If you’ve been sticking to your elliptical and treadmill workouts this winter, recent research has some good news for you. Check out this link for an article on some of the benefits of winter workouts. Keeping active during the winter can stave off Seasonal Affective Disorder (i.e. the winter blues) during the shortest days of the year, which results in you and your body being in a healthier place this spring. This article shares even more good news…
“Getting active this time of year can help in unexpected ways. It shifts your body to instinctively make wiser food choices while also raising your mood and energy level,” says Jonathan Erhman of the Clinical Weight Management program at Henry Ford Health System’s Center for Athletic Medicine in Detroit.
“There’s evidence that people who become routine exercisers change their diet just naturally. They tend to eat healthier, and it’s not always a conscious decision. It seems to come from just being active.”
For more on the benefits of combining exercise and diet, check out this link. A controlled study of people who lost weight through diet alone and those who lost weight through diet and exercise demonstrated the beneficial effects of exercising while losing weight. Those who exercised while dieting improved their overall fitness and the functioning of their internal organs, even though both groups dropped weight. In this study, exercise “was the deciding factor in whether an individual improved his or her blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and cardiovascular fitness.”
Weigh in: Did you keep up your workouts this winter using your treadmill, elliptical, or recumbent bike? If so, how are you feeling with spring around the corner?