Can you feel the shift in the weather? What you are drawn to eating? Are you seeing the new kinds of foods available at the markets? Have you been getting to bed earlier with the shorter days?
I can feel it too. I’m from the East Coast, so my body naturally gets on board with shifts in the seasons. Yet even here in SoCal, I can feel the subtle shifts in my body when Fall arrives. I start to crave potatoes, soups and heavier foods. I want to tuck in more at home. I’m drinking more tea at night. This is all part of our natural circadian biology. We change with the Seasons…mental temperament, physically and emotionally. When we are clean and in balance with our health, our bodies shift with the tides of Mother Nature easily.
One goal in our health should be to try and eat seasonally and locally. If you can get out to a local Farmer’s Market, you will see a bounty of squashes, grains and hearty vegetables now for the Fall. Eating foods from this local region will put you in balance because it’s what your body needs at this time of year in this area. The crops available now will give us more calories for the Winter ahead and a sense of feeling grounded – as in – “from the ground.” (Onions, leeks, potatoes, etc.). We will emotionally turn a bit inward and slow down this time of year before the short days of winter.
You may want to put your strict ideology of your diet away for a month or two before Winter and just eat what is available at your local Farmer’s Market without eating produce from the store that has been shipped from overseas in regions with opposite seasons.
Better yet, consider this for one year: sense what your body desires in this season. After this winter when you’ve had all the sweet potatoes, soups, beans and winter greens you can handle, you will start to crave bitter greens and astringent flavors that strip the liver of any buildup over the winter and prepare the body to let go of weight in the spring. In the summer, you’ll desire high water foods, light salads and fruits for the warm days.
Beyond feeling less stressed about what to eat during the year, you will feel led and nourished. You’ll trust that your body has what it needs at the right time of the year. Ladies, you’ll get your period regularly, you’ll lose weight, you’ll sleep better and your hunger will diminish as you slow things down and pay attention to what your body is asking for. It’s a whole new world in this space of knowing.
At this perfect time, now, in the first days of Fall, I invite you to think about a little cleanse. It can be a colonic, a food cleanse, cleaning your pantry, a news detox, cleaning your closet, adding bone broth or green juices to your diet, a liver cleanse or even a parasite cleanse. Anything that will attune you back into yourself and prepare you for your year ahead.
Personally, I just finished a 9-day cleanse, which was 2 days of raw, uncooked foods (sprouts, seed blends, veggies, etc.). 4 days of green veggie juice, 2 days of live foods and raw soup on the last day to transition. This 9 days was at the end of a month of clean eating.
I started my cleanse grumpy, not sleeping well and bloated. Cleansing is not the easiest thing – you’re changing your physical body. Yet, bringing in live, high enzymatic, and high water foods helps me lift the veil of this reality and allows me to connect with my higher self who is wise, unafraid and lives in a state of gratitude.
It’s a process to get to this mental place and by day 4 of my juice cleanse, I woke up having cried in my sleep as I let my ever thinking mind relax and allowed myself to dwell in my heart. Letting go of the guard I keep up consistently. In the softening of vulnerability I could see the perfection even in the problems of my life and shift from feeling sad about some issues at hand and move into a place of acceptance.
I can truly say two weeks later, that I am still living from that beautiful cleansed state of mind. I know we all don’t have the chance to step out of our lives to drink juices for a week, but doing something for your body that helps it in some way transition into this new season ahead will benefit you greatly. I have adopted a new habit of listening to gratitude meditations and have found my heart is more open to others when I get to work. It’s like recharging the batteries!
The upcoming Fall and Winter will bring A LOT to you in food, family and fun but if you take a bit of time during the transitions of the season, you wont be feeling depleted by January 1st – the dead of Winter and the worst time to put your body through a detox. The best time to cleanse after Winter will be in the Spring.
I like and sell an amazingly effective Liver and Parasite Cleanse (consider if you have pets or kids) that are gentle, yet help shift the body into health. I am doing the Parasite cleanse at the moment and it’s so interesting what I’m noticing. You can find the cleanse on my website shop here. Just scroll down to ParaGone Parasite Kit, click on the title and it’ll be added to your cart.
At the very least, get a colonic every change of season. This is a must. I advocate a Colonic every month for sure, but 1 every 3 months is mandatory to help release the liver, hydrate and help the body transition with the season. The Native American Indians taught us that about cleansing and I have followed this path for 21 years now because I never want to go back to feeling so disconnected and discouraged about my health ever again. I want sustained, natural energy, mental clarity and good judgment, to be open hearted and to know myself and my body in this lifetime.
We all just have to take the time to maintain and support ourselves in the best way we know how to do!
Blessings to you all!