Weight Loss in Cold Climates

I am originally from southern Louisiana where outdoor exercise is possible year round. When my husband and I decided to move our family to Michigan, I knew that it would take some planning and creative thinking to get my exercise in every day to lose weight.

Exercise at Home

I enjoy exercising outside, but exercising indoors makes me dread every second I am working out. To combat this indoor workout boredom, I decided that I would break my workouts up into a lot of mini workout sessions. The average hour of television has 18 minutes of commercials. I use commercials to workout. During each series of commercials, I do jumping jacks, run in place or do eight count body builders. I don't stop or rest until the series of commercials is over and the program comes back on. Once the program is back on, I stretch, do situps, pushups, arm curls, leg lifts or other strengthening exercises, until the next series of commercials. I do this through two hours of television to get in all of my exercise. The two hours of television are usually broken up into four 30 minute programs throughout the course of the day.

Indoor Exercise

When I get tired of indoor workouts at home, I go to the YMCA to walk on the indoor track. I have also gone to local museums and the traditional mall in town to walk. I really don't enjoy these and usually feel out of place, but it breaks the monotony if I do it every now and then.

Outdoor Exercise

Since getting layered up to walk outside is a hassle, I only did this once or twice a week-usually on a day when I was going to the store or out for some other errand. I would then follow the traditional advice of parking as far away from the door as possible when I got to my destination. However, if the parking lot was icy, I wouldn't do this.

Because there is an open mall close to where I live, I am able to walk outside under the awning that extends from the buildings. This makes walking outside easy and safe during the winter months. As a bonus, I get to do some window shopping for the holidays as I walk.

Conclusion

Working out during the winter involves finding the line between making sacrifices to deal with the elements and working out indoors. Making a workout schedule and following it can help you to stay on track with your workouts and weight loss.