Weight gain is always a risk no matter what time of the year it is but, there is something unbearably irresistible in winter that just makes you relax and, worse, totally skips on your physical activities. It’s not hard to tell it’s the gray weather and the cold surroundings that are challenging your mental toughness around this time.
The causes of weight gain in winter can be multi-faceted. Lack of exercise is just the start of flabby stomach and muffin top. Poor diet is another but, so too are more season-proof causes such as chronic stress and lack of sleep. Whatever the reasons for gaining weight, there are five basic ways by which you can avoid getting yourself in this situation:
Tip No. 1: Do high-intensity indoor exercises. Sure, you love working out in the outdoors more but, when it’s not possible in winter, it’s just not possible. Don’t turn that into an excuse to skip on your regular workouts. Do you know how difficult it is to burn 1 pound of fat? You need at least one week to lose it! If you allow those excess fats to creep up on you, your once fit body will be long gone before you know it. So, get moving.
Some of the high-intensity indoor exercises that you can try are skipping rope which you can do right inside your bedroom. If you don’t have a rope, you can do jumping jacks continuously for at least 15 minutes. Keep in mind that you’re only losing water for the first 15 minutes so, if you want to burn the fat you need to keep up beyond that. Other alternative physical activities are yoga and dance classes. If you have to get out, how about moving up and down the stairway of your apartment building?
Tip No. 2: Keep moving. Fight the temptation to lie around and pull up the sheets because it’s cold. The activity must not stop when you’re done with your 30-minute or so workout. Moving around has to become your normal way of life. Get physical around the house. Move furniture, clean the cupboards and scrub the floors. The point is to find something else that you can do other than sitting on the couch with popcorn on your lap.
Tip No. 3: Eat lean. You don’t have to avoid any particular food group to keep eating healthy throughout winter when fresh produce naturally dwindles or becomes more expensive. What you need is to learn to eat in the proper proportions. The best way to stick to a healthy eating plan is to do the following:
- Come up with a weekly meal plan.
- Market and cook your food. If cooking daily is a challenge for you, try preparing all of your meals over the weekend. Then, all you have to do is heat it when it’s time for a meal.
- Start with your fresh foods first. Fruits and salads first. These foods prepare your body to ingest more complex sugars, and it also ensures that you’re gobbling on the good stuff first. Follow up with your proteins and carbs, just a fist size each, and a pinky sized portion of fat. Feel like a full sized dessert? You need to skip either your carb or your protein.
- Eat like a king in the morning, a worker for lunch, and a pauper at night.
Tip No. 4: Sleep well but don’t sleep in too long. Sleep deprivation has been established as a top cause of obesity. Just think about those nights when you had to render overtime work and how much coffee and sweet and salty nibbles you gobbled up ’til the wee hours of dawn, and you’ll understand that sleeping late can get in the way of healthy eating.
Tip No. 5: Learn to better manage stress. Stress is a fact of life. It will be there no matter what. It can be one of the major causes of weight gain in winter if you are unable to better manage yourself, most especially your emotions. Stress drastically drives up cortisol levels which pull down your insulin, making you crave sweets even more.
Conclusion
Olympic Gold Medalist, Haile Gebrselassie, said, “You need three things to win: discipline, hard work and, before everything maybe, commitment. No one will make it without those three”. Use this triad to beat your winter blues away.
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