As the weather warms and days grow longer, springtime elicits feelings of renewal and rejuvenation. While many use this as a time for spring cleaning their home, it’s also a great time to do a spring cleaning of sorts for your body and your wellness routine. Think of it as a spring wellness reset. It’s not about making superficial changes. It’s about creating a routine of healthy habits that supports your health and happiness. From outdoor exercise to healthy, fresh eating, look to your daily routines and your home health products for some wellness organization in your life.
Resetting your routines and taking inventory of your health will leave you refreshed, renewed, rejuvenated, and ready for even greater weather—and health—to come.
Move Your Movement Outdoors
With spring comes the return of warmer weather—or at least warm enough to get outside to get fresh air along with your exercise routine. If your workouts tapered off during the winter, as they do for many, make sure to start your spring routine small and slow. Going right into six days per week of intense exercise increases your chance of injury and could set you back even further. Take care of your body with the proper recovery care items like hot/cold packs and compression wraps. Get a variety of movement in like walking or running, strength training, yoga, and bicycling to ensure you’re working out all muscle groups and body systems to not over- or undertraining any one of them. Another tip for movement is to take a quick 10-minute walk after meals, as it helps stimulate digestion and reduce insulin spikes.
TLDR: Get regular, varied exercise; start slowly; take a 10-minute walk after meals.
Stay Hydrated
We tend to drink less water in the winter, as we don’t feel as thirsty when it’s colder. Thirst will return more with warmer weather, especially as you are exercising more. Proper hydration supports digestion, energy, and skin health, so start a water habit that will remind you to drink more. Drink a glass as soon as you wake up, carry a reusable bottle around, incorporate electrolytes, and eat foods that have high water content to help.
TLDR: Drink more water! Find a routine, products, and foods that will help you stay hydrated.
Reset Your Sleep Routine
Sleep is a foundation of wellness. It’s important for immune function and cognitive performance, and is a time for your body to repair itself, including your brain. So it’s essential to get plenty of good quality sleep.
If you want to adjust your bedtime and go to bed earlier as part of your spring wellness reset, do so gradually. A significant change in bedtime can confuse your body and your circadian rhythm. Try to gradually get yourself to bed earlier by 15-minute increments. If you usually go to bed at 11:00 p.m., start with a 10:45 p.m. bedtime one night. Then 15 minutes earlier the next night, and so on. This will let your body get used to the shift slowly.
The other part of resetting your sleep routine is prepping yourself to not only fall asleep, but actually get restful sleep. To do this, make sure you set up your sleep environment properly. Create a cool, dark, quiet environment. If any of these aspects are an issue, have sleep aids handy that might be helpful to you: ear plugs, sleep mask, or white noise machine. When it comes to your pre-sleep routine, stop eating and drinking 2-3 hours before bedtime to allow your body proper time for digestion and avoid waking up for bathroom trips.
When it comes time to wake up, morning sunlight exposure can also help your body’s circadian rhythm correct itself. It’s easier for those in colder temperature climates to do so when spring and summer come around again, so now is the time. Going back to hydration, drinking a glass of water first thing in the morning will help boost your metabolism and increase brain function and energy levels throughout the day.
TLDR: Set a bedtime routine and ensure your sleeping environment is optimal.
Eat Seasonally Fresh Foods
One of the things spring brings back is the return of more fresh, locally-grown produce. Some of the earliest to be ready, like leafy greens, are also some of the most nutrient dense. Try to start getting more of these in your diet as a way to take advantage of local, healthy, fresh produce options. These help boost immunity and improve digestion, two things that will help you feel more energy and vitality. There are also vitamins you can take to supplement your diet and fill the gaps where you aren’t getting enough vitamins and minerals through your food.
TLDR: Eat your veggies, supplement with vitamins.
Declutter and Organize Your Health
One important part of spring cleaning around your home is organizing any health products and vitamins you take. A pill organizer can help you keep your vitamin regimen organized and can help with habit consistency and your daily routine. Use this time to not only stock the essentials in your home health kit, but also check for products you have on hand that might be expired. Vitamins and over-the-counter medications lose their potency and effectiveness if not used by the best by date. Even items like bandages and gauze should be replaced, as they lose their sterility and adhesiveness. Expired home health tests can produce false results, which can lead you to make incorrect healthcare decisions based on bad information.
TLDR: Organize your home health products and replace expired items.
Set Seasonal Intentions
Whether or not you make goals or resolutions at the beginning of the year, spring is a great time to check in on the daily routines you’re doing and how you might be able to reset them. Aim to set two or three realistic ones that you know you can stick to. Celebrate small wins along the way, and remember that progress is better than perfection. Your goals or intentions don’t have to be big. Small changes you make as part of your spring wellness reset that you’ll actually be able to stick to will help improve your overall wellness.
