Summer is the perfect time for a fresh start for personal health and fitness. It is easy to fall into diet fads and fitness traps that begin as hopeful but quickly turn to let-down. Carole Carson, fitness guru who lost 60-plus pounds at age 60 and is the spokeswoman for AARP.org's "Fat-to-Fit" campaign, provides tips to reduce calories and/or fat grams in your diet while keeping high flavor. The secret behind successful weight loss choices with food is affirmative eating — not dieting.

• Swap evaporated milk (170 calories, 6 grams of saturated fat per half cup) for heavy cream (411 calories, 27 grams of saturated fat per half cup).

• Replace baking chocolate (73 calories, 5 grams of saturated fat per half square) with cocoa powder (12 calories, 0.4 gram per tablespoon).

• Use canned beans (231 calories, almost no saturated fat per cup) in place of ground beef (231 calories, 6 grams of saturated fat per cup).

• Substitute whole grains (for example, barley, quinoa or purple rice) for white rice and pasta. The calories and fat grams are about the same, but the whole grains contain more nutrients and will keep you feeling satisfied longer — so you'll eat less!

Visit www.aarp.org/fat2fit to learn more and to sign up for the Fat-to-Fit community weight loss challenge in which users record their weight and activity, strive to shed pounds and compete for prizes.