Your Summer Health Guide: Simplified

Here’s one of my tips to staying healthy throughout the Summer Months: Crowd out the “bad” with the good! I don't like to categorize food as bad and good but rather processed vs. whole foods!

To me Summertime means someone popped the fun bottle on the warm weather & HELLLOOO BBQs, beach munchies, alcohol, and, goodies! 😋🎉

Here are a few tips to have fun while feeling confident in your skin:⠀

1. Fill up on your planned food first before the treats! ⠀

2. Focus on introducing LOTS of whole foods into your diet regularly, and less about restricting or eliminating the things you’ve decided you shouldn’t be eating. ⠀

3. Plan ahead! Focus on eating well throughout the week, and modify when you know you have plans one day. For instance, if I know I’m going to indulge on Saturday I will do my best to dial it in on other days so I can have fun without the guilt we all do to ourselves! Plus knowing I am respecting my healthy body!⠀

4. If you have been on point all week, it’s perfectly okay for your health to indulge 2-3 times a week on some treats or alcohol. Everything in moderation!⠀

My tip for alcohol: opt for light liquor with low sugar/calorie mixer, wine, or bubbly!⠀

5. Stay hydrated!

Did you know your body is 50-70% water!? So, at least 85 pounds of a 160 pound man is made up of water! Understanding those fluctuations on the scale from day to day/week can be a little easier when we know that more than half of our body is water, so not every day will it carry the same exact amount!⠀⠀

Many factors like time of the day, time of month, sodium intake, and, much more, go into how much water weight you carry at any given point in your life. Just like that weight "wasn't there two days ago (?!?!?!?!?!)" it will be gone again in two days time!

Please don’t go trying to sweat extra hard to lose it bc of that number & then not putting back the fluid your body needs!! 1-5+ pounds out of 60-85+ pounds of water is normal!! We lose water naturally through breathing, sweating, digestion, and, using the toilet throughout the day, so you need to replenish those fluids! ⠀⠀

A fun fact to know is that when carbohydrate's are severely limited, glycogen (carbohydrate stores) become depleted. Because water is needed to store glycogen, as the glycogen becomes depleted, water & water weight are lost. AKA that leaner look & purpose of carbohydrate cycling as tool! Just know as soon as you replace those glycogen stores, your water weight will return to its normal healthy range! ⠀⠀

Amazingly, you are made of trillions of cells, of which, each and every one require water to function, to regulate temperature, remove waste, transport nutrients and so much more. The body is a very beautiful intricate system where many parts rely on another. ⠀

So focus on hydrating and nourishing your body with love and respect. Keep aiming for 1/2 your body weight in oz a day, not a week, we're not camels! Thats a minimum without considering your physical activity and environment. Our bodies function for us when we fuel them right.

Let’s try not to get too caught up over these little numbers that aren’t true markers of fat loss or gain. It's normal, I know I have in the past, but let's keep pushing through that!⠀⠀

Side note: during *that time of the month* I often weigh 3-7 pounds more, & that’s my body doing it’s job.⠀

Go with the flow, keep your body hydrated, & don’t worry about how much percentage water you are tomorrow morning when/if you step on the scale for the info!

A healthy lifestyle isn't built overnight. And it is absolutely attainable in a sustainable way year round! Even through the summer and holiday's.

The idea is to add in a whole bunch of joy that serves you, despite any crap you may have in front of you. That’s where the change happens for you, shifting your perspective to what is in your control! ⠀

Let’s make this Summer one for the books in how confident we feel in ourselves INSIDE & out! All bodies are beach bodies and we can love them through each season we are in! Summer can be tricky too with more traveling, but again, having a plan and knowing what to do is the whole battle! Then we just follow course!

Here are some of my workout/health routine essentials I pack, because yes...⠀

just like I plan to shower on my vacation, I will still be working out because it feels better inside and out when I do.

Wellness Packing Essentials:

- Superfood shakes & shaker cups⠀

- Pre-workout powder ⠀

- Collagen

- Laptop/iPad/phone for streaming my workouts

- Apple Watch⠀

- Bowflex dumbbells or needed weights (if I'm driving!)⠀

- Cordless jump ropes

- Resistance loops

- Speaker and/or headphones

- Juicer or small blender (if I know there wont be one) ⠀⠀

- Tea ⠀

- My favorite refillable water bottle (glass, stainless steel, or BPA-free plastic is recommended)

- Journals and books (for morning routine, writing, and, tracking my workouts)⠀

- Colored pens (More fun for journaling)⠀

- Crystals & essential oils

- Portion control containers (I’m going to eat what I want, but also going to measure when I want!)⠀

- Yoga mat

Do I have every single one of those items ever single trip? No. That's more of my master list, as needed with the workouts I'm doing at them time. SO take what resonates. Because being prepared is how we stay committed to our goals!!

The truth of staying healthy through the Summer months, traveling, out to eat, and just the rest of this journey we call life, is easier than we make it out to be. It's more about removing barriers, even the mental ones, in order to build a consistent, sustainable, healthy lifestyle. Committing to yourself and a healthy lifestyle can be daunting because it means finally making that real change in your life. I know because I used to let fear and doubt control me from ever starting.

I used to listen to that little voice in my head...you know the assh*le voice who tells you to give up as soon as the going gets hard, tells you that you CAN’T & then conveniently finds an excuse for you to make it true. To find yourself, your raw self, you must be willing to dig deep within. To tap into the strength that’s inside of you & pull it outward into your reality. This is done when just say F it. We put ourselves into those uncomfortable spaces and challenges, grow all our "you-ness" into them, instead of hiding this time.

Even when the little voice pops in...

Especially when the little voice pops in. Make yours louder. Your real voice. You are the one in control of your life. So it’s up to you, to make it any better for you. Be fiercely unstoppable through the good, the bad, and the ugly that will come up in your self journey. You are resilient. Know that rest, is always, absolutely, a necessary part of the process. But quitting on you...not an option here.

So...hey little voice, looks like I can despite this, that, and the other reason. Which means anyone can. Plenty do. Will you?

Your mind gives up far sooner than your body will, don’t let it trick you! Lean in...Push. Through. With. Me. Switch the focus. Ditch the reasons “why not/can’t” and let's just put that energy into doing the damn thing instead. Fight for you! Year round!