Staying Healthy for the Holidays: Staying Active

Hello all, and welcome to the second installment of Staying Healthy for the Holidays.  Ahhh...holidays, endless hours spent indoors watching holiday favorites like: "It's a Wonderful life", "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", and for the more refined tastes, "Scrooged".  Let's not forget that annual 24 hours of "A Christmas Story"!  Today I want to discuss ways to stay active and avoid the sedentary behaviors that tend to happen in the cold winter months.  Staying active can help avoid Seasonal Affective Disorder, keep the pounds from accumulating, improve your immune system, and also stave off aches and pains associated with lethargy.  While it might be natural to feel like you want to hibernate like the (Chicago) bears, there is nothing in our known history where homo sapiens have ever hibernated.  We hunted and foraged to stay alive in winters.  Many Northern European descendants have evolved to have a natural amount of "brown fat".  This is commonly found in hibernating animals and actually creates heat through a chemical process similar to muscle energy production.  It is believed to be lost in most humans as we leave infancy however, and we would die in just 3 days without water, so ixnay on the ibernationhanay.  Here are five easy tips to staying active this winter!!

1. Find an outdoor winter activity.  There are a number of fun activities to do in the winter.  There is snow boarding, skiing, ice skating, cross country skiing, sledding, playing in the snow with your kids, make a snow fort, snowman, ect.  Rule number one of a great stay active program is making it fun, if you find the activity fun you are more likely to stay active!  Getting out into the sun also promotes vitamin D production.  Getting just 30 minutes of sun exposure produces 10K-20K IU of Vitamin D!  So get out there and try something out.
2. Check for local indoor leagues.  If you really can't stand the cold, many indoor community centers, gyms, or schools offer winter leagues in a variety of sports.  Football, basketball, soccer, kick ball, dodge ball, and volleyball just to name a few.  Get together with family or friends and start a team.  Make sure to not take things too seriously and have fun!
3. Take a walk.  Dress in layers and actually go for a walk.  Walking has been shown to be better for keeping your metabolism high than running.  You will burn more calories during a 30 minute run vs. a walk, however, the walk will burn a higher percentage of fat and your fat metabolism will stay up after for a longer period of time.  After a run your fat metabolism actually drops off, sometimes to levels lower than they were before.  Also if the snow is deep, that's that much more energy expenditure!
4. Check for local sport groups.  Most common type is probably a running club.  Here in Kalamazoo we have Kalamazoo Area Runners, Borgess Run Camp, and Gazelle Sports.  There can also be swim clubs, ski clubs, ect.  These clubs will help you get started training in a their perspective sport.  They also offer comradery and professional advice.
   
5. Strength Train.  Strength training is the best way to burn fat and increase fat metablolism.  Also if your metabolism is higher, you will naturally create more body heat (think thermogenics).  You don't need a gym membership to strength train, you only need you!  Body weight training and plyometrics is a great method of staying strong while needing little to no equipment.  Your best bet is to find a place where you can get some one-on-one personal training to give you ideas on how you can do these things at home.  If you plan on starting a running regimen during this winter I highly recommend strength training as a part of that, as you need to get into shape to run, not run to get into shape!

I hope you find these tips helpful.  I understand how difficult it is to get or stay active during the winter, but anyone can do it if you just apply yourself!  If you are in the Kalamazoo area and want some more help, feel free to call or email me!  Next I will discuss how to avoid and reduce stress this season.  Stay Healthy!