Beating the Winter Blues With Movement

Now I'm sharing what I know with you fitness , nutrition and all the deeper stuff to help you discover your strongest body . Hello , hello , welcome back to another episode of your Strongest Body . Thank you for being here . As always , I'm Betsy , your host .

Today we are talking about beating the winter blues with exercise , and now I want to say two things quickly .

We are going to go beyond the obvious , to practical strategies of how to actually make exercise happen when you aren't feeling it , when the weather is not supportive , when generally life feels better warm and under a blanket , rather than getting your workouts in .

I also want to make a quick note here that I am not talking about treating clinical depression , clinical anxiety , other clinical disorders , and I would never begin to offer advice . That's out of my scope . I'm talking about treating some symptoms of different kinds of winter blues .

We do know that exercise and movement has a positive effect , a positive impact and may ease symptoms of depression and anxiety . So that's what I'm talking about here . If , for any reason , you need additional medical support or need a clinical opinion , you would seek that out .

This show is not intended for medical advice , but we are going to talk about how we can help boost your mood with movement . Now , I think for most people and I don't want to assume , but I think most people know that exercise or movement is useful for boosting your mood .

We've heard that before and you may have heard that specifically as it relates to this winter blues , this sort of general mood shift that happens with our shorter days , our colder temperatures , dark , you know , darkness for a long time . Exercise can have a really helpful impact , help improve some of those symptoms . You probably have experienced it yourself .

Whether it be around wintertime or anytime , when you have finished a workout , you generally feel better , you have a mood boost , and that is because of the release of these feel-good endorphins and other natural brain chemicals . We start to feel better . That's a great thing . I'm not necessarily gonna talk and try to convince you of that .

I believe you probably already know it . The thing that is hard here when we talk about those winter blues and exercise is putting it into action . So we can understand it .

Intellectually , we can have the best intentions and if we don't set ourselves up for success , if we don't put parameters and forms of assistance in place for us to get it done , it's not going to get done . We all again I say this with a lot of things we know exercise is good for us . We know nutrient dense food is good for us .

We know sleep is good for us . I don't think you're shocking anybody with that information . It is about how do we take these concepts and apply them to our real life . So that's what I wanna talk about today . It's gonna be a quick one . I'm gonna give you some practical strategies , things that have worked for my clients , things that have worked for me .

Again , not medical advice , simply strategies for you to figure out ways to increase movement in these winter months to help you feel better . So let's talk about number one . Number one is getting any sunshine . So this is harder in different places . I live in Florida and we get a lot of sunshine year round .

I actually can drastically tell the difference in my mood on the days that we don't have a sunny day here because we have so many of them and I find that to be . It took me a while to notice it for myself because before moving here I had been in Manhattan and you spend a lot of time with a lot less sun , even sun just blocked by large buildings .

And when it got here , and it took until a non-sunny day for me to realize just how much that beautiful sunshine and that warmth I mean , I am a warm weather girly helps to boost my mood .

But for the person who is trying to get more movement in , finding opportunities to move in , sunlight is going to help us get that needed vitamin D as well as help to regulate our circadian rhythm . So the earlier in the day we see and get that sunlight , the better off we are .

Now , if you can find an opportunity to take a walk or get outside and do some movement , I would say do a whole workout or something , but sometimes that's hard to do . If you can take a walk or a bike ride or a run in whatever sunlight is available , that is going to be really helpful . How do we make that happen ?

I don't think you can plan on it all the time , but are there opportunities For most people who work , sort of a regular nine to five , 40 hour work week . The hours when you can get that sunlight are while you're in work , so you can either find strategies around maybe lunchtime where you can get out to take a quick walk if the weather permits .

If not , you may be finding that your weekend times are when you want to get that sunlight . Can you also park farther away from work and walk so that you get a little bit more sunlight at that time ? I don't have the exact numbers here in front of me and I'll do a little research on that about how many minutes are most beneficial .

I am sure they have some stats on that , but again , with a lot of these things , it's like we have some information , but when does it start ? Is there an amount of sunlight that is not beneficial ? Meaning the lower end is what I'm talking about .

Certainly , excess sun exposure is gonna be an issue , but I'll have to look into that and report back at some point for you on that , because I hadn't thought about that ahead of time . Yes , sunlight , getting it early , walking around in the day , is going to be really helpful . Can you get a break in your work day to do that ?

Can you make sure it's a priority on the weekends or days off of work . Again , it's about finding simple strategies and strategies that fit into your life already . The more we create new patterns , the more we try to go outside of our routine . We are swimming up against resistance . We're going in the wrong direction .

So how can we set up our river or flow to go in the same direction and then add things moving in that direction ? So that's one option . That's just a really good starting point and that helps too with that sort of when we're thinking about that need for sleep and it gets darker earlier .

But let's say you feel like you haven't exerted enough energy in the day and then you're having trouble falling asleep at night . Finding that sun exposure and that movement earlier in the day is going to be helpful . Other ways you can get in to a gym facility .

That is going to be something that is super helpful in that you can work out whenever they're open . You can work out so you are not limited to darkness , you're not limited to temperature . You're going to be able to go in be an appropriate body temperature use equipment . That's going to be really helpful .

I find that if you can opt for a gym or a sports club that has access to a hot tub , sauna , steam room .

That is going to be awesome for these months because it can serve as a little reward or treat post-workout Finding classes at a gym where it's already scheduled and you can limit the brain power needed to think about what you're going to do , and just show up and have somebody tell you what to do , following a training program , working with a trainer .

Again , we're trying to take away these barriers that make it hard for us to work out .

If there is any argument for there's no perfect time of day to work out , I think in terms of winter blues , it can be really helpful to have that work out earlier in the day so that you get more of the advantage , more of the benefits of those mood boosting chemicals earlier in the day . You can take it with you for the rest of the day .

Again , if that's not going to be useful for you or impossible for you to make happen , and if you're going to do less workouts , if you do them in the morning but you have better adherence to your plan if it's later in the day , then go with later in the day , but if there's ever a time that you're thinking like I do want to work out in the morning ,

this might be the time to do it . Remember that you're going to deal with darkness and cold . I invested in a big , warm , woolly coat . I invested in some leggings that go all the way down and not my shorts though I really like to work out in shorts .

So , you know , some days , if it's just too cold , I'll do that , investing in layers so that you can fit that in . This is a good time , too , to have or invest in some home workout equipment .

It doesn't have to be a lot , but if you have things that are available to you in your home , so that that lure of staying in your bed for a few extra minutes , you don't have to give it up and you can squeeze your workout in at home , that can be really helpful at this time of year , and you may find that you have seasons in terms of how and where

you're working out too . So you may have a gym membership and you realize that getting to the gym in the winter months is just far harder for you . Figure out a way to maintain that membership if you want to go back later in the year and focus on workouts at home . You can also use training cycles to take advantage of this time .

So , rather than doing a lot of workouts that are high intensity as it relates to cardiovascular or metabolic conditioning , things that require one , sometimes a lot of mental you know presence of mind and working yourself up to being interested in getting it done Like the level of difficulty from a psychological standpoint can be very hard , as well as it can be hard

on your whole body you could opt for doing winter workouts that are far more strength based , far more , and not saying that's not hard , but you could decrease reps , increase weight , have an opportunity to build more muscle and then , as the weather gets nicer , you have a little more energy , you have a little more sunlight and you have a little bit more time

outside . You can bring those other elements back into your training or shift into more of a phase of high intensity interval training or sport performance style training . You can use the parameters presented to you a little bit like I've spoken before in other episodes .

When an athlete plans their off season , pre season , in season , post season , they have different kinds of training modalities they're using to meet the needs of their body . Is this a time for you to build and then perform or body comp change later when you feel like you can .

This is also a time of year where people are usually consuming a little bit more food , a little bit more starchy , carbohydrates , dense foods that make you feel warmer , comfort foods make you feel warmer . This can be an awesome opportunity to take advantage of that .

Move a little bit more weight , build a little bit more muscle and then , when you shift your eating habits in the spring and summer to a little lighter , you can start to see some of those physique changes . If that's something that interests you , you can kind of think about it in terms of ways to take advantage of the challenges . Here .

The challenges can be like you don't want to be running a lot because it feels too cold . You don't want to be outside . You feel like you're eating a lot more . Instead of those as being barriers , they can be useful tools in a different kind of training . You don't want to be thinking about how you can make that happen .

Being realistic with yourself is also a huge part , so you may not have the same amount of time that you had before . Especially with the days getting shorter , especially with temperatures dropping , can you still make the most of the time that you do have and can you find ways to work in little .

More movement here and there at various times , at sort of sporadic times , can be helpful . Can you employ a buddy to do this with you ? Can you find an indoor recreational league to join ? Finding ways to make some movement happen and I would say every day , even not the rest days , can be really light movement .

But the more you can keep that pattern going , the more you can reward your body with movement , the better you're going to feel and the more you're going to be able to possibly improve that positive outlook . At least feel as good as you can when it's so cold and so dark .

It's a hard time year and I live in a place where it doesn't get that cold and it doesn't get that dark . I can't even imagine if you're somewhere much colder . But think about ways in which you can practically apply some of these strategies to your real life , day to day .

All right , that's all I got for you today If you are not on my email list , so this episode comes out . On Thursday , november 30th , on December 1st , I'm sending the first of my 12 days of fitness emails , totally free , just sending you a different resource every day .

I've got workouts , recipes , stretches , hitting all the recovery , fitness and nutrition , giving you something every single day for 12 days . Then , when it's over , I only sporadically email . I email about once a week , but these will be 12 days straight .

If you're not on the email list , you can join the email list either by going to my website and there's a spot where you can put your email address in . That's at bfosterstrongcom . That's the letter bfosterstrongcom . You can also send me an Instagram dm at foster , underscore strength , and I will add you to the email list if you send your email to me .

All right , if you're loving the podcast and you feel like rating and review , that would be so helpful . Until next time , I want you to go build your strongest body and I'll talk to you later . Bye .