It’s September — can you believe it? School is back, our lives return to more of a set schedule, temperatures cool down, and leaves start falling. So many seasonal changes are around us. Autumn is my favorite season, even though I don’t care for what follows. As I grow older, I have learned to slow down and savor every day of fall.
Fall is also the time when many of us feel our best. We increase our activity levels in the summer, eat more fresh and healthy food, and the increased sunshine raises our vitamin D3 levels, which has so many positive effects. Fortunately, the positive effects of all those summer habits typically last well into fall. If only that healthy, energetic summer feeling could last. Well, what if I told you that it can? If you put some healthy fall habits into place, you’ll see those feelings last well into the next season.
Movement is Medicine
Think about the main things that got you to that great summer feeling. Let’s start with the increased activity levels. We all know that movement is medicine. I’ve often said that if exercise could be made into a pill, it would be worth thousands of dollars per pill. So why slow down our activity levels? Though the temperatures are dropping, you don’t have to go to the gym for a good workout. How about some calisthenics? Get some three-to-five-pound weights and just move! Recent research has shown that exercise is more effective for depression than any medication. There are a ton of YouTube videos showing you just how to do this. Simply taking a brisk walk can be a huge positive, especially after your evening meal. The increase in movement helps your digestion as well. My personal favorite is doing some exercise first thing in the morning. It wakes you up, gets your blood pumping, and then it is done! No more worrying about when you will fit it into your schedule later in the day. Find a routine that works well for you to implement exercise as one of your healthy fall habits.
Stick With Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
How to replace all that farm-fresh food can be a tough one. Produce grown locally and organically is always the best. Canning your own food is the next best thing to keep fairly healthy food available all fall and winter. But thanks to the miracle of modern grocery stores, you do have pretty good substitutes available all year long. Remember to look for organic, non-GMO food. You will find a few “experts” who tell you it does not make a difference, but the research says it does. Homemade soup with fresh vegetables can be a cold-weather favorite to replace the fresh salads you were eating this past summer.
Supplements — But the Quality Kind
How about that vitamin D3? It’s actually simple. As with so many vitamins that are deficient in our Standard American Diet, high-quality professional-grade vitamins, a.k.a. nutraceuticals, are always a smart idea. By the way, just because a brand has the word “Nature” in it does not make it a good choice. Many of the cheapest, low-quality brands have the word “Nature” in their branding. Don’t be fooled! If you want to be sure, talk to a nutritionist who can decipher a good quality supplement from a bad quality one. In the winter, your vitamin D3 intake should be 5,000 to 10,000 I.U.s per day. And vitamin D3 should always include K2 to increase absorption.
Rounding Out Healthy Fall Habits
And remember chiropractic as a part of your year-round health care approach. In this day and age, stress is all around us. One of the ways in which chiropractic works is by releasing stress patterns in your body that can slowly lead to more serious health issues. Another way is that it makes you naturally more resilient by improving immune system function. The latest (and coolest) research involving chiropractic shows that it actually changes how your brain runs your body.
Creating healthy fall habits can help you become less stressful, more resilient, healthier, and more relaxed! That sounds like a beautiful Autumn to me!
Dr. Burtis, D.C., M.S., CFMP, DACBN, has been providing natural healthcare to the Fairmont area at Burtis Chiropractic Center for over 35 years. He uses a combination of chiropractic, nutrition, and functional medicine to help individuals restore and maintain health and healing through individualized care plans. The mission of Burtis Chiropractic Center is to provide transformational healthcare that takes an individual’s life to the next level. We strive to be a solution for families to experience transformational healthcare and help create vibrant and resilient lifestyles that can be passed to future generations.