Many people are feeling the winter blues. We’ve had a cold and precipitous winter, but take heart! In 2 months it will be April. The flowers will be blooming, the spring shoots will be coming up.
NOW is the perfect time to start readying yourself physically, emotionally and spiritually for spring. The days are getting longer, it’s all very exciting. So let’s get our bodies into shape for the burst of energy and joy that happens when spring finally breaks!
Here are 5 tools you can use to beat the Winter Blues, enjoy the last of winter, and prepare your body for spring.
1. Eat dark, leafy greens.
And if you’re doing that already? Eat more. Dark leafy greens promote light, flexible energy. They are nutritionally dense powerhouses and packed with chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is created by soaking up the sun’s bright energy.
Chlorophyll is to a plant as blood is to a human. When you eat greens in abundance during the cold, bleak winter months, you are summoning the essence of spring and summer.
Just look at all the pictures in this post. Which does the Bok Choy Recipe picture (below) remind you more of?
Flushing your body with greens is one of the most rewarding things you can do.
2. Make at least 51% of your food raw.
Many of us gravitate to cooked foods during the winter months, but if you eat a little over half of your diet in raw veggies, you can start to release weight, reduce inflammation and lower cholesterol (to a name a few things). Raw foods contain incredible enzymes and nutrients that get lost once we cook our food past 108º. The way I like to eat raw veggies in the winter is to take them out of the fridge well before I consume them – this way they are room temp, and not cold! Use raw foods to start the slimdown down, reduce inflammation, and get ready for spring.
3. Capture more time.
Consider winter a retreat. Winter is the perfect time to go inward and s l o w down. It’s a good time to do a gentle food cleanse (winter cleanse coming soon). Use this time to connect with your spiritual side, start new habits, reflect, stretch, create new projects. If you’ve got kids that are going bonkers – start a project like building a birdhouse and readying it for spring.
4. Take a liquid Vitamin D supplement.
I’m not too big on supplements but there a few I reccomend. Vitamin D3 is one of them. Almost everybody is low in this hormone (it is not a vitamin) and recent studies suggest that Vitamin D deficiency can contribute to infertility, cancer and other diseases. Simply put, I find when I up my Vit D, I’m just happier.
5. Eat seasonally.
As you match nature’s rhythms, you sync up with them. Winter doesn’t feel so miserable and spring feels much closer. Focus on soups, beans, winter greens, squashes, sweet potatoes, and warming teas. And don’t forget to eat 51% raw.
Here’s a surprisingly delicious recipe for baby bok choy and mushrooms. It tastes like it’s cooked, but it is raw, fresh and full of enzymes and nutrients that will give you a lift.
Bok Choy and Mushroom Salad
Serves 1
This is easy and quick — experiment with other vegetables
Ingredients:
1 head of baby bok choy – keep leaves intact, chop stems
1 handful of shitake, cremini, or oyster mushrooms – clean and slice to desired thickness
Dressing:
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup wheat free tamari
2 cloves of garlic
Directions:
1. Wash, drain and prep bok choy and mushrooms
2. Add oil, tamari and garlic to food processor or high speed blender and blend until smooth
3. marinate salad with half of the dressing (save the other half) and let sit for 15 minutes to a few hours. The longer the salad sits, the more wilted and cooked tasting it will become.
Let me know what you think!
How do you beat the winter blues?
