February: A month of vigour and vitality Rasheedudin Ahmed Change your diet and living routine with the change in weather and enjoy the season and its blessings. The winter season is the renewal season for our energies. This season requires us to keep our bodies moving.
In the month of February, winter is at its peak and there is snow in the hilly areas. The weak and feeble people are just complaining against the cold weather and their majority is busy in consulting the physician. The pharmacists are making millions by selling expensive flu medicines. Someone is asking for a flu medicine and others are asking for fever and cough. Everyone is hiding in the blanket. Is it an appropriate way to welcome this type of weather? Certainly not!!! Why winters are troublesome? The seasons are great blessings of Almighty. They renew the earth’s resources. Hot summers bring down the rains. In winter, the earth takes a turn by renewing its resources and gives rise to more vegetables and crops with juicy fruits. The earthen energies are at their peak during the winter. The animals get the fresh grass which increases the energy in their milk and flesh. The cows, buffaloes and sheep etc turn healthy and fresh. We have an abundance of milk, yogurt and butter. When the winter season is great even for animals then why it appears to be troublesome for humans? We are also fed on the earth’s produce and we should be equally benefitted from that likewise. Why we get out of senses in the hot summer? Why we get angry to see rains? Why does winter trouble us? The main reason is that we have made ourselves isolated from the Mother Nature. For us, being a super creature, we have assumed that every season on the earth comes just to threaten us from itself. This approach is not appropriate as it is inevitable to have a sound mind and body to rule the face of the earth. We should change our habits, diet and dress accordingly and enjoy the season and its blessings. The winter season is the season of renewal of our energies too. This season requires us to keep ourselves moving and by speeding our blood circulation, trying to keep our bodies warm enough to resist the adverse effect. The blanket does not generate any heat in our bodies. Rather it just preserves the already present energy. So we should not assume that always wearing it would also improve your health. We should have a schedule of your diet, exercise and physical fitness and implement it regularly. Your health would be excellent and you will certainly feel a new vigour in yourselves. The winter season would turn worth enjoying rather than terrifying. What should be eaten in the chilly winter?
February is the month of bitter cold and the mornings are freezing with mist and fog. You should wake up pretty early than the sunrise and say your Fajr prayers and the routine recitations. Then put on some warm clothes and should come to an open space like a park or a ground or even on the roof of your house and do some brisk walk. You may run if you could. A walk for 30-40 minutes would give you a new zeal and vitality. If the weather does not allow that then do some exercise in a properly ventilated room. If you sweat during the exercise then let it dry first and then take a shower with mildly warm water and then wipe yourself with a clean and dry towel. Bathing twice a week is just enough during the winter. The morning breakfast can include wheat or barley porridge with hot milk. Chickpeas are also a nice and strong diet. Take a handful of chickpeas and soak them in the water overnight. Next morning fry them on mild heat and add a bit of ghee/butter, salt and pepper and then eat them by chewing slowly. You can add a bit of onions, a tomato, garlic and coriander. The carrots are also abundant in this season so you can use them by boiling them in the milk with little jaggery for sweetness. Eggs, butter and warm milk can also be taken. In chickpeas flour, add onions, green coriander, green chillies, fenugreek, saag of spinach or mustard, tomato and some salt and pepper and then make dough. Then bake it as bread and take it with garlic sauce. This is a very healthy diet full of energy. Similarly bread with filling of radish, potato and pulses is also very tasty and energising too. If you feel hungry in the afternoon, then just take fresh vegetables and eat a portion of that without cooking them. The citrus fruits are available abundantly during winters; they can also be taken during the lunch. After the sunset, take your dinner. This can include vegetables, meat, pulses, kebabs and eggs or fish. Some people complain about cold hands in this season too. According to the experts, this happens to those who have malnutrition problems. But those taking vitamin C don’t even feel it. So we should keep our body warm with suitable clothing. It is necessary that we keep our head, chest, back and neck specially covered. We should sleep in a ventilated room. If we have some heating device that produces carbon monoxide smoke, we should have proper ventilation for its escape as it can be toxic. We should cover our head and neck with some cloth but covering the mouth can be very dangerous sometimes as it may cause suffocation. Precaution is a must You should be careful to take only those diets which are suitable in this season. You should avoid chilled water and drinks. Gargling at night with warm water with some salt added is a healthy habit. Similarly, you can avoid flu by applying some balm inside your nostrils. Some people do not take plenty of water and they complain for constipation. But if you take 7-8 glass of water and eat fresh uncooked vegetables and fruit, you will never catch that. The winter is a season of youth and vigour. The chilly cold is at its peak in February. So if you try to make it enjoyable, it can become a peak month for your health and physical strength. Burning during urinating In a cup of hot tea, add the same quantity of water and then drink it. You will urinate in an hour and without any burning feeling or pain. [AtharIqbal; Faisalabad]
