Travel and Health Management and Navigating Social Challenges

I have a very idealistic view of summer, I think. We all do, trust me. Now, do you find that holidays or travel at home or abroad affect how you manage your health in the summer? And in what ways? Yeah, to be honest, I think for the better. I think if we're looking at health really broadly. I think when I go away it really gives me, I fully allow myself to completely detach, you know, I will book a full week and a half to two weeks off work, you know, I think that's really important to really just disconnect from life a little bit. I try and not go on my phone as much, I really try and read a lot when I go on holiday. I think I'm a lot more active on holiday as well than I would be here naturally, you know, if you're kind of exploring a new place, you're doing a huge amount of steps every day so I think for me it does change my health but for the better I think and whenever I come back I really think oh I need to build more of that into my day-to-day but it's difficult because when you get back you've got so much you've got so much stuff that you have to do you've got life and that's how it is but yeah I think it does change my health but definitely in a positive way. Okay on that note of positivity, longer days and shorter nights can disrupt routines. Have you noticed any changes in your sleep or energy levels and how do you cope with that? Yeah I mean the thought of sounding like sickly positive about it I just think I sleep a lot. Actually having said that I think I can fall into a trap of going to sleep quite late in summer because you know you're you are able to kind of live that life after work and so I think I have a tendency to kind of do things late into the night in summer without sort of realising, so I think I can tend to get a little bit less sleep. Also I know a lot of people really struggle with the heat at night, obviously we don't have air conditioning in our homes here, so if you kind of have a week where it's 30 degrees, I personally don't really struggle with that, I don't struggle with sleeping when it's warm, so I don't think my sleeping routine or kind of routine as a whole changes too much, but I will say I think I probably do stay up a little bit later. I definitely stay up later during summer than I would during the winter months, just I think you have more energy, you're less tired. And on that note of energies, what changes do you notice in your food choices of physical activity in the summer and are there particular things you do differently to stay well in summer? Yeah so I mean it's obviously so much easier to get outside during summer so I think that kind of activity things go from during winter it's very much like trying to get to gym or classes or things that are inside because we get a huge amount of rain here. So I think that changes a little bit over summer in the fact that it is just so much easier to get outside. I think activities at the weekend turn into kind of like long walks and going to the coast and those sorts of things. And food wise I think healthier food choices are so much easier during the summer. Yes you've got kind of like your ice creams and things like that but also fresh fruit is so much more affordable. You've got kind of eating seasonally is a bit of a joy during summer and those are the foods that I personally enjoy you know you've got a lot of berries you know we go fruit picking every year and I think it does change a lot but I think you just don't have to put as much effort into your health and well-being. I personally don't during summer just because I think it's organically there for you. You don't have to be very regimented about how you eat and how you exercise and making sure that you do because I just think that you've got so much more time that you can go outside. Sure and summer can also be a social season with, you know, events through spontaneity. Do these situations bring challenges for you and how do you navigate them? Yeah, I think spontaneity is a great word for summer. I think things are very spontaneous which makes if you're the type of person that really relies on kind of routine and structure that can obviously be really challenging. I think as well one of the conversations that I've been having with friends this summer just passed is our kind of like alcohol culture in the UK and I guess Bracknell is no different to that and obviously there's a huge amount of alcohol consumption around Christmas but I think during the summer if you think about the whole summer period. We've got beer gardens, gin gardens, like, you know, every social event as an adult seems to be very much centred around alcohol. And I think we've created a bit of a tricky culture in the UK, I'm guessing, not just England, but the UK as a whole, where if someone says that they're not drinking, we almost have quite an aggressive stance on it. And I think people almost have to come armed with an excuse, without maybe even thinking about it. Like I went to something with a few friends and someone came down when I'm driving I'm driving it's like we don't have to come you shouldn't have to come armed with an excuse an excuse at all for not drinking and I think we've created this kind of really challenging culture and I think you have to have quite a strong sense of self if you're gonna kind of navigate that so I think that can be really really challenging I mean I've never really been a huge drinker and all my friends know that so for me it's not a huge issue to navigate but it does sort of feel like every single social event does surround alcohol consumption, you know, there's bottomless branches and kind of picnics, everything, everything's very very boozy so I think that can be really difficult and I think my advice on that and advice that I've sort of taken is to kind of create situations where you're meeting up socially but it can't be based around alcohol so it would be a walk or you know visiting a national trust property which sounds really boring, it used to be boring to me and now it's really fun, but kind of making a point of going and seeing somewhere new and going for a walk and doing things like that, I think it's important to, I think that's the thing where you need to be intentional, it's kind of, if you don't want to be sucked into that kind of drinking all the time, it's being a bit more intentional about what you do over summer, like the activities.