Welcome August! Here are my July Highlights
Happy August! Hope you had a fantastic July. For me it feels like this summer really is whizzing by! A big part of July was spent on holiday in Finland, for which I’m really grateful, so I’d like to share some my July (holiday) highlights with you.
Travelling
🛩️ I’m not a great traveller and by that I mean I don’t enjoy the actual travel and getting there, I get annoyed and stressed when things don’t go to plan, and in the past couple of years things have not always gone to plan (our flights to Finland were cancelled with a day’s notice two years in a row by Finnair). This year everything went pretty smoothly (no cancellations – phew!) and our long journey on plane + train (leaving home 5am and arriving 10pm in our destination in Finland) didn’t feel that stressful at all.
As we were travelling all day, and I know that the food offerings along the route are never that good or interesting, I usually pack some food from home – that helps me use foods from the fridge that would go off while we are away, so I tend to make a lovely omelette wrap to take with me to eat on the journey (in this one I used parma ham, beetroot, roasted tomatoes, lettuce and broccoli seeds). That really keeps me full up for a long time.
🚄 The anticipation of going home is always a lovely feeling. Seeing the green forests below as we approached Helsinki from my window seat on the flight and then watching the beautiful lake scenery from the train is always very exciting, and finally the sight of the 500-year old Olavinlinna Castle telling that I’m home!
Did you know that a big part of being happy is being excited? When you get excited daily, so not just about big things but also mundane daily things, such as your meal or a cup of tea, nature, birdsong, a house plant, anticipating the next episode of your favourite TV programme…, you’re living a truly happy life.
Lakes and Saunas
🌊 The main attraction for holidaying in Finland, apart from spending time with family and friends, is always the lakes! I can’t get enough of the blue clear and cool waters. So having a beach and the beautiful Saimaa just across the road from our flat is pure luxury! We had a dip twice daily, morning and evening, in the cool waters (18C). Some days I did a slight longer swim like 300-400 metres which isn’t that long but adds to the movement total. This is for sure my favourite thing to do, and even better when it’s combined with a 70C sauna.
The cold and heat exposure are a amazing contrast and have great health benefits and they will make your body work a bit harder for you in the long run.
Cycling
🚵🏼♀️ There was a lot of cycling as bikes were our mode of transport in the town. Great way to move, and particularly easy in my small hometown where there are cycle paths everywhere and very little traffic. I also joined a city boat sightseeing tour with yoga onboard one morning which was fabulous. The moving boat (and focus point) def challenged my balance but was save from any nasty falls and all was well when we returned to the harbour. Unfortunately (so not really a holiday highlight but could have been much worse), I then went and had a fall in our (non-moving!!!) staircase (somehow missed the step, doh!) and sprained my ankle which is still healing but after the excruciating initial pain, it wasn’t too bad and I could still walk and cycle ok. Holiday saved, phew!
I can’t imagine a holiday where I don’t move my body, and movement is def one of my top recommendations for you too, so take advantage of whatever is available for you during your summer break.
Making Memories
🌅 We were lucky with the weather, it was sunny and warm most days. We had beautiful sunsets and sunrises, breakfasts in the balcony, lunches and dinners out in the town with friends and family. There was also art, music and culture in good measure. We visited lovely old buildings and art exhibitions, saw the Don Giovanni opera at the castle, went to a very entertaining one-man guitar concert, climbed onboard of a restored museum ship that lay in the bottom of the lake for 70 years before being lifted out of the water, and saw a fashion show by a Finnish fashion designer.
Very special things that made the holiday very memorable.
I Saved the Best For Last – The 3 Fs!
But the most important part was, as usual, the 3 Fs: Family, Friends & Food!
🫂When you can connect with your loved ones and people in general on a holiday, it makes it all the more special. And wherever I go, experiencing the local cuisine and learning about the culture through food is on the top of my list always. Of course, having grown up in Finland, Finnish food is nothing exotic for me but it’s special since I only get to eat it once a year. More or less daily, I devoured wild and farmed berries, foraged chantarelles, sourdough rye bread, fish and fish eggs from the local lakes and numerous delicious local dishes. I ditched being strictly gluten-free, and felt ok with that, and I also had regular treats such as ice cream and desserts and even some beer (after a sauna of course!), guilt-free. Food stress is not allowed to join my holidays and I keep strict rules out of my headspace. I’m there to relax, enjoy myself and experience. But most of the time what goes into my body on a holiday is still very healthy and nutririous, so my body has the resilience to take occasional “insults”.
If you stick to an ’80/20 approach’, with 80% of the time eating as healthy and nutritious as possible, then you can truly enjoy foods/drinks that are delicious but are not always as nutritious or particularly healthy. It’s all about building a body that is resilient so that on occasions when you want to go for it, you can, without suffering any consequences.
As a side note, Finnish restaurants and bars are great with providing gluten and dairy-free dishes (in some restaurants all the dishes on the menu are gluten and dairy-free as a default) and alcohol-free drinks (I had a lovely ‘no-groni’, or non-alcholic negroni, one evening), and it also helps when you have a mum who is an ace gluten-free home baker (even at the age of 83!).
Wishing you a relaxing, enjoyable, memorable, delicious and healthy holidays wherever you are – away from or at home.
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