Recharge your health for spring

Has spring snuck up on you and suddenly you realise you are not emotionally or physically ready to throw yourself into the warmer weather?

 

Here are some easy-to-action tips to help you spring clean your health today.

Diet

Spring is a great time to conduct a diet audit and see which areas can be improved, says Nutrition Australia spokesperson Orla Hugueniot.

One of the best ways to fix the family diet is to get into the habit of meal planning. "There are lots of tools online to help you set up a meal plan. And it means you shop in advance for what you need and always have the ingredients on hand."

As part of this plan and audit, try to build in the five serves a day of vegetables you need to stay healthy. "Spring is a great time for light soups, veggie-rich stirfries and nourishing salads," Orla says.

And check your fibre content. "Most of us don't get anywhere near the 35g-30g of fibre we need a day. A diet rich in grains and fruit and veg will help this," she adds.

Fibre supplements such as Metamucil are also a delicious, convenient way to add essential fibre to your diet. Start your day with Fibrecaps Metamucil into at least 250ml of water for a quick and easy fibre hit.

Exercise

Give your body some shock treatment and overhaul – or restart – your exercise routine, says Adelaide personal trainer Ryan Willets. He's not meaning you need to head straight out and run a marathon, but if you’ve had a sluggish winter you need "to shock the body in spring and reap the benefits in summer".

He understands that seeing a shining golden ball in the sky may not be enough motivation for many of us, he has another simple tip. "Buy something new to train in. It could just be a cheap singlet or some sports socks but it can inspire you to get out an exercise."

If you're hitting the great outdoors again for the first time in a while, "stay on top of your hydration levels".

"Once you head outside to exercise again, you will need to monitor your water intake or you will be come quickly fatigued or cramp up and not enjoy exercising," Ryan says.

Mind

A mental spring cleaning gives us the opportunity to clear our mind, get rid of habits that don't serve us, plant seeds of positivity and start creating the life we want, says Susan Pearse, co-author of Wired for Life: Retrain your Brain and Thrive.

She has these three simple tips to spring clean your mind:

1. Start meditating – spend 5 minutes in nature a day or even better ensure you are awake and fully there for every conversation, task and experience.
2. Dissolve negative behaviours – have a whinge-free day or set aside time for a "stress ban". "Challenge the way you think and see things from a different perspective," Susan says.
3. Do activities that nourish your brain – visit an art gallery, choose a magazine you'd never normally read or study a language. "Keep your neural networks firing and growing."