Goodbye Summer Vibes: 5 Tips and Tricks to Prepare for the End of Summer Blues

With the last summer sunset not too far away, you’d think the bus coming to cart your kids off to school would be more than welcome. Well, get ready to join your children in feeling totally bummed out, because the end of summer means an end to a lot of your fun, too!

Some people might like the arrival of the Autumn Equinox (we'll admit, fall is very popular in our offices), but here are five reasons why you should dread the end of summer – and how to prepare for it!

1. The D now stands for Disappearance

They don’t call vitamin D the “sunshine vitamin” for nothing. If you spend more time indoors or are covered up when outside, your skin isn't exposed to the sun and thus can’t make this crucial nutrient naturally. And of course, when it’s cold outside, you’re going to be staying indoors and putting on a lot of layers, but even if you did get out, exposed on a clear day, the winter sun's angle is too low to provide the UV rays needed for vitamin D production. It's a lost cause, really.

Lack of vitamin D can be linked to depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders like Seasonal Affective Disorder; a decrease in immune function; and issues with bones and joints. It's important to get enough vitamin D in your diet to ward off these issues and make it through the winter happy and healthy!

Solution: Prep for the worst with vitamin D supplements. Here are some great drops designed for adults and kids, drops that will protect your entire family from the nasty effects of decreased sun exposure.

2. Your skin will look like it belongs to a 3,000-year-old mummy

Oh the pain: the fall and winter seasons routinely play havoc on your epidermis, cracking your lips, hands, face, and any problem areas you might have. Trying to combat the cold with a heater means the moisture leaves the air and your skin, so soon you'll be waking up looking like Imhotep back from the dead.

Solution: Get moisturizers that work to strengthen and heal your skin with natural ingredients. Moisturizers packed with vitamins and antioxidants like this great one will heal and soothe your skin effectively, preventing cracking, flaking, and pain associated with common seasonal skin issues.

3. Flu-pocalypse Now

You and your family have run the summer gamut of ticks, mosquitos, poison ivy, and sun burns with hardly any problems, but the worst is yet to come. In October, you’ll be in full-on defensive mode, trying to avoid the influenza virus ripping through the population via person-to-person contact, and… oh yeah, you can’t escape everyone, because it’s too cold outside! If your immune system is also compromised by a lack of vitamin D, you're the prime target for an extended sick period.

Solution: Be ready to build up everyone's immunity with great supplements and preventative measures. Try some great probiotics and other immune boosters that will help your body fight off infections and keep it strong and healthy!

4. You’ll help your kids with their homework and maybe feel really dumb

Very soon your evenings will go from “no math” to “too much math” (unless you’re a math teacher, physicist, mathematician… or any of the many other professions that use math every day). Sure, it might be easy if they're in grades 1 - 6, but we’re sure your child will soon be asking about quadrangles, cosines, fraction multiplication, or something you haven't had to use in decades, and you'll end up with that deer-in-the-headlights look. Deer are notoriously bad at math, especially when staring at an oncoming truck.

Solution: Don't feel dumb: get that grey matter in tip-top shape! Incorporate MCT Oil into your diet to boost your brain power (the "MCT" stands for medium chain triglycerides, a type of fatty acid derived from coconut oil). This is a great option, and try this upgraded Bulletproof coffee recipe!

5. Attack of the Giant Sneezes

Spring gets a bad reputation for its allergens, but autumn can drive people just as crazy: hay fever season begins towards the end of August and lasts until the first hard frost of the year; then you’ve got mold thriving in damp leaves and decaying foliage; finally, there are the dust mites stirred out of their hiding spots when you start up the heater for the first time. Even just the thought of all those irritants and allergens can make you itchy. You're never out of the woods with allergies, even when you can't visit the woods any more!

Solution: You can't let ragweed ruin your autumn - build your immunity and take back the season! Use great immune boosters like this one to help your body fight the good fight.