Our resident health and fitness guru, Alex, keeps us going after the summer holidays.
Photographs: Unsplash /Alexandra Beck
Text: Alexandra Beck
Oh wow, is it already time to unpack the suitcase, do the laundry, get back to work, school and cooking dinner? Yes, it is, and what a privilege!
We often dread returning to work post-vacation, re-setting the snooze alarm to the crack of dawn, getting the kids back into their school and extra-curricular activities, figuring out what to put on the grocery list for the week and answering the pile of emails. And oh my! We have been enjoying the Tuscan wining and dining lifestyle a wee bit too much for our jeans… And yet all of this “back to normal” is what composes most of our lives. So how about a mindset switch?
Instead of feeling down about returning to “life”, let’s make the experience of returning home something we look forward to and feel grateful for. After all, we are now rested and ready to return to our everyday life and let’s face it, vacations are designed to be special. If we had them every day, we would take them for granted.
We have had some fantastic moments, fabulous experiences and delicious foods, and now we can come home to all the things we were missing during our holidays: our beautiful homes, gardens, great friends and colleagues, and the list of things we promised we would do to improve our physical and mental health.
Now, getting back to the “health” point may be the most challenging part of the grand return (and the one we may not really have been “missing”) since it’s also one of the easiest ones to set aside in favour of the list above! But hey, this could be part of your lifestyle improvement plan for a while now, and perfect timing to take action! Who needs a new year’s resolution when you have an incredible opportunity to start in August. Start? Yes, but where?
On the home front, get the family involved in healthier habits too, for example:
#1 Mindfully planning and preparing meals together:
Learning about nutritious foods together can be fun and tasty!
#2 Talking positively about movement:
The likelihood of the family wanting to be more active may come naturally, too.
#3 Getting to bed a little earlier than usual:
Feeling rested when the buzzer goes off will improve everyone’s mood.
Remember that the lifestyle you are returning to post vacay is one of choice and can constantly be improved with a touch of positive dust and a pinch of willpower. There is still no magic trick, but a mindset change can have that same look and feel as on the other side of a wand. And how wonderful is it to still enjoy some of the longer evenings in August at home, too?
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