Fall is the perfect time to shake up your health and wellness routines. As daylight reaches its shortest length in December and the weather turns colder, fine tuning your self care will pay great dividends during the long winter stretch.
Many of us start to hunker down at home during fall and winter. Working out in the convenience of your home is often a fingertip away with mobile apps. You can also design your own at home fitness routine. If you didn’t workout during the pandemic, investing in a few dumbbells, resistance bands and/or kettlebells will help you maintain and improve your mobility and strength. These small pieces of equipment don’t take up much space either. Not sure how to create your own routine? Hire a virtual trainer who can write a program for you or if you prefer to have a professional observing you, checking form and guiding your work out, you can work online with professional trainer live. Many career trainers transitioned to online work when health clubs shut down during the pandemic.
Adjusting your food consumption according to the seasons is a way of eating more mindfully and more sustainably. Fall fruits and vegetables like apples, squashes and root vegetables are now available. Roasting veggies is a great way of adding more nutrition to your meals and enhances the flavor and smell of the vegetables. Try roasted sweet potatoes, roasted asparagus, roasted squash. Besides salt and pepper and a bit of olive oil, consider other spices you might like to add.
Many people instinctively turn to hot soups and warm beverages like tea and mulled apple cider during colder times. Soups are relatively easy to assemble. With a strong blender, you can whip up a veggie soup like sweet potato curry in a short amount of time. Healthy smoothies can also be made quickly in a blender.
Hot tea, whether black, green, white or herbal, can be very comforting on a chilly fall day. Chai tea has a wonderful bouquet of spices which can warm the body almost as well as the hot temperature of the tea. Cinnamon, cardamom or a dash of cloves are easily added to your morning oatmeal. . All those spices can enliven your senses and uplift your spirit. Besides the taste of these spices, the smell of them can bring back childhood memories of special times and family holidays.
Hot grains can be a healthy breakfast switch instead of cold cereal. Did you know that you can make a hot quinoa breakfast much like oatmeal?
Fall is also a wonderful time to declutter, clean and reorganize your things like papers, clothes, closets and other living spaces. Swapping out your bed clothes for heavier sheets and blankets can also mark the change of the seasons. Perhaps it’s time for a new pillow, sheets/blankets or mattress.
What are you holding on to that no longer serves you? What can be released or passed on to another?
Now is the perfect time to take a moment and reflect on what fitness, nutrition and lifestyle changes you might like to make as fall begins and winter fast approaches.
