Nutrition Tips to Restore and Recharge this Winter
Yogaloft Nutritional Therapist, Oona Davidson shares her top tips for feeling your best over the colder months. Use the hibernation season to nourish, restore and recharge.
Seasonal Vegetables:
Get to know your seasonal local produce. Winter provides warming, nourishing and grounding vegetables. December is especially good for chard, brussel sprouts, parsnips, leeks, turnips, pumpkins, rhubarb, red cabbage cauliflower, kale, celeriac, swede, beetroot, chestnuts and field mushrooms.
Nutrition
1. It may seem obvious, but remember to keep hydrated during the winter months. Have a glass of water on your bedside table ready for the morning, draw a glass every time you drink a glass of water when working. Herbal teas do count, aim for 8 cups of water throughout the day but not all in one go!
2. Try to include 2-3 portions of responsibly sourced omega 3 rich oily fish such as salmon, mackerel, anchovies, sardines or herring into your diet to help reduce inflammation. If you are vegetarian, a good regular dose of sprouted flax seeds sprinkled onto salads or breakfast porridge is a good option.
3. Help support your digestion and vital nutrient absorption (often compromised in times of stress and uncertainty) by including Swedish bitters into your diet. Encouraging digestive juice production to prepare for the meal ahead by eating a small bowl of Rocket salad leaves beforehand is a nice option.
4. Encourage maximal gut microbiome diversity by feeding your current healthy bacteria with prebiotic rich foods such as leeks, garlic, artichoke, asparagus, bananas, dandelion greens, apples and onions.
5. Include as many colours as possible when it comes to vegetable shopping to encourage maximal diversity in antioxidant and vitamin intake. Your plate should be half filled with vegetables!
6. Try Batch cooking broths, soups, quinoa and healthy treats in advance to ensure you always have a home made seasonal meal at the ready.
Lifestyle:
1. Work on finding your sense of purpose and begin journaling before bed. Suggesting a solution to anything bothersome and writing it down can encourage better sleep and mental health.
2. Try meditating for any time at all or popping on Tibetan singing Bowl sounds to encourage brain relaxation.
3. Keep moving, outside preferably, and expose as much skin as weather will allow in order to optimise vitamin D absorption (ie: sleeves rolled up if possible) vital for immune system modulation and general wellbeing.
4. Vitamin D testing is a good idea to get an idea of your own fluctuations and I would suggest testing in March and September if this is possibility.
Do not supplement with vitamin D before testing !
Find out more about about Oona’s appraoch to nutritional therapy and how to make an appointment >