10 HEALTHY SUMMER HABITS that are making me happier & healthier!! treating my body like a temple

Isn't this bed amazing? This is not my bed. I have a dog sitting right now, but I love it. I kind of want to get one. Hey guys, welcome to or back to my channel. If you're new here, my name is Julia, and today I wanted to have a little sit down video, talk about some of the healthy habits I've kind of adopted this summer, and some things that summer has helped me realize about my health. And some of these habits have made like a crazy difference in my health, so I kind of just had to share them with you. I feel like summer is such a unique season. Personally, it's my favorite, but like in general, everything's more relaxed and more fun. Most of the time, you have more time on your hands, especially if you're a student. The sun's just out longer too, and it's warmer. That is the biggest difference. But some people kind of associate summer with like falling off their goals, meaning like just not staying on their typical routine. But in this video, I want to talk about why summer is the perfect time to start those healthy habits, because it just makes them enjoyable. All of these healthy habits are really fun for me, so I take advantage of like the time in summer to do them. And the main goal of these habits is to treat my body like the temple it is. I believe that we're made in God's image, and since we're his creation, we want to take care of ourselves. For other reasons too, I'm sure, but that's the main one. So without further ado, make sure to like this video if you enjoy it, subscribe if you want to see more. There is a lot more stuff coming, and let's get into it. The first thing I want to talk about is habits for your physical health. But something that I've noticed is that when I start habits that are good for my body, they're almost even better for my mind. But these are the habits I've seen the biggest improvements in my physical health from. And I'll kind of explain what I mean by improvements. This tea was so good, I'm already almost done. Number one, get enough sleep. Okay, I am a changed woman. I used to ignore my friends when they would all tell me I wasn't getting enough sleep. And most of the school year, I'd get five hours of sleep, or less, every night. And I would wonder why I was falling asleep in class. But oh my gosh, since I've been actually getting enough sleep, my skin is way better, my eyes are like brighter, I don't have to like raise my eyebrows all the time. My performance in my workouts, in work, like any kind of task, it's just so much better. My energy levels, like I'm not falling asleep anymore when I have to sit for more than half an hour. It's crazy. I get way fewer cravings, I can actually listen to my hunger cues. My productivity is just because I'm not falling asleep anymore. And I'm just a way happier person, like I'm not drained after being with people. I'm There was one week where I had work at eight every morning, it's about 45 minutes away, and I had things that would go late every night. So I had a week of being back in that sleep deficit, and I felt just as crappy as before during school. It was after about a month of actually getting enough sleep, so I noticed the difference. What's crazy is during the school year, I didn't really notice how sleep-deprived I was. I just knew I was tired all the time, and I figured it was from school, I was just drained or whatever. But no, that week when I was back to not sleeping enough, it was just not good. So now I'm training myself to actually prioritize sleep over that little extra boost of productivity, because in reality, it's not making me more productive. It's making me have to sleep later and actually do my work a lot slower. All right, number two. You've heard this before, but drink your water. I am getting so much better at this. It's extra important during the summer because it's so dang hot out, especially if you're running around, you're sweating, whatever. I used to be really good at this when I had my big plastic jug, and I lost that one, then I lost another one, then I lost another one. So I just haven't gotten another one. But I've been trying to remember to bring a water bottle everywhere. I'll use a straw if I have it. It's so helpful. Plus, I guess I just need to always have a drink with me, so I have tea a lot. But seriously, drinking water, I've seen the difference. Even just this last little bit, my skin is way better. My lips are not like shriveled, you know? They just are not super dry either. Again, cravings and energy, those have been way better when I actually drink enough water. When I don't drink enough, I find myself being hungry, but it doesn't actually feel the same. It's like, I need something. And also when I don't drink water, I need a snack because I'm tired. And normally I just kind of feel off when I don't drink water. This kind of leads into our next one. The third thing is move how you love to. Movement is just so, so good for your mental and physical health. I know you probably already know that, but for me, I love weight training and any high energy activities. Running is kind of on and off, but sports, hiking, anything outside really. However, I am not a fan of like yoga, Pilates, that sort of thing. Especially if it's inside, I'm no. Don't make me do that. So I'm not going to force myself to do them, especially not just because it's like trendy. What I'm saying by that is if you think you hate exercise, just try everything. I'm sure you will find something you love. There are too many options for there to be nothing. I guarantee there's something you'll enjoy. There's sports, you can go for walks, you can do dance or dance workouts. Even if you're not good at them, they're really fun. Spin class, you can go climbing. There's a ton of different options. It does not have to be like just HIIT workouts or weight training. Just any kind of movement makes me way more productive, gives me those endorphins, which I love. And honestly, I find myself being way more active in the summer anyways. Just because the weather's nicer, I want to be outside. And whenever I'm outside, I just end up moving a lot more. That's what I'm saying about exercise is that it does not have to all look the same. I basically took a two-week training break. I think I trained like two or three times in those two weeks when I normally would have trained like 10 or more. Just because life got in the way. I was dog-sitting a lot of places that didn't have gyms. I had a lot of work. I had a lot of editing and content creating to do. Just life got in the way and I didn't have time or like wasn't able to do my workouts. And I'll be honest, I missed it. I was a little bit stressed because I noticed a muscle loss. Although, if you've ever heard Natasha Ocean. Natasha Ocean. She says it went better. She's done so much research on this sort of thing. And in two weeks, you probably won't lose muscle. You'll lose glycogen in your muscles. And I've noticed that when I've gotten back on, I've seen them kind of refill. So I'm not scared anymore. But even during that training break, I was really active. Went for walks and at my job, I was walking around kind of hiking. I'm working as a zipline guide now, which is sick. I'm really enjoying it. So all that to say, don't stress about falling off routine either. Yes, find movement that you love. But being with people and getting everything done is so much more worth it. You won't lose your results from missing one or two days of training. Even two weeks, I feel like I'm back to normal. And honestly, if you go hang out with people, since it's summer, you might end up moving anyways. Maybe you'll go for a walk or do something active. I know for my age, sometimes I used to choose not to be with people because I had to work out or I had to get stuff done. And then they ended up going for like a hike or something. I'm like, well, I could have done that instead of working out by myself. So now I just get FOMO and I have to go hang out with them every time. Maybe find a happy medium or invite them to work out with you. But seriously, being with people is so much more worth it, I'm realizing. Okay, number four is nourish your body. Do not, I repeat, do not eat less than you need to for like a bikini body. Not only will you not have the energy for your workouts or to even truly be with people, but if you're cutting too much, your body is gonna fight you on it because it doesn't really know what you're trying to do. It just thinks that there's no food available. Your body doesn't really care how you want to look. It just wants to stay alive. That's something I'm definitely working on is listening to my body and working with it rather than just fighting it to get what I want. If you keep up with my Instagram at all, I shared this reel that was like kind of hard to share and it just said, counting galleries versus counting memories. I'll pop that on the screen here because this is something that I've been learning a lot lately. It's so much more worth it to hang out with people and to make memories with them. I'll talk more about that later. And if I'm totally honest, I look more the way I wanted to look now than I did back then. And now I'm eating more, I'm honestly exercising less consistently, but I'm exercising in ways that are fun for me. I'm way less stressed and I'm just living my life. Back then it was like all-consuming and it honestly did not even work that well. But anyways, I've been wanting to make a whole video on this. I've just been too scared. So let me know in the comments if you want to hear the whole story or not. All right, number five is just be outside. If you are physically able to go outside, do it. I feel so so blessed to be in a place where there's sun because the vitamin D literally fixed half my problems. Not only do I love being tanned, but I'm happier. I'm more active just naturally. I'm more productive because I love getting my work done outside. One of my favorite things to do lately is like edit and tan at the same time. I'm actually incredibly burnt on my back, but we're not going to talk about it. I just end up spending more time with friends, maybe because I'm not at school. But summer's just, I feel like I can relax. I don't feel like I have to be go, go, go, always doing something productive. And that's how I kind of want life to be. Honestly, this one is equally as good for physical and mental health. Because honestly, I don't do well in the winter. I need the sun. But I put it in physical health because I feel like there's so many physical health benefits, not just to the vitamin D, but just to being outside. But that brings us into our second category, mental health. Like I said, how all the physical health habits improve my mental health, it's the same thing. Mental health habits improve my physical health too, and like consistently. Best part of it all is it allows me to really show up for people and get my priorities straight, rather than like feeling off or like behind everybody else, or even putting others to the side and kind of isolating myself. It's literally this summer, summer after my senior year, that I'm finally realizing that I need to get my priorities straight. But you know, better late than never. Okay, number one, make to-do lists. My mom is a huge list person, so I kind of picked it up from her. Making to-do lists helps me be so much more productive and organized, because it's so convenient just to have a list to look at when I'm like, I need to do something. What do I need to do? Because I can't remember something more than two minutes. But also, it makes everything so much more manageable just to have it written down, so it's not just like floating around in your brain. You have to remember it. The other day, I was sitting in church and my mind was just not there. I was like, I have so much stuff to do, and it's all in a time crunch, and I'm just so scared I'm not gonna get it done in time. I don't know what to do. And I was just freaking out, and I wasn't like physically there. And I said, okay, wait a minute, is it really that much? So I sat down, and I had my little note sheet for church, and I wrote down all of my to-do's, and I organized it on what day I would do it, which days I had to do other stuff. And then when I was done, I was just like, like a sigh of relief. Like, I was able to actually focus and be present in church. Wasn't thinking about it anymore, because I didn't have to. I didn't have to remember everything. Then I came home, and I wrote it all cute in here. I love this little thing. Look, I already got so much of it checked off. It's crazy. Sometimes I even look back on my old to-do lists, or even like I write up a timetable for the day, and I just remember how stressed I was in the moment. Even though now, like not even a month later, it's totally irrelevant. I'll get into that a little bit more later, because I feel like that's a really good point. Alright, the next one for mental health is journal or do something creative. Every time I journal, I'm so proud of myself, and I feel like my feelings are like documented, so I can kind of process them and move through them, rather than having to remember everything I'm feeling. You know, am I the only one? I feel like that's really weird, but I'm not nearly as consistent with that outlet. What I love to do is content creation, obviously, and it's just super fun for me. Plus, it's productive towards like my future career, if I end up doing this as a career, but I feel like it's gonna help me in the future. It's already helping me now, but I dare you to try making a reel just from pictures that you have. It's addicting. It's so fun. For me, if I didn't create content, I don't know if I fill my time as productively. It's just been such a confidence boost to put stuff out there and not like overthink it, not really think about what people are thinking about it. Public speaking has become way easier. Like, you should actually don't watch my first video. I was gonna say you should watch it and see how awkward I was on camera, but all that to say, if you need a creative outlet, I highly recommend content creating, whether it's on YouTube or Instagram, TikTok, whatever it is. It's just really fun. All right, the next one for mental health is stress less. Before you leave, because I'm not telling you how to feel, I know you can't just say, oh stress less, and you'll be like, oh okay. But I just want to open your eyes and say, summer is a great opportunity to reassess what you want to pour your energy into. Just think about all of the things that you are doing right now, and maybe for summer, some of them take a pause. I know a lot of sports pause, and school and school activities pause. A lot of things take break for summer. So just while you're in this little break, take a moment and think, okay, what do I want to get back into? What am I kind of done with? What's worth it? For me, I definitely had to pray a lot about it because there were a lot of new things, and I tend to like to fill my schedule up as much as possible, and then I end up being really really stressed if I can't get everything done. I've been learning how to, well no, I haven't been able to say no to things, but I'm trying to make time for the people I love, and to do the things I love, and to try not to fill up my schedule completely. I need to keep telling myself, whatever is stressing me out right now, it's going to work out one way or another. It will be okay. Even if it doesn't work out the way I want it to, is it even going to matter later? Someone told me once, if it won't matter in five years, don't spend more than five minutes worrying about it. And that is so so good. Because oftentimes the answer is no, it won't matter. And there's a verse about not worrying. In the bible, it says, worrying can't even add time to your life. And look at the sparrows and the lilies, they don't worry, and God takes care of them. So God's going to take care of us. All right, the next one is pour into people. Now that we followed these habits, and our glass is nice and full, it's time to share it with people. Now this is the majority of why I'm doing these habits, why I'm trying to take care of my body, and treat it like a temple. When we're serving and loving on others, that not only glorifies God, but it builds community, and everybody's made in his image. I just imagine it making his heart so so happy. So one thing that my friend got me hooked on, is sending like little vlogs to people basically, just to catch up or to check in with them, see how they're doing. I love doing it when I'm on the way somewhere. I'll just kind of hold my phone up while I'm driving, try to prop it up, but it doesn't always work. A little bit distracted, but it's just nice because I can just talk to them as if they were there, and it's okay if it's a bit of a rant. It's just like me talking to the camera. I'm trying to form these good habits of pouring into people now, while I have the time, so that when I'm feeling drained in other seasons, such as winter when there's no sun, I'll have these good habits of reaching out to people kind of ingrained in me to have these values, rather than just isolating myself. Plus, when I'm there for others, when I'm serving them, when I'm praying for them, it just kind of takes the focus off myself, which is so so good for me. Sometimes I really need to get out of my head. My last tip for you is go make some memories. If you clicked on this video, I'm guessing you have some goals for your health, whether that's fitness wise, for like a health issue, or maybe it is for your mental health. I just want to encourage you from my own experience to prioritize the people in your life over your goals. I know this sounds so counterintuitive to what we're taught. A lot of people tell you to surround yourself with people with the same goals, but I just don't think you should limit yourself to people that have the same goals as you. There's still so many people in your life that'll be invaluable, and you can always reach your goals, but you may miss some amazing moments and relationships with the community you're in right now, especially in summer when there's just so many experiences, people are hanging out more, and chances are you can do both, but if it comes down to a personal project or time with people that you love, I'm begging you to spend that time with people. This alone improved my mental health so much coming out of my little productive rut, and I call it that because it was just this rut where I'm like, I always have to be productive. I always have to be doing something. I can't spend time with people because I need to work on this. Any time that it's not spent working out at school, at work, is spent on my videos or any other personal projects, and it just led to me being so run down. I was always stressed, I wasn't sleeping, all these things, so I've just learned the value of being with people. I'm genuinely so much happier now, and joy doesn't come from your circumstances. Joy is something I still want to work on, being content and happy in every circumstance, and that's only what comes from the Lord. I think I've talked about this in my other devotional videos before, I'll pop one up there, but just trust me, it's so worth it to go make memories with people rather than just focusing on your goals. All right, thank you so so much for watching this video. Remember, this is just what I've learned just from my own experiences, but I feel like this summer has changed me in the best way, so go have a great summer, and remember, Jesus loves you so so much. Bye, guys.