How to get ready for summer in 60 days!

I mean, I don’t want to jump the gun, but summer is coming up in less than 60 days in the Northern Hemisphere, if you consider Memorial Day weekend the start of the season. While the official start of summer according to the seasonal calendar is June 21st, I know many people launch into summer activities before that official date, so I think Memorial Day is a good marker. 

For the sake of this post, and the idea of preparing for summer, we’re going to say summer is about 60 days away. And a lot can happen in 60 days.

Now, I’d like to place a big disclaimer and say that this is not a “get your bikini body ready” post. Instead, this is a post about creating healthy habits and alignment in your life, so once the fun of summer hits, you’re coasting in your routine and feeling your absolute best. Sure, these are things you could/should be doing all year, but everyone loves to get ready for summer, so the timeline works here — knowing you’ll continue these habits through the rest of the year.

How to get ready for summer in 60 days

Clean up your sleep hygiene and shoot for 7 to 8 hours of quality sleep each night.

If you’re not sleeping great, your fitness, appearance, energy and immunity will not be very strong. While there are times in our lives where sleep is tough (when you have young children), you have to do everything you can to get in that good shut-eye during all the other times of your life.

Here are some sleep-hygiene reminders to help you get a good night of sleep:

• Try to limit your technology (phone, computer, TV) use in the late evening and totally avoid technology about 30 minutes before bed. I always recommend reading a real book in bed, with no technology required. If you go to sleep playing on your phone, chances are you aren’t sleeping soundly all night.
• Cool your room down, because a cool environment promotes better sleep. We always have our air conditioner on at night after winter is over, because I love a frigid room.
• Get rid of distracting lights. Darken your room entirely with shades or try wearing a darkening slumber mask (I do both).
• Use a sound machine if you find you wake easily to small disturbances. We have this sound machine in our room, and Brady has this sound machine in his room.
• Considering supplementing with magnesium, which helps you relax. I use this topical magnesium oil spray or this topical magnesium oil spray on my skin nightly (I spray it on my belly and rub it in) to promote restful sleep. (If you order the NOW brand spray of their site, use my code, WEST, for 20 percent off.)
• Try to go to bed and get up around the same time each day, to get your body into a good routine.
• If you can, get some natural sunlight in your eyes shortly after waking to begin the day to jump start your circadian rhythm.
• Try to avoid high-intensity exercise in the late evening.

Even if you’re a pro at all of these sleep-hygiene tips, you may still have trouble getting into bed at a reasonable hour, which is why you aren’t sleeping well/enough. If that’s the case for you, I’d recommend trying to scoot your bedtime about 10 to 15 minutes earlier every few days, until you find a good bed-time for your schedule. I try to always be in my bed by 10 p.m., and my alarm goes off at 6:15 a.m., so I know if I read for just a bit, I can get in between 7 to 8 hours a night, which is my goal.

Once you start getting really good (and enough) sleep, you’ll never want to let it go, because you’ll feel stronger, more energetic, more positive and more productive too. And with extra trips, extra fun and good stuff on the horizon coming up in summer, your body and mind sure needs to start resting up now. You’ll notice the difference in just about everything, believe me.

Here are some related posts on sleep you may enjoy:

• How to create a better sleep environment
• Five ways I’ve improved my sleep based on tips from the book “Sleep Smarter”

Prepare your skin, upgrade your skincare routine and stock up on sun protection essentials.

When I look in the mirror, there are always things I’d like to improve on (we don’t need to list those out right now, but I’ve got a real list) — but I’m very happy to say that my skin isn’t one of them, and I’m grateful for that. I have a few things in my skin arsenal that have helped my skin look good, because it hasn’t always been good. 

Skincare doesn’t have to be complicated, you just need a solid routine and a couple of quality products you use regularly. And, you can also upgrade your skincare with a few sneaky tricks, like the one about “shaving” I’m sharing below.

Find a suitable cleanser and ditch wipes or harsh products. First of all, cleansing. We all know that we need to cleanse our skin at night, and one of the biggest skincare mistakes I hear is that people are using harsh drug-store cleansers or using makeup wipes, which shouldn’t be an everyday thing. This can irritate your skin and cause redness. I rotate through a couple of cleansers, and I make sure they’re nontoxic and suited for my skin-type. Right now, I’m loving this nightly cleanser, and in the morning, I just rinse with water.

Exfoliate and try derma-planing with a little razor. Next up, exfoliation. I exfoliate my skin in two ways, first up: I use this overnight resurfacing peel a few nights a week. Second up, I use a little Tinkle razor to rid my skin of peach-fuzz and other imperfections. While the razor is extremely superficial, it’s sort’ve like I’m doing derma-planing at home, and I do this once a week. I even did it for my mom.

If you’ve not tried using a light razor on your face, it’s totally not scary at all. I buy these little Tinkle razor packs on Amazon, and then pull my skin tight and swipe gently to get rid of fuzz. It feels so good to have a clean face, and I notice my skincare products absorb into my skin better too. This is such a good thing to start doing before summer, because you won’t have any fuzzy facial hair glistening in the sun, you know what I mean?

Moisturize day and night. You’ll also want to be moisturizing your skin to keep it nourished. I have on moisturizer every day, and I only need a little. I have a daytime moisturizer and a night-time moisturizer, but if you like to keep it simple, you can use the same for both. 

Consider adding a vitamin C serum to your routine for brightness. Finally, brightening. If you want a good summer glow on your skin before summer even arrives, then a vitamin C serum is the way to go. There are tons of the market, and my favorite one is this one. I use it a couple times a week, with a moisturizer over it, and it gives me a great glow, as well as improves any dark spots. I’m a big fan of doing my home version of derma-planing, then using my C serum on fresh skin.

Protect your skin from the sun, always. And make sure you’ve got some sun protection on the ready. This is my favorite facial sunscreen. This is my favorite body sunscreen. And this is my favorite tinted foundation with SPF. Sunscreen can expire, so make sure you check the dates on whatever you were using last year, as well.

Your skin needs some tender-loving care, and if right now in your world your skin is an afterthought — I’d say 60 days until summer is a great time to start taking better care of it.

Here are some related posts on skincare you may enjoy:

• Five sneaky skincare mistakes you could be making
• How to improve the health of your skin
• Three (strange) home beauty methods I’ve tried recently (there’s more about the derma-planing in this one)

Get more NEAT activity each day.

Movement is medicine! And NEAT stands for non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT).

And NEAT means the energy that is expended for everything we do that is not sleeping, eating or sports-like exercise. Even if you’re already exercising for 30 minutes to an hour a day, are you spending the rest of the day sitting behind a computer? Or, are you always taking the easy route when it comes to non-exercise movement? If so, you could probably use more overall movement in your day.

Take the stairs at the mall instead of the escalator. Park your car far away from the front door of the grocery store. Ride your bike to the park with your kids. Play with your kids instead of playing on your phone.

And doing all these activities isn’t just to burn calories, but it’s also to keep your energy up. Because an object in motion stays in motion. And being in motion is often a great feeling to have. 

While most people say you need to hit 10,000 steps a day, and I do think that’s important, I think staying active in your life as best as you can is equally important. But of course, if you can get those 10,000 steps, shoot for that too.

Incorporate resistance or weight training into your workout routine at least twice a week.

If you want to change your body, you’ve got to lift some weights.

Nothing improves your physique like muscle tone. And if you find that all you do is run, walk or cycle, you’re going to have to do a lot of running, walking and cycling to maintain where you are or make improvements, because your body starts to adapt to that type of movement quite easily. But once you start lifting weights, you’ll notice improvements happen over time, the more you continue to lift. 

I’m about 12 weeks into doing my once-weekly solo full-body weights session (example shown below), and I can truly feel the difference in my strength and overall muscle tone. And that’s just once a week. Yes, I do a lot of other workouts through the classes I teach (most with weights), but I know the addition of more heavier weights is helping me make some changes. 

Now, let me be clear: Yes, while cardio exercise is important for your overall health, the real changes in body shape happen with resistance training. You should totally do cardio, if you enjoy it, but adding the weights in will be important for more significant physical improvements.

However, I also know that weights can be scary for a lot of us, and it’s hard to know what to do. A few options: If you go to a gym, try to get in a session with a personal trainer — even just one session, to learn a few moves and get some tips on your form.

If you don’t go to a gym, purchase some weights (I always recommend this amazing barbell set), then find an online program to follow. Les Mills Strength Development on Les Mills+ is excellent. And there are also excellent strength programs on the Peloton app. I always recommend group fitness too — because there are plenty of great weights-focused classes at many studios and gyms. (May I suggest Barbell Strength at Life Time Charlotte taught by me?)

If you don’t have any weights and you don’t know where to start, you can always use your bodyweight as resistance. Push-ups, planks and squats are a great place to begin.

As far as frequency and duration, if you’re not regularly lifting any weights, then shooting for two resistance-training sessions a week of about 20 minutes to 45 minutes should be plenty, in addition to any other cardio or exercising you’re already doing.

Once again, I always suggest jump-starting your weight-lifting routine with the help of a fitness professional, but there are plenty of ways to get it started on your own, if you need to. 

Here are some related posts on fitness you may enjoy:

• Three ways to level up your next strength training workout (bonus workout included)
• Three small changes I’m making in my health and fitness this year

Keep track of your protein and water intake, and make sure you’re getting enough of each.

You know I’m not a food tracker, friend. But, I have been loosely tracking my protein intake, as well as tracking my water intake for three full months, and I’m into it. I’m shooting for 120 grams of protein a day, and I’m shooting for 120 ounces of water a day. I hit this most days, and I often go over, which is great. These two changes have been great for me and my body. 

Now, you may be eating plenty of protein, but, I talk to a lot of people who are not even slightly eating enough protein, so I know that under-eating is very common. And when you don’t eat enough protein, you may not recover as quickly from your workouts, you may not see muscular changes or improvements and you may not have as much energy either.

Carbs and fats are easier to grab on the go, and I think a lot of us probably go too heavy on those and not heavy enough on protein. (Once again, this is a generalization, so you’ll have to look at your own intake to assess where you are.)

The amount of protein you need is dependent on your age, weight, lifestyle, activity level and more, and you can easily find that number out with an online tracker. But as always, it’s ideal to seek the help of a nutrition professional to give you some guidelines. For an active person who wants to improve muscle mass, I think shooting for about your bodyweight in grams of protein is a great goal. I don’t eat that much, but I’m eating a lot more than I used to at least.

As far as water, nothing makes your skin look better or gives you a boost of energy like being super hydrated. I’ve written about hydration a ton, so I won’t go into any more details there, but much like protein, it’s a great goal to drink your bodyweight in ounces of water a day. And that’s not easy, but it feels awesome.

Here are some related posts on nutrition you may enjoy:

• How to use protein powder to increase your overall protein intake
• Five healthy eating habits to improve your nutrition

Other ways to get ready for summer in 60 days

• Up your veggies and produce, shooting for several servings a day. Are you eating enough of these valuable foods? Many veggies and fruits are also super hydrating, and that will help the appearance of your skin too. Bonus points for choosing in-season produce, because it often has extra nutrients.
• Schedule time off work and away from your routine, so you have a plan to look forward to once summer hits. While this post is about creating healthy lifestyle habits, I also think it’s healthy to go off-routine sometimes. If you want to look forward to summer, now’s the time to make a plan for a weekend trip, invite a visitor to see you, buy concert tickets or at least schedule some time off of work to relax and recharge.
• Remember to focus on your own wellness story and not on anyone else’s. Never has it been so hard to be confident in your own skin and confident in your own life, where there’s social media around to make us compare ourselves to others. Although this point is just a bullet, it’s perhaps one of the most important. If you want to get ready for summer in 60 days and feel your best, focus on you and not on what you see from others on Facebook or Instagram. Only you are you, and only YOU can be in charge of your own story.

And that will do it for my tips! Choose one at a time to tackle, and go for it!

As a reminder, these are general healthy living tips, and they don’t have to be associated with a summer preparation plan. But instead of focusing on trying to get a swimsuit-ready body with extreme measures (which is what a lot of marketing is out there right now), these habits/practices are maintainable for the long term. Because it’s about that long game.

Thanks for checking out my post on how to get ready for summer in 60 days! Have a fabulous day, and I’ll see you back here soon.

Other posts you may like 

• How I’m making the most of the last 68 days of the year
• Three small changes I’m making in my health and fitness this year
• How to schedule your week of workouts

Questions of the day for you

Are you planning anything fun this summer?

What’s one thing you’re doing to get ready for summer?