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The winter months can present challenges when it comes to sticking to your exercise routine as well as keeping your kids active…

The new year may be here, but winter still has a few more weeks before it melts into spring. For most of us, winter calls to mind warm, cozy sweaters, nights cuddled up by the fire, and lots and lots of hot beverages. You know what tends to slip our minds during winter? Exercise and healthy eating. This can be tough for those of us trying to live a healthy lifestyle, particularly when we have children looking up to us.

In some ways, I understand our wintertime, couch potato tendencies. Who wants to spend time trying to convince themselves and their children to get some physical activity – especially when it’s cold outside! What’s more, our cupboards are usually crammed with holiday goodies co-workers gave us as gifts during the previous holiday season, tempting anyone who dares to trek through the kitchen. Who among us has the willpower to resist a tasty cookie and get a healthy snack instead? (Not me!)

Over the years, I’ve picked up a few tricks that not only get my son moving during the winter months, but actually help me keep fit too! They’ve become some of our favorite winter activities. Why not give a few a try to kick start 2017?

Walk in a Winter Wonderland

It’s a simple fact: every kid likes to play in the snow. So when you wake up to some clean, fresh powder, why not take advantage of it? Bundle up and take a walk so you both can enjoy the scenery. Make a snowman or have a snowball fight! Whatever you decide to do with your time in the snow, it will certainly be better than time spent in front of the TV.

Even if you live in a snow-free climate, you can still take advantage of the winter weather. Parks and hiking trails will be less populated in the winter, which means your family can have the place practically to yourselves! As long as you are dressed for the weather, there is no reason that you and your little ones shouldn’t enjoy some time in the wintry outdoors.

Marathon Your Meal Prep

If you’re living a healthy, vegan lifestyle, you probably already know the importance of meal prepping. Taking time to prepare healthy, plant-based meals and snacks can be a lifesaver during those busy workdays, when it seems like all you do is grab something as you head out the door again. But have you ever stopped to consider that meal prep could be a workout?

Get the whole family involved in your cooking! Chopping veggies (if you’re old enough to handle a knife, of course), running around the kitchen finding ingredients, and mixing things together can actually get your heart rate up and your muscles working – and if you don’t believe me, as anyone who’s ever baked something without an electric mixer!

At my house, we make meal prep an athletic event. We invent little competitions, like who can clean the counter the fastest (my favorite way to get my son to tidy up for me) and we make sure that everyone plays a part in getting ready for the week. It may not be as strenuous as running a marathon, but it’s leaps and bounds better than lying around all afternoon.

Reclaim Your Favorite Outdoor Games

Your parents may have told you not to play ball in the house, but you’re the parent now! Go ahead and try repurposing your favorite outdoor activities for a housebound group. Have wheelbarrow races around the living room. Compete to see who can hula hoop the longest. Practice your handstands or hacky sack skills. Find your favorite tunes and turn up the volume, gather the family, and take turns showing off your best moves.

Really, the key is that everyone is getting their blood flowing and their endorphins flowing. Not only will you find yourself getting some exercise, you will make amazing memories you’ll cherish for years. Fun-filled exercise like this can really help you shake off those winter blues and help create healthy habits you’ll keep all year!

Many people who were used to working while sitting all day long have now adopted the use of a treadmill desk, and the adoption rate is increasing day after day.

A treadmill or a standing desk can make you healthy by limiting your sedentary way of life. With the number of Americans today who are spending around 9 hours sitting, the prevalence of certain cancers, diabetes, and other kinds of health disorders continues to escalate each year.

That is merely the start. There are lots of advantages of working while on a treadmill desk. Here are at least five of them:

You Are Far Away From Sitting Diseases and Pains

Sitting disease, in other words, is a winding down of the metabolism that happens when a person sits for a long period of time. The lowering of the basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the most direct consequence of this. Assume that it is your heart rate when you sitting still. You burn lesser calories just to keep your vital organs working, exercising your brain cells, etc.

By standing, you can significantly increase your body’s BMR since the heart needs to work harder to keep your body erect. Slowly walking at a pace of one to two mph will raise the BMR even further, and with that, your background calorie burns. You can estimate such burn rate at around 100 to 130/hour.

It Reduces Stress and Increases Productivity

Exercising regularly can help improve your mood and lessen anxiety through the release of the brain of endorphins to the body. The endorphins can lessen your sensitivity to pain and stimulate a positive feeling to your body. When using the treadmill desk, you are already able to exercise on a regular basis.

Apart from that, a study also concluded that the performance of employees while using a treadmill desk did not decline after an initial, short adjustment on its use. As a matter of fact, it was found out that the overall health and productivity of employees have improved. Stating that mental performance, time management, and work quality all improved when the employees use the treadmill desk.

Calories Are Burnt and Results in Healthy Body Weight

Like any other kinds of exercise, walking burns calories. Although not as many calories as biking or running burns, but walking still needs energy and thus offers a calorie burn. For losing weight, increasing the level of intensity, increasing walking or incline level for longer periods will burn lots of calories. However, when utilizing desk treadmill workstation for the first time, you should start gradually and slowly increase your speed as well as walking duration after several weeks. desk-treadmill-2

Improves Fitness, Health, and Creativity

Studies show that engaging in exercise enhances health and fitness, and is directly connected to connectivity. The study even found evidence that using a treadmill desk at a workplace can enhance memory and increase creative thinking. It may also help the brain to work better by boosting the functional connectivity among the areas in the brain.

Maintains Blood Pressure and Reduces Risk of Type 2 Diabetes

We all know that walking can help improve blood flow which in turn lessens blood pressure. According to also to studies, people with hypertension have lower bp readings for around 22 hours after a session of working on a treadmill desk. This effect is also beneficial to those who are suffering from type 2 diabetes. Through the use of the desk treadmill, there are able to exercise and that helps reduce the levels of blood glucose and which will help them avoid long-term complications later on.

In addition to these 5 advantages, using desk treadmill at workplace also promotes a healthy lifestyle. Many users are reported to obtain moderate weight loss as an outcome of this new routine. Crash exercise programs and crash diets can give negative effects hence a very slow weight loss rate is really an ideal thing to aspire. The main objective of using a desk treadmill should not, however, be losing weight but instead the prevention and reversal of sitting diseases.

– Jack

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Fitness Exercises You Can Do With Kids During the Winter Months