For many, happy symbols of springtime mark the arrival of chronic seasonal allergies that can be incapacitating.

We set the clocks ahead for daylight savings and many of us woke up to a darker sky feeling sluggish thanks to a one hour loss of sleep. 

If you hit the snooze, pulled the covers up over your head still feeling bummed out about your waistline, bank account, career or love life, you’re not alone. Despite more daylight our worries will still be there. 

So how do we spring into spring, a season that’s all about new beginnings and rebirth? 

For practical ways, to cultivate optimism in our lives we turned to Dr. Sanam Hafeez, a NYC based licensed clinical psychologist, teaching faculty member at the prestigious Columbia University Teacher’s College and the founder and Clinical Director of Comprehensive Consultation Psychological Services who shares these tips and tools.

There’s something about spring that inspires many of us to clean out our closets and our kitchen cabinets. So, it’s fitting that National Nutrition Month® falls in March, a time when we are starting to dream about warmer temperatures, bountiful summer produce and lighter fare.

National Nutrition Month® is a nutrition education campaign created by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics to emphasize the importance of making informed food choices. This year’s National Nutrition Month® theme is “Put Your Best Fork Forward.” A reminder that every bite counts, this theme reflects the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for American’s recommendation to shift to a healthier eating pattern.

This idea that every bite counts also resonates closely with advice that I regularly share with my clients: small steps do add up to big changes. Additionally, I advise my clients that healthy eating can be as simple as choosing the more nutritious option between two foods, such as choosing a side salad instead of fries when eating out or a handful of nuts and dried fruit instead of a sugar-laden granola bar. This helps clarify the idea (and alleviate the pressure) of the somewhat-vague term “eating healthfully.”

Here are just a few examples of how you can make small changes that add up to a healthy lifestyle, one forkful at a time.

For many, happy symbols of springtime mark the arrival of chronic seasonal allergies that can be incapacitating.

Learn how best to deal with allergy and asthma season.