The big picture idea that we would like to bring out with this article is that you must establish a personal health routine. You must have a rhythm with your nutrition, meaning you have a mealtime ...
The big picture idea that we would like to bring out with this article is that you must establish a personal health routine. You must have a rhythm with your nutrition, meaning you have a mealtime schedule set up. You need to figure out some of your go-to meals, the right kind of meals you have for a quick breakfast or a quick lunch. Besides this, you also need to have an exercise rhythm in your weeks. Your body will respond to several types of exercises in diverse ways. Slowly you will realize which exercises you love. That routine is key and that is the throughline throughout your year. Your routine is your structure, and when you have the structure, you can be consistent and when you're consistent you can create and sustain long-term health.
All of life is dynamic. Things are constantly changing. when we have structure, we need to make that structure interface with the dynamic nature of our lives. One of the main aspects of our is that our years run on seasons. So, the stuff we may be doing when it's summer when it's warm and sunny outside, might be different than the stuff that we do in the winter. Particularly in the northern hemisphere, this wintertime is a time when a lot of people get into trouble with their health. people are often less active, they can't go outside as much, and they're eating more sugary foods, and this is a symptom, not a root cause, of people not being able to adapt their health routines to the novel changes and pressure of a colder climate and a darker environment.
In looking at how you can adapt your health routine in the wintertime, we need to focus on three primary areas predominantly: your sleep, your movement, and your nutrition. When it goes into the wintertime, and it's getting darker earlier, that can lead to some changes in your circadian rhythm. the key thing here is to become conscious. What kind of choices would you like to make for your bedtime and wake-up time? It could be different than it is in the summer. Not to say you necessarily must make a change. But it's important to look at, how the light and dark cycle affects your circadian rhythm and whether are you going to make some changes during the winter season to shift your schedule accordingly. Just know that this is a variable that you need to build into your understanding of your routine.
Another thing that’s especially important when it comes to the circadian rhythm in the wintertime is, were not getting as much vitamin D. Vitamin D is so important for our immune health, our mood, and our overall wellbeing. So, what's recommended for you and your family is to look at, if you're not getting as much sunshine on your skin, which is the best form of vitamin D, you cloud possibly supplement this vitamin throughout the wintertime.
Another factor in which people often get caught up is movement. When it's warm outside, it's easy to go for a walk with your family after dinner and do some exercise outside, but what happens when it gets cold outside is that a lot of people just stop moving. So instead of being derailed every winter, ask yourself what the opportunity is right now with this changing climate and how can I make changes. If it's harder for you to get outside, maybe you start doing an in-home or at-home workout routine. You can also test out new hobbies that you like to do and get some movement in your body. The act of doing conscious thinking about how you're going to adapt to a colder environment is super key. If you don’t do this, what will happen is a routine that was contingent upon pleasant weather will just fall off the wayside and this gap that is left in your daily life will eventually lead to inactivity.
Whatever it is for you, just make the choice and think about this kind of stuff. Some early research also informs us that if we don’t meet a minimum activity threshold every single day, our body does not regulate its hunger hormones that well. So, you want to move enough in the wintertime, and you cannot let the cold be an obstacle. You need to adapt your plan. The principle stays static, but the plan adapts with the season.
On the nutrition front, there are a lot of good opportunities with every season because the good thing is that eating fresh food that’s grown in season is a wonderful thing to do for your health. It also gives you a lot of variety and allows you to try a lot of new things. In terms of fruits, we can have a lot of core fruits like apples, pears, and citrus fruits. You can start by incorporating more of these into your routine during the wintertime. Things like a root vegetable, cabbage, broccoli, all the tubers, and certain kind of squashes can be your go-to carbs in your life. Making various kinds of stews, broths and soups, and various other things like this that are arm and nourishing. This could also become your wintertime staple. There are many go-to recipes you can introduce in the winter that gives you some more warmth, that are delicious, that gives you a holiday feeling but are still super healthy.
If you start to ask yourself certain questions, you're developing a plan and not just a plan that’s consistent every year, but a plan that has slight variations and spices in it that meets all the demands of every season. This is also what makes it fun to stick to health because we want consistency, but we also need variety in every season. It gives us a chance to try some new stuff.
