Lighten up, ladies -- summer’s here

Did you know that in April of this year, men everywhere celebrated the 60th birthday of the bikini?

In 1946, Louis Réard, a car engineer who took over his mother’s lingerie shop located near the Folies Bergere, designed a two-piece bathing suit using a mere 27 1/2 inches of cloth which, egad, revealed the navel!

It was greeted with disbelief and shock even in Paris. At the time, in Hollywood, the Hays Act had banned navels from the silver screen. Believe it or not, in those days you had to open the bathing suit to see the buttocks; whereas, nowadays, you have to open the buttocks to see the suit.

As summer approaches, many women curse the day Louis Réard was born. We also curse the anorexic, deeply tanned waifs of “The O.C.”

Even closer to home, we have to compete with the actual presence of those teenage goddesses who attend our local high school and turn up on reality TV. Summer is here once again and we will have to confront our bathing-suit-clad bodies in a full-length mirror and try to find the courage to go out in public. This is a two-stage process and stage one is making a resolution to lose 10 pounds. Stage two is actually stepping onto the sand. We are here to help you with the former.

We are not offering a diet program, just a few helpful suggestions and some easy, tasty recipes.

* If you want to control the size of your proportions, control your portion size. It is a natural trend to eat lighter during the hot months anyway.

* Delicious summer fruits and vegetables provide high fiber and are filling while being low in calories, not to mention that they are abundant in phyto-nutrients and anti-oxidants.

* Meat, poultry and fish seasoned with rubs then grilled on the barbecue, rather than slathered with fattening sauces, still have plenty of flavor, especially when served with lo-cal salsas made with summer fruits and vegetables. You can buy really good ones in any market.

* A half cup of cooked brown rice is extremely filling and has only 54 calories. Add it to soups, salads, stews and stir-fries. The best part is you can buy it pre-cooked at Trader Joe’s in the frozen food section.

*Salads are not necessarily the best choice for dieting. It depends on the dressing and how much you use. Remember that two tablespoons of non-dietetic salad dressing averages 125 calories. Always order your dressing on the side in restaurants so that you can control the amount used.