Spring brings with it the promise of re-birth and renewal. As the natural world reawakens and blossoms into life around you, it’s a great time to do some internal self-care, brush off your own cobwebs, push out accumulated junk from the winter and get yourself ready for the energy of summer.
You don’t need to do a hard-core juice cleanse, water fast, or a supplement-heavy detox to encourage your body’s natural processes of detoxification and elimination (except when, sometimes, you do…but, in general, foundational health habits are a great place to start!). Besides, a gentler approach to supporting detox and elimination is less likely to result in detox-reactions or aggravations of symptoms, that can leave you sluggish and achey. Not to mention, it is much cheaper!
If you found yourself losing touch with healthy habits over the winter, I’ve put together a list of 5 simple practices for you to incorporate into your daily routine, for one week, to help to give your body and mind the post-winter tune up it needs. If it resonates with you to do so, intentionally commit to these practices for a week and see how you feel. If you like how you feel, physically, mentally and emotionally, you may decide to continue some of these practices, going forward. They may even become habits.
1. MOVE EVERY DAY
Commit to moving for at least 30 minutes a day. We can often find ourselves getting more sedentary during the winter months, and spring is a great time to get our movement levels back up again. This can be as simple as taking a brisk 30 minute walk. Just find any movement that you enjoy! For example, perhaps you enjoy dance, love to sweat in a hot yoga class, lift weights, practice martial arts, or jump rope in your garden. Anything that gets you moving! Mix it up! Variety is great when it comes to exercise. If you can incorporate movement throughout the week that includes cardio, stretching and weight lifting, that’s ideal! Exercise improves overall wellbeing, as well as a plethora of health conditions, not to mention moves your blood and lymph, and gets you sweaty, all of which help with detoxification and elimination.
2. EAT FOR HEALTH
I have a few very simple “food rules” for this spring reset, so let me break it down.
Eat only whole foods (foods in their natural state that are not heavily processed) and eliminate all processed foods. This means that you will have to cook more at home, and plan your meals ahead of time. Make sure to have whole food snacks on hand for when you get hungry, to help you avoid reaching for processed snack bars/candy.
Eliminate all alcohol and added sugar, as well as any of your known food sensitivities. If you drink coffee, limit it no more than one cup a day.
Aim to eat at least 5-9 servings of vegetables every day. When picking out your vegetables for the day, try to eat as many colors as possible to get a wide spectrum of phytonutrients. At the end of the week, ask yourself if you managed to eat the colors of the rainbow in vegetables. If you did, that’s great and super supportive of a healthy, diverse microbiome.
As an optional added “level-up”, to increase diversity in foods you eat (thus increase diversity in your microbiome, and support gut and overall health), see if you can eat 30 different plants over the course week.
Eat as much organic food for this week long reset as possible, so that your body does not have the added burden of having to get deal with synthetic pesticides, chemical fertilizers, antibiotics or synthetic hormones. Another added benefit of eating all organic foods, is that organic produce tends to have increased amounts of antioxidants, compared to conventionally grown produce.
3. DRINK ENOUGH WATER
Make sure you’re staying hydrated by drinking enough water. Opt for filtered or spring water, to make sure it is free of contaminants. Making sure you’re drinking enough is especially important when you are taking liver supportive herbs, as you want to be sure that you are eliminating properly, and the kidneys/urinary tract are one of the primary organs of elimination. Additionally, optimal hydration is necessary for proper bowel function, another primary organ of elimination. Guidelines for determining optimal water intake can be found here.
4. MEDITATE DAILY (WITH BONUS EARTHING OPTION!)
Spend 15 minutes a day meditating. Meditation has a multitude of health benefits, including helping us re-connect with our attention to allow us to be more mindful, improving our ability to deal with stress, reducing pain and lowering inflammation (you can read about the benefits of meditation, as well as find some meditation resources, here). BONUS: You can increase the health benefits of your meditation practice by doing it in direct contact with the earth. Earthing (or grounding) is being in direct contact with the earth, and there is emerging research that indicates that the exchange of electrons while earthing can result in physiological changes such as reduced pain, lowered levels of inflammation, increased parasympathetic tone and better sleep. So why not increase the benefits of your meditation practice by meditating outside near some spring flowers, on a cozy patch of grass, or next to your favorite tree?
5. Do something fun every day
This is essential for health. It’s going to look different for everyone. Maybe you spend time gardening, playing with your cats, going on an adventure with your children, drawing in the park, playing a board game with friends, tandem kayaking, taking yourself on a solo date to the art museum or going out to see a movie. Fun is going to be different for everyone. Don’t let your days go by without having fun. It’s what life is all about. And I would argue that we can’t have true health without it.
You may need a few days to prepare yourself for this week long spring reset (especially to give yourself some time to get food shopping/prep done), or you might decide to dive in right away. Or maybe you’re already doing all of the things - in which case, that is AMAZING, and I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!! :) Start when you are ready, and adapt it to your lifestyle and needs. For example, I love to start my days with meditation, but you might find that it’s more appealing to meditate before bed. Find what works for you!
Wishing you a fun, inspiring, intentional and healthy Spring!