Leaves are falling: let’s boost our energy

Pumpkin, like other vegetables of the autumn season (Jerusalem artichoke; cruciferous, or the cabbage family; celeriac; beetroot; etc.), is ideal for obtaining a delicate but persistent warming effect from food, therefore an excellent home remedy to strengthen the defenses against winter colds.

In this season, we begin to favor more heating, so no more raw salad and tomatoes, but broths, soups, stewed or baked vegetables. The ideal is to start dinner with a seasonal mixed vegetable soup or, if we are not used to the consistencies of vegetables, a nice vegetable cream (nothing complicated: just cook the vegetables and puree them with a blender).

Starting with a soup, it will be easier to keep us light at dinner. An ideal autumn dinner could be: vegetable cream with a few tablespoons of cooked wholemeal spelled; a light protein (stewed chickpeas or lentils, or fish, molluscs or crustaceans with a light gravy); an apple or other seasonal fruit.

Restful sleep is important all year round, but it is particularly important in the fall, when all our energy regulation systems need to be reprogrammed for darker times.

So let’s avoid tea and coffee after dinner and, above all, avoid the friendly, but terrible for sleep, blue light screens (mobile phones, tablets, PC screens). If we really can’t do without it, let’s set the lighting to “night” mode.

Strolling around, trying to stay focused on the present moment, for example the colors of the sky, or the faces of people, as well as the noise of the street, is an excellent regenerator, both for physical and psychic energies. There is no need to become a marathon runner: half an hour is enough, at a fast but conscious pace, 3-4 times a week.