The Back-to-School Reset Moms Actually Need
How to Get Your Energy Back and Start Feeling Like Yourself Again
The backpacks came out. The calendars have already filled up. Morning routines are starting to return. And while it may be bittersweet that summer is ending, there’s at least a little relief in having some structure again.
Because summer can be great, but still leave you feeling a little off.
Summer lends itself to eating out more, later bedtimes, and more travel. We tend to drink a little more alcohol, and somehow there is always ice cream, candy, chips, or something else floating around.
And by the end of the season, we feel it.
You find yourself a little more bloated, a little more tired, and the hormones feel a bit more extreme. And yes, the summer heat could definitely be contributing to that.
So as everyone heads back to school and fall starts creeping closer, there’s a natural urge to get yourself back on track too.
Start With the Foundations Before You Start a Reset
When you’ve spent a few months feeling progressively less like yourself, it’s tempting to want whatever will help you feel better fastest. Because it’s totally reasonable to want three months of summer to be corrected in approximately three days.
That’s when the detoxes, restrictive eating plans, supplement protocols, and promises of a dramatic “reset” start looking particularly appealing. They’re decisive. They give us something to do. And when you’re tired, bloated, frustrated with your clothes, or simply not feeling great, doing something big can feel more productive than doing something basic.
But basic is exactly where I want you to start.
Take an honest inventory of some of the simple foundations that may have shifted over the summer. Things like:
Hydration: Are you actually drinking enough water? Between the summer heat and an extra coffee here and there, it’s surprisingly easy to spend much of the day underhydrated.
Food: Are you eating regular, substantial meals, or are you snacking more? What about getting enough vegetables? Are you eating out more than normal?
Alcohol and caffeine: Both have a way of creeping up during different seasons. You don’t have to turn this into an all-or-nothing conversation, but take a look at how much they may have increased over the summer.
Sleep: Summer is full of later nights, waking at different times, traveling, and losing the routines that normally help you wind down. That can affect your sleep, which can have a domino effect on everything else.
None of these things are particularly exciting, and your dopamine really does want exciting. But collectively, they create the foundation everything else has to work from. If they’re off, all the supplements and healthy habits in the world can only accomplish so much.
Give those foundations a few weeks, not three days, to start doing their job and see how much of a difference they make.
Get the Whole Family Back Into a Healthier Routine
Of course, taking care of yourself gets considerably harder when the rest of the household is still operating on summer rules.
If you’re trying to eat regular meals while your kids are rummaging for candy every afternoon, everyone is tired, and you’re figuring out dinner at 5:47 p.m., your “reset” has just become one more thing you’re responsible for managing.
So don’t make this entirely about you.
The return to school is a good opportunity to reestablish some of the food rhythms that help the whole household function better: substantial breakfasts before school, lunches that actually fuel the afternoon, reasonable snacks, and dinners that provide the nutrition everyone needs.
You do not need to spend Sunday afternoon researching recipes, calculating whether everyone is getting enough protein, figuring out how to add more vegetables, and creating a perfectly balanced meal plan for the week. Have us do it for you with The Nourished Plan! Think of The Nourished Plan meal plans like having a nutrition professional in your back pocket helping answer one of the questions you otherwise have to answer every single day: What are we going to eat?
Don’t Wait for Life to Slow Down
While getting good foundations back in place for you and your family is important, the reality is that, for many women, that’s not enough to address all that’s going on.
The challenge is that we jump right from the chaos of summer into the full load of the school year, and it’s easy to find all the reasons to push pause on our health. We try the latest supplement or health fix to give us a little boost to make it through, while continuing to wait for life to slow down enough to “finally focus on our health” the way we really need to.
But if life has taught me anything, it’s that we will perpetually go from one busy season to the next.
We cannot wait for the perfect window to focus on our health.
And really, that’s not the approach we want anyway. We want health that can be built within our lives, not lives built around our health.
Fall is a great season to start building health into our lives in a more substantial way. We’re already creating new schedules and routines that will carry us through the next nine months, and the season itself naturally lends to many of the things that support our health: more nourishing foods, time outside without the draining summer heat, and a little space before the holidays arrive.
Make the most of this season and give your body what it needs. Take stock of how you’re feeling, and instead of chasing solutions to your most nagging symptoms, use this time to look beyond the symptoms and take care of your complete health.
We’re navigating this shift of seasons right alongside you, figuring out the routines, feeding our families, and paying attention to what we need, too. And as we all settle into what’s ahead, know that we’re here to help make feeling well a little easier along the way.