Summer Should Be Easy, Right? Wrong.
I’ve been thinking about something that comes up every year – why the hell is summer so hard for eating?
You’d think it would be easier. Fresh everything. Time off. But if you’re like most women doctors, you started June with good intentions and by July you’re stress-eating in your car.
Here’s the truth: Summer is tough for physician eating. And it’s not because you suck at this.
Why Eating Healthy in the Summer Is So Hard
Your Schedule Goes Out the Window
Your kids are home. No more school routine. Now they’re everywhere or in camps with pickup times that make no sense. You’re driving constantly.
Plus you’re covering for colleagues on vacation while trying to take your own time off. It becomes this insane sprint where you’re slammed, then you collapse into vacation, then sprint again.
Who has time to meal prep when you’re barely keeping your head above water?
Vacation Stress Is Real
We think vacation should be relaxing. But traveling with family? Staying with in-laws? Being in close quarters with people who stress you out?
That’s not relaxing. That’s exhausting. And when you’re exhausted, you eat more. But you feel guilty because you’re “supposed to” be having fun.
Food Is Everywhere
Barbecues. Patio drinks. Lake snacks. Ice cream runs. Summer revolves around food.
Diet culture says avoid it all. But that feels miserable. So you try to restrict, then give up and think “I’ll start again in September.”
The Real Problem: We’re Doing This Wrong
We think being healthy means missing out on summer fun. No chips at the lake. No drinks with friends. No ice cream with your kids.
So we white-knuckle it for a while, then eventually say screw it.
This approach is so unfair (and it doesn’t work)
A Better Way: Fix Your Food Relationship
What if you could enjoy barbecue food without obsessing about it? What if you could sit by chips and sometimes want them, sometimes not – based on what you actually want?
This isn’t fantasy. Your brain can learn new automatic responses to any food. As doctors, we know about neuroplasticity. We’ve seen stroke patients recover. Your brain can definitely learn to chill out around the office candy – but we have to approach these foods differently.
What Actually Works
Meet Yourself Where You Are
Stop making plans for fantasy life where you have unlimited time and energy. Make plans for real life where you’re sometimes exhausted and behind on everything.
Maybe your meals are simpler. Maybe you use more pre-made stuff that you pick up at the grocery store. Maybe you do a bit more ordering in – find things that work for you when you order in that you actually enjoy.
Maybe you do more charcuterie board type stuff where it’s just in the fridge and you can chop up a bunch of stuff and nibble on it. There’s lots of different things you can do, but the big thing is meeting yourself where you’re at with the realities of what your life is actually like.
Creative Problem Solving for Tough Situations
Think about the challenges like going to a barbecue or staying at someone’s house for vacation. Really let yourself have permission to enjoy the food, but also do a little creative problem solving.
There’s lots of times where you may not have full control over the situation. So then you do the best you can. But maybe you think, okay, what drives me to overeat when I’m at my in-laws?
Often what it is is sitting around talking all day long and just feeling kind of penned in. Sometimes the solution is nothing to do with food – it’s just giving yourself a few breaks, going for walks, going to take a nap, running out to do some fake errand so you get out of the house and can do something else for a bit.
Look at More Than Just the Food
Just thinking this is a food issue misses a lot of opportunities for meaningful change.
Instead, ask yourself: is there a way I can support myself around the food?
But also, get curious about what non-food things may be driving you to eat (like feeling super busy or mild social anxiety during group gatherings). How can you support yourself in those areas?
Use Harm Reduction When Traveling
When you’re traveling or don’t have control over your food, just do your best. This isn’t about perfect eating. It’s about making choices that work while still enjoying life.
Work on Your Brain’s Automatic Responses
Here’s the piece nobody talks about: Your brain has automatic responses to food that happen before you think. See chips, want chips, eat chips. No conscious decision involved.
You can change these responses using techniques that work below conscious thought. It’s not about willpower. It’s about rewiring your brain so the automatic response changes.
We’re talking about leveraging neuroplasticity in our brains. Our brains have the incredible ability to learn and change over time at any age. Nothing is fixed in our brains. We know this as physicians – we’ve seen people have severe injuries, brain injuries, strokes, and rebuild function.
Our brains can adapt and change. So of course our brains can adapt and change to how they relate to food. We just haven’t because people don’t tell us we can and people don’t teach us how to do it.
But it’s absolutely possible. When you have the right tools and you have fun ways of doing it that don’t take extra work, it’s actually very simple to change how you’re relating to certain foods.
Why Not Wait Until Fall to “Get Back on Track”?
Because that keeps you feeling like crap for months. You deserve better now. Plus the most common reasons for waiting is that you don’t feel like you have enough time to focus on changing your eating (and also really don’t want to have to say no to all of the fun foods)
But here’s the important thing – you don’t have to work harder or give up all the fun summer foods in order to feel more in control of your eating.
In fact, you SHOULDN’T work harder or give everything up – because if you do, your changes aren’t going to be sustainable.
Summer = Perfect Testing Ground
Think about it. If your approach works during vacation travel and barbecue season, it’ll work during any stressful time.
I think a good litmus test is: can I do it in the summer months when I’m super busy? If I can, then it’s probably gonna be something that’s more sustainable for me.
The Bottom Line
Summer eating doesn’t have to suck. You don’t have to choose between fun and health.
You can enjoy summer while working toward your goals. But it takes a totally different approach than restriction and willpower.
Instead of fighting your brain, you can retrain it. Instead of battling cravings, you can learn to not have them.
Summer can be when you finally break free instead of when you give up.
Your crazy schedule doesn’t have to sabotage you. It can actually show you what really works.
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