Summer Health: 15 Tips For a Happy, Healthy, Sunny Season
Ready, set, Summer… how to start the season of right and maintain awesome summer health! Ahh, June! The rainy skies have cleared up here in Orlando, and I can actually say that it really feels like summer for the first time this year! But before I get overexcited rabbiting on about the awesome sun-soaked season, I want to ask you a question real quick: are you actually ready for summer? All of this fun in the sun can make it easy to forget to look after ourselves - making summer wellness practices super important - and that’s why I’ve put together 16 of my favourite tips for summer health in one easy to find post! Heck yeah!
Summer marks a time for traveling, barbecuing, ice cream parties, beach fun and a ton of socializing with family and friends in the sweet heat.
And while yes, summer gives us peeps relief from chilly days, it also brings many various issues, like dehydration, tiredness, upset stomach, bacterial infections, heat stroke.
AND, for many of us, summer is also a time to wear comfortable sun shorts and bathing suits on beach trips.
This is why it’s muy importante to prepare and set steps in place to make sure you are on the right health track this starting season, so you can stay healthy and comfortable while still having a season full of fun! Cause, what’s summer without sun sports, ice cream, and sweetly sour lemonade?
So, how can we stay at peak summer health and still have all the summer fun? How can we prep our bodies to beat the sweltering summer heat and balance all that sugary barbecue sauce with our healthy diets?
Well, it’s probably prime time to fit in some tips, tricks, and hacks for embracing the new season AND luckily for you, after a lot of practice with trying to start off the season right, I've compiled the best hacks and tips that really do work.
As someone who used to suffer with anxiety and stress, I can tell you that having a plan behind the fun can help you enjoy everything even more!
They work fabulously to help me get the most out of Summer in a healthy and positive way that is still full of fun - and not just for me: for my friends, goal getters groups, and my family of 9!
So y'all, here are some of the BEST (and simplest) strategies to start off your summer on the healthiest and happiest track!
1. Drink Up… STAY Hydrated
Your body needs water for everything! Drinking water is such an easy but crucial practice, yet it's ignored by so many people! Gulping down water is even more important in the boiling summer heat!
Make sure you sip on 8 to 10 cups of water a day, to ensure that you stay well hydrated it’ll help hydrate your body and make sure your body functions well.
Staying well hydrated throughout the day is a great way to boost weight loss, since many a time folks can mistake dehydration for feeling hungry. And make sure you stay away from sodas and other sugar laden drinks. These drinks will only lead to dehydration, lethargy and weight gain.
And if you feel like you really need a fizzy drink? Just opt for an unsweetened sparkling water instead!
Also, I know it’s hot out, but please don’t drink extremely cold water - doing so may lead to scary health problem.
I know, yes many of us love to drink a glass of chilled water during the summer cool us down, but many of us don’t realize that drinking this cooling cold water, could be causing you more harm than good:
• Your Digestion:
Chilled water and some cold beverages, contract the blood vessels, restrict digestion, and also absorbing nutrients during digestion is hindered. When you drink chilled water, your body will focus on regulating your body temperature, instead of digestion, and so the absorption of nutrients becomes hindered.
• Your Heart Rate:
Studies have shown that drinking chilled water decreases your heart rate, and stimulates a very important part of the nervous system: the vagus nerve (controls your body’s involuntary functions).
• Your Fat Breakdown:
The cold temperature of you drinking chilled water solidifies the fats from consumed foods, resulting in your body having a hard time breaking down unwanted fats from your body.
Something interesting to also note: even if you’re drinking water at a normal temperature, you should make sure that you wait about 33 minutes after a consuming a meal before you drink water to get all of its maximum benefits.
• Your Body Go into Shock:
Most definitely avoid chilled water after strenuous physical work. Yes, I know, we all love cold water after a hard work-out, but you mustn’t drink it.
When you do strenuous activity like exercise or beach volleyball, your whole body will generate a load of heat, and so if you head for a bottle of chilled water, there will be a mismatch of temperature leading to a nasty toll being taken on your digestive health.
Basically, you may end up with chronic stomach pain and cold water shocks.
• You Could End Up Constipated:
No body wants to be constipated - especially not from drinking water, the very thing that helps with constipation! Yes… room temperature water is VERY essential for digestion, but chilled water? Not so much.
When you enjoy that yummy glass of chilled water, the food in your stomach hardens and solidifies when trying to pass through your body, and the intestines contract leading to constipation.
2. Eat More Seasonal Fruits… And Veg For Awesome Summer Health
Eating a diet rich in vegetables and fruit every day will benefit entire overall summer health as they’re rich in fiber, vital minerals, antioxidants, vitamins, and heart-healthy agents. I suggest trying to at least fit one entire salad in everyday!
And if you get the munchies at a fun pool party? Most likely there will be a veggie platter, so load on the veggies first - they’ll help you feel more energized, boost your vitamin levels, help you stay hydrated (because of their water content) and thanks to the fiber, keep you fuller longer (so you don’t make so many trips over to the dessert table)!
Even more, those veggies which are high in fiber help fight disease and flu. Outside of veggies, 100% whole grain bread, brown rice, and quinoa also are some great high fiber choices to opt for.
Also, it’s always a fab habit to use fruit vegetables that are in season. Hence, it’s best to eat healthy summer foods during the summer!
Of course it’s the 21st century, so most vegetables and fruits are available all-year round, but consuming seasonal foods will give you a sense of seasonal charm and make sure that you consume all the health benefits of a season by giving you a broader variety of foods in your diet.
For example, melons are fab healthy summer foods for hot-weather because they will hydrate you without any bloating.
PLUS, It’s better for the environment to choose organic seasonal foods - here are just some of the benefits:
• Seasonal foods are grown closer so it saves energy and it won’t spoil as quickly during transport!
• Seasonal foods are harvested when they are at the peak of freshness, so you will get the best nutritional content
• The food sold during its season is sold before it spoils or is forced to undergo preservative processes.
• Supports our local farmers who choose to farm with sustainability in mind, which helps preserve our environment.
• Saves you MONEY! Seasonal foods are reasonably cheaper to produce and so they will often be cheaper for you to buy.
Pretty sweet huh?!
3. Cool Down… Try To Eat More Cooling Foods!
Cold water and air conditioning is fab way to stay chill, but if you wanna stay cool all summer long, fill your plate with body-cooling healthy summer foods as well as hydrating foods that will help your body keep going in this heat. Like: watermelon, strawberries, radishes, sesame, coconut water, cucumber, mint, and fennel seeds.
• Watermelon:
Watermelon are definitely summer fruits - it’s as if they were designed for this season. As these melons contain a high whopping 91.45 per cent water content, staying hydrated won’t be a problem.
Melons are also loaded with anti-oxidants, healthy lycopene, vitamin C, vitamin A, potassium, and magnesium perfect for a summer health boost.
• Cucumber:
Cucumber is a lovely and refreshing summer food with a high water content, that is loaded with fiber (keeping constipation away), a great source of Vitamin K (an anti-inflammatory compound), and many antioxidants.
Fun fact: did you know that cucumbers are from the same family as the watermelon?!
• Milk Curd:
Milk curd has a wonderful cooling effect on your body. It is also a super food helping to control 'bad' cholesterol, and a good source of vitamins like riboflavin, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, pantothenic acid and Vitamin A.
• Coconut water:
Coconut water is a FAB summer drink. Available in pretty much all fruit shops everywhere, it is packed with essential vitamins, minerals, and has many cooling properties.
• Mint:
A cheap and refreshing herb that’ll keep your body temperature cool - and you can simply add it to your curd!
• Green leafy vegetables:
If you follow my blog, you probably know how much I love leafy greens, not just for the many, many wonderful benefits, but also for the crunchy taste! I believe leafy veggies should be on everyone's plate everyday! It also turns out these crunchy greens are also perfect for summer as they contain a high amount of water content.
Dark leafy greens such as kale, spinach, collards, chard and mustard greens are full of vitamins, minerals, and contain high-quality H2O to help you in the summer heat. Just avoid cooking them too much as you might lose that water content.
• Onions:
Are you as surprised as me to see onions on the list?! If you hate summer allergy’s, red onions are loaded with quercetin, a natural anti-allergen and cooling properties that help protect you against sun-stroke.
• Lime water:
Lime water, another cheap and super refreshing drink that provides many health benefits.
• Celery:
Celery has a 95 per cent water content, and contains essential nutrients that’ll boost you during the hot weather.
• Radish:
Radishes are an awesome cooling food, full of replenishing minerals. Also, in Eastern medicine, radishes are known to help reduce excess body heat.
• Strawberries:
EVERYONE loves a bowl of these red, plump berries! Juicy strawberries are around 92 percent water, are a fabulous source of vitamin C, and help support blood sugar levels.
Although, be careful: strawberries are usually grown with many BAD pesticides, so make sure you get them organic.
4. Eat Lighter Meals
Your stomach takes longer to digest foods when the weather is hotter.
This means that it’s harder for your body to consume too much foods in the summer. So, it is good rule of thumb to help your body out and eat lighter meals rather than heavy ones (especially at night)!
5. Eat Lighter Snacks Too...
The same thing that applies to meals also applies to snacks! Make sure that you load up on lighter snack options. Skip the chips and dips and choose nuts, trail mixes, seeds, or fruits instead.
6. Stay Hygienic
With all the outdoor celebrations and parties you’ll be going to, you really need to be extra careful to make sure that whatever you eat or drink on is clean and hygienic surfaces, and ensure that you always wash your hands before eating.
7. I Like To Move It, Move It: Keep Moving
Now is a PERFECT time of year to shake up your summer fitness routine!
It is always a great idea to mix up your exercise routine every-once in a while. So, since the days are longer and sunnier, why not go for an outdoor swim, bike ride, play some beach volleyball with friends or go on brisk walk? With a little thought, summer fitness can be both fun and effective!
Basically what I'm saying is that, this summer, try to switch up your routine and get exercise done in the outdoors - as long as it's not too hot.
8. Let’s Get Social
When you go to your fun social gathering this summer, try not to just focus to much on the food - like, lets say the barbecue - try to enjoy the socializing instead. This will help you to not overeat, or feel disappointed that you didn't enjoy all the foods.
Plus, it's hard to chew and talk.
9. Sit Down When You Eat
An awesome way to not spend your time nibbling is to sit down! Yep. Most of the time when people eat standing, they don’t pay attention to what and how much food they are eating.
So when at a barbecue, get your plate, fill it up with veggies first, then grab a bit of your fave cheaty foods and find a seat.
10. Eat… Before You Go To Eat?!
Eat something before you go out to a party!
Most of the time when we go to parties, we are not completely sure what our host will serve us. Will there be a veggie platter, any melon pieces to keep you hydrated or any protein?
I suggest, in order to make sure you still have your protein and fiber, that you avoid "saving up calories" and end up overdoing it at the party.
So, avoid grabbing the first yummy food you see when you arrive at your party, and instead grab a quick healthy and semi-filling snack before you go, like a cup of protein filled yogurt, a healthy fat filled avocado, or even some turkey slices.
This way you will be filled up on healthy food and be more conscious of how much treaty food you eat - you can still enjoy the party without overdoing it!
11. Appreciation Time… Be Grateful
You know what the simplest trick to enjoying a summer full of happiness is? To just be grateful for the good things, no matter how small. We can all finds things that could be better, but just remember things could also be a lot worse!
If you start your day with a positive heart and grateful mind, you will be more open to small everyday wonders that life has - even something a simple as being able to watch the seagulls on the beach!
If you don’t know where to start with this, Mindfulness can help! You’ve probably heard about mindfulness from friends or ‘the social medias’, but never really took any notice.
Mindfulness is a practice that involves being fully focused on the present moment and bringing awareness to your thoughts and feelings (if you want to read more into how mindfulness works, check out this blog post) and it can help you be more grateful for each moment!
Did you know this practice has been shown to enhance weight loss and promote healthy eating habits? An analysis of 19 studies found that mindfulness-based interventions increased weight loss and reduced obesity-related eating behaviors, and it’s super simple to do!
I even have a FREE easy 4 Day step-by-step Mindfulness Challenge you can do to get a hang of the practice— after you finish it mindfulness will start to become like second nature, and your health goals will become easier to achieve!
You can even practice it as a part of your morning sunshine routine (maybe out in your back-garden) and get two of your healthy morning activities done at once.
Well played, well played! ✋
12. Think Before Dressing…
A fab way to avoid excess calories is to watch how calorific your sauces and dressings are on your salad or meal.
Although dressings look innocent at first, can easily rack up your calorie and SUGAR intake! Salad dressings are usually full of sugar to make people who don’t like veggies want to eat them up.
Take for example, Kraft Lite Catalina Dressing - it has 8 grams of sugar in just 2 tbsp! Find more ‘HEALTHY’ foods that are actually packed with sugar here!
13. Take It Easy… Relax A Little
It can be really hard not to get sick and to enjoy your fun when you’re stressing all the time!
If you’re traveling and something doesn't go to plan, try to not stress so much. Make peace with it - that way you can enjoy yourself better!
Plus, if you’re worried about eating to much of the wrong things at a parties or while traveling, just remember eating should be relaxing and should not be stressful. All you can do is your best. If you over ate, don't worry so much - just get back on track.
As I have mentioned previously, I suggest you start practicing mindfulness.
This will help you to reduce stress, stop feeling guilty, and help you to get back on track and stop overthinking things (if you want to read more into how mindfulness works, check out this blog post).
14. Get Enough Zzz’s
Be sure to get enough sleep… especially since you’re gonna be busy traveling and socializing - plus the heat can make you pretty tired.
Good sleep is incredibly important! As you may or may not know, regular exercise and a healthy diet is just as important as a great night’s sleep. Poor sleep has negative effects on your hormones, exercise performance, brain, mood, emotions and many various biological functions, and it can also cause the dreaded WEIGHT gain and increase RISK of disease risk.
If you have to leave the party a bit earlier, it’s fine. You need to make sure you get at least 7 hours of sleep.
If you been bust traveling all day, just put your cell phone away. Tomorrow is another day.
Oh… and if you’ve been having trouble getting to sleep at night, just run through my list, which has some really great and actionable steps you can take for a fab night’s sleep! Head over to my blog post: 12 Simple Tips for Better Sleep!
15. Keep Your Skin Glowing
All the sun, lotions and food can take a serious toll on your skin!
I’ve put together a list on my other blog-post on Summer Sun Care, where you can learn how you can arm yourself and your loved ones with sun safety tips & sunblock practices for protecting your skin and overall health using my favourite summer skin tips!
Because skin health = summer health!
Of course, I highly recommend skin protection (SPF 30 or higher, preferably a natural organic sunscreen), but I also recommend you to step outside for 10 to 15 minutes with no sun protection! Oh and did you know that the sunscreen you could be using right now, could be poisoning your health and not even protecting you?
Yep! You see why I really want you to read up on my blog post?
Oh… and for the best glowing skin this summer, I also have a fab bloggy post: 12 Easy Diet Changes For Better Skin You Need To Try.
It pin-points the special parts of your diet you need to tackle for the best skin.
I understand that sometimes it’s hard to know where to start when it comes to making these kind of adjustments, so there I share my tried and tested list of dietary changes you should be making for skin improvement. It also has my FREE CLEANSE, which has easy, step-by-step ways to incorporate these amazing diet changes into your busy day without the hassle of planning (it’s all done for you)!
16. Bonus tip: Get Your Self Ready For Successful SUMMER - Cleanse Your Mind & Body!
MY NUMBER #1 fave tip!
I find the best way to start any season (and end any season), is to go on a wonderful cleanse!!
By taking a couple of days to cleanse before starting a season of fun, you will get your health and mind wonderfully on track! You’ll get your mind into a happy place setting you up for a more relaxed and stress free season. Additionally, your health will be on track, causing you to make better food decisions and help you from getting sick!
What you probably don't realize, is that sometimes when you start a vacation or start a season and change your routine, your body and mind are not ready to take on the new role, no matter how fun!
You’ve had your normal routine for weeks, and now it’s going to change: you’re going to be socializing more, going on vacay, heading to the beach. Taking a moment to get balanced will help you avoid all of that unwanted stress.
BUT, if you have no idea how to start cleansing, I’ve got you covered:
I actually have a 5-Day FREE Food & Body Cleanse Challenge you can join!
The goal of the challenge? To have you feeling energized, restored, as well as to reboot your mind with amazing strategies, taste buds, and overall lifestyle changes so that you’ll be ready for anything! There will be a cleansing food plan crafted to fill your body with the most nourishing, delicious foods to reset your cravings.
And bonus? It’ll kick start weight loss (hello summer body) and it'll help you become naturally energized so that you have the energy for your goals. Also, we’ll work together on positive mindsets and daily routines to reboot your mind. It’s a total body, mind renewal - perfect for giving your body some extra TLC and increasing vitality.
That’s all folks! The Rundown….
This summer, you need to - eat the right cooling foods, reset your mindset to balance, stay hydrated, cleanse, focus on the right things and eat lighter more balanced meals!
Just by incorporating a few of these healthy and balanced hacks and tips, you will be able to guarantee yourself a happier, more fulfilled and healthy SUMMER, full of fun and enjoyable times, that are still healthy for your body and mind!