5 microshifts I’m maxing on this summer.
You've Been Saying Something Has to Change for Years. This Summer, We're Actually Doing It.
Have you heard? The 90s mom summer trend is officially back. Honestly? I kind of love it.
It’s part of what inspired the Summer Walking Club. Because before there was the Summer Walking Club, there were walk-a-thons. I vividly remember my mom hitting the pavement in her long neon spandex shorts, a Starter windbreaker, and a Walkman blasting her favorite 70’s and 80’s mix.
Maybe that was just small-town Iowa. But I have a feeling she wasn’t the only one.
And apparently, that energy is back. While I can only remember the 90s mom through the lens of a kid who was rollerblading through the neighborhood and jumping on our neighbor’s trampoline (no net), I think the trend is really about something we’re all quietly craving:
Boredom that somehow turned into the best afternoon of your life.
Neighbors who actually knew your name.
Summer days that didn’t end until the streetlights came on.
Corded phones that stayed in the kitchen (not attached to your hip).
Movie nights that were actually movie nights, not background noise while you scroll.
Summers that felt long and spacious instead of just packed through.
I get it. I really do.
At the same time, we have to remember the 90s weren’t perfect. They were also the decade of TV dinners microwaved in full plastic, drinking diet soda as if it were water, Tang standing in for orange juice, and a body culture that was not great. Skinny was the trend. Diets were everywhere. And body image issues were practically a rite of passage.
We don’t want all of that back.
I think what we actually want is the 90s mom trend, healthified. And that’s where it gets interesting, because when you mix that nostalgic, slow-down energy with a genuine glow up? That’s what I’m calling Your Glow Up Summer, which is the glow up summer times summer maxing times the 90s mom summer.
Yes, it’s a mouthful. But are you feeling it?
More space.
More relaxation.
More backyard BBQs.
More morning walks with a bumping playlist.
More kids roaming the neighborhood.
More sunshine soaking.
More walking (even in spandex shorts).
More showing up and actually being present for your own life.
All with less worry. Less screen time. Less striving. And less rushing through every single thing.
If you feel this too, let this be your sign. It’s time!
Don’t make it harder than it needs to be. Just decide what you want this summer to look like, and then do it. That’s it. That’s the whole strategy.
Summer is actually the perfect time for this. It has a clear beginning and a clear end, which feeds our love of a timeline. Plus, it’s a high-energy season, which means you naturally have more capacity. Your body is going to want to move, to be outside, to feel good.
It’s ready for this, but it can’t do it without you.
You have to show up for it.
“Something has to change.”
Last summer, I remember internally declaring, “Something has to change.”
(Which, if I’m being honest, is something I had said the six summers before that, too.)
But last summer was different. Last summer, I actually stopped talking about it and did something about it. After 15 years in the health and wellness space, I’ve seen enough to know what works and what doesn’t. What I knew was that big, dramatic overhauls don’t stick.
What actually works is always smaller than you think.
Which is why I stopped trying to re-create my life and started to just re-figure it. I did this by incorporating microshifts. They’re changes small enough that they didn’t throw my whole life into chaos, but meaningful enough to actually work.
The Summer Walking Club was born from one of those microshifts.
And it worked. So this summer, I’m building on it. I’m maxing those microhabits, and I’m bringing you with me.
5 microshifts I’m maxing on this summer:
Here are the 5 ways I’m glowing up this summer (all of them are woven into the Summer Walking Club this year)
01. My morning routine became a morning reset.
I spent a long time fighting to perfect my morning routine. Same thing, day in and day out. Over time, it just stopped working. While I could have tweaked the routine, I decided to shift the language to reset instead, and it changed everything.
Now, instead of running through a checklist, I wake up and do what actually feels right that morning. I reset my day before the day even starts.
Most mornings, that looks like a walk to clear my head. It also involves time with God and even unloading the dishwasher to reset my kitchen before the day begins. Other days it’s a strength routine and folding a basket of laundry, and sometimes it’s just a morning bath.
I use the hour and a half before the day kicks off to be intentional about what I actually need, not just what I wrote down six months ago and called a routine.
02. Giving God more than my leftovers.
This one’s personal. For a long time, I kept waiting to spend time with God until it looked perfect, or more honestly, until I had the time. Which I rarely did. When I finally showed up, it was from a place of depletion and obligation, not desire.
Last summer, that shifted. One, because I let go of how it was supposed to look and just started showing up. Two, because I stopped predetermining what I needed from it and started to be open to just sitting in it.
This summer, I want to continue to give God the best of my attention, not the scraps at the end of the day. Using that time, whether in conversation on a walk or sitting and reading, to create clarity, reset my attitude, and start the day seeing life through a different lens.
03. No-carb breakfast.
I know, I know. It’s probably the last thing you thought you’d hear from me. But hear me out. Last summer, I started bloated, heavy, and just feeling sluggish. I was living in an energy drain. Over time, I started connecting the dots. My carb-heavy breakfasts were directly tied to how drained I felt by noon. My sourdough bagel and grain bowl were not doing me any favors. And. I noticed this most on my walks.
That’s when I started diving deeper into metabolic health and what was actually happening in my body first thing in the morning. I made the shift to healthy fats and protein to start the day, and the difference was noticeable within days.
It created control in my life that I didn’t know was missing. And it shifted my hunger cues for the better. Plus, I lost weight, reduced inflammation, and my walks became easier.
It’s a small shift with a surprisingly big ripple effect. Inside the walking club this year, I’ll be sharing more about the specific diet shifts that help reduce inflammation and boost energy, because this goes deeper than just skipping the bagel.
04. Auditing what drains me and what fills me.
Last year, I got honest about what I was spending my time and energy on, and whether it was worth what it was taking. I let a lot of things go and cleared a ton of space in my life.
I let a lot of things go and cleared a surprising amount of space in my life. Things I said yes to out of guilt. Commitments that looked good on paper but left me empty. Scrolling habits I didn't even realize were draining me.
This summer, I’m taking it a step further. In the spirit of the hot 90s mom summer, I’m not just cutting what drains me, I’m actively adding more of what fills me. More walks. More porch time. More long dinners with people I love. More of the things that leave me feeling like myself.
05. Living in community.
This is the one I didn’t know I needed as badly as I did. I used to like the funny introvert memes a little too much, laughing along while quietly convincing myself that alone time was just my personality. But what I began to realize was that the more time I spent in isolation, the deeper I went into it. And the deeper I went into it, the more bored I became.
But last summer, I started showing up differently. I started walking with people (ahem, the walking club). I joined a book club. I said yes to the backyard BBQ even when the grass needed mowing, and my makeup was still on from the day before. I stopped waiting until everything was perfect to let people in, and these became some of the best moments of my summer.
Community is truly one of the most underrated health habits out there.
Because these microshifts made such a difference in my own life, I built them into this year's Summer Walking Club.
The Summer Walking Club is the walk-a-thon energy, the community, and the healthy microshifts that’ll help you actually glow up and maximize your summer. It’s not a rigid program. It’s not overwhelming. It’s the slow, intentional kind of change that actually sticks.
Join the walking club and get your summer glow up, you’ve been talking about for years.
Let this be your year!
What microshifts are you committing to this summer? Leave a comment below.
