7 Ways to Get the Ultimate Summer Body
At Quality of Life, a “summer body” means a healthy body. It’s always a good idea to revisit your health habits to ensure you’re making the best choices for your physical and mental well-being.
Your next resolution for excellent health shouldn’t wait until the New Year. Deciding to focus on your health can occur at any time.
Choosing your healthiest body for spring, summer, fall, or winter means revisiting your habits and realigning your goals. So as it’s time to shed the winter coats and drink in the sun (safely!), it’s also time to check in on our health and wellness to see what needs adjustment.
When you’re trying to look and feel your best, some habits need a good examination. So here’s where your journey to a healthier summer body can begin.
1. Start With Food
It’s no surprise that dietary changes are a common first step in optimizing your health. Adults who maintain a healthy diet live may longer and lower their risk of medical complications.*
However, dietary changes can be more complicated than they seem. With so many fad diets, it’s hard to know which option is truly best for your overall health. The good news is that some of the most straightforward dietary changes can provide the most significant impact. To start implementing healthy changes in your diet, you can:
- Increase water intake
- Eat homecooked meals
- Eat more plants, including leafy greens and seasonal fruits
- Reduce your sugar intake
- Chew your food slowly and completely
- Avoid skipping meals
- Avoid processed foods
Making big, sweeping changes to your diet could leave you feeling restricted and deprived.* So, instead, try to incorporate more healthy foods into your daily intake. Eventually, those unhealthy cravings could be a thing of the past.*
2. Drink More Water
There’s a reason why increasing your water intake makes its way onto lists about optimizing your health, and that’s because it works.* The human body consists of about 60% water, so letting yourself dehydrate dramatically affects your overall health.*
Mild dehydration, meaning anywhere from 1-3%, can negatively affect your physical performance, energy levels, and brain function.* Plus, drinking water before meals can help to increase satiety and boost your metabolic rate.*
3. Get Moving
The absolute best exercise to achieve your summer body is what you enjoy the most. If you force yourself to exercise in a way that makes you miserable, you may not keep up with your routine.
However, if you love tennis, walking, or biking, you might be more likely to make time for those activities in your schedule, especially if you can make a “workout date” with a friend.
The Department of Health and Human Services recommends 150 minutes of moderate activity or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise weekly for most healthy adults. However, DHHS advises at least 300 minutes a week for those looking to lose weight or maintain weight loss.
If that seems daunting, then know those short periods of exercise can add up.* So taking a couple of short breaks for a walk or even a quick strength workout can be worthwhile ways to reach your goals.*
4. Give Yourself a Boost
The transition from couch potato to workout aficionado can be a tough one. Giving yourself a boost with supplements can make that process easier.* One effective booster is Quality of Life’s Oligonol®, whose benefits include higher energy levels, as well as improved circulation and cardiovascular health.*
Oligonol®’s unique combination of lychee fruit and green tea offers several anti-aging benefits, such as lessening fatigue, increasing endurance, and reducing visceral (belly) fat.* These elements may make it easier to get off the couch and allow you to see the results of your hard work faster.*
5. Prioritize Your Sleep
Sleeping is essential for your health. Getting between seven and eight hours a day can benefit many aspects of your life.* Prioritize your sleep, and you may soon see results,* including:
- Better cognitive function*
- Prevention of weight gain*
- Stronger heart health*
- Improved immunity*
- Better mood*
- Increased productivity*
If sleep is a struggle for you, try setting a solid bedtime routine, meditating, and exercising regularly. These strategies may help support your sleep patterns.*
6. Activate Your Immune System
Exercising, sleeping, and even watching what you eat can be more challenging when you’re feeling unwell. If you’re serious about achieving your best health, consider supporting your immune system.
Supplements like Quality of Life’s Kinoko® Gold AHCC® and our Kinoko® Platinum AHCC® give your immune system the help it needs to activate T-cells and NK cells, increase your cytokine production, and prompt an early activation of your immune system.*
Keeping your system running smoothly can help you prioritize your summer goals!
7. Try “Habit Stacking”
Making changes to improve your overall health can feel overwhelming. However, changing your routines to incorporate better habits can profoundly impact your well-being.* But that doesn’t mean it’s easy.
There’s a reason why creating new habits is so hard. Our bodies can create neural pathways based on our habits and even reduce the neurons we don’t use because they’re not part of our routine.*
That’s why habit stacking is an effective tool for incorporating new, healthy habits.* Our brains are already set up to follow our set routine, so when you “stack” a new pattern on an old one, it can be easier to make it part of your lifestyle.*
Habit stacking can work on everything from diet to exercise to sleep function.* For example, if you make dinner every night, you can stack a habit of drinking 16 ounces of water into making dinner. Author James Clear, whose book Atomic Habits goes into more detail about habit stacking, explains that habit stacking uses a simple formula:
After/Before [Current habit], I will [Insert new habit here].
At Quality of Life, our goal is to keep you feeling great, regardless of the season. Every seasonal change can be an opportunity to revisit habits and routines that affect your overall health. Incorporating small changes can help you significantly impact how you feel every day.*
