The 5th summer Commandments in Naturopathy – 2nd part

Alimentation and hydration

Looking at your meals, summer could be the best time of the year to stabilize your body & eating diet as explained the well known French naturopath, Pierre-Valentin Marchesseau, who first introduced naturopathy in France in the mid thirties.

This simply consists to listen carefully to your feeling of hunger, satiety and eating only whenener you feel like it.

What about putting it into practice?

Skip breakfast at 7 sharp if you don't feel like it (a practice useful all year long by the way). Eat whenever you need it, an habit you can decline for lunch and dinner. The summer's temperature will surely help you to reduce your portions of food and that is good news as light meals are better during July and August.

Slow down your meat consumption (barbacoas' grilled meat creates oxydation and organism' inflammation. You better choose seasonal vegetables, fruit, even for snacks.

In this stabilizing process, you could ever avoid cooking! Raw vegetables are full of vitamins. To avoid if you have sensitives instestines: In that case, you can slowly cook those vegetables.

Don't forget to drink! It is essential for eliminating body impurities and giving energy to your cells... Even if everyone is different (depending on your weight, age, sporting condition...) you should drink around 1 and a half/day.

It is important to insist on the fact that you should drink mostly fresh water, without adding any plants or sodas. To clean your organism, your body only need fresh water as coffee, herbal infusions or tea brings extra information that will not help in the draining process. The modified drinks must stay an exception and not your only source of your hydration.

Exercise regularly!

Exercise softly but regularly through streching, yoga, hicking, jumping into your swimming pool... Your body needs it so come on, move it!

You could even create a morning routine when it is still fresh outside: 15 mn gym or yoga + 1 hour walk during your day. If you are lucky enough to live by the sea, know that negative ions released on the seaside help your nervous system to relax.

The same happens while walking in a forest.

Care for a safe tan?

During summer, capting vitamin D is quite essential too for your organism and health.

Remember that vitamin D plays an important fonction in your emotions and mood. It boosts your brain too and stimulate your immune system.

Exposing yourself to the sun and light will allow you to stock vitamin D for winter. But careful how you enjoy the sun! Even if the sun allows the synthetis of vitamin D, we know today that too much sun is bad for your skin.

So it is important to adapt your sun 'consumption' depending of your phototype (skin color, sun vulnerability...), in order to better avoid the problems such as sunburns, skin aging, melanomas and carcinomas (benigns or carcinogens).

Likewise, sun creams (better use organic one, with mineral filter to limit the sea pollution) are your skin's good friends, helping it to lower cancer risks even if they don't replace prophylaxis: Avoid standing in the sun between noon and 4pm, wear a hat and anti-UV clothes (particularly kids) & sunglasses.

Note that sensitive skins people must be especially careful while sunbathing and take vitamin D pills as preventive measure.

Other skin problems

Here comes sun allergy (polymorphous light eruption) as your skin is not use to sun rays. Skin reactions will appear in the first sunbaths such as skin rash, itching spots, rednesses... In that case, enjoy the sun step by step, in a progressive way and earlier in the year, allowing your melanocytes to gain enough protection and avoid skin inflammation.

Alimentation plays an important part too if you eat anti-inflammatory and anti-oxydant food to limit the inflammation of your organism. You can think about taking some preventing nutritional nutriment to prepare the skin. Those are full of natural ingredients and minerals such as zinc, copper, selenium, silicium, beta carotene (provitamin A) or superoxide dismutase.

Acne aestivallis is one to the problem of an long sunbath. Due to UV rays, the skin will thicken to protect itself. This process will encourage an accumulation of sebum in sebaceous follicles, a process that will prevent skin cleaning mecanisms and sebum elimination. The result will be a higher risks of skin problems with blackheads, microcysts that could lead to to inflammatory lesions if not treated. Prevention is a must! Protect your skin with high sun protection, adapt your alimentation by avoiding dairy products, glunten, refined sugar, trans fat, process food to take only good vitamins, minerals and nutriments.

Nature is good for your body, summer is the season when you can enjoy plenty of tasty and juicy vegetables and fruits! In case of sunburns, here are some tips to soothe the burn sensation and help healing: Aloe vera is 99% water composed, it refreshes and deeply moisturise your skin;  oily maceration Wort calms and soothe skin burns (beware not to go in the sun after application); natural yogurt is a well know home remedy to sooth sun burns too. Gently moisturize your skin with it, it soothes the pain. To finish, aspic lavender essential oil to lower the sensation of sunburns and speed healing.

Stress and psycho-emotional state regulation

Let's take some time for an introspection. Prepare a check-up of the last 6-7 past months: What did you achieve, any situation than made you further and made you change?  What about problems, any of them made you sad, hurt you? Do you feel that something is taking a toll on you, draining your energy?

Check your relations that compose your daily life: in your family, at work, what about your friend... Write everything you think about, good or bad, are you proud of a particular achievement? If you need to be help in this process, there are some specialists that could give you a hand.

To letting go more easily and enjoy summertime, it would be good to - loose grap on social networks or computer and even try no connexion at all. If you really need to work in summer or if you feel like you have to go surfing on the net, schedule one or two special moments for that activity. - Avoid any stress situation if possible or the company of toxic persons. Schedule your days in advance. Try not to stress about errands or something else. Organize leisure moments only for yourself : lying on the beach, swimming (better in the sea, remember the ions...), family picnics, reading, massage, why not a drink with friend or a nice hairdressing session or even a spa? 

In short?  Put into perspective your day and don't put yourself under pressure. Think positive, it's time to turn the page. Accept your limits and those of others. And, most of all... Learn to say no.

Read the first part

Many thanks to Maud Simonelli (Equilibre et Vous) for her collaboration to the blog.

The right address: Equilibre et Vous, 1026 route de Nîmes, Uzès. Contact : 06 11 71 15 86, equilibreetvous.naturopathie@gmail.com. Retrouvez Equilibre et Vous Uzès sur Instagram.