Staying Active in Winter
Authored by Reagan Christian, Med*Thin guest blogger. He lost 100 pounds in 2017-2018. He continues to maintain his weight with food, activity, and lifestyle changes.
With the cold weather in full swing and many gyms closed due to Covid-19, you may not feel like exercising, and for anyone looking for an excuse, there are plenty to choose from. The holidays and breaks from normal work and other schedules often lead to less time being put towards your health. If you really want to put in the effort and reach your goals, you can find the time and the ways to stay on track. Don’t want go walk the block in the cold? See what you can do inside the warmth of your home to achieve your goals.
Plenty of exercises can be done in your living or bedroom with no equipment at all. Need cardio? Walk laps from one side of your house to the other. It may not seem like the most fun form of exercise but at least you’re making progress. Find some zumba videos you could put on the TV and dance to the beat. There are also plenty of free and paid videos for aerobics, and just about any kind of exercise you could want. Searching “home exercises with no equipment” on YouTube or Google will bring you enough results to do something new every day.
If you want to add some resistance training to your exercise, and can’t get to the gym, try weights you can put together from items in your house. Everyone knows the sand in a milk jug (or detergent bottle) trick. And you can sub the sand for dirt, water, or anything else you want to get your desired weight. Miss doing squats with weights in the gym? Maybe try lifting one end of the couch with your hands as you squat. I’ve even taken wooden rods and slid cinder blocks on each end to deadlift and bench press (I don’t recommend trying this without safety measures in place). If you own resistance bands, a jump rope, or weights, now is a good time to take them off the shelf. Use DVDs, videos from the internet, or instruction pamphlets to guide you.
Do you already own exercise equipment that’s just sitting in a corner, with laundry draped over it? Consider taking off the laundry, dusting off the elliptical (or bike, rowing machine, or treadmill), and creating a space around the equipment that signals an intention to use it. Add some music or a screen to watch your favorite shows. Give yourself visual reminders. Set your exercise clothes and shoes near the door, and mark off “appointment slots” on your calendar during which you have a protected time to enjoy some healthy activity.
Maybe you feel more exhausted with the shorter days and the season affecting our moods. Finding fun ways to exercise could help you feel more motivated to burn off fat. If you typically watch TV at night, try challenging yourself to do a certain number of sit ups or plank for as long as you can till the show comes back. If you use Netflix or other ad-free streaming, you could let the credits run between episodes and get your exercise in then. You could find a chart online, or even make one, that assigns different exercises to letters of the alphabet, pick a word, and then do what the chart assigned each letter in that word, picking new exercises every day with new words.
The cold weather, gym closures, shorter days, and a million other things could be discouraging you from reaching your goals. Instead of focusing on what you can’t do -- imagine what you can do! There are many other resources that can help you learn how to stay active despite different obstacles that stand in the way. So do what research you need, find your motivation, and get active in new, creative ways!
“Instead of focusing on what you can’t do — imagine what you can do! ”
