A Guide For Keeping Busy And Staying Healthy During Summer Vacation

You’re most likely already looking forward to enjoying the time off from work, and spending your days in the sun with your friends and family. However, a long vacation can leave you feeling unmotivated to get back to work since you’ve enjoyed a different, and let’s face it, more fun way of living. It’s important not to lose touch with what matters and what is important to your health over the summer, so ensure that you’re keeping both your brain and your body engaged and active. The warm sun and the long evenings are not an excuse for bending the rules of your diet and exercise routine.

Be Productive

Make a list of all the things you’d like to achieve over the summer and list them down for you to come back to and review. Try and make this list on the first day of your summer vacation as then you have a plan to stick to and to guide you. If you’re struggling to come up with some ideas, then let the following suggestions inspire you. Think about starting a fitness or Pilates class from your backyard, create a YouTube account and begin a daily vlog, start a blog discussing your daily routine and beauty tips, or design your own website from scratch using an online logo generator to get it started and recognized. There are many more ways to stay productive over the summer, you just need to figure out what you want to achieve during your free time.

Keep Your Brain Engaged

You’re aware of the benefits of staying physically fit and eating the right foods as you’ll know how they affect how your body looks and feels. It’s just as important to nurture your brain health and ensure it’s getting the stimulation it needs. Your brain also benefits from a healthy lifestyle, but the effects of this cannot be seen. Instead, they are felt in your mood and ability to stay focused and positive. Keeping your brain busy and active during summer vacation is going to make sure that it doesn’t wander and lose concentration before starting back to work again.

Keep A Journal

Tell yourself that you’ll keep up to date with writing a journal for the duration of the summer vacation. This way, you’re more likely to form a habit of regularly writing, and you might want to carry it on even after summer vacation draws to a close. Journaling can be therapeutic, especially if you’re writing about your day before you go to bed. A journal enables you to keep track of how much activity you’ve had during the day. If you’ve been enjoying too many lazy days, you’ll subsequently have little to write about before you go to sleep.

Wake Up As The Sun Rises

Get out of bed as the early summer sun rises. Being early to bed and early to rise is known to be beneficial for your physical and mental health, so this summer give early mornings ago and get into the habit of winding down in preparation for sleep as the sun sets in the sky. If this is out of the question, then at least wake an hour earlier than you usually would. Plan what tasks you’re going to get completed in this extra hour, like getting out to go for a run, or cleaning, or organizing parts of your home you’ve been meaning to do for a while. Keep busy during the summer vacation and reap the health rewards.

Limit Alcohol

The sun may well be blasting this summer vacation, and you’ll want nothing more than to laid out on the beach with a cosmopolitan cocktail, however this is no time to overindulge yourself and drink too much alcohol. You can easily overindulge since you’re around friends and want to have a good time. This is precisely why you should make a conscious effort to limit the amount of alcohol you consume. On another note, alcohol is a depressant and dehydrates your brain and your body. If you want to stay happy, focused, active and healthy this summer vacation, then overdoing the booze certainly isn’t going to do you any favors.

Drink Smoothies

You don’t always feel like sitting down to eat large meals during the summer, so make sure you’re still getting all the nutrients your body needs in other ways. Start your day by making smoothies packed with fresh fruits and vegetables and place any you don’t drink in the refrigerator to have for later. Fresh ginger shots are great for boosting the strength of your immune system, so try and incorporate one of these into your diet. Go shopping for different fruits and vegetables and do some research into which give you essential vitamins and minerals. Prepare a different smoothie each day and keep busy by finding out the health benefits of consuming each ingredient involved in making them.

Salads

If this summer vacation looks to be a scorcher, then prepare dinners that don’t require you to cook over the stove for hours on end. Instead, create meals that don’t require cooking like a five bean spicy salad or avocado and tomato on toast, for example. Plan an evening to have your friends at your place, and you can prepare a large salad and a BBQ outdoors in the evening sun.

Stay Physically Active

Now is the time to don your finest sportswear and hit the outdoors gym. Make sure you’re well-coated in sun cream before spending long periods of time outdoors. Your face needs to be protected from the midday rays and UV exposure. Stay busy this summer vacation by getting involved with as many sports clubs as you possibly can, and get your pals involved too. Encourage each other and drive to the beach if you have one within reach. Take volleyballs, beach balls and a couple of surfboards to keep all of the group happy and entertained. Staying active promotes good brain and body health so get moving and shaking over the summer vacation.

Thanks to Fatima