September tries its best to make us forget Summer- Bernard Williams

There were a good number of years where I was not in school but September still felt like an opportunity for a fresh start. I do not have a new backpack full of freshly sharpened Dixon Ticonderoga pencils but I am taking the opportunity to look at September as a chance to reboot. Not just because the kids are back in school (as a parent of two school aged kids, let me just say THANK GOD) but let’s acknowledge Summer can be very challenging from a Self- care perspective. All the BBQs, traveling and late nights can make it very hard to stick to our regular exercise and food plan. Summer food isn’t exactly figure friendly, it is usually s’mores, beer and ice cream.

Even the prospect of having to wear a bathing suit doesn’t necessarily make life easier in the Summer because the special food is everywhere. As are distractions from our plans to exercise or simply take care of ourselves as human beings, not just as unpaid Uber drivers to take children to and from swim practice.

My Summer this year was a little different than previous in that my kids went to sleep away camp and my husband and I went on an extended trip to Asia. Which was absolutely amazing, however eating out 3 meals a day for 21 plus days requires a great deal of discipline, time spent in the hotel gyms and I considered it a huge victory when I came home the same weight as when I left.

However your Summer went, let’s move forward in how we are going Fall into better habits.

• Plan your workouts on Sunday night, along with your meals. If you have to sign up for classes online with your gym do it now. Do not wait until the morning of, I know there are times when it might not work in your favor, hello sick kid out of nowhere, however 99% of the time having that reservation and a possible financial ding will get you to the studio. If your gym doesn’t require reservations with a financial penalty, commit to going with a friend or make a trainer appointment. Now, many of my clients rebel with the meal planning. They forgot or their dog ate their cellphone when the food was due to me. Deciding what you are going to eat when you are not starving makes you leaner, richer and healthier!! Who doesn’t want that??
• Do not get bummed out by Summer leaving, reframe it as Fall is coming!! We have sweater weather, Football and Halloween to look forward to. Fall doesn’t require as much physical maintenance, ladies can I have an Amen?? I am not a Pumpkin Spice person at all, but I know just about everyone else on the planet is, so go forth and have your pumpkin beer and spice flavored juice. More for you since I will be gagging in the corner.
• There are 80 days From Labor Day to Thanksgiving. That is a significant amount of time to get ourselves in check by sticking to our food plan, our exercise routine, making time to meditate getting enough sleep (since daylight savings makes it dark pretty early) and hydrating. 80 days is enough time for you to reconnect with your body just in time for those holiday parties where we can show off our hard work to all our friends and neighbors.

Let’s all admit it looking good is a huge morale booster anytime of year 🙂

xoxo

Erin