Unfortunately, during the winter months, many people find themselves putting on weight, failing to do a sufficient amount of exercise, and developing health conditions and mental health problems. You must stay optimistic during the winter and do as much as possible to keep fit and maintain a robust immune system during the winter months. Winter flu affects many people across the nation during the winter, and we should all make more of an effort to keep our immune system strong and ready and prepared to fight any of the bugs flying around. Read on to learn more about our tips on staying fit and boosting your immune system in the winter season.
Incorporate Physical Activity and Exercise into Your Daily Routine
Staying fit by doing plenty of exercise during the winter is essential to keeping on top of your health and being in good physical shape.
Organisation and routine are vital in making sure you get out and exercise regularly during the winter. Perhaps you can put a reminder on your smartphone, for example, to alert you when it is time to go for your daily jog in the park. Doctors recommend that adults aged 19 to 64 should do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity a week or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity.
Getting enough physical activity and staying fit will also improve your immune system and your body’s resilience to harmful bacteria and viruses. There are also benefits of doing lots of physical activity for your mental health and wellbeing. Doing exercise should help to prevent you from developing mental health issues such as depression during the winter. If you find yourself particularly struggling during the winter months, you should try and give the charity Samaritans a call.
Focus on Building Your Muscle Mass and Strength
It’s a wise idea during winter to try and lose any excess fat and build muscle. Improving your strength is not only useful for allowing you to pump more iron in the gym, but can also be handy and applicable for carrying out everyday activities such as carrying your shopping bags, moving furniture around the house, and so on. Staying strong during the winter will make your life a lot easier and leave you feeling physically much healthier.
Follow a Healthy and Balanced Diet
Following a healthy diet is a top tip for successfully staying fit in the winter and boosting your immune system. But what exactly is a healthy and balanced diet, you might find yourself asking.
Here is a list of some of the dos and don’ts to follow to a healthy and balanced diet:
- Make you sure limit the portion sizes of your food and avoid intaking too many calories daily,
- Avoid resorting to comfort eating in moments when you are feeling down,
- Educate yourself, so you learn about different food types and know which foods and healthy and unhealthy,
- Eat foods that will boost your immune system. Eating fruit and vegetables rich in vitamins daily will help keep your immune system strong and mean you can fight off bugs, infections, viruses, and diseases during the winter. Vitamin C, commonly found in oranges, encourages the production of white blood cells in your body, and so it improves your immune system and helps your body to fight off infections,
- Avoid junk food and sugary drinks as much as possible. Eating junk food and sugary drinks regularly during the winter will put you at a far greater risk of developing health conditions such as obesity, diabetes, circulatory heart disease, high cholesterol, strokes, and so on. The temptation to fall into unhealthy dietary habits during winter when sitting on the sofa in the evening can feel overwhelming at times. But you must remain self-disciplined and don’t let binging and snacking on junk foods become a regular occurrence for helping you cope through the winter months,
Take Nutritious Daily Supplements on Top of Following a Healthy Diet
Thankfully today, there is also a wide range of nutrient-rich diet supplements out there on the market for you to choose from. However, diet supplements should be used on top of eating healthy foods and not as a direct replacement for eating fruit and vegetables and nutritious foods.
An excellent diet supplement for increasing your body’s strength and muscle mass in the winter are protein supplement products. If you want to gain muscle during the winter and you are considering getting affordable protein supplements to help you, take a look at the delicious protein snacks and foods, and powders offered by EatProtein, a supplier of high-quality protein products.
Be Mindful of Any Pre-existing Medical Conditions You Have
Throughout the year, you should always remain mindful and acutely aware of any ongoing medical conditions you have and any actions that you can take to prevent them or ease their harmful effects on your body somewhat. But of course, during the colder temperatures in the winter, our general health is always more susceptible to declining and taking a turn for the worse.
Suppose you are experiencing obesity and struggle to control how much you eat and avoid unhealthy foods. In that case, you have to stay particularly vigilant during the winter when you are especially vulnerable to putting on more weight and aggravating your current existing health conditions.
People with diabetes have to make sure they don’t start comfort eating in winter on foods and drinks which are particularly dangerous for their health, such as sugary sweets and drinks. People with diabetes need to manage their diet carefully and monitor their glucose levels constantly to stay healthy. Failing to follow a nutritious diet, not finding healthy substitutes for sugar, and allowing blood glucose levels to go too high can have fatal consequences for people with diabetes.
People with severe pre-existing health conditions should therefore be wary of letting their health go during winter and make a conscious effort to allow them to stay on top of things and not fall seriously ill.
Monitor Your Weight and Body Composition Constantly
Monitoring your body weight and composition throughout the winter months will help you assess your body weight during the winter. Staying aware of your body composition will also enable you to promptly make any necessary changes to your diet or encourage you to do more physical activity if body composition stats tell you that your body is not staying fit and healthy in the winter months.
Some methods you can use to measure and monitor your body weight include:
- BMI (Body Mass Index)
- Regular Scales and Smart Scales which send electrical impulses around your body to provide stats on your body fat percentage.
- Waist Circumference size
- Bod Pod technology and air displacement to calculate your weight and body density.
- Skinfold Measurements and body callipers to measure the fat underneath your skin around different parts of the body. A low skinfold thickness means you are in lean shape, and a higher thickness reading means you have a lot of excess body fat in that specific area of your body.
Staying fit and healthy is always essential during the winter season. Having a strong, well-functioning immune system is particularly important in times like these when there is still the risk of you potentially contracting the Covid-19 virus.
