It’s summer, we’re relaxing, and we’re having a good - and well-deserved - break at the end of another unpredictable year.

When we feel like we’ve indulged a lot over the holiday season, we can be quite motivated to get back to our wellness routine come January 1st. And while that’s always a noble goal, it helps us to remember that we don’t need to be ‘perfect’ all the time and that making the effort to feel our best is all that matters.

If a body reset and refresh is what you’re after as you welcome in the new year and set yourself up for how you want to live and feel for the rest of the year, then read on for three easy and manageable ways to do just that:

1. Move Right and Move Often

We’re going to let you in on a little secret. Exercise can be whatever you want it to be. If waking up at 6am to lift weights is not on your dream list of pastimes, give yourself permission to just...not do that. Same goes for standing on your head in a sweaty yoga session! Exercise is so personal and we don’t know about you, but we know we do more of it if we’re actually having a good time.

Broadly speaking, there are three types of exercise: strength training, cardio, and restorative workouts. All three have their benefits and all three have so many different workouts that fit the bill. Depending on our personalities, our hormones, and our stage of life - we can often benefit more from one than another, too. Once we find what it is that works for us, exercise can be something we all really look forward to!

 

Strength Training

Definition: Strength training is anything that makes our muscles stronger.

This Kind of Exercise Helps:

• Metabolic health
• Maintaining muscle mass
• Supporting bone density

It's Great for People Who:

• Are experiencing menopause
• Want to build muscle
• Women over the age of 40

Types of Strength Training Include:

• Squats
• Bodyweight exercises like pull-ups & lunges
• Push & Pull: for example, with a barbell or dumbbell
• Group fitness like pump or circuits
• Bootcamp-style classes or CrossFit
• Hiking with a backpack
• A power yoga class
• Paddleboarding

Cardio Training

Definition: Cardio training is anything that raises our heart rate.

This Kind of Exercise Helps:

• Manage blood pressure
• Manage mood
• Improve energy levels

It's Great for People Who:

• Are at risk of heart disease
• Want to improve their joint health
• Want to improve their mental health
• Men and women up to the age of 40 looking to manage weight

Types of Cardio Training Include:

• Running
• Swimming
• Walking
• Surfing and watersports
• Golf
• Hiking

Restorative Exercises

Definition: Restorative exercises are low in impact and intensity and, are perfect for those who are feeling wiped out, overstressed, burnt out, and in need of restoration.

This Kind of Exercise Helps:

• Flexibility
• Muscle and bone pain
• Joint support
• Detoxification
• Weight loss for those with high cortisol and stressed nervous systems

It's Great for People Who:

• Are you burned out and overstressed
• Are looking to improve mental health
• We are looking to improve flexibility
• Have mobility restrictions
• Everybody else!

Types of Restorative Exercises Include:

• Breathwork
• Yoga
• Pilates
• Foam rolling

How do we know what’s right for us?

If it’s immediately clear from the above tables, then great! If not, it might be time for a body check in. Ask yourself: “How are my stress levels?” If they’re high, restorative is a good choice. If they’re low, we’re well slept, and feeling energised then our bodies will benefit from strength or cardio exercises.

If weight management is the goal, then for women over 40, we will respond better to strength training (even some resistance is good, we don’t need to be olympians!) and some strength-based yoga. For men and younger women, cardio training and strength training will help. This is because of our hormones and how we respond to physical stress. You can read a bit more about that here.

2. Finding, and sticking to, healthy habits

‘New year new me’ is a phrase we hear a lot in January. While we’re huge champions of self-improvement in the name of wellness, at the end of the day, we’re all human and being gentle with ourselves is just as important.

Because it’s summer and the beginning of a new year, we often feel re-energised to set some goals for ourselves. If we also feel a bit of summer lethargy and maybe find it hard to stick to these new goals that’s OK! The whole point of a summer break is to have a break so let’s start small and go from there.

Start with one:

Want to eat more veges? Want to move your body more? Want to read more? Maybe it’s all three. But for this week, just pick one thing you want to do. If it’s eating more veges, try to have some vegetables or fruit with every meal. That’s it. That’s all we need to do for now.

When that feels like it’s a normal part of our routine, add one more. Then we can keep going till we feel like we’re at a manageable place with our goals.

Habit Stack:

This is a bit like a buddy system. When we have a habit that’s second nature, like brushing our teeth, we can team it up with a new habit so they both become ingrained in our daily routine. So, if we find that we keep forgetting to take our daily supps, we can try putting the bottles next to our toothbrush. Now that it’s in our way it’s much easier to remember.

Direct Feedback:

Don’t worry, this isn’t a one-to-one with anyone else! Just with yourself. Sometimes we find that we have goals and we think we’re sticking to them but really we’ve let them go more than we realise. It can help if we write them down. Maybe we can note down what we hope to achieve tomorrow e.g. “take my supplements at breakfast and lunch” or “go for a walk before work” then we can check in that night or the next morning and see how we did. For a limited time, when you purchase the Everyday Wellness Pack, we’re gifting a free An Organised Life journal to help you on your wellness journey. We’re only accountable to ourselves and if we didn’t manage to do it because life got in the way (maybe it rained!) or we simply forgot, this short task will help us to remember and because we’re only talking to ourselves, we will know why we didn’t do it and can hopefully remove some guilt from the situation. Some days trying is enough!

3. Rejuvenating our cells with nourishing nutrients

That summer lethargy we talked about earlier can sometimes be managed with nutrients. Because every cell in our body is literally made up of the food and nutrients we eat or take and every function in our body, from breathing to digestion to our drive to do physical activity, requires the right nutrients, they make all the difference to our health and wellness.

It’s kind of exciting when you think about it because taking the step to get more nutrients into our bodies is a really empowering habit.

While it would be great to get all the nutrients we need from our diet, it can be really hard to do so. And that’s just modern living. We’ve written about this over here if you want to learn more but the basics are that almost everyone is deficient in some key nutrients so supplementing our diet with nutritional supplements can help close that gap.

Key summer nutrients (and where to find them)

If you’re looking to reset and refresh your body, the following nutrients are great for providing energy, boosting our immunity, and supporting a great night’s sleep.

 

• Vitamin C: Found in abundance in citrus fruits, brussel sprouts, broccoli, and strawberries, vitamin C is an antioxidant that helps to fight free radicals. It also boosts immunity and memory!
• B vitamins: B vitamins are fantastic for energy and that get-up-and-go feeling we all love. We find them in whole grains, meat, eggs, dairy products, legumes, seeds and nuts, dark leafy vegetables like spinach.
• Magnesium: Magnesium supports a good mood, a dreamy night’s sleep, and inflammation and we can find it in green vegetables, nuts and seeds, oats, wheat germ, and dry beans.
• Zinc: Zinc is essential for healing wounds, sexual health, osteoperosis, and immunity. We find it in oysters (Bluff this summer, anyone?), red meat and poultry, whole grains, fortified breakfast cereal, and dairy products.
• Probiotics: While not technically a nutrient (probiotics are good bacteria) we can find them in bananas, yoghurt, flax seeds, nuts, and fermented foods such as kefir, and kombucha.
• Omega 3: Found in fatty fish like tuna, salmon, and sardines and nuts, seeds, and plant oils, Omega 3 is great for inflammation, joint and heart health, and lowers blood pressure.

Looking for an easy way to get all the essential daily nutrients you need for a nourishing body reset and refresh? You can find them all in the BePure Everyday Wellness Pack - which includes BePure One, the ultimate multivitamin, BePure Two, a powerful probiotic and BePure Three, high strength DHA/EPA, sustainably sourced omega 3.

So, what’s next?

Now that we know so much about the nutrients that set us up for a body reset and refresh this new year, let’s take that knowledge and turn it into action.

• Get started on your nutrient goals (which, in turn, support your lifestyle goals) with The Everyday Wellness Pack
• Choose one goal to start with and try it for a week
• Start journalling and keeping track of your progress!