5 Simple Strategies to Elevate Your Nutrition
Key Takeaways
A little planning goes a very long way.
Simplify, simplify, and then simplify some more.
Implement barriers to mitigate mindless overconsumption.
1. Menu Plan
Planning your meals in advance isn't just about healthy choices—it's also a commitment to your spending budget. Spend a little time on your big grocery trip day creating a weekly menu. This plan give focus and direction to your grocery trips trips, reducing unnecessary spending and distractions. After a few weeks, you'll have a plug-and-play resource for busy days.
2. Become an Ingredient Household
Grab-and-go snacks have a place in this world- and that place is filed under the category “by necessity”. Shelf-stable, preserved snackies are best served as the exception, not the rule. By keeping basic ingredients around the house, you'll not only avoid hidden additives but also make snacking a mindful experience. If you want to snack, you’ll have to work a bit harder for it. Experiment, have fun with food prep, and enjoy the creativity involved in crafting your own delicious, healthier snacks.
3. Shorten Your Feed Windows
Time restricted eating (or intermittent fasting) is a simple approach to system regulation. Extended feeding periods are an energy suck on the body, particularly in and around bed time. Tailor your eating window to aim between 10 and 8 hours, aligning with your circadian rhythm for optimal results. Stay hydrated during fasting periods with water or herbal teas, giving your body the rest and recovery it deserves.
4. Prioritize Protein
Protein is both a vital building block and an energy source. High protein diets increase satiety, improve cognitive functioning, and keep the energy going much longer than those lacking. From chicken and fish to tofu and legumes, try to include lean protein sources in every meal and snack. Lean into complete nutrients that include a little bit of it all (fats, proteins, carbs, fibers). Distribute protein throughout the day, aiming for about 1.2g per kg of body weight per day. Perfect your nutrition literacy by reading labels and aiming for intake that meets your needs. Gamify it, it’s a worthwhile pursuit.
5. Cook for Leftovers
Meal prepping doesn’t have to be an added task. Batch cooking not only promotes portion control but also frees you from the lure of convenience foods. By doubling the portions of a meal, you quickly meet the demands of lunch needs throughout the week. Invest in storage containers (particularly glass) for freshness, and let any decision-making fall away so you can focus on more pertinent tasks.
Kapha Kulture
Ayurvedic philosophy, often considered the sister science of yoga, embraces an intuitive and qualitative understanding of both our universe and ourselves. By delving into the elements and qualities that surround us, even at a high level, we can gain profound insights into our essence. In other words, an Ayurvedic perspective of our bodies, illness and wellness, are closely correlated to these universal essences.
As we navigate this cosmic journey, we find the universe not only within us but also as the destination where we ultimately return. The art of living, then, becomes a harmonious symphony, attuning ourselves to the unique rhythms of each moment in the vast expanse of space and time.
Think of Ayurveda as an alternative perspective on categorization through 10 pairs of qualities, or gunas; hot-cold, light-heavy, smooth-rough, etc. By contemplating the elements and the essential qualities shaping our individuality, Ayurveda breaks down these aspects into three broader categories or constitutions. In this intricate weave, the three broad categories emerge, known as doshas: Vata, Pitta, and Kapha.
Kapha is rooted in the Earth and Water elements, embodying the cool, damp qualities of the Spring season—the time of new beginnings. Kapha individuals tend to exhibit characteristics such as stockiness, mucous production, lethargy, and a slower pace. When similar qualities accumulate, symptoms can intensify. For instance, during Spring, pollen can exacerbate mucosal issues, leading to allergies.
A balanced Kapha constitution brings about a lush, vibrant freshness akin to the turning of a new leaf. Imbalances may manifest in diabetes, sinus problems, respiratory dampness, and edema. To restore balance, one should incorporate bitter, astringent, warm, dry, light, clear, and mobile quality foods and lifestyle choices. For instance, dry brushing (especially in the Spring) can help invigorate a Winter-stagnated circulatory system. Spring season also becomes an opportune time for activities like fasting, when approached safely and consciously.
In a nutshell, Ayurveda is a cosmic journey within and beyond. Picture it as your body's unique playlist, tuned to the universal rhythms. Through 10 pairs of qualities, Ayurveda breaks down our essence into three doshas, giving a fresh perspective on life's categories. Kapha, the cool cat rooted in Earth and Water, brings all those springy vibes. Watch out for imbalances - aggravated qualities - causing issues from allergies to dampness. But take comfort that a balanced Kapha constitution is a vibrant leaf turning over, and to keep the harmony, indulge in bitter, warm, and clear delights.
Think of it as a cosmic symphony, with Ayurveda as your guide to dancing through space and time, brushing off the winter blues, and embracing the zest of spring.
February in Your Body
I always joke that February, August, Thursday, and 7pm have the same energy. After making it through the seemingly endless month of January, February comes and goes like the blink of an eye. At this point in the year, the season has turned from dry to damp and the darkness is slowly moving towards the light. February is also love month and national heart health month. Let’s dive into some ways that you can put your best foot forward in this season of transition.
Qualities of the season
Late-Winter into Early-Spring is a season of damp, cool, cloudy quality. it environment is ripe for the renewal of life energy for the year. This Late-Winter, Early-Spring is reflected in the beginning stages of life (infancy to adolesence), the middle part of the morning (6am - 10am), and the regenerative nature of the body’s mucus-y allergy season. As the Winter begins to thaw by the increased daylight and slightly warmer temperatures, our internal climate reacts by melting away the insulating layer of fat keyed up during the Winter season. Like increases like and opposites balance, so this time of year can aggravate Kapha dosha and any systems that are affiliated.
We balance the influence of this damp, cool season by incorporating more dry, warm, mobile, clear, and sharp qualities into our diet and routine. so what does this look like?
Daily/Practices
Like others in the animal kingdom, we too shed our winter layers to prepare for the warm season ahead. For us, that looks a lot like the subcutaneous insulating layers of fat being “melted away” as the days get longer and our energy output picks up. This is a far jump from the modern and highly problematic tendency towards a “summer body”, but instead reflects the natural order operating on it’s own accord to set us up for success season by season.
Without this awareness (and supportive protocol), our blood/lymph can get congested or stagnated entirely when this process starts to shake out. We feel a sense of heaviness and lethargy as a result of our circulatory system slowing down and thickening. We can ease and accommodate this process by incorporating dry brush to move the lymph and circulation.
Scraping (lekhana) introduces a rough and mobile quality into a time that is lacking in that. For instance, tongue scraping, while extremely valuable all year round, is especially useful to both clarify and assess the nature of the digestive system during this time of purging and clearing.
Finally, and worth an addm is getting outside and moving around. We are nature, so on the sporadic nice days that we do have, we return to her warm and loving embrace. We can prepare our gardens of the spring season, enjoying the art of sprouting new life. We can clean and clear out our homes as we embrace the season of sun. Our nervous systems also greatly benefit from being outside in nature and reattuning our vibes to reflect our environment.
Diet Staples
February is still root veggie and soup season. You cannot go wrong with the liquefying hydration of a brothy soup to keep you warm and nourished. As the weather turns from dry to damp, more clarifying root veggies (such as beets, parsnips, and radishes) can support the cloudy, gunkiness of the winter melt.
Add pungents and heating spices to your meals to start heating the system up from the inside, get circulation moving, and liquefy the mucusyness of the coming allergy season. It’s also a great time to add in dry and drying fruits and veggies (astringents) that can assist in the blood-cleasing process. These include but are not limited to cranberries, dried cherries, apples, pears, and berries. Cabbage-family foods (brussel sprouts, cabbage, broccoli), aspargus, and kale also have rough qualities that can support a balanced system in this time of year.
Homemade Noodles
portions depend on noodle type :)
what you’ll need
1 part 00 flour
2 part large egg
how you’ll prepare it
1:2 flour:egg ratio for batch size.
combine flour and egg.
kneed for 20 minutes or until dough is smooth and bounces back.
let sit for an hour to rise.
press and cut- takes up to 8 minutes to cook depending on thickness.
ways you can consume it
with pasta, with soup, as a ravioli, etc.
December in Your Body
The Winter season arrives on the 21st of the month- dark, cold, and hard. There’s a reason why cultural celebrations of light and gathering happen at this time of year. As always, like increases like and opposites balance. In this season, balance is manifest through warming spices, proximity to loved ones, and rituals that shed light where there is dark. The December month’s routine and diet is one that brings the radiant heat inside, to the center of our bodies.
Lifestyle & Routine
When our bodies are warm, our blood vessels dilate in order to help maintain homeostasis by letting off some of that heat. In the Winter, that same dilation causes us let off too much heat too fast. This leaves us cold. We prevent this coldness by bundling up, keeping our head and ears covered, and protecting our extremities.
The Winter solstice is the shortest day of the year with the sun is setting between 4 and 5 pm and rising no earlier than 7 am. In the midday, the sun’s rays cast shadows across the streets making the noon-time feel like twilight. Regardless of the season, our bodies need natural light, our eyes process the light as part of it’s circadian regulation. We leverage this rhythm to keep our sleep/wake cycles “regular” and our digestion operating efficiently. With fewer daylight hours, we are inclined to miss out on the sun and the signals that come from that direct connection. Take 5 minutes a day to go outside, stare at nature, or simply feel the breeze kiss your skin or the subtle warmth of the sun still radiate into you. The light gets scarce, so capitalizing on the resource is a huge step in the right direction.
Additionally, our skulls are this neat instrument, robust with holes and openings covered in skin. Having proper hydration or lubrication in all orifices keeps the mucous layers healthy so that they can perform their duties as if business as usual. We stay moistened through abhyanga (oil massage), nasya (nasal oil), and oil pulling (swishing coconut oil around in your mouth). Our cells membranes thrive on the viscosity and permeability of the oils that we consume and use, so be sure to source from trusted suppliers.
This final month of the year is ripe with season-oriented activities and gatherings. It is important to find your version of balance to avoid running yourself ragged. No day is created equal and, while the Summer season is vibrant and energetic, the Winter time is a time to reflect and turn inward.
Diet Staples
Once Winter turns, our body’s heat finds a cozy seat in the core, leaving the extremities cold and pale. This core-centered heating for the season indicates an uptick in agni (digestive fire), and therefore encourages us to eat robust and hearty meals for nourishment. Our prime focus for this season is building our thermo-regulatory layer of fats and rebuilding the heartiness of our blood tissue (rakta dhatu).
There are six main tastes in Ayurvedic healing (sweet, sour, salty, pungent, astringent, bitter). Like increases like, and opposites balance. In a season of “dry, mobile, cold”, air element, light crisp leaves, and sharp winds, sweet taste and heavy quality keeps us grounded and nourished. Sweet, from the Ayurvedic perspective, is not intended to mean to sugary snacks with long shelf lives. Instead, sweet is in the things that build our muscles and fat tissues to keep us well. butter, oils, cheeses, root vegetables, and meats are a must to keep the body strong as it resets from the year.
While like increases like, too much of a good thing can actually aggravate. In a cold season, consider gently warming herbs such as cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and allspice will heat you up with out burning you out. Bear in mind that pungent (or spicy) can heat up and diminish so rapidly that the body ends up feeling colder after.
Soups for the season include all of the roots, veggies, broths, herbs, and meats that you can mix harmoniously to create a unique and fun experience each time.
What’s Next
Continue to give yourself the space to slow down, give yourself permission to say “no” to too much on your social calendar. Allow yourself a chance at truly saying “yes” to yourself. Slowing down and taking rest is not about “doing nothing” but more about letting the body do what it needs to do to support you. If you’re interested in learning more or navigating your specific experience, always keep in mind that you can contact (me) your friendly neighborhood lifestyle expert!