Fitness through the Winter
1. Schedule your daily activity
When the season changes to winter your daily movement routine might naturally slow down. With this said you will need to make sure you have your exercise/fitness/movement scheduled in your planner each day!
2. Revisit Your “Why”
As you consider your new potential schedules, write down the reasons you can stay active and eat healthy. Those might include having a stronger immune system, preventing chronic pain, having more energy throughout the day, being able to keep up with your children, and simply feeling fantastic. Having it in writing can help remind you of your motivation!
3. Explore new activities
The holidays can add stress. This is a great time try something new. It can keep you feeling energized and more motivated. Perhaps you try new classes from yoga to bootcamp. For nutrition, it could involve trying out new spices, ingredients, or meal-planning strategies.
4. Add in “Exercise Snacks”
Having a block of fitness time is nice, but as your schedule may get busier, you might need to sneak in some activity whenever you can. Moving throughout the day is an excellent way to keep up your fitness levels. You can try doing quick movement during the day, such as running up office stairs between meetings, parking at the end of every parking lot to get more walking in, doing lunges down a hallway, or practicing some heels-up balancing as you are doing the dishes. These little “exercise snacks” add up, and can help you combat the effects of being sedentary during other times.
5. Plan for Snow Days
If you live in an area that gets snow, you’ll need to be especially creative with developing at-home workouts in case you get snowed in. You might try fitness sites that stream workout videos. Even though it might get cold that doesn’t mean everything has to be done indoors. If you haven’t explored snow-based activities this might be your year to start. Invest in some quality outdoor gear, such as snow pants and warm layers, and research options in your area. You could rent or borrow snowshoes, cross-country skis, skates, downhill skis, or even sleds. Just hiking through snow can be a killer workout.
6. Winter Nutrition
Plan for snow-day nutrition by keeping a list of healthy ingredients you can have on hand and go-to recipes that are easy to make! As the holidays get into full swing, it’s likely that your nutrition might be impacted. There can be many more temptations this time of year. Try to create a plan that balances out those obstacles with healthier holiday eating. Sometimes, the most difficult part of a holiday gathering is feeling like there’s nothing but less-than-ideal food options. Always show up to an event with a dish to share. A simple, healthy recipe made up of your favorite natural ingredients can be a go-to for any event and will be a valuable addition to your nutrition plan.
7. Add in Nutrient Dense Starches
Winter months can create the desire to hunker down and carb load on less than ideal foods. The darker cooler months can affect your amount of serotonin, the happy hormone. Processed foods can deplete our energy and increase our desire for more—trapping you in a cycle. Focus on adding in plenty of nutrient-dense foods such as sweet potatoes, pumpkins, squash, wild rice or oats.
8. Boost the Immune System
As you work to maintain your current fitness and nutrition levels, be sure stay healthy by getting enough sleep, keep alcohol consumption in check, eat more fermented foods so you can get beneficial probiotics, and drink an ample amount of water. All of these strategies can provide immune-system advantages, which is a big plus as cold and flu season swirls around.
9. Add in Fitness to Your Travels
Take time planning out how, when and where you can get your fitness in on your travels. Maybe that means looking at running route options in a different city or researching yoga studios or gyms where you are staying. Take the time to research whether there are good grocery stores nearby, or restaurants that seem to have numerous healthy options.
