It’s SPRING time! Depending on where you are, it might not look like it yet, but the stars and planets are aligned and say that it is so.

Here in New Jersey, it’s starting to get warmer and we are able to breathe more deeply and shed some layers. The first few breaths of Spring and the first time we see the trees showing signs of life send a rush of new life into our systems and we are inspired to create and recreate our lives around us. We do this in the form of cleaning and reorganizing our environment, playing with our diets to shed a few pounds, getting inspired to work out and kick in those endorphins, and many other ways that show our minds are opening and we are trying new things. In other words Spring Cleaning!

I want to help you get inspired to kick off a fulfilling smooth flow of energy for this Spring season. So, every week for the next 6 weeks I will send you a new ‘Spring Clean’ idea for the week. Follow along to keep your spirits rising and your energy flowing!

This is WEEK ONE of this journey, and I’m going to take this opportunity to help you SPRING CLEAN YOUR DIET.

Click the image to watch the video:

If you know me, you know I don’t love the word ‘diet’. The way it is used in our society generally suggests that diet means losing weight. We say “I’m going ON a diet”, which suggests that you go OFF of it at some point. Diet simply means what you consume. So let’s clean up your diet. If you have plenty of water and good food flowing through your system, it makes sense that you as a whole will function more efficiently and thus have more energy. Sounds good, right?

Also, in my opinion our society is obsessed with weight loss. Not that many people don’t need to lose weight, but to focus on the weight first and your health second is backwards. Focus on taking care of your SELF and the weight will drop off.

With those things in mind, here are a few simple suggestions to clean up your DIET for Week One:

1- Drink a minimum of 64 oz of water every day. This simple act helps your body to process all the nutrients you take in and releases toxins as it moves things along. You will feel more energized as your body functions more efficiently

2- Add more veggies to your diet so that more than 50% of your diet consists of vegetables. Some options are to have a salad at lunch, have a side dish of broccoli or spinach at dinner, and have carrots and celery as snacks throughout your day. Those are just a few quick and easy ideas, but there are SO many other ways to get your veggies in

3- Avoid processed foods. Anything with more than 5 ingredients should generally go back on the shelf. Also avoid anything with the word ‘hydrogenated’ in the ingredients or anything with ingredients that you cannot pronounce. Avoid the crackers & cookies aisle in the grocery store altogether.

4- Eat organic produce and dairy whenever possible. If a product says it is ‘natural’- that doesn’t mean anything. The company is banking on that you will confuse ‘natural’ with ‘organic’. It’s not organic. Put it back.

5- Avoid artificial sweeteners. These are man made chemically manufactured items that will mess with your system and at the very least will make you hold on to weight.

6- Focus on the quality of your calories vs the quantity. If an ice cream snack has 100 calories, and half a banana with organic almond butter is more like 250, you are better off with the 250 calories that have actual nutritional quality and will provide you with energy to burn.

I am going to leave it at 6 suggestions for today. These may be simple to read, but they are more challenging to put into action. If these are not your habits, you will come up against resistance. Even something seemingly as simple as drinking 64 oz of water can be super challenging.

My suggestion for implementing this is to write them out in your own writing on a separate sheet of paper and put it on your fridge. As you move through the week from today forward, implement 1 per day. So for day 1, just focus on drinking the water. Day 2 drink the water and add more veggies. Day 3 drink the water, add the veggies and toss your processed foods. So on so forth. On days 6 and 7, follow through with all of the above.

Have fun!!

All my best to you,
Miranda

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