While you may not change the weather, you can take some steps to feel better during the winter months. The best cure for winter depression is to exercise your way through the winters. Not only will you keep the blues away, but you’ll be keeping fit simultaneously. Read on to find more tips for fighting off winter blues.

Embrace Outdoors

Wrap-up in some warm clothes and brave the weather. Wear layers that you can easily strip off as your body temperature rises. Make a playlist of your favorite music to stay motivated. Embrace the wind, rain, and snow. Find your inner child by running, cycling, and jumping over the puddles and icy patches. You will have so much fun doing it. Sign-up for skiing, snowboarding, or ice-skating lessons for a more structured approach to staying active. Taking classes will give you a result-driven structured approach, a sure confidence booster.

Join a Training Group

The best way to start the day is with some exercise. Can’t bring yourself to get out there on your own? Book an exercise class with your friends. You will wake up on those cold winter mornings because your friends rely on your support. Do you want even more out of your mornings and want to make new friends? Why not join a running club? Joining an early morning running club is a sociable way to move with others. You’ll feel superb at the end of your running session.

Join a Virtual Fitness Class

This tip is simple to execute, and you can stay active in your pj’s. Pj’s are just fine if that’s how you like it during winters. You can join many virtual fitness classes offered by virtual gyms. Plus, you’ll connect with like-minded people who will sweat with you. You don’t need fancy equipment or tons of space. It would be best to have a small workout space, yoga mat, and weights to move around. Try Tone and Strengthens virtual fitness classes where you will get structured workout classes led by certified trainers.

Get Enough ZZZ’s

The easiest way to boost your mood is to rest up. Sleep is a massive component of elevating your mood. One of SAD’s infamous symptoms is insomnia, which starts in fall and winter due to a lack of natural sunlight. According to endocrinologists, our circadian rhythm can get disrupted without a regular sleep cycle, disrupting hormone production. If you are going to get in an early morning workout, I recommend that you catch up with your sleep at the other end of the day. Rest and recovery are essential parts of working out. Getting enough sleep and maintaining a consistent sleep schedule can help you combat the winter blues.

Eat Right

Nutrition is as important as staying active to combat the winter lows. Winter season calls for an extra supply of vitamin D and serotonin-rich foods. Vitamin D levels are low during the winter months due to sunshine. Try eating vitamin D-rich foods and supplementing vitamin D during the winter months. Foods high in vitamin D like fatty fish, fish oil, tuna, and mushrooms can improve mood. Serotonin is a vital hormone that regulates our mood, feelings, and focus. Foods that boost serotonin-like spinach, eggs, hazelnuts can help fight winter blues. 

Try taking these steps to help minimize the effects of feeling down during the cold and dark winter days.

The post Fitness Tips to Combat Winter Blues 0 (0) first appeared on Tone & Strengthen.

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” – Albert Camus

In September, kids are back in school, summer vacations are over, the foliage is changing, the sun sets earlier, and the weather is getting chillier. Fall is a time for so many significant transitions. According to Behavioral scientist Katy Milkman, “fresh starts are an ideal time to kick-start change.”
A fresh start! That’s all we need to commit to new behaviors and build new habits. Speaking for myself, fall is my early new year. There is magic in the crisp air and the change of color of leaves that helps me set fresh and new goals. As the season changes, it can be the season of change for YOU.

Here are five tips on setting health and fitness goals this fall.

Pick three goals- Last few months of the year are upon us. Pick three goals. Write them on a commitment contract and stick the contract on your mirror. Now is the time to start visualizing yourself in the new year. How do you want to welcome the new year? As a couch potato or as a runner? Cigarette in hand or a celery stick? Gaining muscle or extra inches on the waist? Talk with a Fitness Coach about those pending fitness goals.

Start a Healthy Routine- Now that the summers are behind us, let’s set a healthy routine for the day. We flourish when healthy essentials are set in a daily routine: sleep, wake, eat, exercise, and work; repeat.

Put an Event on Your Calendar- One of the biggest reasons I love fall is, its running race season. I have been racing every fall for the last five years. This is the time when my training peaks. There are plenty of competitive and community events to sign-up for. Try a 5K or bike race. Work with a fitness coach to increase your endurance and strength. Signing up for an event and training for it is one of the best ways to stick to your goals.

Add Variety to Your Fitness Routine- Just like the leaves change color in fall, your fitness routine should also change every three to four weeks. This is the time it takes your body to adapt to an existing stimulus. Join a new Virtual Fitness class. Hit the pavement, take your bike out, or go for a swim. Keep your body guessing just like the changing colors of the trees.

Let Go of the Past- Fall brings Halloween. Halloween symbolizes the past and honoring it. It also represents letting go. Fall is a time to learn from nature to let go of the past. Nature provides us with proof of how beautiful it is to let go. Let go of the things that don’t serve you and celebrate the beginning of new knacks, behaviors, and mindsets. Let fall be a fresh start—one of self-acceptance and gratification.

Get started on your fall goals today. You will be able to set the goals without any social pressure. Plus, you’ll get a head start on your goals, and you will have time to adjust your course as you begin working through them. You will have the momentum going. Come new year’s others will start working towards their goals, you’ll be enjoying the results.

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