Changing your routine with the seasons is essential to your health. Here are five fail-proof healthy changes to make this month.
One topic that easily gets overlooked and yet can single-handedly change how you feel is seasonal patterns. Like all things, there is a pattern to life, your body, and how the season influences it. Making your craving for all things pumpkin-spice a legitimate need more than just comfort.
Pumpkin spice may be falling out of trend – if that is possible – but somewhere deep inside, your body is beginning to crave the warm, comforting, spicy flavors of fall. It happens every season. As your body transitions from one weather pattern to the next, your needs change. Not just for our own comfort but for your entire biology.
Scientists have shown that your nourishment needs change as the seasons evolve. Over 25% of your genetic makeup shifts with the changing weather patterns. Including your gut bacteria, the strength of your immunity system, and even your metabolism.
One of the best ways to stay healthy and energize is to provide for those needs in a seasonal manner that supports your energy, and your cells need to thrive. Boosting your immune system, revving your metabolism, regulating your hormones, and nourishing your cravings. Remember, it doesn’t have to be complex to work. Health is simple.
Here are Five Fail-Proof Healthy Changes To Make This September
1. Stick to a routine
It may seem strange, but the predictability of summer’s weather patterns allows for more unpredictability in your schedule. But as the weather patterns change this month, from hot to cold and back to hot, creating an external imbalance, it’s essential to supply a predictable schedule.
You may already be craving more structure to your life, so go ahead and provide that. Setting firm boundaries to what you fill your day with.
If you’re struggling to find a rhythm that works, go back to the basics and ask yourself, what do you need in this season? Do you need more space to rest, or do you need something that will challenge you? Map out a plan that creates a desire within you and then create boundaries around your week to meet your goals while also creating space daily to nourish your needs.
2. Stop grazing
Snacking or grazing is a controversial topic. Some recommend six small meals or snacks a day, and others tell you to stop snacking. Both options are potentially beneficial and yet completely extreme.
I’m not one to promote the all-or-nothing lifestyle and yet at the same time believe there is something to be said about having boundaries.
As the gut bacteria starts to change, one boundary your body needs this fall is space to rest. So give it space by nixing the continuous grazing and opt for meals over snacks. Aim for three meals a day but listen to your body. You may need an extra meal mid-afternoon to overcome the slump. Skip the idea of snacking and focus your attention on meals.
3. Moisturize your body
Fall and winter tend to be our most drying seasons. As the hot, humid days turn into dry, windy days, your body is going to crave moisture to maintain health. One of the best ways to keep your body moisturized is by using healthy oils – both externally and internally.
This month increase your consumption of healthy oils like avocados, olive oil, sesame oil, and other nuts and seeds that you can incorporate into your meals. Even butter and ghee can be great to melt on veggies, spread on your sweet potatoes, and use in your breakfast.
But don’t just stop with the internal consumption but focus this month on external moisturization. Applying healthy oils and lotions to your face, body, and especially your hands. But also keeping your inner nasal cavity moist can help prevent viruses and bacteria from making their way through the nasal cavity and into your body.
Each morning add a dab of coconut oil to the end of your finger and rub it on the inside of each nostril. You can also use this product, designed specifically to moisturize your nose.
4. Eat a heartier breakfast
Fall is also a time that requires more grounding, and providing this in the morning can help keep you energized all day long. Instead of lighter, cold breakfast like smoothies and fruit parfaits, add a heartier option like roasted root vegetable hash or even a soup or stew to start your morning off.
A warm hearty meal supports body temperature regulation which also enhances energy level. Plus, it supplies the nutrients needed to rev your metabolism through the cold winter months.
A few good breakfast ideas include:
- Warm Breakfast Sandwich
- Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal
- Sweet Potato Hash
- Sweet Potato Crust Quiche
5. Stop pretending like a bandwagon exists
Here’s the deal, a new season always provides the excitement for a new diet, bringing with it a new bandwagon. But I don’t want you to miss this -now or forever – health is not a destination. It’s not a magical arrival, but it’s a way of life—a process of providing, nurturing, and paying attention to all that your body needs.
Believing in the bandwagon forces you to believe there is one clear path to getting healthy, which couldn’t be further from the truth. In all honesty, it could be the thing that slows you down and prevents you from achieving a state of health.
Health is already inside of you. You have to learn how to live it out.
That starts with the understanding that health is not a life of perfection. It’s a life of living. And living begins by doing the next right thing. Providing for your body what it needs and living willing to change with the changes of season.
Don’t give up – there’s nothing quick about health and certainly nothing perfect, which is the beauty of changing your mindset this fall. You realize that while you can set the boundaries, you can also live flexible to what life throws your way. And somewhere in the midst of all of that, you can trust that your body knows how to be well. Your job isn’t to change it but live in support of it.
These five fail-proof health changes for September are nothing more than support to a healthy life.
Use them to keep building a solid foundation that lasts.
