Living Seasonally to Boost Wellness | S4E4 (E034)
Are you too tired to run those errands when it’s dark out? Winter tomatoes got you down? You’re not alone!
As we find ourselves shifting into winter, what are the steps we can take to boost our wellness? We all know there are four seasons and in some areas that means changes and in others, that sun will still shine every day, but why does it even matter what season it is? Should that affect our activities, our food, or our rest? And if so, how?
Our culture often pressures us into a go, go, go mindset year round, but that might be impacting your circadian rhythm or your hormone balance, so what can you do about it?
Some people are required to work 8 to 5 no matter the season, so what then?
Are there still steps you can take to surrender to the seasonality of life, of nature, and your body to live with more balance, more wholeness, and more wellness? We’re getting into ALL of this today! So don’t sleep on this one!
In This Episode
Thinking through seasons to impact your wellness (2:48)
Culture’s effect on circadian rhythms & hormone balance (3:10)
What Evie’s observed in herself regarding seasonality (3:35)
How light affects eating habits: Toréa’s lightbulb moment (7:27)
Connecting seasonality to our bodies (9:14)
Adjusting to seasonality for those working without flexibility (11:31)
Holiday burnout (11:50)
Food’s seasonality (12:41)
Optimizing the micronutrients of food (13:14)
How to know what food is in season(16:48)
The Ayurvedic roots of seasonality (17:59)
Food preservation & fermentation as a method for optimizing on seasonality (19:02)
Resources Mentioned
Listen to our episode that discusses Seasonal Affective Disorder here:
Listen to the episode on Full Spectrum Light here:
Shop the Wellness Optimizing Journal
Join the Optimized Wellness Community
Submit your question for the show!
Transcript
Toréa Rodriguez 0:00
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Toréa Rodriguez 0:50
Welcome to the Wildly Optimized Wellness podcast. I am your host, Toréa Rodriguez. And I’m joined by the lovely co host, Evie Takacs. Both of us are Functional Diagnostic Nutrition practitioners and we love working with women from all over the world, through our virtual programs, helping women not only feel better, but actually achieve that vibrant, no holds barred version of themselves, they’ve been missing for a long time, and how we actually get there. Well, that is what this show is all about. Now, please keep in mind that this podcast is created for educational purposes only and should never be used as a replacement for medical diagnosis or treatment. And if you like what you hear today, we would love for you to hit that follow button, leave a review in Apple podcast, share with your friends, and keep coming back for more. Let’s start today’s adventure shall we?
Toréa Rodriguez 1:50
Hey, everybody, welcome back. So today, Evie, and I want to have a little chit chat jam about seasonality. We are here in North America, at least we are shifting into winter. And in fact, it's snowing where I am right now. So we're definitely shifting into winter. But we wanted to just
Evie Takacs 2:11
It's happening.
Toréa Rodriguez 2:12
Yes, it's happening. Winter is coming.
Evie Takacs 2:16
Yeah,
Toréa Rodriguez 2:16
I had to. But yeah, so we wanted to talk about seasonality and why it's so important with our overall wellness and health and health objectives. So we'll just kick it off with the actual seasons, right? So most of us know that there are four seasons, spring, summer, winter fall, did that totally order?
Evie Takacs 2:36
Maybe, maybe people maybe maybe not that out of order for some people.
Toréa Rodriguez 2:41
Right? Right. But we all don't live in areas that have those four seasons. And so we just wanted to kind of talk through how you guys can think through these different seasons to be able to impact your wellness, and then also make tweaks in case you do live in an area that doesn't observe all four seasons, there are certain kinds of considerations that you can make. But this is it seems to me and Evie maybe you can correct me if I'm wrong. But it seems to me that part of the way that our western culture is, has really taken us away from paying attention to the seasons and nature as they change, and therefore we get out of sync. And that is something that I think really starts to play havoc with our circadian rhythms and our hormone balance and even food choices that we're making, what have you observed in terms of seasonality, and health.
Evie Takacs 3:41
That's very true. And I first actually want to share what I've noticed in myself, because I knew that there were seasons and I live in the Midwest. So I pretty much do get all four seasons, I mean, fall sometimes it's cut short, where it seems like winters way longer, but I do get those four seasons. So I always knew and I always knew that foods changed and foods that I was eating in the summertime don't taste the same when I eat them in the winter, right. Like I knew that things like that happened. But I noticed it in myself the past probably four or five years, when I started to think more about there is a rhythm to life, there's a season to push, there's a season to rest, there's a season to, you know, challenge yourself as a season to maybe just coast by and maintain. And I first learned that more, this is going to come full circle. But I realized that first, like with dieting, right, like I was doing strategic dieting phases, and then I would have phases where I would maintain that. And then there'd be phases where I would purposely gain weight so that I could try and gain muscle. And so I realized like wait a second, if there's this with dieting, How is this not real? Like how does this not apply to other parts of my life? And then I got to thinking of like, again, I have the example of looking at how people live in Greece right and they live very seasonally.
Evie Takacs 4:49
Their busy season is spring and summer there. It's their tourists, they rely on tourism for their economy. So everyone is just busting their butt for the summertime making the money that they can And then they rest and live off that for the winter. Yeah, right. And this is for like people that live in the villages. It's not like necessarily in Athens, but you know what I mean? So I'm like, well, that's interesting. Like, there's a season there too. And so then I started noticing well, okay, if the food doesn't taste as good, maybe it's because this isn't the right time to be eating it. Like is the food this? Is this not the season that the food needs to be eaten in? And so then I started paying attention to that of like, well, what is in season right now? Then I got really into like, sharing that. And then you know, every month I post the seasonal foods list of like, these are the things that are, you know, supposed to be eaten at this time? And, yes, it varies on region. But for the most part, these are the same thing everywhere and and then I started thinking about my life of, well shoot, like, it's gets dark so early in the winter, but I'm still trying to run around like I like it's laid out like it does in the summer. And no wonder I'm so tired is because I don't have any sunlight past 5pm. So it's like, why am I forcing myself to try and go go go until 8:30pm. Which that's easy to do in the summer, because the sun is out, you have more time to be to have energy and get that sunlight. And so it was like I started putting these clues together of why am I resisting what nature has had in place for so long?
Evie Takacs 6:09
Like this doesn't make any sense to me? No wonder I don't feel good.
Toréa Rodriguez 6:13
Yeah.
Evie Takacs 6:13
And so then I started seeing that with clients of like, you know, we'd start working together and maybe August, and then by like, November, December, they're still trying to do the stuff and eat the stuff and work out the same and sleep the same that they were doing in August. And they're feeling this resistance and they're like something's not right, like this isn't working, like, well, what if we just surrender to the fact that this time of year calls for more rest? I'm not saying you go sit on the couch, and you don't do anything? But like, what if we move around our schedule, and we do stuff when the light is out? And it's sunny out? Because you have more energy then? And you really do just give yourself permission to go to bed maybe an hour earlier? Like, is that really a problem? So it was like shifting things like what if you get up earlier, and then you go to bed earlier. So that's where I've seen it with myself and clients and I will say 100% I feel so much better living my life like that versus forcing it. It's like forcing that you know, the square piece into the round peg or whatever the thing is, like, that's how it felt like for me for such a long time trying to fit the same lifestyle, the same eating habits, the same sleep schedule, all throughout the year. Like it just doesn't work.
Toréa Rodriguez 7:18
It does not work at all. And it's funny that you say that about the light right and needing to have more rest in the winter when we have shorter daylight hours. My husband and I honeymooned in Alaska. And it was in the summer. And we were in a canoe on a lake. And there was just this like collective. My husband and I and some friends that we were with this collective like, oh my gosh, I'm really hungry when is dinner. And then we looked at our watches. It's 11pm.
Evie Takacs 7:48
Oh my gosh.
Toréa Rodriguez 7:49
It's light out. It's bright. We had no like circadian clue, right, no light cue that it was time to slow down and eat. And here it's 11pm. And the sun is just starting to set. And that was such a awakening realization to me that the power of light has on our eating habits. So yes, we have a lot more natural energy because of that bright daylight in the summer regions, right. And it's really extreme when you get into the northern latitudes like Alaska, and that kind of thing. And then in the winter, when it's much shorter of daylight, you right, the body naturally wants to start winding down when the sun goes down. So we are going to want to be doing more restful, restorative type activities in the winter during those hours than we would in the summer. And I like you have experienced the very same thing of just fighting it tooth and nail. It's kind of like, no, no, no, no, I have all these things I need to do, I got to make sure that I still hit my yoga class. And I gotta make sure that I still get a bike ride and you don't have the lights on and doing the bike rides in the dark. Like it's just kind of nuts in a way when we fight it so much. But you're right, when we start to surrender in a way or if we start to get ourselves in sync with the natural rhythms that the planet has, in terms of the seasons, that allows us to take care of ourselves better.
Evie Takacs 9:15
Yeah, I mean, a lot of people I feel like do hold the belief of okay, we are connected to nature, and they're interested in that and they feel, you know, a connection to the earth. And it's like, Well, why do we act like we don't have a season just like the trees have the season and the plants have the season? Right? Like, the trees are all very, like they're getting very bare here and like almost all the leaves are gone. And it's like why do we think that we don't need a rejuvenation or we don't have a depth to us in a way right? Yeah, like even just I think that it's kind of silly for us to want to engage so much with nature, but then we don't believe that we need a season have that too.
Toréa Rodriguez 9:49
Yeah. And it's interesting because you you bring up kind of a mental concept, right? Fall is about letting go of the leaves and letting go of things and why isn't that a time where we as humans can start letting go of things that aren't serving us anymore. You know, when winter can be that, like hibernation of like, let's just do some rest and rejuvenation. Yeah. And spring is more like okay, the ideas that we got while we were going through winter and hibernating. Now it's time to sow the seeds and start to get those things moving. And then summer tends to be for most people tend to be like, very active in terms of their intentions and getting things done and that kind of thing. So we can use the seasons as a guide, in a way in terms of our thinking, but also in terms of how we're taking care of our own bodies.
Evie Takacs 10:35
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Like I said, just, the more I started to accept that, the better I felt, and I felt less pressure to like, why are you so tired? Or why are you being lazy? Or why are you not being motivated? It's like, well, wait a second, what if this is just how the winters supposed to be, like, nothing's actually wrong with me, I think I'm just fighting what my body is naturally wanting to do. And it's even to the point where I'm like, if it is dark outside, I'm not leaving. So like, if I come home, and I'm invited, like, there's like a dinner or something I'm like, It's gonna take a lot for me to actually leave because when dark out, I'm not leaving. That's how committed I am to this journey.
Toréa Rodriguez 11:09
I love it. I love it. I too, like curling up with a cup of tea. When it's dark outside in the winter, it's one of my favorite things to do, you know, get the throw blanket out. And you just make things cozy, that really feels natural and good to me. And it's such a been able to shift around with the seasons as much as we can. Now granted, some people don't have super flexible jobs, and they're still required to do their eight to five, or nine to five, or whatever. But you can still change your evening activities to be in a seasonal fashion. And I find that, you know, we really start to nurture ourselves a little bit more when we give ourselves that space to do it. And here we are, we're like right in the middle of the holiday season. And this is one area where I see people burnout is in the holiday season, because they're trying to hit every single holiday party, they're trying to run around and do their gift shopping. They're doing all this extra stuff. And I never thought I'd be that person that says plan your holiday shopping into it in the summer. But in a way, whatever works for you, whatever you can do so that you can still build in that nurturing time. This is why I think people feel so exhausted by the time New Year's rolls around, because they've been trying to fit all this stuff in. And I've gotten really picky and choosey when it comes to holiday party invitations and which ones we go to. And that's really, really helped in terms of the different activities. I'd love to talk a little bit more in depth about the food. Yeah, piece of it, right and the seasonality of the food. And I think part of the reason why we typically unless we've been in a health mindset for a while, we typically don't really notice this because most grocery stores will import food from other parts of the planet. So that we can have tomatoes in December, so that we can have you know, corn in December and vice versa. Right. Sometimes you'll see the winter vegetables offered in the summer. It's just mind boggling to me, but it kind of homogenized is that and one of the reasons why eating food from a seasonality perspective really kind of comes down to the micro nutrient density, doesn't it?
Evie Takacs 13:26
Yeah, I mean, like I said, I didn't even realize I didn't put the connection of why tomatoes didn't taste good in December until later I just knew like, these have no flavor are these are weird, where the texture is off. Or you know, and I struggle with it. Because you know, I still love my Greek salads. And so it's like, I'm getting tomatoes, and they're just not the best. And it's like, maybe I need to give this up for a few months. Yeah, you know, I do struggle with that. Because there are foods that are good. And some of them, you know, look good in the stores, but then you cut them up and you're like, I'm not good. Yeah, but the seasonal foods is something that I start I started doing, mainly because I knew nutritionally this was the best, right, the less the food has to travel to you, the more nutritious it's going to be.
Toréa Rodriguez 14:09
And why is that? I know why but I want you to go a little bit deeper. So
Evie Takacs 14:13
Because the micronutrients that the food has in the soil that it was grown in is the soil that you should be exposed to. So it's going to be richer than traveling and getting the soil from somewhere else that you're not even really living. And that's not the same climate as you. So,
Toréa Rodriguez 14:26
Yes. And as it travels on these trucks and everything else, the micronutrients will degrade over time. So once we harvest, remember, we're taking let's just take, we'll take the tomato, as example. We're harvesting something from a live living plant. And when we pick that tomato, we disconnect it from its life force. Right? So basically, we're kind of killing it. Yeah, in a way, right? And then from that point forward, it starts its decomposition processes. And at first it's just like those micronutrients and the different types of proteins and fibers and everything else that might also be in that plant. Because yes, tomato does have a small amount of protein in it, but all of those things start to degrade. And that's when the micronutrients stuff starts to wane. So for example, I learned one time from Chris kresser, that broccoli, for example, is highly, highly nutrient dense within the first day that it's picked. And then from that point on, it starts to degrade, which is why Evie and I talk a lot about, you know, we want to make sure that we're getting food as locally as possible. But absolutely, there's that other component too, of the microbiome influence and that soil influence like it's all kind of compounded. And if we are using and relying on getting food from the commercial food system, oftentimes, these things need to travel a long period of time. And so growers don't want to have it be overripe by the time it gets to you. So they actually pick it green, right? They pick these things green, they let them ripen, not on the vine, they'd let them ripen, not in the ground, right. So those kinds of things also play a factor in the nutrient density and the flavor. And I'm just thinking about the tomatoes, for sure, because we grew tomatoes this summer, and we had all these huge tomatoes that came in very late in the season. And then we stopped getting enough sun and they never turned red on the vine. So I picked a bunch of green ones, and I have them in a bowl on my counter in the kitchen. And they're ripening. And when one got red, I got so excited. And I cut it open and know the flavor was not the same as summer at all. It reminded me of the market variety tomato, and it was just myth.
Evie Takacs 16:48
Yeah, I know if someone's like, Well, how do I know what's in season? Because that was me. I was like, Well, where do I even start? We've talked about this before, but you could start with farmers markets. Now I know that those aren't as popular in the wintertime, at least here in the Midwest, like they pretty much shut down the last week of October, you can still be on a co-op, but some farms aren't producing a lot of those things anyways. So if you can't do the market, obviously can look things up online. But I would if you are at the grocery store, a lot of those seasonal and local foods are typically grouped together. So for example, when I go into Whole Foods, there's gonna be one like, you know, a few of those boxes and crates that they put food on. And they're all grouped together. So like all the squash is together. Now, you know, all the pumpkin is there, right? We've got the apples that are close by like you have all those things like the corn is there, you have all these things that are actually local and seasonal. And they're grouped together. So it's easier to find. Yeah, but again, you can look online and at least get some ideas of you know, it's like, oh, no wonder this fig doesn't taste good. Because this is not supposed to be eaten at this point in the year. Yeah. So I think that's a really great way to start of like looking at what is the earth giving, and we were talking about this before we recorded but what I find interesting too, is and this is kind of rooted in Ayurveda is the foods that are seasonal now at this point in like winter are foods that are that have the root vegetables are big. Yeah. And I was like, Well, why is that? And from you know, that perspective and what they teach and what I actually believe in, as well as like, those are warm foods. They're, they're grounding foods, right? So in the wintertime, you're typically cold. So you want to have warm foods available, and you want to be eating those warm grounding foods. So it's so cool that those just happen to be what is actually growing in the earth right now. And what's seasonal, and then in the spring and summertime, it's more light cooling foods, so like cucumbers, berries, like all those things, watermelon, those things are like really cooling and you know, refreshing. Yeah. And so that makes sense. Because temperatures are higher in the summer. And so you want to have cooling foods cool you down. So I think that's a cool way to think of it as well as like, what is the grounding rooted food now that I could have in the wintertime and then the summertime I look for those cooling more refreshing foods.
Toréa Rodriguez 19:00
Yeah. The other thing that people can do right is to also look at traditional methods of preservation of summer foods. Definitely, because they're there's something to be said about, like ancient fermentation processes and preserving processes. So the way that people sustain themselves through winter, when you can't actually grow as much as you could before is they would preserve a lot of these foods and a lot of these traditional ways so that they could enjoy them also through the winter. And that's another way to boost like nutrient density is to start looking at what are some ways that things have been preserved, maybe it's been fermented. You can even go so far as to get like flash frozen vegetables from the summer because that actually does preserve nutrients. So things like green beans and broccoli. If you want to incorporate some additional green foods in the winter, I would suggest you look towards wintery leafy greens, like kale and collards and things like that, but There are ways to bring those foods in and take a look at those traditional ways of preserving them mostly fermentation because fermentation will actually provide additional nutrients just through that process. So,
Evie Takacs 20:14
Yeah, definitely. That's something I'm just learning about. I didn't know much about it. So that's been cool to kind of explore. And hopefully next year, I can get on top of that.
Toréa Rodriguez 20:22
Yeah, yeah, super fun to ferment your own veggies, if you want to start talking about how to have a lab culture in your home. I love it. Anything else about seasonality that you'd love to share with anybody that you've noticed for yourself or in your clients,
Evie Takacs 20:39
I say I just want to touch on again, like re emphasize the importance of being okay with feeling changes in energy, feeling changes in like social, you know, social life changes in, you know, sleep, like, I think that's okay, we try so hard to like, just be these machines and go, go go go at the same pace. And we it's just not realistic. It's not sustainable. You know, it's just hard to maintain and also be happy, right? Like, if you're not feeling happy and fulfilled, then like, what is it all for? Right? Like, if you need to go to bed an hour early for three months out of the year? Go to bed an hour early? Like, are you really missing out on anything? You know what I mean? So it's just something that I fought for such a long time. And now I like openly embrace it, it's like, well, the sun went down, that means my day is coming to an end. And yes, there's probably three more hours before I can fall asleep. However, I'm going to be cozied up now, I'm not going to push myself. So I just really encourage you to take a look at that. And maybe that could be a missing piece as to why things feel a little off for you.
Toréa Rodriguez 21:37
Yeah, I echo in that when I really started to make peace with each of the seasons, right? Instead of having a favorite. And wishing that all other three seasons were like my favorite. It really changed the way that I was able to listen to my own body and listen to my own intuition. So this is also an intuitive practice. And whatever feels whatever's calling you. Chances are what's calling you is in response to the environmental seasonality of where you are. Because I know that some people in Southern California, they get lots of sunny sunshine in December, and they're out surfing. And that's great, because that's where they live.
Evie Takacs 22:17
Yep.
Toréa Rodriguez 22:17
Right. But a lot of people do experience the different kinds of seasonal shifts. And of course, we want to pay attention to that. And if anybody who's listening to this is curious about like, seasonal effectiveness disorder, we do have another episode that talks about full spectrum light and does talk about that, which is why we didn't talk about it too much today. Go check that out. Because you can use strategies even in the winter to maximize your exposure to natural light so that you can reduce the seasonal effectiveness disorder. So we'll have a link for you for that as well. So yeah, thank you so much for jammin with me on seasonality.
Evie Takacs 22:57
Yeah, absolutely.
Toréa Rodriguez 22:58
As the snowflakes started flying that felt like a good thing to talk about.
Evie Takacs 23:02
Yes, yeah, I'm not too far behind here in Ohio. I'm sure that's just a few weeks away.
Toréa Rodriguez 23:07
Okay, everybody, thank you so much. We'll see you at the next episode.
Toréa Rodriguez 23:12
Hey, everybody, Toréa here. If you like what you heard today, then I'm inviting you to become a premium member over at the optimized wellness community because membership gets you instant and exclusive access to the full length versions of each of these conversations both in video and audio format. Not only that, but with the community you also get access to Seminars, Regular Q&As, Activities, our Seasonal Challenges and starting in December. Your first month in the membership, you will get a copy of the wellness optimizing journal, we also have a Luminary-tier membership that gets you access to the live top breathwork classes, as well as the visualization library and access to the coaches. Use the link in the show notes. Become a member and join us with the optimized wellness community.
Toréa Rodriguez 24:10
Hey, thanks for joining us for this episode of the Wildly Optimized Wellness podcast. If you’re ready to dig deeper into your health, stop playing the Whack-a-Symptom game, start testing to get better guidance, you can find more about Toréa at torearodriguez.com and you can find Evie at holisticallyrestored.com. Want a peek into what it’s like to work with us? Come join us at our Optimized Wellness Community. You can find the invitation link in the show notes below. And if you have a question for the show, you can submit your question under the podcast section of torearodriguez.com. Finally, if you found something helpful in this episode, don’t forget to leave a review, hit that follow button or share it with a friend. They’re gonna love that you thought of them. Until next time, see you outside!
