical condition check with your doctor about this.)

Control your weight with a protein calculator.

Healthy fresh foods also give you the brain power to think rather than worry. "Train Your Brain" by Deborah Vogel will help you stay living smart with positive emotional intelligence.

Just remember, you always look more long and lean than you think you do. With realistic goals you can lose some weight, keep it off, and stay healthy.

D. Buxton is a writing partner with Vone Deporter, of The Sedona Series, about a surfer girl in pointe shoes.

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