So, to be healthy, you just need to workout at least 30 minutes per day, walk 10k+ steps, sleep 8 hours, drink 1 gallon of water, eat keto, intermittent fast, meditate, take ice baths, not drink alcohol or caffeine, have a gratitude journal, do saunas… Sound familiar? Yeah. It’s really overwhelming. But instead of thinking of all the things you have to do or can’t do, it’s much easier to add a few realistic health goals.
Jo and I are all about balance. Yes, that term is thrown around everywhere, but we really do believe it. Instead of doing all 50-100 things you’re supposed to do in a day to be healthy (because, really, who has the time or patience to do all of that??), here are a few realistic health goals I’m adding this summer.
1. Drink more water.
I’m not going to list the benefits of drinking more water because it honestly seems to be the answer to almost every health problem! (But click here to read about why you should drink water.)
I’m usually pretty good about drinking plenty of water during the day since I carry around my giant Hydroflask everywhere. But recently, I’ve been drinking way less. Maybe it’s because I’m home more often right now. But I can seriously feel how dehydrated I’ve been recently and have been getting some horrible headaches. While 8 cups seems to be the standard suggestion, I’ve found that I need to drink more than that since I work out a lot, sweat, and drink a lot of caffeine.
I’ve found some fun spa water recipes to try to make water less boring. Also if I do feel dehydrated during the day, especially before or after a workout, I’m going to add some electrolyte powder like DripDrop, LiquidIV, or Nuun.
2. Refine my morning routine.
I know how important morning routines are because how you start your day matters. If you wake up rushed, you’ll likely feel stressed and unsettled all day. But a stress-free morning routine will help you feel more productive and calm.
I’ve researched a ton of different morning routines and even wrote a blog post with tips to create a stress-free morning routine. I’ve always make these huge, lofty goals like wake up at 5 am to run through a long routine, meal prep for the whole day, and finish up something for work before anyone else wakes up. But that just leads to more stress and beating myself up when I can’t wake up at 5 am. So, I’m still adjusting my morning routine to have it work for me.
3. Get more quality sleep.
Jo and I have both talked about on our Instagram our struggles with getting a good night’s sleep. When I was younger, I used to love to brag about how little sleep I got. I felt like I was so busy and productive if I was getting 4 hours of sleep a night. But now I understand more why sleep is so important.
Even though my sleep has gotten better, there are a lot of nights where I have trouble falling asleep & staying asleep. I’m definitely going to work on it by adding supplements like magnesium and CBD to improve sleep. But my biggest pitfall is watching Netflix in bed until really late. So I need to put away my screens earlier and possibly meditate instead, before bed.
4. Walk more.
I’ve been way better about this recently with my 100 mile challenge. But before, I used to rarely get in enough steps during the day! I really like how much more I’ve been walking. It feels great to get outside, take a break, walk my dog Gigi, and listen to some podcasts. So, I want to continue doing this throughout summer.
It’s a really easy and manageable health goal to add! Even if you’re not doing 100 miles in a month, adding 20-30 minutes of walking outside each day feels great mentally and physically.
5. Meditate.
Honestly, this is going to be the most challenging for me. Even though I always knew the benefits of meditation and that I would benefit from it, I still would never do it because it was “too slow” and “I can’t sit still.” I never understood how great it could be until a session Rachel McClusky led about a year ago. Then I promptly forgot about it until Jo mentioned trying Headspace since it’s currently free for LA County residents.
I don’t feel any different yet since it’s only been a couple of days, so I’m going to keep at it. But I feel like this is a realistic health goal since you can do something as short as 2-3 minutes!
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I’m definitely guilty of typically adding really unmanageable goals that are too far out of my reach then feeling upset over it. So I’m trying to add some simple, realistic health goals this summer that I can work on daily!
What are some of your summer health goals?
– Grace
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