#spring diet

[ambient-mixer]

Go Green

Spring is here, time for some fresh food. Enjoy fruits, vegetables, a salad to change up the more “comfortable” winter diet. 🥬 

[kiwellbeing]

Spring is coming.... be ready for it!!!

Spring is gently coming to life - and with it, a call for a subtle change in lifestyle as our bodies and minds adjust to a kinder environment.

As the seasons changes, our bodies require a different diet and lifestyle to stay balanced. Mind body awareness techniques, such as yoga and breathing exercises help us to naturally want to make such changes.

Spring is a time of increased warmth and wetness. It's gentle and active at the same time. Winter is predominantly a cold, damp season which causes kapha dosha to accumulate (earth and water elements).

 Now is the ideal time to reduce this build up of kapha (such as excess weight gain) to prevent feelings of sluggishness, as well as other kapha-related problems such as spring colds and hay fever.   

 I would like to give some tips for the coming season and how we can make the most of it.

Wake up early: Set your alarm for 7am at the latest; preferably earlier as sleeping later will further aggravate kapha. Be thankful for another day and repeat a positive thought or vision that you have in mind.

Wash your teeth, face and hands. Use a neti pot to give the nose a daily rinse with warm, salt water over a sink. This not only helps ward off colds and hay fever, but will also improve your pranayama. Read David Frawley's ‘Neti: Healing Secrets of Yoga and Ayurveda' which includes information on adding herbs to your neti to aid detoxification. Evacuate your body. Drink a glass of warm water with some lemon or a spicy tea.

Practise vigorous exercise to get the lymph moving in the body, preventing congestive problems. It is also one of the best ways to stimulate a sluggish digestion and aid detoxification. Make your yoga practice dynamic and stimulating. Sun salutations are ideal as they build up heat, working all the major muscles. Kappalabhati pranayama is also good for generating internal heat and burning toxins.

Massage your body with warm sesame or sunflower oil, followed by a warm shower. Dry skin brushing is excellent for stimulating lymph and reducing cellulite. Use firm sweeping strokes towards the heart to aid the elimination of fluid. Saunas can be a useful for drying up excess secretions.

A spring ayurvedic diet recommends more bitter tastes (eg: herbs such as dandelion), as well as spicy (eg: fresh ginger herbal tea) and astringent (eg: all pulses). These tastes open the channels of elimination, clearing excess mucus and moisture from the body. Reduce kapha-aggravating sweet, sour and salty foods which could cause water retention at this time. In common with the winter diet, minimise raw and cold foods, favouring warm, lightly cooked meals. Lighter grains such as quinoa, millet and barley are all Kapha reducing, but minimise wheat dominant foods.

For a spring cold, help clear mucous by eating light, warm, simple foods as you rest. Soup is ideal. Avoid dairy products, sweets, fried foods and yeasted bread which increase congestion. Fresh ginger tea is excellent, especially with raw honey added once the tea has cooled down. Raw honey or manuka one clears mucous and kapha due to its heating, drying and channel clearing effect. It is the best sweetener for kapha types and is good for all in spring.

Herbal help: Chywanprash is a delicious ayurvedic herbal jam to boost immunity and strengthening the lungs (you can try it on toast for breakfast). Use copious turmeric and black pepper in your cooking - it has antiviral and antibacterial properties and can be used in medicinal doses for all respiratory tract infections.

Love yourself, treat yourself with compassion and mercy.