From ‘Wellcations’ to Hydration: How to Live a Nutritious Life This Summer

Summertime in all its glory has got us thinking about how to live a nutritious life during summer vacation. As you prep for your summer travels and adventures, we’ve come up with simple hacks, helpful reminders and useful advice on how to maintain your healthy lifestyle this season. Read on for some of the best advice on living your most nutritious life this summer. Sweat Often Nutritious Life founder Keri Glassman, MS, RD, CDN, might be a registered dietitian nutritionist, but she embraces the virtues of a whole-person approach to wellness that goes well beyond just eating empowered. In the summer when Keri travels, she loves being active outdoors and looks for fun ways to incorporate this in the places she is visiting. While in the mountains, she’s all about finding a beautiful hiking trail. When she’s visiting a European city, she might look for a great walking tour that melds a bit of exercise with a dose of history. “When traveling, I like to think about keeping as many of the pillars of a nutritious life as consistent as possible,” Keri says. “So, even if I may be indulging in food a bit more, I stay consistent with a healthy breakfast (every hotel and every gas station can offer a balanced breakfast!) and I make sure to keep the Drink Up pillar going strong by bringing a water bottle to refill. I also pack my supplements and get my body moving every day.” Drink Up As summer and warmer weather arrives, so does the risk of getting dehydrated. If you’re taking your workout outdoors during your vacation or staycation, then you should be extra careful about hydration. Even if you’re just someone who sweats a lot, it pays to be extra prudent with your water intake in the warmer months. Intense exercise or high heat can lead to water loss. Losing as little as 2% of your body’s water content can have a significant effect on physical performance. Symptoms might include a higher body temperature, less motivation and feeling extra tired (both physically and mentally). Since it’s not uncommon for athletes to lose as much as 10% of their water weight during a workout or sweat sesh, staying hydrated is extra important in warmer weather. According to this randomized, cross-over study published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, “A tailored hydration plan, based on an athlete’s fluid and sodium loss has the potential to improve anaerobic power, attention and awareness, and heart rate recovery time.” Tips for staying hydrated: Drink pineapple water: This recent hydration trend is popular for a reason. It’s mouth-wateringly delicious, hydrating and full of health benefits. Find a recipe and learn more here. Skip the alcohol: Dehydration also interferes with sleep. To help your body maintain energy, keep alcohol consumption to a minimum. Forgoing alcohol for just one week will leave you more hydrated. We break down the benefits of going without alcohol for three weeks, week by week, benefit by benefit. H2O & lemon: “I have all my clients start their day with a glass of water with a wedge of lemon in it,” Keri says. Anchoring your day this way starts you out with a feeling of accomplishment because you get the benefits of the water and good hydration. The lemon is a great liver detox tool and the glass with water and lemon can be a visual cue to remind you to eat clean all day long. Eat Empowered With air travel still fraught with all sorts of unknowns, more of us will be packing up the car for an old-fashioned road trip this summer. If your idea of road trip fare involves snacks you pick up at gas stations along the way, think again. Road trip meals can be just as healthy as the ones you prepare at home. Here are Keri Glassman’s 12 favorite, healthy snacks for on-the-go travel. If you’re vegan, eating healthy on the road can be extra challenging, but it doesn’t have to be. Check out our guide to vegan road trip meals that includes easy, road-worthy recipes plus healthy vegan-friendly pit stops along the way. And for that road trip snack attack, we have a handy guide to plant-based road trip snacks that even your meat-eating family members will l-o-v-e! Live Consciously The holistic remedy of prescribing nature for health has become a growing trend around the globe. Physicians in various countries have been handing out “green prescriptions” in place of pharmaceutical meds as a way of treating chronic conditions, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, lung disease and anxiety, according to the World Economic Forum. What better way to improve your health while enjoying Mother Earth than to combine a doctor’s Rx with your summer vacation plans for a “wellcation”? Whether you’re traveling domestically or abroad, our guide to prescribing nature for health highlights “green Rx” programs in the U.S. and around the globe. Love More As the last two years have taught us, the people in our lives—and maintaining strong, healthy relationships with them—are so critical to our own wellness. According to the American Psychological Association, maintaining “strong social relationships” or friendships can increase our survival rate by as much as 50%. Yes, our friends are literally saving our lives! “Human connection isn’t just seeing our friends or smiling at strangers; it’s something we require in order to thrive,” says Monica Berg, author of Rethink Love and host of the Spiritually Hungry podcast. “Social connection improves our physical health and strengthens our psychological well-being.” So your summer survival guide should definitely include some quality time with friends—whatever that looks like for you, be it in person or virtual (a concept that’s here to stay!) Meanwhile, here are five ways to build stronger friendships virtually that you can apply to in-person situations as well. Stress Less Stress is linked to a whole laundry list of health concerns. Its impact on our well-being is hard to quantify, but rest assured it’s