EPISODE 49

Summer

Summer is a glorious season – and also a surprisingly demanding one. Here, we talk about the characteristics that render summer so intense, and how to make the most of its go-go energy. With seasonal advice on eating, moving, sleeping, and managing your emotions, we help you design a summer experience that feels healthy, happy, and all-around satisfying.

This week on The Living Experiment, we’re talking about Summer — a season so full of potential, projects, and activities, it can leave you feeling exhausted.

So in this episode, we talk about how to make the most of summer, while coming through it as healthy and happy as you want to be, and while setting yourself up for the fall season to come.

Dallas shares wisdom drawn from his Seasonal Model of Health, including tips for nutrition, fitness and sleep. Pilar offers insights for managing your physical and emotional energy.

And of course, we offer you some experiments to help you enjoy summer’s best gifts in ways that work for you.

“Summer” Episode Highlights

  • Dallas discusses his Seasonal Model of Health — balancing your life with the seasons and the available daylight
  • Summer as the season of productivity, abundance and consumption of new ideas, and the biochemical roller coaster of the seasons
  • Why getting stuck year-round in the stressful go-go summer cycle is hard on our emotional and physical health
  • The fire energy of summer in the Chinese Five-Element Theory
  • Summer nutrition — locally-available, nutrient-dense, organic animal proteins and plants — and the relationship between the season of activity and an abundance of available antioxidant foods
  • Taking a moderate, pleasure-based approach to seasonal fruits
  • Varying your fitness activities to match the season, and the lower-intensity outdoor focus of summer

1) If you’re not exercising or don’t normally take a morning walk, go outdoors and walk for 15 minutes first thing in the morning.

2) If you have a structured, high-intensity exercise program, take a break and focus more on spontaneous, lower-intensity movement.

When you go shopping for food, find two vegetables and two fruits that are in season and that are different colors — for example, raspberries and tangerines, or radishes (sliced with butter and salt!) and leafy greens. Stretch a little beyond what you normally eat, and incorporate a rainbow of foods into all of your meals.

Share the Love!

Have you told your friends and family about The Living Experiment? If you dig it, please do! Every recommendation from you means a lot.

We’d also love to have you connect with us on Facebook. Tell us about your experiments, and share your thoughts, stories and reflections there.

Resources

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