Wheel of Health for 2024 Based on TCM

The Wheel of Health is based on the ancient wisdom of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Let’s break it down to each month.

January - Preservation
This is the time to nourish the Ying energy in your body. It is a good idea to dress warm outside to prevent a cold/flu. It is important to keep your head, neck, hands, and feet warm in the cold weather.
 
Diet: Eat more foods with a warm nature such as stews and soups. Dark color foods such as black beans, sesame seeds, and chestnuts are very tonic to the kidneys.
 
February – Raise the Yang Energy
 
When everything comes back to life in spring, you should get up early and be physically active. After the beginning of spring, the weather can still be dry, therefore, hydration daily is very important. In early spring, the weather changes drastically, from warm to cold, so you should not take off your winter clothes too quickly, especially the elderly and those with weak immunity should be more conservative and keep warm outside.

Diet: The diet should incorporate some spicy, sweet, and warm foods.  Eat more foods with a sweet nature, such as dates, yams, leeks, spinach, etc. Less sour taste foods such as tomatoes. The sour taste enters the liver and has astringent properties, which is not conducive to boosting the rising of the Yang energy and the release of liver energy. Sun Simiao, the king of Chinese medicine in the Tang Dynasty, said: "In spring, it is better to reduce sourness and increase sweetness to nourish the spleen." Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the spleen and stomach meridians work together. The energy in the liver meridian rises in spring, and excessive energy in the liver meridian can affect the energy flow in the spleen meridian. Therefore, in spring, you should eat more foods with a sweet nature and less sour taste foods, which nourish the spleen meridian. Eat more foods that help release the Yang energy, such as onions, parsley, cilantro, leeks, etc.

To learn more, please check my recent video.