Wow – it is August. It is hard to believe we are already through two-thirds of the summer. And most of us have been hot this year. Hot weather tends to slow me down – it is hard to be active as the thermometer rises. So, how do we keep moving to perk ourselves up? Fortunately, this is also the time of year when a variety of fruits and vegetables are available to select for light snacks and healthy meals that don’t make us feel overly full and sluggish. We have enjoyed a lot of pool time this year for a cooler outlet for summer exercise.
I like to take some time at this point (while it is too hot to go outside) to reflect on how the summer is going and where I am relative to the goals I set for myself and my family this summer. We all tend to start the summer off with a few major goals. First my ongoing goal of providing a varied menu of healthy meals with lean proteins and various vegetables and fruits. Fortunately the many choices available in the summer months, supplemented by our garden, make meal planning fun. My second goal was to intersperse scheduled summer activities with periods of unstructured time for creativity and rest. The focus was on enjoying special times with family while not neglecting healthy habits so we all felt good along the way.
The schedule filled much faster than I expected, which seems to happen every summer. We have traveled several times to see out of town family this year and had three separate week-long camps to explore new activities. In the midst of all this traveling we maintained healthy eating habits by packing healthy snacks in the car and interspersing home-cooked meals between restaurant meals grabbed on the fly. There are always days where it is a challenge to eat completely healthy, but we get as close as we can and we begin again tomorrow.
We are enjoying an active, healthy summer and now it is time to start planning the transition to the fall schedule. Long summer days tend to make early bed times a challenge. Our rising first grader will need lots of rest for a successful school year. Our fall exercise schedule tends to be more structured than the summer schedule because school and work don’t allow the flexibility and variety of the summer schedule. So while we continue to enjoy these last few weeks of summer we will be working our way back into some more structure.
What things do you do to start the transition from the summer activities to fall? Share your comments below.
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Casana .