10 tips to stay healthy all summer long
As the temperatures rise and the days get longer, it's the perfect time to revitalise your health and wellbeing. In this newsletter, I’ll explore simple yet effective strategies to keep you feeling your best during the sunny season. From hydration tips to sleep solutions, I've got you covered, so let's dive in and make this summer your healthiest yet.
1. Drink more water
Stay refreshed and revitalised by increasing your water intake this summer. Not only does water keep you hydrated in the heat, but it also supports digestion, boosts energy levels, and promotes radiant skin. If you’re hoping for a little last minute weight loss before your summer holiday, it’s also worth knowing that staying hydrated will stop you confusing hunger with thirst.
Make it a habit to carry a reusable water bottle with you wherever you go and aim to sip consistently throughout the day. Your body will thank you for it. How much you need will depend on the heat as well as your activity level. The absolute minimum is about 2L.
Simple strategies for staying hydrated
2. Cut back on alcohol
While it's tempting to indulge in a cool beer or a chilled glass of white wine during summer gatherings, alcohol consumption takes its toll on your health – even in small amounts. The NHS recommends adults over 21 drink fewer than 14 units a week (low risk drinking). Holiday drinking can really mount up – especially if you’re pouring yourself or you’re at an all-inclusive resort. It’s worth considering that binge drinking (as described by the NHS) is 6##plus## units (women) or 8##plus## units (men) in a single session. This is less than two large (250ml) glasses of wine for women or 2.5 glasses for men.
Challenge yourself to limit alcohol intake and explore refreshing alternatives like mocktails or infused water. Your liver will appreciate the break, you’ll have better control over your weight, feel calmer and less anxious, suffer less severe hormonal symptoms, and you'll sleep much better, so you wake up feeling more energised and focused the next day.
3. Get your steps in
One of the things many of us are guilty of is less activity in poor weather. With the fine weather firmly with us, make the most of the longer daylight hours by prioritising physical activity. That shouldn't only mean structured exercise. Aim for at least 10,000 steps a day on top of your regular exercise regime to boost your cardiovascular health, strengthen muscles, and enhance mood. Whether it's a morning stroll, an evening jog, or a lunchtime walk in the park, find opportunities to move your body and soak up the sunshine.
If you’re away on holiday and unable to commit to your regular workouts, there are plenty of ways to keep moving, including beach treks and city walking tours. You might be surprised how many steps you can get in when you’re not tied to your desk all day.
4. Get the sleep you need
Sleep is essential for overall health and wellbeing, but it can be challenging to get adequate rest when the days are long, and the nights are light. To counter this, you’ll need to put a little extra work into your night-time routine. You may find you sleep a lot better in a darkened room. This can feel challenging enough at any time of year if you live in an urban area, but summer adds an extra level. No one ever regretted investing in blackout blinds and/or a silk sleep mask. Take notes from the Scandinavian countries – where the sun rarely goes down for more than a few hours in summer – and throw all you can to tip the scales in your favour (note: these tips help create a more restful space for sleep at any time of year):
Limit screen time before bed, use a calming pillow mist like lavender to soothe the sense, practice relaxation techniques such as deep breathing or gentle yoga stretches. They also love their fish, especially salmon and tuna, which are high in vitamin B6, which helps your body produce more of the ‘sleep hormone’ melatonin.
5. Nourish your body with seasonal foods
We are officially in salad season but there’s a lot more to healthy summer eating than a few lettuce leaves. Take advantage of the abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables available during the summer months. Incorporate colourful produce like berries, tomatoes, cucumbers, and leafy greens into your meals to provide your body with essential vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.
Variety is not only the spice of life; diet diversity is the gold when it comes to health and wellbeing. If you can reach 50 different plant foods in a week, consider yourself a master. Most people get stuck in a rut of eating a small number of different fruits and veggies and rotating them. Trying to hit 50 is a fun challenge to take on when salads are aplenty, as they make it significantly easier to ramp up the numbers. Different salad leaves count as different foods, different types of apple count as different foods for the purposes of this challenge, as do all herbs and spices. If you made a stir fry with herbs and spices, and a bunch of different veggies, you could hit 10 different foods without too much trouble. Your body loves this variety! Have fun and see how many foods you can get. Simple tips: rotate bags of salad (finish the iceberg, buy romaine, then lamb’s lettuce, then rocket, for example) and, if you grow your own herbs, now’s the chance to add them to all your meals!
6. Vitamin D v skin protection
The lack of sunshine in winter months can play havoc with your health in general and also your mood because your body makes an important hormone (vitamin D) when the sun’s ultraviolet B (UVB) rays are absorbed through your skin. This means summer (and sunny holidays) is a great time to top up your vitamin D levels.
However, there is a bit of a balance needed between exposing your skin to the sunlight without wearing sunscreen and not spending too long in the midday sun and damaging your skin – or worse. The research on this is a little confusing and contradictory for many people: while sunscreen does not mean you will have vitamin D insufficiency or prevent your body producing any vitamin D at all when you are in the sun, it will reduce the amount you make. It is worth noting that many of the studies that say vitamin D status is unaffected by sunscreen were based on studies that used sunscreens with an SPF of 15 – and some were funded by sun cream manufacturers.
So, you must make your own judgement. A little exposure earlier in the day may be beneficial if you have lighter skin (you can get the vitamin D you need in 15 minutes) but going out for the afternoon without sun protection or sunbathing is not advised since we know that unprotected sun exposure/ getting sunburnt leads to sun damage, which may result in skin cancer.
Those with darker skin can need twice as long – or more – in the sun to get enough vitamin D, putting them at greater risk of sun damage.
Enjoy the sunshine responsibly by practising sun safety measures to protect your skin from harmful UV rays. Wear sunscreen with a high SPF, seek shade during peak sun hours, and wear protective clothing such as hats and sunglasses. Consider supplementing with vitamin D if you have darker skin and/or do not regularly expose your skin to the sun.
7. Prioritise mental health
Summer is a time for relaxation, so don't forget to prioritise your mental health, too, if you want to feel rejuvenated. Take breaks from your busy schedule to unwind and recharge, whether it's through meditation, mindfulness, or spending time in nature.
Now is the perfect time to connect with loved ones, practise gratitude, and find joy in the simple pleasures of summer.
Paleo Granola
This is a healthy, protein-rich breakfast, perfect for pairing with summer fruits and whole Greek or coconut yoghurt. Perfect for the warmer weather!
Makes approximately 12 servings
Ingredients:
140g almonds
125g cashews
35g pumpkin seeds
35g sunflower seeds
35g unsweetened coconut flakes
40g coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp sea salt
Method:
Lifestyle Changes to Improve Your Mood
Exercise – Exercise plays a big part in beating the blues
A number of studies, in which people exercised for 30 to 60 minutes, 3 to 5 times a week, found a drop of around 5 points in their Hamilton Rating Depression Scale – more than double what you’d expect from anti-depressants alone.
If you are feeling down and de-motivated, it’s not easy to get started on exercise: but the benefits are worth it.
Exercise increases blood flow to the brain and raises levels of the brain chemicals serotonin and dopamine. Higher serotonin levels make us feel good. Dopamine helps create a sense of motivation. Natural light also stimulates serotonin.
Exercise helps you to sleep, because it can “burn off” excess adrenalin. It helps to balance blood sugar and lose weight and that, in turn, improves your mood and motivation. When you get started, aim for 20 minutes of exercise five days a week, preferably outdoors. If you are significantly overweight, this could be brisk walking – 30 minutes a day would be better.
Find something you like doing, preferably in a pleasant area, and with other people. It’s great to have an exercise buddy. Exercise then becomes another means of focusing attention away from yourself and your preoccupations, and of spending enjoyable time with others. An exercise buddy also adds accountability. You are more likely to show up.
Following the low-GL mood boosting diet, and maybe taking the right supplements, will improve energy levels enough to give it a go.
Sleep – Mood and Sleep have a lot in common
Lack of sleep has a big effect on how you feel, and finding out how to sleep through the night and wake up refreshed could be the missing piece in getting you to feel a whole lot better.
The amino acid tryptophan is not only the raw material for serotonin but also for melatonin, a brain chemical that helps you sleep by controlling the sleep/wake cycle. It’s the brain’s neurotransmitter, which keeps you in sync with the earth’s day/night cycle. Jet lag, for example, happens when the brain’s chemistry takes time to catch up with a sudden time zone shift.
As you start to wind down in the evening, serotonin levels rise, and cortisol levels fall. As it gets darker melatonin kicks in.
But what can you do to improve your quantity and quality of sleep?
Provide more of the building blocks that make serotonin – tryptophan, an amino acid present in most protein-rich foods like chicken, cheese, tuna, tofu, eggs, nuts, seeds, and milk.
The conversion from tryptophan to serotonin requires folic acid, B6, vitamin C and zinc. These can be found in beef, broccoli, cashews, chicken, chickpeas, cauliflower, peppers, kale, kiwi, lamb, oranges,
parsley, pumpkin seeds, pineapple, salmon, spinach, turkey, and tuna.
SLEEP ACTION PLAN
Salmon Summer Salad
Salmon is excellent source of omega 3 fatty acids, which research shows can help to alleviate symptoms of low mood. This is a delicious recipe perfect for Spring.
Serves 2
Ingredients
2 salmon fillets
3 tbsp olive oil
1 x chicory heart - red is nice
10g parsley
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tbsp capers
1/2 avocado 1
00g cherry tomatoes
20g red onion
50g rocket celery leaves
Method
Good Mood Foods
How we nourish our bodies has a profound effect on our mood. Here are my top foods to include… and what to avoid.
IN
OUT
Food and Mood
The link between physical health and what you eat is well understood, but did you know that what you eat has a huge impact on your mood and how you feel?
I wonder how we forgot about this connection, because it was common knowledge in times gone by. Way back when (think medieval times), people would eat quince, dates and elderflowers if they were feeling a little blue anduse lettuce and chicory as nature’s tranquilisers.
Modern science has extensively studied the impact of food on mood, and we now understand why food has such a positive (or negative) effect, and which foods we should be eating more (or less) of to support mental health.
Managing anxiety, stress, depression, and other mood disorders is complex, and there’s no one-size-fits all solution. But we know that the right diet and lifestyle plan combined with motivational coaching to help you every step of the way can be an enormous help.
The very edited highlight of the research into what you should eat to balance your energy and improve your mood is to follow a Mediterranean-style diet featuring plenty of whole, natural foods.
That also means learning to balance your blood sugar levels. Loss of blood sugar balance has a clear link to stress, anxiety, and depression. 50% of low mood is down to blood sugar imbalances. Learning how to become a master of your blood sugar balance is the secret to having more energy, a better mood and controlling your weight – and losing it if you need to.
Feeling more confident about the way you look is in itself an excellent way to boost feelings of self-worth. In the same way that eating well can positively influence mood, making poor food choices can have the opposite effect. Research by a team at Binghamton, New York, showed that young adults under 30 who ate fast food more than three times a week scored higher when it came to levels of mental distress. The same researchers found that those who ate meat fewer than three times a week had more mental health problems (potentially as the amino acid tryptophan found in meat is the precursor to the feel-good chemical serotonin).
Low mood affects up to 20% of us at any one time, so everyone is likely to experience some form of it at one time or another. Many periods of low mood can be almost eradicated by following some simple steps. Not only because this addresses many of the physical causes of low mood, but also because you are spending your time focusing on a positive action plan and learning new things rather than ruminating about problems.
To find out more about how a nutrition & lifestyle programme can help, why notbook a free call with me. Here’s the link.
Please get in touch and find out more - I offer a free 30-minute exploratory call.