138. Why Summer Routines Fall Apart — and Why It’s Not a Discipline Problem

Have your routines started feeling harder lately?

Maybe your workouts feel inconsistent. Maybe your eating is less structured. Maybe you're staying up later, sleeping differently, and wondering why the habits that felt automatic a few weeks ago suddenly feel so difficult.

Before you assume you've lost motivation or discipline, consider this:

What if the conditions changed?

In this episode, Dr. Stacy Heimburger explores why summer often disrupts consistency—not because you're failing, but because schedules, cues, routines, and energy rhythms naturally shift during this season.

You'll learn:

• Why habits depend more on environmental structure than motivation
• How summer changes the cues that support consistency
• The role of sleep, hydration, stress, and overstimulation
• Why flexibility is more valuable than perfection
• One simple way to identify where your system needs adjusting

If you've been feeling frustrated by your summer routine, this episode will help you replace self-criticism with curiosity and create a more realistic path forward.

Ready for More Support?

Inside Lifestyle Support Monthly, we're building practical summer systems that work in real life—not perfect life.

Join us here:

https://sugarfreemd.com/LSM

Free 2-Pound Plan Call!
Want to jump start your weight loss? Schedule a free call where Dr. Stacy Heimburger will work with you to create a personalized plan to lose 2 pounds in one week, factoring in your unique circumstances, challenges, and aspirations. Schedule now! www.sugarfreemd.com/2pound

This episode was produced by The Podcast Teacher: www.ThePodcastTeacher.com.

Transcript

Hey everybody.

So if you've noticed that things feel a little harder lately, maybe your routine feels a little bit off. Maybe your eating feels a little bit inconsistent. Your workouts are all over the place, sleep is weird, right? And you keep thinking, "What's wrong with me?"

This is the episode for you.

Because every year around this time, I really start hearing the same thing from women. And it's this idea of, "I was doing so well. I had momentum. I was finally getting consistent. And now everything is falling apart."

And most women make that mean that they're failing, right?

So we interpret this as, "I'm failing. I've lost motivation. I need more discipline."

But honestly, I really don't think this is a discipline problem.

I think it's a systems problem.

And I want to go through this because I think a lot of us underestimate how much summer changes the conditions that really support our habits.

Especially if we've been doing a lot of work to really work systems all throughout the year. We started in January. We've been doing good. We've made incremental changes. Things are vibing and flowing. And then summer can really interrupt us.

And it's not just the weather.

Summer changes structure.

And we are really cue-driven. Humans are.

Most of our habits happen because something around us triggers them, not because we wake up every day wildly motivated.

Okay?

So think about how much invisible structure exists during the rest of the year that might now be missing.

We have things like school schedules and morning routines and work schedules and earlier bedtimes and sort of predictable meal timing. Pretty consistent calendars overall.

And so these are like little built-in anchors everywhere throughout our day.

Then summer hits, right?

Kids are home.

We might stay up later.

It's definitely lighter later.

We travel more generally.

Weekends have a tendency to start to blend together.

Sports schedules are very different.

We're eating out more.

We're having people over more.

Vacations happen.

We're tired because it's hot, right?

And so our kitchen can sort of feel like a revolving door.

I find there's a lot more, like, "I don't want to be inside and cook."

And instead of recognizing that the environment has changed, we internalize it as we have done something wrong and we've changed.

But I think it's a really big difference.

And I think it is important to understand that we're still the same person.

Just because our systems have changed, our habits can slide.

And so there is a little bit of physiology involved, right?

Because summer can affect a lot of things.

So not only do we have this systems problem, there is a little bit of physiology.

So we have our systems problem. We just went through all the ways that might show up, and now we'll walk through the physiology side.

Okay. Stay with me.

Summer can affect our hydration a thousand percent, especially if you live anywhere in the South like I do. We're just sweating all the time.

It can affect our appetite, our energy, our emotional regulation.

People get angrier in the summer. They're hot and they're angry, right?

It can affect our sleep.

If it's too hot, it's hard to sleep.

Good sleep requires a pretty cold, dark room.

So if we're trying to go to bed early, it's still light outside and the house is warmer, that can absolutely affect our sleep.

So if we've already been dealing with stress and burnout and perimenopause and poor sleep, this heat that starts to come from summer can absolutely exacerbate those things. It can increase fatigue.

And we know from earlier episodes poor sleep can affect our hunger and our cravings.

So we are going to crave more sugary processed foods when we're overtired.

Then we've got the overstimulation of summer that happens, right?

All these things are going on, and we already know overstimulation can really affect our decision-making capacity.

We've done a couple of episodes on what overstimulation can look like and what that feels like and how that makes us not necessarily want to stick with our planned habits.

So our brain and our body are responding to different conditions.

And then we've got the system that is changing.

And those things matter.

So instead of thinking, "I've fallen off. I need to restart. I'm so inconsistent. I can never stick with anything," and making ourselves the problem, I want you to realize that the system from the fall and maybe the spring just doesn't work for the current season we're in.

We talked about this in a previous episode, right?

Everything is a little bit cyclical.

We're not at 100% all the time.

So we need to treat summer as a new season.

Summer requires different systems.

Okay?

So if our routine was only working when everything was really highly structured and predictable, that's okay.

There's no shame involved there.

I just want us to recognize that we might need to be a little flexible and do a little molding of what our summer system is going to look like.

And I don't want our summer system and the molding we're going to do there to mean stricter systems.

So I want you to hear that.

Things are changing.

That does not need to mean we need to be super strict.

We just need different.

We don't need more rules, more tracking, more pressure, a hard reset, Hard 75.

We don't need any of that.

Okay?

We might actually need shorter routines and simpler expectations and maybe some more portable habits.

Okay?

Some backup plans.

Flexible anchors.

We did backup plans all last month in the membership.

These safety nets.

Okay?

We might need more of those this summer to be able to be flexible and adapt.

So remember, consistency is not doing everything perfectly no matter what.

It's staying connected to yourself even when conditions change.

And so summer is a season where conditions are changing.

Our systems need to be able to adapt.

Okay?

So what I want you to think about this week, instead of asking, "What's wrong with me? Why can't I stick to anything?" start to look around and say, "What has changed about my environment?"

Really take some time and think about this.

What was happening before that is different now?

Is there something that used to cue me and that's not there?

We've only been on summer break a hot second.

But everyone waking up and getting ready and getting out of the house—I can tell you right now it's harder to get out of the house at the time that I got out before.

Just because no one's doing that now.

No one's getting up and getting going except me and my husband.

The kids don't have to get up and get ready.

There's not the whole house hustle and bustle.

So that system has changed.

I've lost a cue that I had.

This morning routine has now shifted.

So ask yourself:

What structure shifted?

What cue am I missing?

Maybe your morning walk only worked because school drop-off was at a specific time.

I knew I was going to be on the road headed to the hospital at a certain time because I knew what time drop-off was.

Well, there's no drop-off now.

So that is missing for me.

Maybe meal prep worked on Sundays because there was less going on.

It was quieter.

The whole house did a reset, kind of getting ready for school on Monday, making sure we had everything in place.

Now we don't have that.

Maybe bedtime is all kinds of out the window because we don't have to wake up early.

The kids don't have to wake up early.

Maybe our workouts needed that predictable morning.

Or maybe they needed the predictability of pickup time after school.

Or maybe they needed aftercare.

And we don't have that now.

Just become aware.

Because the awareness is what removes the shame.

Because there's no shame in saying, "I need to take a look at this and re-equilibrate and readjust."

That's normal.

Okay?

We're probably not going to rebuild our entire life system overnight.

But we've talked about our anchors before.

Let's just pick one.

So we get to pick what that anchor is going to be.

Just pick one this week and see.

Maybe that's protein at breakfast.

Maybe that's having a cup of water before your coffee.

Maybe that's a 10-minute walk.

Maybe we have to set an alarm now and we didn't before.

Maybe instead of groceries on Sunday, we do groceries on Thursday because the weekend is a little bit looser and maybe we want to really plan for that.

We just need one anchor to sort of reinstitute the stability that might be waning.

We don't have to have a perfect summer routine.

There's no such thing as perfect.

So you know I'm going to say don't have a perfect summer routine because that's not real life.

But we do need some sustainable connection point.

Like some anchor.

So that's what I want you to work on.

Okay?

I want you to think about what has changed.

What anchor do I want to work on?

What's going on for me?

Okay?

And remember, this is totally normal.

Summer is different.

It changes our schedule.

It changes our systems.

And we rely, as humans, on routines and environmental triggers and timing and repetition and predictability.

We love those things.

And so during the school year we may have had this normal rhythm.

We had consistent wake-up times, consistent meal times, or semi-consistent meal times, predictable mornings, and sort of predictable obligations.

And so summer can disrupt a lot of those things.

It can disrupt those time anchors, the meal cues, sleep rhythms, energy rhythms, all those things.

And then we've got travel involved as well.

And we've just got more socializing for a lot of us.

Summers are more social.

Our human behavior is going to respond to those changing conditions.

Then we've got just all the physiology that can change with summer as well.

Our sleep quality, hydration, sort of just our appetite.

A lot of us might crave sweeter stuff because fruit is plentiful.

When things are plentiful, humans want to eat them.

When we were hunter-gatherers, this is the time of year we would get more sweet treats.

So maybe our sweet tooth is turned up.

And how are we going to manage that?

I think the sleep piece is huge.

People are staying up later.

The kids are staying up later.

I know for us in our house, if the kids don't go to bed early, we still want to have time to ourselves after they go to bed.

So if they go to bed later, we go to bed later.

And then all of a sudden, by Thursday, I'm sleep deprived.

Remember, you are not broken.

So instead of thinking, "I've fallen off. I need more discipline. I need to restart. This is the worst. I was doing so well before summer. I can't stay consistent."

Forget about all the mind drama of less clothes.

We'll get to that.

I'm going to do an episode on that.

This is just recognizing that summer is going to change some things.

All seasons require a little bit of flexibility.

And the first step is really identifying what's different.

What system do I need to rework?

Because maybe your kids are in camp and you're getting up at the same time.

So maybe when I'm talking about a morning routine, nothing has changed for you.

This is going to be very personal.

What has changed for you?

Maybe you don't have kids in the house at all and none of that's changed.

But your ears are perking up when I'm talking about staying up a little bit later because it's sunnier outside.

Or it's a little too hot.

I used to walk every afternoon, but now it's too hot.

And so now I find that I'm not walking as much.

Think about what was going well before.

What is not as easy to be consistent with now?

And do a little analysis of that with curiosity and compassion, understanding that summer changes things.

The weather changes things.

The routine changes things.

It just changes.

And we can adapt.

We can make this work.

This does not mean we have to throw everything out and start afresh.

It just means we need to identify one place to get on track, to anchor ourselves, to reestablish that habit stacking that we were doing before.

So we just want to reestablish our consistency.

And so we need to figure out first where we're falling off track.

So this is what we're going to be doing all month in the membership.

If you guys have not checked it out, this is the last month that it's going to be first 30 days free.

Once we hit July, that's it.

We're going to lose that opportunity to just try it out.

And I think it's really fun in there.

But I want you to think about what's going on for you.

Okay?

It might feel harder, but maybe it's just different.

So we're going to need to rebuild some of our summer systems.

Not all of them.

We are not starting from scratch.

We're not ditching everything.

But we're going to need to think about:
Where was I cued before?
What was working?
What's not working now?
Where is a little place I can make a little tweak?

Is it something with my systems?
My schedule?
Or is it just that it's hot?

I can tell you in Louisiana there are so many people like me.

If you're not getting up super early, it's hard to exercise outside.

So you're probably going to have to adjust what your exercise looks like.

I know I have to.

I can't stand being that hot.

Especially before I have to go to work.

It's awful.

So I do have to set an alarm and get up early before it's a thousand degrees.

But if you want help working on this stuff, just come on inside the membership.

We're going to build our specific summer systems that work in real life this month.

Not fantasy routines and not rigid routines.

We're going to be realistic.

We're actually going to build very specific routines for vacations, social events, and figuring out what's going on with weekends as well.

So if you're like, "Yes, this feels like me. Things are starting to crack a little bit. I could really use some guidance."

Come on in there.

The first 30 days are free.

It's amazing.

You can learn more about that at:

www.sugarfreemd.com/LSM

And that's Lifestyle Support Monthly.

So if summer has already started to feel a little bit harder, I want you to hear this:

You are not failing.

This is not a you problem.

This is not a moral failure.

It just means conditions have changed.

And that's going to happen.

Sustainable health is not about proving that you can maintain a perfect routine forever.

There's no such thing as perfect.

We have to learn how to adapt and be flexible.

People who create lasting change are not people with perfect plans, perfect systems, or perfect schedules.

They are people who can adapt, pivot, and recover fast.

That's a skill you can build.

You can build it inside the membership.

So if you have not checked it out, please check it out.

As always, if this was helpful, please share it with a friend.

And I will talk to you next week.

All right, guys.

Bye.