| Spring cleaning and Lighter Foods |
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 Try not to focus on cleaning the entire house at one time. Instead, do one room or part of a room at a time.  Arugula is a nice change from lettuce for a salad.  Broccoli rabe tastes great steamed or sauteed.  Collard greens makes a nice side dish to a home-cooked meal. In this early spring season, there is a sense of coming out from underneath winter time sluggishness & heaviness. This can be a tough process if immediately confronted with a million spring cleaning chores. It's almost enough to force sensible folks back to bed. A tactic mentioned to me many years ago suggests that in addition to the daily tidying up, spend 5-10 minutes a day doing part of larger chore. So rather than clean out the entire closet, deal with the top shelf. Rather than deal with all of the miscellaneous paper, try one stack at a time. I call it the "one more little thing" way of getting things done. Tasks might not get done as quickly, but they do get done. In time, your definition of "one little thing" expands to include the entire closet today, the kitchen cabinets tomorrow and voila!, you're done. The same can apply for bodily maintenance as well. Now that the sun is up longer, we're all warming up a bit. Start with taking the long way to or from work to sneak in some exercise? Adding a bit of salad to your diet will go a long ways towards transitioning your taste buds from heavier winter food to lighter springtime fare. Keep adding more salads & vegetables and the transition is complete. Leafy Greens are one of the most important groups of vegetables to incorporate into your daily routine. In addition to being nutritionally almost perfect, that they grow upwards towards the sky, absorbing the sun's light while producing oxygen, there is a vague sense that this process is energetically duplicated within us. Notice after eating a plate of greens how clean and clear headed you feel. The members of this royal green family include kale, collard greens, swiss chard, mustard greens, arugula, dandelion greens, broccoli rabe, watercress, beet greens, bok choy, nappa cabbage, red or green cabbage, spinach and broccoli. Green is associated with spring - a time of renewal and refreshing, vital energy. In oriental medicine green is related to the liver, emotional stability and creativity. Nutritionally, greens are very high in calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, phosphorous and zinc, and are a powerhouse for vitamins A, C, E and K. In addition, they are crammed full of fiber, folic acid, chlorophyll, and many other micronutrients and phytochemicals. Greens aid in purifying blood, strengthening the immune system, improving liver, gall bladder and kidney function, fighting depression, clearing congestion, improving circulation and keeping your skin clear and blemish free. |
