Health during the winter months

A healthy lifestyle is something that doesn’t have to be difficult, if we have the correct priorities in place. We all know that nutrition and exercise are important pieces of a healthy lifestyle but there are several other things we can do to both improve and maintain our health.

The winter season tends to be the most difficult season to avoid illness during the year. Part of that difficulty comes from the lack of direct sunlight that we can get during the day. The cold weather also decreases the amount of time we spend exercising because it’s just not as easy to do outside. Another factor is the increase of processed foods in our diet due to the lower availability of fresh foods. Additionally, the holiday season tends to bring an increase in sugary foods such as pies and cookies as we celebrate with family and friends.

How do we combat this time of the year in order to maintain our health? Focus on some of the other areas of a healthy lifestyle that include: quality sleep, stress reduction, vitamins, and face-to-face relationships.

Sleep might be the most important part of a healthy lifestyle that also gets overlooked the most. The average American reaches the age of 40 with a sleep deficit of over 2 years. That means our bodies are so sleep deprived we can never catch up. This is huge because sleep provides our body the time to repair and recover at the cellular level. This one factor may be the driving force behind the increase in cancer rates.

Stress reduction is a huge benefit of exercise. When we reduce our amount of exercise due to the lack of daylight or the cold temperatures, we must find a substitute practice. Meditation, prayer, quiet time, reducing screen time, and avoiding the mainstream news are all ways to reduce stress. Everyone gets stressed over different things, so find what stresses you out and find a way to either avoid or reduce exposure to it.

Vitamin D and vitamin C are very helpful to maintaining health and both of these are naturally reduced in the winter time. Supplementing these and other vitamins is as easy as taking a tablet every day. 

Last in this short list is spending time with our friends and family. We already plan to do this as we get together for holiday parties. Making sure we spend time together feeds a basic need for better emotional health. Don’t forget the old adage - laughter is the best medicine. When we have fun together with friends, we typically have a much healthier life.