Changing Seasons Wellness Tips

As we shift away from the Summer heat into a new season, it’s important to prep our bodies for the changing temps and a slower pace. New seasons are a great time to recommit to yourself, start a new routine, tend to your home, and simply reflect. Historically, Autumn is a busy and preparatory time: harvesting, preserving, and preparing for Winter’s rest. It’s also a time to begin to slow down and allow more space for ourselves and our home.

Houston’s transition to cooler temps sure can be all over the place, which also can make some of us more susceptible to illness. This is even more reason to begin to prep your body for what’s to come at the first sign of cooler weather (even if it is only around for a few days, at first).

Top 5 Tips to Embrace the Changing Seasons:

1. Focus on Warming Foods

Weather and seasons play a vital role in our health and well-being – we should adjust our diets and eating habits accordingly. With cooler temps, our bodies need warming foods. Cold weather can impact your appetite and digestion, so choose warming, nutritious foods that are cooked slowly to encourage warmth in your digestive system and counteract the cooling effects of winter.

2. Stay hydrated and warm yourself up with broths and tea

Creating warmth in your body to offset the cold outside is a critical component of staying healthy over winter. If you need a break from hot tea, ensure the water you drink in winter is room temperature (or even warm) rather than cold or refrigerated. As stated in #1, this can stall digestion and impact your appetite.

3. Eat in Season

Eating food in season is another great way to give your body what it needs during the winter months. For example, this is when root vegetables such as beetroot, sweet potato, parsnip, and carrots are at their best.

While you’re shopping for your fruit and vegetables, think about where they’ve come from by taking note of the country of origin on the labels. Foods that have traveled a long distance to arrive on your plate are often neither local nor seasonal and may have been in transit for a long time or frozen, depleting their nutrients. Try eating local and seasonal food instead, which is fresh and nutrient-dense, and has the bonus of supporting local farmers and your local economy. If you’re in Houston, I may know of a few wonderful farmers markets in the area.

Peeled and halved garlic, fermenting in a mason jar filled with honey.

4. Add in Fermented Foods

Fermented foods work to support digestion and immunity by providing a source of beneficial probiotic bacteria. Plus, their distinctive sour flavor profile aids the digestion of the heavier, fattier foods we’re more inclined to eat in winter.

Some of the fermented foods that make a wonderful addition to warming winter meals include kimchi, miso, sauerkraut, and pickled vegetables such as carrots, beetroots and cucumbers. If you are looking to support your immune system or fight off a cold, check out this Fermented Garlic Honey concoction that just went up on the blog.

5. Choose Vitamin-C Rich Foods

Vitamin C - it supports your immune system, making it an especially important nutrient during wintertime when the cold weather encourages common colds to circulate. There are plenty of seasonal and immune-supporting vitamin C-rich foods around in the winter, making it easy to eat them daily.

Try these for starters – they’re all valuable sources of antioxidants and fiber in addition to being rich in vitamin C:

Oranges and other citrus, such as lemons, grapefruit, and mandarins
Kiwifruit
Strawberries
Red and green bell peppers
Red and green chilies
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Broccoli

The approach to winter eating isn’t about a particular diet, it’s a collection of mindful adjustments that acknowledge ways to support the body in cooler weather. Time to pull your slow cooker out and add in some nourishing foods for a delicious, winter-warming meal for dinner tonight! Check out many warming recipes on the blog if you are needing some seasonal inspiration.