Surround yourself with the season! Surround yourself with Spring! What you surround yourself with, what is in your environment, who you associate with has so much to do with your happiness and success. As they say "surround yourself with like minded people", but it should also be said surround yourself with what makes you happy, what pleases you, what brings you joy and excitement. With each season Mother Nature gifts us with so many things in our environment, some things bring positive emotions, and some things bring negative emotions. Why don't we change things a bit and surround ourselves with the positive.
It's springtime, what do you love about spring?? Take those thoughts or things and make them a part of your life, at home, at work, at play. I the weather hasn't warmed up yet, you can still buy some beautiful flowers and set them around the house. You can still start that garden or potted herbs, start tilling the soil and choosing what you want to plant. Lay our your plans for it, start the process and get your hands dirty. Buying some local flowers, or even picking some wild flowers can add some spring to your environment. Change the colors up in your house, buy some new throw pillows for indoors or outdoors, change some decor around that might make you feel a little more cheerful, buying new and fresh can put a little spring in your step.
The foods we eat and prepare can take on a whole different look and feel. Moving away from the winter warm comfort foods, lighter brighter meals. Maybe starting your day off with a delicious smoothie or a chai seed oatmeal, a bowl of strawberries with a topping of choice such as yogurt and some nuts, or coconut whipped cream and cacao nibs.... lighter and colorful can change your mood. I listed some seasonal foods in a previous blog but here they are again, eating seasonally is so much more nourishing for your body.
Apples, Apricots, Avocados, Bananas, Beets, Broccoli, Cabbage, Carrots, Celery, Collard Greens, Garlic, Herbs, Kale, Kiwifruit, Lemons, Lettuce, Limes, Mushrooms, Onions, Peas, Pineapple, Radish, Rhubarb, Spinach, Strawberries, Swiss chard, Turnips.
Along with spring comes allergy season. If you have seasonal allergies, you might notice that certain meals or snacks seem to trigger your symptoms more than others. This is called oral allergy syndrome, or OAS. OAS describes allergic reactions that typically occur upon ingestions of certain uncooked fruits, nuts, vegetables or spices in pollen-sensitized individuals. While this isn't a true food allergy, it is one way a pollen allergy can show up, and it can happen if you're allergic to pollen from trees, grass or weeds. This is a cross-reaction that occurs between allergens in both pollen and the offending foods. To your immune system, pollen and proteins in these foods look similar, so your body mounts a reaction against them. Even if the reaction doesn't last long, this can vary, having a pollen food reaction only adds to the time you spend burdened with allergy symptoms, adding more stress to the season. Here is a list of foods you might want to stay away from if your allergies are really acting up.
Birch Pollen Allergy- Try to avoid: Apples, Almonds, Carrots, Celery, Cherries, Hazlenuts, Kiwi, Peaches, Pears and Plums.
Grass Pollen Allergy- Try to avoid: Celery,Melons, Oranges, Peaches, and Tomatoes
Ragweed Pollen Allergy- Try to avoid: Bananas, Cantaloupe, Cucumbers, Honeydew, Watermelon, White Potatoes, Zucchini and Sunflower Seeds.
Spring is in the air, so enjoy every bit of it, taking care of yourself with what you surround yourself with, who you surround yourself with, what you eat and what you do. Make positive choices you can live with and choose to live with.
Chia Seed Oatmeal
Ingredients:
1 cup full fat coconut milk
2 tbsp chia seeds
1 tbsp no sugar or salt added almond butter, sunbutter (or nut butter of choice)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cardamom
1 date (optional)
topping of choice
Directions:
In a saucepan, place the coconut milk, start to heat and add the chia seeds, nut butter, cinnamon and cardamom, stirring as bit heats.
When it first starts to boil, remove from heat and continue stirring a few more times.
Let it sit for about 3-5 minutes, pour into a bowl or jar and add your toppings.
*I used coconut and cacao nibs
**If you want yours a bit sweeter, you can place chia seeds, date and nut butter in a blender to break up the date. then place it in the saucepan with the coconut milk and add the spices.
Berry Protein Smoothie
Ingredients:
1 cup coconut milk
1 tbsp cacao powder
2 tbsp springwater
1 scoop protein powder (your choice and flavor)
1/2 cup each frozen raspberries, blueberries and strawberries
1-2 tbsp almond butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
4 ice cubes
Dash of cinnamon
*If you want a sweetener add 1 date
**If you need more liquid add a bit more coconut milk or water
Directions:
Add all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth and all the frozen berries and ice cubes and broken down. Enjoy!!
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