Winter can be a tricky time for maintaining the motivation to keep exercising. It’s colder. The days are shorter. It feels like it rains more. Comfort food is a regular go-to, and we’re wearing lots of gear – no need to be bikini-clad during the cooler months!
But it’s so important to maintain focus during winter; how many times I have tried to get back into last season’s gear the following year and have found them way too tight I can’t even count. Even if the weight stays off the scales, it’s easy to lose lean muscle mass and gain extra soft bits around the middle and thighs.
Depending on your exercise of choice, there’s a variety of ways you can keep at your fitness regime but the psychology behind it can be trickier to overcome. Particularly when the conditions aren’t ideal!
Here’s my favourite tricks to staying active during winter.
Forget motivation – think habit and routine!
Motivation is great, but none of us are motivated all the time so it’s a slippery little emotion to rely upon. The better place to start is to adjust your habits in accordance with the new conditions you’re facing. I’m all for morning work outs, but if you’re finding it impossible to get up in the mornings find a way around it. Instead of attempting to pull yourself out of bed at 5 or 6 am for your regular exercise, try lunch time runs, walking all or part of the way to and from work (exercising on the commute is a great way to stick to the habit of exercise – there’s fewer excuses!) or plan your workouts in the evenings instead.
At the moment, I am still loving hot yoga in the mornings (the promised warmth of the studio is an added incentive to get myself up and going when it’s freezing cold) and jogging or walking the 40 minutes home from work. I alternate or do both some days, and I’ve found it to be a good mix for me. Jogging home from work has the added bonus of giving me space in between work and home and releases any pent-up energy or stress from a day at the office.
Get an exercise buddy, or join a group
It’s much easier to stay on track if you’ve committed to meeting a friend – excuses are a lot harder to come by and there’s someone you don’t want to let down. It can also be classified as ‘friend’ time because it’s social as well as physical and exercising with your partner or friend is a great way to have a proper catch up. I also find it helps to have classes to go to – seeing other people getting into the spirit of it motivates me even when I don’t feel like it at first. It’s really just about turning up and letting it unfold from there.
Create a habit pattern as a goal, rather than just having an end goal
If I tell myself that I want to lose five kilos in the next three months, that’s great, but it’s very disheartening to get off track or fail. It’s too easy to give up, then. Instead, have the primary goal of exercising three or five times per week for at least an hour. Once you reach that goal and you’re committing to the exercise, you can step it up a notch and add the further goal of losing weight. Forming the habit is the key part of the equation.
Invest in some new workout gear
Whenever I invest a bit of cash into my exercise gear, I feel compelled to use them. It doesn’t have to be the most expensive stuff on the market, but simply having fitness clothing that you feel good in, that fits properly, is seasonally-appropriate and is comfortable to exercise in, can be the added incentive you need to stay on track.