Although it is relatively easy to stay fit and trim during the summer months, when you’re spending a lot of time outdoors and engaged in warm weather activities, winter is a whole different story. It’s all too common to find yourself hibernating like a bear, doing very little to keep in shape as you wait for spring to approach the following year.
However, if you’d like to stop winter weight gain and enjoy fitness all year long, here are some ways to do it:
- Find winter activities you enjoy. Go skiing on weekends or take the kids sledding. If you’re moving while outside, it won’t seem so blistery cold and you may just find a winter-based activity that makes you look forward to colder weather.
- Use your imagination. Some winter exercise regimens get sidelined simply because you don’t want to go outside to go to the gym. One way to combat this is to use your imagination and come up with workouts you can do at home. Run up and down the stairs for cardio exercise or do pushups with your children on your back to work your muscles. Be creative and get your workout in by using unconventional methods.
- Keep your motivation up. Even though it may be cold outside, that doesn’t mean that you can’t motivate yourself with warm weather thoughts. Put up a picture of a beach scene and visualize how good you’ll look on it by working out all winter long. Remember that you will have less to lose when the weather warms up if you keep yourself fit all year long.
Don’t let winter sideline your fitness goals. The more you stay on track, the sooner you’ll reach your goals and the easier it will be to slide in that swimsuit when warm weather arrives!