HELLO SPRING! SPINACH, STRAWBERRIES & SUNSHINE. (Meal Plan For March Inside)
March can be anything - beautiful, warmer, rainy, windy, cold, and definitely challenging for the body, because the transition from winter to spring is just the hardest.
It feels like the winter is too long and even if the mornings have more light, the change of time pushes the light back again and leaves us with a week or two of jetlag.
At this point we usually crave warmer weather, more sunlight and nutrients.
Let´s be honest - the supermarkets are full of everything all year long, but the nutrient density is not the same if the veggies have grown in greenhouses.
So there is time to slowly move from the soups and stews to salads and some fresh fruit.
I think everyone can relate to the fact that at the end of winter we feel more tired, even if we´re wishing to have all the energy to spring into the spring with a full swing. There are definitely a few steps you can start taking right now to make the transition smooth and your immune system strong.
1️⃣ Make sure you get enough Vit D.
As long as the weather permits it, spend as much time outside as possible! Research by Oregon State University found that vitamin D plays a large role in keeping your defense system strong. If there are not many sunny days where you live, make sure you take the Vit D supplement. It's essential that we have both an innate immune response that provides an immediate and front line of defense, but we also have protection against an overreaction by the immune system, which is what you see in some autoimmune diseases and seasonal allergies. This is a very delicate balancing act, and without sufficient levels of vitamin D you may not have an optimal response with either aspect of the immune system.
2️⃣ Reduce sugar intake.
We all know that sugar is really bad for us. But when you want to keep your immune system strong, you should avoid it at all cost. Sugar destroys the lining of your gut and increases inflammation. That many times leads to chronic pain and all kinds of autoimmune diseases.
3️⃣ Get more probiotics.
You can add more fermented foods into your diet such as sauerkraut, kimchi, tempeh, kefir or choose supplements. Forget about getting probiotics from pasteurized dairy (all the dairy you can easily buy in a supermarket), these bacteria don´t survive the pasteurization process, so what the labels say is not true. But then there is another step. Without prebiotics - the food for probiotics, you will starve them to death. So make sure you are getting all kinds of diverse fiber from plenty of vegetables to feed your gut bacteria.
4️⃣ Move and get fresh air into your lungs.
Exercising and breath work are very cleansing and energizing, they will help you through the transition.
5️⃣ Strategically prepare yourself for the time change.
At the end of March we always find ourselves in some kind of jetlag situation as we lose 1 hour of our sleep. Many people feel affected by this and the best you can do is to get ready for it. 5 days before the change wake up 15 min earlier than the previous day and go to bed earlier too. On the day 5, you´re ready for a new schedule and the impact will be much more gentle.
6️⃣ Eat according to the season.
Yes we always should, but now it is very important to start adding some seasonal freshness onto your plate.
What to eat in March when you live in the northern hemisphere?
Citruses are still in main season and strawberries are starting in the south. But be careful - strawberries are one of the dirtiest fruit because pests love them and therefore they are often heavily sprayed and modified.
Make sure you get them organic or rather skip them.
All the greens are fully on, but spinach is in the same category of dirty foods as strawberries, so make sure you get organic.
I´m also bringing you a few more recipes to the menu - and they are exactly like a spring weather.
On some rainy days you will still crave warming stew like my Chilli Sin Carne and some days you will crave a freshness bomb like my Citrus Bliss Salad.
Enjoy and let me know which is your favorite.
