Summer. Summer has been a season we look forward to since we were little kids. When we were younger it was a time of no school and minimal schoolwork (the occasional summer reading or math packet here and there). It was a time to spend at home relaxing or vacationing and visiting family. Everything about summer is supposed to be easy. It always was and always will be one of my favorite seasons.
Though of course you should still take summer as a relaxing time in which you decompress from the past stressful school year, it is time to start making the most of your summer! It is time to start look at summer as more of an “opportunity season” rather than an “off season.” There is less going on and less to worry about for sure but all the more reason to start focusing on self-improvements. Nothing major of course (you’re perfect as you are) but a great time to start all those things you always said you needed to do but never did. You know like drinking lots of water, eating healthier, exercising regularly? Yeah all that.
With all that being said, it’s still early in the summer so make the most of it. Maybe even pull out a pen and paper, jot down all those things you started but never made a routine. Think of it almost as a new years resolution but way better because it is {sweet summertime} and you finally actually have time to do these things. I’ll give you a few ideas to get you started:
1. Eating healthier
This can be very difficult especially for college students—less options, budgets, lack of time, etc.—but while you’re either home for the summer or still in your college town you have more time to pay attention to what you’re eating. Meals are important, take the time to plan all three of your meals to the extent where they will fill you up each time. It is better to have three good meals than to not have any and just snack all day long because we can all guess how that snacking will turn out. Now of course you will definitely need a snack but before pulling out the chips slice up some fruit. You could even combine fruits to make a fruit salad or mix it all up in the blender for a delicious treat. There are many ways to eat healthier, it is up to you to take this free time to work on it.
2. Drink water
You must drink lots of water in the summer, especially here in Florida. It is hot as ever and water is necessary simply to survive this summer’s heat. Water is also the perfect alternative to soda or other sugary beverages. Lot’s of people say you should be cutting soda out of your diet completely but that definitely isn’t easy. I once went seven months without a sip of soda and I felt great, and it was definitely great for me. But looking back on that I don’t know how I did it, and I've tried many times since then to cut it out again but I just can’t. So instead of having a goal that tough I’ve made it a bit easier on myself by only allowing myself one cup of soda a day on the weekends—hardly drinking it but still getting my weekly fix. All other times I drink water. Water by itself, water with lemon, water with sliced fruit, flavored water, lots and lots of water.
3. Exercise regularly
Exercising is something that you probably either love or hate. It is possible to also have a love/hate relationship with exercising (that’s me for sure). People get the idea in their heads though that if they are exercising they have to run fast and far and hard or lift super heavy weights or join a gym and do cross fit. False. Sure all of those things are great but it takes time. For starters, you don’t need to belong to a gym to exercise. Start off by fast walking around your neighborhood. It’s great exercise and much easier on the body. There are so many “at home” exercises you can do that once you set a routine a gym membership won’t even seem necessary.
Now those are just a few ways to get started with you summer resolutions, as I like to call it. Think of all sorts of things you’d like to do from possible to impossible, you’ve got all summer to get these routines started! By the time you go back to school you might as well be a new person with all of your accomplishments. As you continue on your summer of resolutions stay positive. Remind yourself constantly that the class you signed up to take might be boring and tough now but you know it would have been harder in the fall. And sure who wants to go to work when it’s the perfect beach day, but hey you’re making money. And as you make your way through your resolutions remember that though they may be hard and even sometimes dreadful now, you will be a much better person because of them come fall. Take all the opportunities this off season gives you.
