Monday Morning Motivator! 23, Spring Cleaning

Monday morning birdsong

When the music came on this morning and gave me that gentle nudge to wake up and begin my day, there was another sort of music already filling the air—those dang birds! Up already, singing about Universe knows what. So full of life, I thought. Up so early, on their own, with no fancy iPod and iPod thingy to get them up on time. 

I guess Steve Pavlina doesn’t need any fancy techno gizzies to get himself out of bed in the morning either, and yet, I kinda doubt he gets up before the birds, and I’d lay good odds he doesn’t then burst into whistles and chirps or even good old fashioned human style singing once he has put his feet on the floor.

At the same time, I doubt those birds have to open one eye at a time, question whether or not it is too early to be rising, or whether 5 more minutes might be in order; or stunble over to another corner of the nest and put on a water for the morning tea. Yeah.

Pushing the Reset Button

So this all has me thinking about spring, and the cycles of nature. Sun rising earlier and earlier; shoots, and buds, and blooms, and green stuff everywhere you look. And because it something I’ve been doing for quite a few years now, it has me thinking about Spring Cleaning.

Of course this year we have the ubiquitous warnings of the dangers of swine flu to give us a reason to think of bolstering our immune systems; and all that porcine pandemic panic aside, this is the best time of the year to take a look at the diet and push the reset button, for reasons that go far beyond the headlines of the day.

Spring is simply the perfect time of the year to make a little shift in how we eat in order to clean up the digestive system and give ourselves a bit of a jolt back into the now of things. Of course, this is the 21st century, so we can live out of the now when it comes to food pretty much 365 days of the year. Forget those primitive 2nd Millenium technologies of canning, freezing, and ultra-pasteurizing; we’ve got jet-fuel!

Watermelon every day, asparagus everyday, lamb beef chicken everyday–it’s almost unbelievable to contemporary Americans that there was a time when all foods had a season, and that was when you ate them. Spring onions in the spring, summer squash in the summer, autumn leaves in the fall >oops!<. And that the season of winter, when nothing naturally grows, was a season of repetition that was pretty old by the time the birds came back from their Southern Adventure and began waking us up with their morning songs.

Spring Cleaning

The big huzzah of Thanksgiving feasts and Christmas or Winter Solstice dinners soon wound down into a steady diet of whatever kept well in the root cellars–winter squash, turnips, parsnips, beets, potatoes, onions, and the storable animal foods–dried meat and aged cheeses. And by the time the first shoots and leaves began to peek out of the snow or bare earth in spring, either through lack of much else to eat, or boredom at the same old prospects, everyone and their uncle was pretty much chomping at the bit for something fresh and new, something springy, something full of life and energy and sunlight. 

Like kitty cats bolting out the door to eat some grass after days of canned food and kibble, the human race has always instinctively taken on an early Spring Cleaning diet this time of the year. Until now, that is. Until the advent of refrigeration and pan-world and the crazy mixed-up non-local non-seasonal way of eating that we have developed over the past 50 years–the real pandemic crisis that ought to be screaming from the headlines, if you ask me…and that is definitely a story for another day.

What our bodies need

And still. Our bodies crave what they have always craved. Technology may move fast, culture may move fast, and pundits may debate which one is leading the other; the human organism is still thousands of years back in time, struggling to keep up with all of this “innovation” and “progress”.

And so now more than ever, at a time when our instincts have been numbed by a million and one new and improved ways to live and eat and die, we need to clean out the sludge from our typically rich diets and bring in the natural energy of the season. And that’s what I’ll be doing this week.

For the next seven days it’ll be goodbye chocolate, goodbye meat and cheese, goodbye processed anything. It’ll be a week or eating foods that enhance the cleaning process and foods that will also encourage a natural cleansing of the back of the fridge–all the stored stuff that I want to lose after a winter of eating rich to ward off the cold, to give the comfort that is so needed when the wind is howling at every door and window, and when the news has been equally bleak and cold, filled with subliminal images of that tall dark mustachioed guy who knocks at the door and proclaims “you must pay the rent!”

Fats are out. Greens are in.

So then. Fats are out, by and large. Out of my diet and so as a result out of my body, as my daily needs will have to be met from the storehouse called my belly. Or something like that. And proteins will be cut quite a bit; no training for swimsuit competitions this week.

Greens will be in. More raw food than cooked. I’ll be putting the juicer and the blender to good use. And drinking a lot of water of course. I may even forego my moring black tea in favor of something herbal.

It’s just a week after all, and it will feel great both during and after. Perhaps I’ll even join those birds in song tomorrow morning when my  feet touch the floor!

Interested in Spring Cleaning? I’m offering two different programs later this month, designed to give you a greater understanding of the what’s when’s how’s and why’s, as well as to walk you through the process with mucho support. Check out my ever-changing information page for all the details.

aussiegall’s photostream

Tags: chocolate, motivator, spring cleaning, steve pavlina, story for another day, swine flu, winter solstice

If you liked this, you might might like these too:

• Monday Morning Motivator! 25, Why I do what I do (3)
• Friday Afternoon Update! 29: The “Monkeys and Chickens” edition (2)
• Friday Afternoon Update! 29: The “Breaking My Own Rules” edition (2)