Curing The Winter Blues
Do you have the winter blues? Do you feel fat and lethargic? Has your nutrition slipped? Is your exercise plan faltering? Are you unmotivated to workout? Serious cases of Seasonal Affect Disorder (SAD) need medical treatment but most of us just get a bit demotivated and a few simple tips can snap you out of it.
Good news! The winter solstice was a month ago which means that every day is getting longer now. Every day puts us closer to spring and summer and NOW is the time to plan for summer, not in May. Here are three ways you can snap yourself out of the winter blues and jump start your training for summer.
1) Purification. Have a purification period to signify that your nutritional sins of the winter are behind you and you are on the road to beach weather. To purify your system, for 48 hours, eat nothing but fresh vegetables, legumes, fresh fruit and drink only water. During this purification period, decide what your body will look like six months from now on June 20 at the start of summer. Find a picture that is a achievable but ambitious goal and hang it on your refrigerator door. Make a nutritional plan and workout plan to get you to your goal. You will be amazed how good you feel at the end of the 48 hours. Your cleansed system will make you feel better as will knowing what you are going to achieve and having a plan to get there.
2) Light therapy. Get a light box! This is a great way to improve your mood if you are afflicted with SAD. You can get a cheap one from your drug store. Bed tanning probably helps too but because of the cancer risk, its not the best idea. If you like the warmth of tanning in the winter but are afraid of cancer, consider just using heat lamps.
3) Reset your nutrition. Monitor your caloric intake carefully for one week! Its natural to be less physically active in the winter because of the difficulty of outdoor exercise. Just for a week, monitor every calorie you eat and then compare that to what my calorie calculator says you should be consuming. With just a week of calorie counting, most people develop an intuitive feel of how much they should be eating and can continue to eat the proper portions to keep their fat loss on track.
4) Cardio! Get your cardio, its the number one most important exercise for shaking the winter blues. If you workout at home you probably dont have access to a stationary bike or treadmill, but fear not, there are great home alternatives! Consider jumping rope, doing burpees, or making your own little 90’s style step class to your favorite music! Snow and ice are no excuse to skip cardio!
When are you going to snap out of the winter blues? I started my purification period today :)