Warm Up To Winter Activities Rather Than the Couch

Living in the North has given me plenty of opportunities to stay active in cold weather.

Eating out has always been an option, but when the pounds start coming on, you need to look elsewhere. My husband and I started thinking of things we could do rather than make our date nights "out to eat" nights.

First of all we started an exercise regimen, now I know when you are not used to exercising its kind of hard to start, because we are naturally couch potatoes. We began a short amount of time and added a minute a day till we worked ourselves up to 30 minutes a day or how many minutes you want to exercise. I have chosen 30 minutes a day otherwise it just was too overwhelming and I didn't do it at all. Time is always a factor, to help manage the time factor you could do 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes at noon, and 10 minutes in the evening. Give yourself a goal of 120 minutes a week that is 30 minutes for, four days a week. If you miss a day you haven't failed you just brush yourself off and get up the next day and get your time in. A week will go by and you'll feel better and you'll even be looking for healthier food. By becoming more active you will maintain your weight and hopefully stay healthier and want to do other things rather than be a couch potato.

What types of exercise do you start with? We haven't been very athletic in our adult years. To get started, we bought a treadmill and an air-dyne bike from the want ads in the daily paper... Then with my points from a card I use, I got a glider. Why three exercise gadgets? Because, if you are anything like me, it is very difficult to keep my attention for 10, 15, or 30 minutes so I do five minutes of activity on each gadget to make the time go by faster. It does too. However, it doesn't have to cost you. A couple of low cost ideas are: running in place, walking around your house, if you have stairs, do stairs, or jumping rope. I have a friend that turns music on and dances around the house.

Now I know a word of caution before you begin any exercise program you are advised to talk to your healthcare provider.

Once you begin the exercise regimen, and are feeling better and more motivated to brave the cold weather, you will be looking for opportunities to go out and enjoy local events that are not necessarily centered on food. For example: high school football , basketball, volley ball games, visiting at the local nursing home, or volunteering in the school, or church.. Inviting friends over and playing games such as Monopoly (an old family favorite) Cards, or checkers (my dad's favorite) the list is endless. If you are young and in shape you even have more activities available to you like cross country skiing, skating, building snowmen, sledding, roller skating, ice fishing, snowmobiling, and recreational sports. Then there are also activities such as quilting, scrapbooking, photography, and the list could go on and on...

Staying active all year makes for a much happier and healthier life. These are some of my ideas that may trigger in you more ideas, that will help you keep active.