November | Appreciate

The beginning of winter means the arrival of the last season of the year. Autumn is over and we will enjoy the clear winter, bathing in the warm and comfortable sunshine.

According to Chinese traditional medicine, if you don’t nourish yourself in winter, you will be sick in spring. The cold weather of winter tends to make you prone to relapse. So it’s essential to keep warm and nourish yourself by maintaining a healthy lifestyle and diet habits to keep you from getting sick in the spring.

Health Guidelines

Don’t exercise in early morning: In the morning, the temperature is low and the sympathetic nerves tend to be excited. This will cause the contraction of skin capillaries and the increase of blood circulation obstruction. Blood pressure is easy to rise and myocardial oxygen consumption also increases, which is easy to cause myocardial infarction or cerebral hemorrhage and other accidents.

10 a.m.,3 p.m. or 4 p.m. are suitable times for outdoor exercises as the temperature is just right.

Don’t stay up late: In winter, you should go to bed early and get up late to ensure adequate sleep, which is conducive to the storage of Yang Qi and the accumulation of Yin Qi.

Diet Guidelines

The ancients believed that as the day turns cold, everything starts to recuperate, so it is most important to replenish the body with nutrients. Ginseng, mutton, duck and other nourishing foods have become people’s first choices. 

During this period of time, we should eat less raw or cold food. It is advisable to eat some high calorie foods that can nourish Yin. Eat more fresh vegetables to avoid vitamin deficiency.  

Sweet potato

Sweet potato can supply a large amount of mucin, sugar, vitamin A and vitamin C to the body. It has the functions of tonifying deficiency, invigorating the spleen and stomach, strengthening kidney Yin, warming the stomach and benefiting the lungs.

Chinese cabbage

Chinese cabbage has high nutritional value. It has high contents of cellulose, vitamin C and vitamin E. In autumn and winter when the air is particularly dry, eating more Chinese cabbage can play a role in skin care.

Pork ribs soup with lotus root
Lotus root strengthens the spleen and promotes the appetite and the ribs provide the body with rich calcium, which is suitable for people with deficiency of Qi and blood.

Homemade pork ribs soup with lotus root

Main ingredients: pork ribs (pork ribs with bone) 500g, lotus root 750g 

Seasonings: salt 10g, pepper 3g, green onion 10g, ginger 7g

Step 1: Wash the pork ribs and chop them into 4cm-long pieces;

Step 2: Wash the lotus root, scrape off the skin, put it on the board and slap it hard, cut it into the same small pieces as the ribs;

Step 3: Pour an appropriate amount of boiling water into the pressure cooker, add pork ribs, lotus root, green onion, ginger, salt and pepper, and cover the pot;

Step 4: Cook the soup to boil, then allow it to simmer for 20 minutes.

Keep in good health

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that people should nourish Yang in spring and summer and Yin in autumn and winter. While keeping warm, we should pay attention to nourishing Yin to prevent external cold and internal dryness. Take small sips of water and eat something that can nourish Yin such as lotus root, pickled cabbage, pear, etc.

Eating tonifying foods in winter can maximize the storage of nutrients and energy transformed in the body, nourishing five internal organs and making you strong. 

At this time, it is advisable to carry out a gentle tonic so as to make the stomach and intestines gradually adapt, with sweet, warm and gentle tonic foods mainly.

Be sure to keep warm: Since the beginning of winter, the temperature difference between morning and evening has become larger. Special attention should be paid to cold prevention and warmth preservation, especially the warmth of the back and feet. According to the traditional Chinese medicine, the chill is easy to invade our body from the back, where the governor meridian and the bladder meridian travel. Once the chill invades the back, it will damage Yang Qi, resulting in upper respiratory tract infection or the recurrence or aggravation of illnesses. 

Go outside and sunbathe：Bathing in the sun makes people feel comfortable. Sunshine can also make the skin tissue warm, prompting the epidermal blood vessels to expand, accelerating blood circulation, making cell metabolism active, improving the skin tissue nutrient status and preventing colds.

The next solar term is Minor Snow, which reflects precipitation and temperature, with high frequency of cold wave and strong cold air. Since then, the weather becomes colder and the precipitation increases gradually.

Although everything is bleak in winter, it does allow us to relax and get away from the hustle and bustle of the world. Winter is not the end, but the season of nurturing seeds.

All things are getting ready for the arrival of spring. Wish you a blissful winter.