How To Get Back On Track After Summer Indulgences

SUMMER IS MY SEASON

It’s the season for being outside; for hiking, biking, being on the water and generally enjoying the outdoors! It’s also the season for weddings, picnics, barbeques, parties, staying out late, long weekends of eating and drinking, and just generally indulging. It’s easy to have a weekend of overdoing it … Friday night cocktails, Saturday neighborhood picnic or wedding, Sunday brunching or baby shower … and then it’s time to lay down the hammer on Monday, right? Our brains go into overdrive even when we’ve enjoyed our overindulgence to the fullest – Come Monday, we promise to hit the gym every day, go on a juice cleanse (or fast), cut back on meals or grab low-cal shake for breakfast and lunch, and generally “be good”. The having-fun time is officially over. 

Not only is this hard to stick to, but it often causes a psychological backlash that leads us to the next overindulgence, or to berate ourselves for not having the “willpower” to be perfect enough. Being fit and healthy are admirable goals, but the road there is not a straight line, nor is the definition the same for each person. You are a unique person with a unique body, unique social obligations and your own views of not only health and wellness but also of fun and joy. 

Rather than a straight line, any progress that is truly meaningful and lasting, is usually a twisting slinky upward … three steps up, a step back, two steps up, a pivot … and these backtracks are not only necessary (though sometimes maddening), they are a healthy part of progress. We have enough rules in life; creating an overabundance of them around “being good” all the time should not be one of them! Progress and change takes time, patience and a sense of humor when the whole universe is conspiring against you to make you eat cupcakes and macaroni and cheese. Rather than throwing in the towel or – at the other end of the spectrum – living off a psuedo-cleanse for a week, try these gentler but still massively effective approaches to get yourself off the carnival ride and on to steady ground. 

BE REALISTIC

It takes time to get into shape; it takes time to get out of shape – a few weekends, a trip to Italy or a summer of wedding festivities is not going to cause such a large chasm that you can’t overcome it by taking small corrective steps and working your way toward your wellness goals. Usually when we deprive ourselves, we end up rebelling from that deprivation and causing the unhealthy cycle all over again. It is better to set yourself up with the basics and let time work it’s magic. Start by focusing on whole foods (anything from the earth and not packaged) and making sure you are eating at regular intervals to prevent you starving by dinnertime and eating everything in your fridge! I like to focus on eating every 3-4 hours, ensuring I’m getting sufficient protein and healthy fats (nut butters, olive oil, avocado, nuts and seeds, or even cheese if you can tolerate it) to stay sufficiently full; these can be small meals but enough to satisfy yet stave off constant snacking. Be patient with your progress and – even more important – be mindful of what messages you are saying to yourself about your wellness journey. You will be back on track and closer to your goals before you know it by taking realistic, meaningful steps forward.  

IF NOTHING ELSE, HYDRATE

…Even better – with lemon! Wake up … drink water; drink more water. Yes, we all carry around water bottles these days, and yes, we should be hydrating all day. But it’s infinitely easier to make a habit of hydrating first thing in the morning. Aim for a minimum of 16 to 32 oz of water shortly after waking. There is significant research that points to room temperature or warm water offering some unique health benefits, so if you can tolerate this, try it. Warm water has been shown to aid in digestion, cue your metabolism to get moving, calm the nervous system and help with constipation. Even better – add a squeeze of fresh lemon to the gently warmed water. Besides being a good source of the antioxidant Vitamin C, lemon water helps alkalize your body (aka balances your pH). We’ll discuss in a later article why an alkaline environment could be very beneficial to your health (cancer cells can’t grow in an alkaline environment for one). Lemon water is also a natural diuretic and helps beat bloat! Either way, warm or cold, make hydrating in the AM part of your routine. 

START A NEW HABIT

Replace the old with the new and interrupt your current pattern. Now is a good time to add small but meaningful new habits. Maybe it is downloading a meditation app like Insight Timer and committing to a 5 minute meditation (even 1 minute counts!); maybe it’s reaching out to one friend every few days that you’ve lost touch with; or signing up for a volunteer gig you’ve been meaning to; or joining a local Wednesday night running group. It could be something as small as adding a probiotic or multivitamin supplement to your routine, just to add something that is soley for the benefit of your body. Whatever it is, it’s best to avoid something food-related. It’s easy to start to obsess when we feel we are “out of control”, but it’s so much healthier for your brain and your body to get some relief from this and to focus outside yourself (or deep inside yourself, in the case of meditation). 

AUTOMATE YOUR BREAKFAST & LUNCH (AKA The World Is Not Your Oyster)

Short-term automation is one of the easiest ways to get yourself back on track. Less choices are often better. I find that I eat much healthier now that gluten can’t be an option for me – and I’m not referring here to cutting out entire food groups – I’m simply referring to temporarily cutting out choice. The more automated you are, the less likely you are to slip back into less healthy habits. The same breakfast and/or the same lunch every day. This is a similar principle to that of Steve Jobs in wearing the same “uniform” everyday – it simply gives you one less thing to worry and obsess about. It also saves time and money, for you efficiency experts! An example could be a low sugar protein bar (like Rx or Julian Bakery PaleoThin), a protein shake, or some granola with berries and nut butter for breakfast daily. Yes, variety in your diet is good; but sometimes less variety and less choice lead to getting your brain back on track with automating better decisions. Find something you like enough and can stick with, automate that for your breakfast and lunch routine for a couple of weeks, and see how easy it is to get back on track. 

Regardless of your past choices, you can always choose differently starting right now. Try some of these ideas above and let us know which ones work for you! Enjoy your life to the fullest and know that you will reach your best self goals.