5 Ways to Combat Seasonal Affective Disorder

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD), also known as the winter blues, is a common problem. The change in weather at certain times of year can have a negative effect on your mood. In fact, many people find this occurs in the winter or after the holiday period. The weather is cold and dark, but you’ve still got to get back to work. Some of the symptoms include depression, fatigue, and a general lack of motivation. There are a few things you can do to get the spring back in your step, however. Here are five ways to combat seasonal affective disorder.

Get more exercise

Exercise has been found to be beneficial for your mental health. It can help combat stress, mood swings, and anxiety. If you’re bored of your current exercise routine, why not try something new? If the weather is cold where you are you could switch to an indoor activity, such as yoga, HIIT workouts, or other online classes. Exercise helps to fight that feeling of sluggishness and will give you an energy boost.

Light therapy

Seasonal affective disorder is associated with the lack of light during the winter months. One treatment used to combat SAD is light therapy. A light emitting device helps replace the sunlight you’ve been lacking. It’s also a good idea to go out on sunnier days, even just for a short walk to boost your vitamin D. This will also help to brighten up your mood.

Speak to your doctor

If you’re going to try a new therapy you should always speak to your doctor first. They will be able to recommend the best treatment for you. If they prescribe you with any medication to help combat depressive symptoms, it’s important to ensure your medical insurance covers this, so you can avoid Part D penalty. Your doctor will provide you with all the help and information you need.

Organize social activities

There are many proven benefits of social interaction for your mental wellbeing. Even though it’s difficult to socialize at the moment, you could try meeting a friend for walks or even organizing meetups online. If you’re feeling low one evening, give a friend or family member a call to see how they’re doing. You might find this lifts your mood and gives you more motivation. 

Try out a new hobby

Sometimes a change is as good as a rest and new hobbies can help beat depression. It’s easy to fall into a rut and lose motivation because you’re simply bored. Try something new whether it’s a sport, hobby, or online class. It’s important to challenge yourself from time to time. It can be very rewarding to learn something new. It’s also a great way to clear your mind. If you’re the creative type, you could try arts and crafts at home. You could also learn a new recipe, or do some DIY around the house, whatever appeals most to your interests. A new activity will help you focus your mind and feel motivated.

A Present for Yourself: 6 Tips to Get Healthier and Stronger This Winter

It can be challenging to keep up with your fitness and health goals throughout the year, but it all becomes even more complicated during the winter months. As the holiday season approaches, it is only normal to feel sluggish and dream of afternoons spent cuddles up on the sofa. 

However, if there is something that this year has taught us is that looking after our health is crucial. Indeed, whether you are dreaming of getting your small business off the ground or meeting your career goals, it all starts from looking after yourself. Start from the tips below. 

Incorporate Some Kind of Resistance Training

Resistance training might not be loved by everybody in the same way, but it is crucial to look after the health of our bones and joints. Indeed, after the age of 30, we all lose just under 10% of our muscle mass every ten years. 

Resistance training is the only activity that can help you keep your muscles developed, flexible, and healthy. In turn, such a powerful system can offer the right support for your bone and skeletal structure. These muscles can reduce the incidence of injuries and medical conditions. 

Don’t Forget to Stretch After Your Workouts.

Stretching should always be an important aspect of any of your workouts. Whether you prefer to run, joining a yoga class, or pick up weights at the gym, don’t forget to spend a considerable section of your time stretching. 

During this part of the workout, you can truly focus on the importance of ensuring that your muscles are long, elastic, and strong. While stretching is not one of the aspects we consider the most during our training, it is an essential one to keep in mind if you wish to live a truly healthy lifestyle for longer. 

Use Yoga to Improve Your Balance and Flexibility

Not all types of gym training and exercises are equally suitable for everybody. So, finding the right type for your personal preferences and fitness goals is crucial. While running and lifting weights are undoubtedly excellent ways to keep fit, they might not represent the best idea of training for everybody. 

So, you might decide to try different but just as helpful disciplines. For example, yoga, pilates, and calisthenics can help you focus on flexibility, balance, and stability while improving your strength.

Additionally, these types of mindful practices allow you to get a deeper understanding and awareness of how your body works; this can be extremely useful if you are trying to stimulate smaller muscles or strengthen certain aspects. 

Be Mindful About Your Nutrition

Your nutrition and lifestyle have an incredible impact on your wellbeing and muscle mass. Therefore, if you are trying to meet your fitness goals, it is also crucial to pay special attention to what ends up on your plate. 

While filling your plate with fresh fruits and vegetables is relatively easy in summer, during the winter months, it can represent a significant challenge. Indeed, it is easy to give in and opt for ready-made comfort foods and recipes. 

Comfort foods are part of the holiday tradition, and saying no to them all together can be impossible. However, instead of opting for overly restrictive choices, ensure that they only make up a small percentage of the food you eat. 

The rest of your diet should be made of natural, not processed, seasonal, and fresh produce. These ingredients will help you consume all the nutrients needed to look after your health in the best way. 

Embrace a Lifestyle Change

Sometimes, a change in your lifestyle and habits is all you need to start feeling healthier and stronger. Indeed, many of the issues we all deal with today are related to how we live our daily lives. For example, a sedentary lifestyle is at the core of endless health conditions, including stress, depression, and obesity.

Instead, introducing small changes in your lifestyle might just be everything you need. For example, you might consider swapping your current desk for a standing desk. Standing desks allow you to stand up during the majority of the day, improving your posture, creativity, and morale. You might also think about asking about top widex hearing aids if you are finding that you are struggling to follow conversations or are having to turn the TV up more often. It’s better to get the help you need than struggle.

Speak To A Professional

Sometimes, you might just need to find the right guidance that can help you navigate the path ahead. Indeed, a change of habits and lifestyle does not always come easy, and it will require you to be consistent and work with persistence. 

Looking after your health, exercising on a regular basis, and paying special attention to the ingredients in your plates might be challenging to adapt to. However, the results that will follow will be the best motivation to keep going. 

In some cases, you might need professional guidance to help you identify the recovery path more suitable to your needs. Clinics such as the Southwest Scoliosis Institute are there to support you on this journey.

Take Good Care of Your Health This Winter

As Wintertime draws near, it’s important to think about how you’re going to protect your health this season. If you’ve ever noticed that you seem to get more colds in Winter or you’re more at risk from the flu, you’re not alone. Of course, the added worry of COVID-19 means that people are even more motivated to protect their health this Winter. With this in mind, take a look at these top tips for taking good care of yourself and protecting your health this season:

Boost Your Immune System

A good immune system will help you to fight off bugs and viruses, so you should, in theory anyway, get sick less often when your immunity is high. What’s more – when your immune system is functioning well, any illnesses you do experience should be less severe and pass more quickly.

Luckily, you can boost your immune system simply by eating the right foods. Garlic, red bell peppers, ginger, citrus fruits, broccoli, kiwi, green tea, and live yogurt at all great immunity-boosting foods, so try to incorporate them into your diet if you want to optimize your health this Winter.

Check Your Vitamin D Levels

Vitamin D is an essential nutrient that our bodies need to keep bones, muscles, and teeth healthy. However, we get the majority of our vitamin D from the sun, which means it’s easy to become deficient in wintertime when there are fewer hours of sunlight.

You can supplement your vitamin D levels with supplements but it’s important to ensure you’re not taking too much. A quick blood test can tell you what your current levels are, which makes it easier to determine how many supplements you need to take. If getting to your doctor’s office is a hassle, why not learn more about at-home blood draw services? With experienced phlebotomists, fast processing times, and accurate results, this can be the most convenient way to have any type of blood test.

Spend Time Outdoors

When it’s cold, wet, and windy, going outside may not seem like a great idea to most people reading this. In fact, many people assume that spending time outdoors in bad weather can actually increase your chances of getting sick. Providing you wear the right clothing, however, spending time outdoors during Winter can be beneficial for your health.

Although illnesses can spread more easily during Winter, this is often because we spend more time indoors with other people, where it’s easier for illnesses to be passed from one person to another. By spending more time outdoors, you can continue to be active every day, enjoy nature, and breathe in the fresh air.

Use a Light Box

If you notice you feel a little low during wintertime, it could be down to the reduced natural light you’re exposed to. Known as seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, symptoms can range from low mood or heightened anxiety to feelings of despair and a lack of interest in day-to-day activities.

It’s believed that natural light helps to increase serotonin levels, so, when we’re exposed to less light in the Winter, our serotonin levels drop which has an impact on our emotional well-being. Fortunately, you can rectify this using a SAD lamp or lightbox. These use at least 10,000 lux of light to mimic natural sunlight, which can help to eradicate the symptoms you’re experiencing. Most people use them for around 20-60 minutes a day, although individual needs do vary.

Protect Your Skin

The colder temperatures and increased moisture in the air can cause your skin to dry out, which means it’s important to maintain a regular skincare routine. Switching from a light moisturizing lotion to a heavier cream may also be a good idea.

Your face and hands may be most prone to dry or dehydrated skin in the Winter, as these areas are most exposed to the elements. By wearing gloves and moisturizing your skin frequently throughout the day, you can keep it soft and supple, regardless of how bad the weather is.

Ventilate Indoor Space

Germs can spread more easily in the Winter because we spend more time indoors. If indoor space isn’t properly ventilated, it’s easier for one person to inadvertently transmit an illness to someone else. In highly populated areas, like offices or schools, it’s not surprising that germs can spread so easily when indoor spaces aren’t properly ventilated.

Although keeping a window open on a cold day may not seem like a great idea, it can be an effective way to increase ventilation and reduce the risk of getting sick. In addition to this, you may want to use an air purifier to help keep indoor spaces, such as your office, well-ventilated. A dehumidifier can also be a good idea, as this will help to extract excess moisture from the air, which can help to reduce allergy symptoms.

Looking After Your Body And Mind For Winter

Winter can be a crazy and fun season. With so many activities such as family dinners, social gatherings, and plans for gift exchanging, we have plenty of things to distract us and keep us from focusing on our physical and mental health and wellbeing as we would typically do. 

However, once the holiday season is over, and we return to our everyday routines, many people find their motivation to stay healthy and active dips. Some people find that they struggle with low moods - perhaps anxiety over the holidays’ financial cost, or maybe Seasonal Affective Disorder because of the lack of sunlight. Other people let diet and healthy eating habits slip. We swap healthy food and physical activity for comfort and junk food and snuggling up on the couch. 

This, combined with the shorter days and colder weather, can mean that we become quite unhealthy. In turn, this leads to a weakened immune system, leaving us more susceptible to illness, which can make us feel even more down in the dumps. It is little wonder it is called the winter blues.

You don’t have to feel that way, though. You can do things to keep your mood, physical activity levels, and diet up at a safe and healthy level during the long winter months. Read on to find out more.

Chill out with the carbs

In winter, we often crave carbs. They are the ultimate comfort food - creamy mashed sweet potato, lots of delicious gluten-free bread toast, or big steaming plates of gluten-free pasta. This causes your serotonin to rise, making you feel happy and relaxed. This, in turn, leads to craving them and eating more and more.  Inherently, carbs are not bad. They give you energy, which during the winter when you are feeling particularly lethargic is important. However, too many carbs can cause your blood levels to spike, sending you on a crash (and making you feel worse) and leading to weight gain and putting you at risk of conditions such as diabetes.

To overcome the carb cravings, ditch them for breakfast and replace them with protein-packed meals. Try silken tofu, scrambled, or chia seeds in coconut milk for a breakfast that tastes delicious and will keep you full until lunchtime.

Have some healthy and delicious snacks to hand for the afternoon when the carb cravings kick in and look for alternative ways of getting that serotonin hit.

Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables - especially green and orange ones!

Opting for fruit and vegetables that are primarily dark green and orange can mean that you are getting plenty of healthy nutrients and vitamins, including the all vital vitamin A. Kale, spinach, swiss chard, carrots, squash, and oranges are all perfect for winter. Cook up hearty butternut squash stew or add some spinach to your scrambled tofu for a healthy breakfast.

Add in omega 3

Omega 3 fatty acids are healthy fats that are found naturally in many foods. Most people think of oily fish when they think about omega 3, but if you lead a plant-based diet, you can also find it in fish, seeds, pulses, and nuts. They help to reduce joint pain and stiffness, which many people suffer from in the winter, thanks to their natural anti-inflammatory properties. Research has also shown that omega 3 fatty acids can help reduce the incidence of depression, again, something which is much more common during the dark winter months.

Plan your physical activity

It can be so hard to get motivated to do exercise in winter, but if you don’t, you risk undoing all of the hard work you have done over the year. Try to plan and stick to a regular exercise or fitness routine. Once a week, sit down and schedule it out. Take a look at the weather forecast and plan around that - if it is terrible weather, prepare for something indoors. If it is cold but sunny, a brisk jog can warm you up and leave you feeling great. Having a plan makes it much more likely that you are to stick to it. You could also consider having an exercise buddy - someone who can hold you accountable. If you know that you would be letting someone else down, if you don’t get your running shoes on is a great motivator.

Stick to indoor exercise

If the thought of going out for a run or even leaving the house to go for a swim or to the gym feels you with dread, don’t do it. There are plenty of home workouts you can do in the comfort of your lounge, whether you fancy yoga, pilates, weight training, or even cardio. Have a look on YouTube or Pinterest for some free tutorials for all fitness levels and abilities.

Wash your hands

With Coronavirus still hanging about, you are probably fed up with hearing this one, but it really is one of the most significant ways to protect yourself against illnesses. Make sure you wash your hands after using the bathroom, before eating, when you come in from being out, and after handling money. 

Make sure that you get plenty of sleep

Sleep - preferably around eight hours or so every night - gives your body the chance to rest and recuperate. Lack of sleep lowers your immune system and can lead to poor mental health. Try to avoid using screens in the hour before bedtime, go to bed at the same time every night even if you don’t have to get up the next morning, and make sure your bedroom is dark and at a comfortable temperature. Lavender is said to aid sleep, so if you are struggling, indulge in some lavender soap for your bath or a pillow spray.

Most of these tips are easy to put into practice and do not involve expensive or drastic lifestyle changes. They will help to keep both your mind and your body healthy throughout the winter so you can move into spring in the best possible way. 

Wellness Tips For Winter

We are rapidly hurtling towards the winter months. Before we know it, the temperatures will have plummeted, the nights will have drawn in and we will be eagerly awaiting the return of the spring.

Winter is the season that takes it out of us the most, and this year, with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic taking centre stage, it is possibly going to be even more challenging than usual. It is cold and dark, we are all more susceptible to illnesses and viruses - COVID-19 notwithstanding and it can be much harder to get out and about. Because of this, loneliness and isolation become more common and those who suffer from chronic pain or illness see symptoms worsen.

November and December are often ok - we have Christmas and the new year celebrations to look forward to, and the really bad weather hasn’t quite kicked in by then. However, January and February can seem long and depressing. Life is supposed to be normal but the lighter nights and warmer weather seem so far away still.

Fear not though, although we can’t do anything about the weather, we can take action to make it seem a little more bearable. Here, we look at some simple self-care and wellness tips to help you get through the long winter months.

Have a bedtime routine

If you are going to do just one of the things on this list, do this one. Without sleep, your body does not get the chance to rest and recover, and nor does your mind. Try to aim for around eight hours of sleep a night. Stick to a regular routine, going to bed at the same time every night, regardless of whether you have to get up or not in the morning and get up at the same time, even on weekends. Avoid using a screen for at least an hour before you head up bed - the blue light cell phone and devices emit can prevent sleep. Ensuring your room is a comfortable temperature and as dark as possible can also help to encourage restful sleep. Some people find that white noise in the background can be very soothing.

Plan a wellness activity

This can be as simple or as grand as you like. It could be something as easy as setting up a spa at home - a long, hot bubble bath, all of your favourite skin care products, face masks and so on. It may be a real spa-day, with massages and facials to get your skin and body prepared for the winter. It could be booking into a NAD Treatment Center to really turn yourself around both physically and mentally.

Eat well

When we think of winter food, we think of rich, hearty meals that are warming and comforting. Sadly, these are often not particularly great for us - they can be stodgy and laden with carbs. This can make us feel good for a short time, but in the long-term make us feel lethargic. Try to incorporate plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables into your diet as you need plenty of vitamins to keep yourself well at this time. Homemade vegetable soups, berries in oatmeal and stews and casseroles packed with seasonal veg are all great ways to get those vitamins in you. Enjoy the hot chocolates and the pumpkin spice lattes, but make sure you are drinking plenty of water to keep hydrated, too.

Socialise

In winter, it can be all too tempting to stay in wrapped in a duvet and watch Netflix rather than get dressed and go out with your friends. It will be even more difficult this year with the restrictions that the pandemic has put upon us, but hibernating can lead to isolation and loneliness, and this is not good for your mental health. Make an effort to meet up with friends with a walk or a coffee date if you can, or if you can’t get out, join with quizzes and throw virtual parties on apps such as Zoom.

Exercise

Almost no one wants to drag themselves out for a run in the middle of winter - that is reserved for the most hardcore of fitness fanatics, but taking regular exercise will make you feel so much better. It doesn’t have to be an intense workout in the gym or a long run - Zumba in your lounge, an online dance class with your friends or a swim at your local pool can all be ways of getting in some physical activity.