The ULTIMATE outdoor training tool.

With the summer months upon us and the weather being absolutely beautiful, I’ve noticed that everywhere I go, people just seem to be in a better mood.

Maybe it’s because being outside just makes people more pleasant.

Or that dreary winter weather seems to suck the life out of you.

With the sun out and the weather being more favorable for outdoor activity, I’ve noticed a change even in me!  I’ve got more energy, I’ve dropped a couple percentage points on the bodyfat scale and I’m just happier.  I’m sure there are a lot of factors that have contributed to this – I don’t work as long hours anymore, I’ve gotten rid of a lot of toxic relationships in my life and I focus more on doing things that I’m passionate about.

But there are 4 major changes that I’ve made and that I do NOW that I wasn’t doing in the winter.

The days are still long enough and the weather will remain great for a few more months, so I highly suggest you try incorporating these 4 things into your busy family life too…

1. Eating more fruits & veggies. I’m able to do this simply because of availability.  Every Tuesday, Rozanne and the girls walk to the farmer’s market down the street (it’s about 5 or 6 blocks away) and they stock up for the week on every fresh fruit and vegetable they can find.  Yesterday we had a HUGE bowl full of berries that were sweeter than sugar, I made a cucumber & tomato salad to go with dinner and the day before that I roasted peppers on the barbeque.  All of that came from local farmers that sell their products at the farmers market.  Remember, shopping local allows you to support the local economy, cut down on freight costs (and reducing your carbon footprint) and gives you the choice of buying only from farmers who ethically raise their crops (with out the use of herbicides, pesticides and GMOs).

Bonded.

2. The Evening Walks. This is probably the factor that has made the BIGGEST difference.  Every night after dinner (provided that AJ doesn’t have a practice or a game), the 6 1/2 of us go for a walk.  We put Mikey in the wagon, AJ, Joey & Frankie hold hands and we go out for a stroll for about 30 minutes (or longer depending on the night).  I’ve read about so many benefits of walking after a meal.  Some of these include: better digestion, less feeling of lethargy after eating, those who walk regularly have a healthier bodyweight and higher energy levels, and an increased resting metabolic rate.  For us, all of those above factors are great, but I find it’s the family bonding time that really makes it worth while.

3. RENOUNCING the gym. I think I’ve written about this before, but I loathe the gym in the summer time.  It’s hot.  It smells.  And there are too many people in there still chasing their dream of “getting in shape for summer” who should have started their quest 7 months ago.  Picture this – it’s 85 degrees outside, sunny, a faint breeze is blowing. It’s just perfect.  Now ask yourself, WHY THE HELL AM I INSIDE RUNNING ON THIS DAMN TREADMILL!?!

Instead, I’ve exclusively started to train with kettlebells…AND IT’S AWESOME.  My workout time is no longer than 30-minutes and by the time I’m done, I’m sweating more than any weight session I’ve ever done.  In fact, in addition to my KB sessions being outside in my backyard, I’ve been running hills and I started playing a little beach volleyball again.  (I have a few friends that play who are teachers, so we meet up once or twice a week around 2pm and play for a few hours.  This is a great time for me because it doesn’t cut into family time.)

If you don’t have kettlebells, then you can get just as good a workout doing bodyweight exercises and some sprints.  Just head over to your nearest playground and do a simple circuit of chin-ups (on the monkey bars), squats, push-ups and step-ups (off a park bench).  Do those 4 exercises for 3 rounds each and then finish by running home as fast as you can or running up and down a hill a few times.  Trust me, you feel invigorated and alive…and you won’t have to wipe any equipment down with disinfectant spray afterwards.

4. GETTING UP WITH THE SUN. I don’t need my alarm clock anymore.  (I still set it the night before just in case).  I’ve gotten into the habit of getting to bed by 10pm every night and getting up with the sun.  I can see the daylight peeking through the curtains in my bedroom and I know instinctively that it’s time to get up.  I can’t even begin to tell you how nice it is to get (almost) 8 hours of sleep every night, get up before 6am and get some work done when my mind is the freshest (it took me 20-minutes to write this article at 5:50am, where it would have probably taken me 2 hours to write it if I started mid-afternoon).  By rising early, I can get more done in the 2.5-3hrs that the rest of the house is asleep than most people could get done in a regular 9-5 work day.  If you don’t get up early, I highly suggest you give it a try for a few weeks and see how much you can accomplish.

The good weather here in North America isn’t over yet, so now would be the time to take advantage of these 4 things that you can do get healthier.

And if you’re lucky enough to live in a climate where it’s beautiful year round, then count your lucky stars and start forming these habits!