4 Tips to Stay Healthy and Fit This Winter

Winter is just around the corner. During this season, everything and everyone seems to go into hibernation, making it especially challenging for us to stay fit and active. Not only does the cold make you want to sit by your fireplace and drink tonnes of hot chocolate, but the shorter days that come with the season make it harder to squeeze in a workout.
Despite the cold weather, there are many good reasons to keep pumping in the winters to stay healthy and fit. You can simply follow the 4 simple tips below to stay healthy and active this winter.

Bring Fitness Indoors

It is easy to understand why you wouldn’t want to go on your usual morning jog on a cold winter day. Many don’t even bother to go to their own gym, just so they can savour the warmth of their beds for a few extra minutes. All well and good, but this doesn’t mean you cannot stay fit and active indoors. There are plenty of simple yet effective workouts you can do while staying inside your house - whether its yoga, aerobics, strength training, or even HIIT (high intensity interval training). While these are all viable and accessible solutions (Kudos to Youtube), one must be wary about staying indoors for too long during the winters - Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is already a popular phenomenon during this time of the year, and lack of fresh air and socializing can aggravate it.

Take Care of Basic Hygiene

In the winter, we tend to get lazy and ignore self-care. Most of us start to bathe less and overlook the importance of basic hygiene, such as washing our hands. This can increase the chances of developing colds and can weaken our immune system, making us more and more unproductive as workers, students, or simply as members of society. 

Eat Healthy

During this season, we tend to live more on coffee, tea or other hot beverages than on water, disrupting our hydration levels and even our food intake patterns. Try to consume more seasonal fruits and vegetables to get the most out of the season. Vitamin C enriched fruits (such as oranges) are in abundance during this time, so capitalize on your chance to boost your immune system!

Keep Yourself Hydrated

In cold weather, our bodies tend to lose more water due to the dryness in the air. This, coupled with the fact that our thirst for fluids (especially water and juices) decreases in the winters, leads to excessive dehydration, a consequence that is often not realized until it is too late. So, better to set a daily goal and keep track of your daily water consumption - on average, 8-10 glasses of water a day is enough, but this may vary in cold temperatures.

Conclusion

Health and fitness should not be seasonal habits. You don’t have to leave your exercise routine just because the weather is against you. Embrace the cold, enjoy the chilly weather, and make healthy habits a part of your lifestyle until they become second nature.