I consider the fall to be one of my favorite seasons, as I am sure many people do. After all, who doesn’t love the cool breeze, football games and pumpkin flavored everything that comes along with it?
Now that it is officially that time of year, I find it hard to keep up with the healthy habits I developed over the summer. I think I speak for all of us when I say that as the colder weather approaches, our health and fitness agendas tend to be put on the back burner. Combining this with the stress of keeping up with our demanding class and work schedules can create a recipe for disaster when trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle. That is why it is important to be aware of our summer fitness habits and do our best to maintain them throughout the year. Here is a list of four ways you can keep the season from dragging your healthful habits down.
Set goals and limits, while creating a daily game plan. Narrowing down exactly what it is you plan to achieve with your fitness objectives allows for a greater chance of sticking to healthy habits. If your diet or exercise plan is excessively restrictive or too vague, you’ll have a harder time keeping up with it. Thinking of specific goals can establish a clear understanding of where you want to be, causing you to be more likely to rise above the challenge. For example, limit yourself to having dessert once a week, or commit to an hour a day at the gym five times a week. Establishing this exact plan for your nutrition and health goals makes it a lot easier to stay on track. Being consistent and creating habitual routines in this way is the key to maintaining a healthy body throughout the fall. Once you find a way to create a practice that fits your schedule, your goals will be easier to achieve and remaining fit will become a lot simpler than you think.
Make sure you eat what is in season. Being healthy is a lot easier when the fruits and vegetables you’re consuming are seasonal. This not only benefits our bodies, but our wallets, too. Eating these seasonal fruits will ensure that your produce is less expensive, has greater nutritional value and, more importantly, tastes better. The great produce of the summer may be dwindling in our markets now, but foods such as pumpkins, apples and Brussels sprouts are ripening and will have great nutritious benefits for those who consume them this time of year.
Stay hydrated. This point is essential to being healthy and fit at any time of the year. Of course, it might be easier to follow this step in the summer time, as it becomes more complicated in the fall when our bodies are not as parched. However, it is important to remember to drink the recommended eight to 12 glasses of water a day during any season so that your body can remain hydrated to keep your body running at its best.
Be sure to boost your immune system. This is possibly the most important part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle during the fall season. Coming back to a time of year with cold weather also means watching everyone around you develop some form of a cold. Keeping this in mind, it can be hard to ensure that you keep up with your dietary and workout plans if you’re lying in bed with a cough, fever and the sniffles. Try to beat out sickness by making sure you get plenty of rest, lowering your sugar intake, and taking your vitamins. This will improve your overall health, so you can avoid getting ill.
