Well it’s the time of year where the fun filled days of summer are coming to an end. Enjoy these remaining warm days and put these 5 tips of re-igniting your health to work.
- Detox and Declutter. Give your body a break from all the junky food we eat in the summer. Cook your meals at home and eat foods your grandparents used to eat. Cut the crap out, excess sugar and sweets, packaged foods, takeout, etc. And then declutter. Fall is a great time to ‘weed out’ your house. Weed out the closets, garage, basement, drawers and knickknacks. It’s such a refreshing feeling to fill donation and/or garage bags. My rule is if you haven’t used it or worn it in a year, someone else will.
- Get Moving. As much as we think we exercise more in the summer, often times it’s not as regimented as it could be. That which gets scheduled gets done. So recommit to a workout schedule. 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week is a great baseline.
- Get new sneakers. We are outside in the garden, on the gravel, at the beach all summer long and our sneakers get ruined. Good footwear is essential when you are working out.
- Stop Drinking. Alcohol often equates with summer. And a weekend is not two nights, but often 4, Thursday through Sunday, as a popular slogan says “make life one long weekend.” Cut it. Alcohol diminishes our reserve and will-power and while a glass of wine or a beer can be refreshing, often we don’t just stop there. Picnics, graduation parties, decks parties all lead to multiple alcoholic beverages. Re-set neutral and try to go a few weeks with none at all. A good rule to follow is don’t drink more than twice per week and don’t drink more than 2 normal size drinks each time. Just because you can fit a half a bottle of wine in your wine glass, doesn’t mean you only had one glass of wine.
- Get working. Whether you are a stay at home mom, a customer service rep, an accountant or a business executive, we get a bit lax in the summer. And this is a good thing! Everyone needs to rejuvenate and rest. But too much of a good thing is not always a better thing. When we are productive, when we have purpose, when we have a task, when we have reason to get up in the morning, all these things contribute to our outlook and frankly our health. So get busy getting busy, especially when that work revolves around something you are passionate about.
