Tips for Staying Active in Cold Weather Seasons

The desire to stay home and watch your favorite TV program increases with winter around the corner. I will give you some tips on how to stay active during the fall and winter months and banish those thoughts.

The first thing to do to keep you motivated is to look through your closet. Are those sneakers worn out and are those outdoor exercising jackets looking a little faded? Go out and buy a pair of shoes that feel really comfortable and any other outdoor fitness gear that you would feel confident wearing. Getting new gear will motivate you to get out and wear it. Keep them in plain sight so you don't forget!

When your buying sneakers, it is recommended that you buy a good pair once a month or once every two months if you are an avid runner. This will prevent muscle aches associated with bad footwear- which is not good if you have a hard time motivating yourself to get outside. When buying outerwear, look for something that won't trap sweat but will keep you warm as well. These kinds of special clothing are a little more expensive than other clothing, but well worth the investment.

Now that you have the perfect outfit for staying active outside in, it's time to find the perfect outdoor activity that you enjoy doing this time of year. If you really love talking to your friends, this is perfect for morning power walks.

The key here is finding thing you enjoy or maybe haven't tried yet. Is there a tennis court near to where you live but have never tried it out? It's never to late to discover a hidden passion for tennis with that cute tennis instructor.

Mixing up exercise is also important to maintaining interest. If you really don't like being outdoors, then join your local YMCA or gym. Swimming a few laps in the heated pool and relaxing in the Jacuzzi afterwards on Monday and joining that belly dancing aerobics class on Tuesday just might be what it takes to keep you exercising and not watching the TV.

One thing that often keeps people from maintaining an exercise routine or staying active is finding the time or motivation. Look through your schedule and see if you can even fit 30 or 45 minutes in there for some time to be active. If you usually exercise in the morning during the summer but have hard time waking up when it is dark outside, then find some time right after work to hit the gym or running trail.

Cooking a lot of healthy food once or twice a week and then freezing the rest for future meals will cut the time of preparation during the week and give you a little extra time to burn some calories. Cleaning, doing laundry, and all those other things around the house are unavoidable and they can burn a lot of calories. With all that time your going to save not cooking as much, put on those earphones, listen to some great music and get moving around doing all the dusting you've been meaning to do. Dancing around while your doing this is a lot of fun and will help you burn extra calories.

Having a little fun with yard work is also a great way to burn some of those extra calories as well. It's that time of year when raking leaves up starts and then the eventual shoveling of snow (if you live where there is snow, of course). So, why not have some fun with it as well? Jumping into piles of leaves or making snow tunnels was always an enjoyable past-time for me when I was outside doing yard work.

Trying out a few work out DVDs that you think might be fun is a good way to stay warm inside as it gets cold out without the fuss of having to go to the gym. Carmen Electra's strip dance DVDs or the P90X are examples of things to try if your stuck for ideas on which ones to try. I am not getting paid to advertise either product, but I've heard great things about both.

If you still want to sleep in in the morning without hitting the gym first and watching your favorite TV programs at night, it might be time to consider buying a stationary bike or treadmill. Bring it out into the living room if you have space and already have one. Otherwise, your treadmill will remain a clothes line, so bring it out to where you can use it on a daily basis . This way, you'll get to do two things at once.

Now that I've listed a couple ways to stay active this time of year, I hope that you can use one or two of them in addition to your daily routine to stay fit and healthy.