I love sitting under the shade of a tree in my garden, writing. Putting pen to paper, letting the ideas come to me as the dappled sunlight bathes my skin and the gentle, cooling breeze blows. Fond memories of summertime as a child evoke feelings of freedom and fun, long lazy days, being outdoors in the fresh air, family picnics, lake swims, dinghies, enjoying less routine and regiment.
As an adult, when the sun shines often those core memories come along with the season. With children off school and less structure to our days, it can become more of a challenge to maintain our usual healthy habits that we know make us feel so good. Holidays, more rest, less routine, days out, meals out, beaches and barbecues, parties and the wedding season often present hurdles and may mean our good habits and food choices slip.
August, mid way through the year, is a great time to check in with your own health goals and to take the time to notice whether your current summer lifestyle is still in alignment with these goals and your longer term vision. Are your behaviours matching your values and what is important to you?
That said, it is so important to allow for times like this and to be flexible and versatile in your actions and your quest for good health. We shouldn’t be overly restricting ourselves, feeling like we are missing out or sucking the joy out of our summertime activities – it’s about compromise not sacrifice after all. Without any guilt or shame, you could simply become aware of what you are doing for the majority of your time. If the sunny days mean that the barbecues are becoming a regular feature and every meal is a high fat, high sugar, overly salted, processed option then it might be time to rein it in a little and intersperse with some more natural, nutritious food choices throughout the day. If you have opted for sedentary, lazy days on your holidays, could you aim to fit in some movement like a walk or a swim into your day? How about consciously choosing to take the stairs instead of mindlessly hopping into the lift every time you head back to your room to ensure your step count is up and this low intensity exercise is benefitting your muscles and your mood each time you make that choice and take that positive action.
It’s useful to consider this on a monthly basis. If your overall diet and lifestyle is health promoting and above average for 3 weeks out of the 4 and then you go away on holiday for a week, where you might make different food and activity choices that are not so optimal for health then, looking at the bigger picture, that means you are still 75% above average – and that is something to be proud of! This is unlikely to have any long term affects on your health or prevent you from reaching your health goals as our overall health is an average of our behaviours. If we can shift away from the ‘all of nothing’ mindset then we can relax into our summer holidays and won’t have any trouble getting back on track and returning to our usual lifestyle when the holiday is over.
I have been guilty of having this all or nothing mindset and beating myself up over something I have done for the minority of time, like indulging in sharing a scone with jam and cream with my husband or eating peanut butter out of the jar, rather than turning my attention to all the health promoting actions I take and the nutritious food I consume on a daily basis the majority of time. I am leaning into this and taking a lighter, less serious approach this summer and it feels really good! Last weekend I took my girls camping with my sisters and their cousins. I knew taking a lot of fresh, whole foods, salads, veggies and fruits was not going to be practical and it would make the trip more complicated than it needed to be, so I resorted to packing some puy lentils and piri piri grains in pouches, rye bread, tinned beans, naked bars, dried mango and walnuts. I enjoyed some barbecued veggie burger (minus the white bun) adding a tasty barbecued corn on the cob on the side instead. I still made sure I made some good choices but also gave myself permission to relax and my blood sugar actually remained well in the target range. Once I got home, my usual eating and drinking habits resumed so that I could continue supporting myself to be in my most insulin sensitive state for sustainable, good long term diabetes management.
In fact, I have been implementing some of my own new exercise and mindful wellbeing habits this summer and I’m looking forward to sharing them with you in the next blog. I’ll talk about the useful strategies I have been using, the benefits of habit stacking, making habits easy and satisfying as well as how the accountability from my own coach is enormously benefitting me and helping my new habits stick! Until then, have a lovely Summer!
Anna x