It’s easy to tell that we have hit prime time summer season for two reasons. One, it’s rained every day for a week and two, the chatter around weight, “summer bodies” and being “good or bad” is louder than ever.
If you’re someone who abandons all fitness and body comp goals over the summer or you tend to overly restrict and then resent missing out one summer, I want to set you a challenge.
I want you to live happily in the grey area. I want you to have a think about whether you could do a whole summer (let’s call it 6 weeks) without either crash dieting and striving for unrealistic weight loss but also without saying “f&*k it” and abandoning healthy habits.
Here’s 5 actions to help you do just that:
- Get up at the same time each day and get some daylight. Ideally in the form of a 10 - 20 minutes before you do anything else. Before you scroll, before you have caffeine and maybe even before the rest of the house wakes up. Two wins here. You’ll like hit around 2000 steps which is a great dent in the day if you track and you’ll also help your circadian rhythm (body clock) by getting natural light, meaning you’ll have more energy for the day and sleep better at night.
- Still plan your meals for the week and go for 80/20. 80% whole foods, 20% fun.
- If you eat 3 meals per day, that’s 21 meals per week, so if you adopt 80/20 then you can relax on approximately 4 meals and still be making amazing progress and choices at the other 17.
- Be realistic with your gym habits. Rather than fighting to get to the gym everyday maybe make peace with only doing 3 sessions but doing these consistently. Why not invest in some simple kit for home such as a skipping rope or a couple of kettle bells to do 10 - 15 minutes training in the garden or whilst on holiday. It all counts and it’s better to do this than miss the gym for a week and abandon ship until September.
- Embrace accidental cardio, especially if you have kids or pets. Look for points during your days where you can perhaps get outside running around or walking, get on the trampoline, book yourself in for a swim if the kids are having lessons, try a new sport such as tennis or cricket (and do it just for the fun of it, not to be good at it).
- Eat seasonally and perhaps reduce processed food. If you’ve found yourself including more high sugar snacks, or more grab and go food, then summer can actually be a good time to cut back on this. You’re less likely to crave comfort food and naturally sweet foods like fruits are in abundance, it’s also perhaps easier to eat more veg and salads when you pop the BBQ on.
These might not all resonate, but if you tend to feel a bit bamboozled by your health and fitness in summer, then lets perhaps change up your habits this year and take a different approach. I’d highly recommend setting your own 5 habits or actions and trying to have a balanced fun summer without any FOMO, but without needing to “undo” come September.
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