We’re not going to lie; staying on track with your health goals is more difficult during the summer, especially if you’re pursuing new health goals for the first time.
The beach days, road trips, flights, and extra family time or time with friends can throw you off routine.
Rather than just accepting hitting pause on your health goals to be the only way, we will tell you that there is a way to still stay on track throughout the summer without having to restart after summer. Trust us, restarting MUCH harder than keeping up a routine. More often than not, people who have to restart their routines after summer tend to fail, but we will leave this for another blog.
So where do we start?
Reevaluate Your Goals
A big part of you will try and keep up the same routine in the summer that you had throughout the rest of the year. For some, it will work, and for others, it won’t.
It’s important to sit down and asses what your summer will look like. Do you have travel plans? Are kids home from school? Are you going to be away from home for a while?
All these things will affect whether or not you will be able to keep up the same routine.
If you realize that you won’t be able to keep up the same routine, then sit down and create a new more sustainable routine for summer.
It might mean going to the gym 3 times a week instead of 5 times and doing more outdoor activities. It might mean having to visually count your macros instead of logging them in MyFitnessPal all the time.
Be Prepared
The next most important step to stay on track with your health and fitness goals would be to always be prepared.
What do we mean by being prepared?
Well think about it this way;
You might have new things popping up in your schedule. New events, travels, etc. Keeping things the way they were in your schedule prior might not work. Instead, you want to account for the new activities, and reassess your schedule.
How much time do you lose? Do you need to move things around?
Where are the grocery stores at the new place? Do you need to buy ready made foods? What are the restaurants around the area and do you know what their menu looks like?
Are you staying at a different place? Do you have gym access? If not, do you have bands you can bring, or body weight workouts you can do? Can you incorporate more walks?
By asking yourself the right questions, you’ll better be able to prepare for any new obstacles that might come up. When you’re prepared, you will most definitely stay on route towards your goal, even if it’s not perfect.
And speaking of perfect, don’t expect things to be perfect throughout your summer, it rarely ever is even outside summer. It’s about consistency, not perfection as perfection isn’t what will get you to your destination!
Exercise During Summer
So what do you do if your summer is more busy than the rest of your year typically is? What do you do if you’re travelling?
1. Increase your steps
With the nice weather during summer, and being outdoors more, we typically opt for increasing our steps. Whether it’s setting time aside to go for a walk, or choosing to do some activity like hiking, or sport, it’s a great way to increase your activity level while being able to still socialize with your friends. Steps are one of the most underrated activities, but they can really help you stay on track of your goal. On top of that, if there’s no gym where you’re going, steps will be your best friend in terms of activities.
2. Do something active with friends
We are all about hanging out with friends by the pool or getting a beer, but with that we also try and encourage our friends to do something active along with it.
If we go to the park for BBQ, then we will bring a frisbee, football, volleyball or any other ball for that matter to get everyone to play some sport casually. PS if you’re a parent, kids LOVE this!
If we are brainstorming ideas on something to do, we will suggest hiking, biking, or swimming. It’s fun, a great way to hang out, and an AMAZING way to get some exercise in without having to go to the gym.
3. Workout first thing
Lastly, if you have access to the gym, or like getting workouts in, we suggest you get your workout in first thing in the morning.
PS: If you’re staying at a hotel, check to see if there’s a gym!
We like to get our workout done first thing in the morning because we know somethings new things pop up into our schedule that we did not plan for. On top of that, after eating a good dinner, enjoying the patio and a drink, the last thing you’d want to do is get up and go to the gym.
Go to the gym, or do your home workout first thing in the morning. You’ll more likely get it done that way, it will also be out of the way, and something you don’t have to worry about.
Food During the Summer
If you know us, you know we are BIG foodies. We love food, and all the different kinds of food there is.
That being said, we know that in the summer time it’s easier to slip off your routine with food. Different schedules, parties, being outdoors more, and vacations, can throw us off.
So how do we stay on track with our food?
1. Eat your protein
Top on our list is always ensuring that we get our protein intake in. It might not be as much as when we cook all our meals at home, but we do our best to consume most of our protein at home before we go out for a dinner, etc.
We look to have a source of protein for every meal, and if we get three servings of protein throughout the day, we know we are well on track.
If you’re out on vacation somewhere, ensuring you have a good amount of protein for breakfast, and opting for good protein meals throughout the day at restaurants will help! It’s not to say we don’t enjoy pasta or burgers, we DO, but we also try and keep a good balance of right choices by opting for high protein meals at times.
2. BBQ is your best friend
We love making and eating BBQ throughout the summer! Why? It’s easy, it’s quick, and a great way to prep a lot of protein in one go.
On top of that, if you’re going to the park or beach with friends, it’s a great way to still be able to keep up your protein intake and not worry about where you will get your protein from.
Enjoy your hot dogs and burgers, and remember you can find leaner protein alternatives like chicken hot dogs, chicken burgers, extra lean ground beef for burgers, or do chicken breast or chicken thighs. The possibilities are endless really, and it’s making our mouths water just thinking about it!
3. Drink lots of water
Staying hydrated is so important throughout the summer. With being busy running around, or being with friends, it’s easy to forget to drink water. But the lack of hydration doesn’t just look like headaches, but can mean you’re more lethargic or likely to eat more foods because your body is looking to get some source of water and energy from somewhere.
We like using our Ener-C Sport Electrolytes (LINK HERE - use code NORIATHELTICS for 15% off) to add flavour to our water, but also ensure we are making up all the lost minerals and vitamins we lose through our sweat. If you’re having an outdoors day, or busy day, this is HIGHLY recommended.
4. Limit alcohol and sugary drinks
With summer comes more parties. It’s also a time to sit on the patio and enjoy a drink.
We still drink, we have a glass of beer or wine, but we are very aware of how much we have. Alcohol can easily have you consuming 600 extra calories without you even knowing it.
If we do drink, we like to keep it simple. We avoid cocktails that have syrups, because that’s just more calories. And we keep it to 2 drinks tops. Why? Because we’d rather use those calories towards food.
Whenever we drink, we also drink a lot of water as well. This ensures that we are not using alcohol as a means of hydrating, and it also keeps our hands busy and not reaching for alcohol. During the summer with the heat, it’s extra easy to get dehydrated and alcohol makes it even easier.
We normally would also drink Electrolytes when we get home to make up for the loss of minerals and dehydration from alcohol, and to avoid being hung over the next day.
Be Flexible
To finish off this blog, we want to remind you that more than anything it’s important to be flexible.
It’s summer, so enjoy it and have fun. As you should any time of the year. If you’re skipping attending birthday parties and get togethers but feeling guilty afterwards, then you’re holding yourself back too much.
We’re all about balance, as we know time flies by quick, and we are about making every moment count.
If you need help being flexible but also staying on track with your goals, you can apply for our 1-1 coaching HERE or send us an email at hello@noriathletics.com.