Tips For Staying Healthy This Fall and Winter

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As a mom, you are always running yourself ragged. Taking care of kids, errands, job responsibilities, cooking, and cleaning doesn’t leave much time for taking care of yourself and staying healthy.

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But as the weather gets colder and we delve deeper into the fall and winter months, self-care is more important than ever.

No parent has time to get sick during these months of back-to-school, holidays, and everything in between.

To keep yourself healthy and in tip-top shape this fall and winter, consider these tips for your self-care:

Combat Allergies

Despite the fact that plant life should be dying by this point in the year, pollen counts are high, and allergies are horrible. Suffering with allergies is not only miserable, it also weakens your immune system, opening you up to be more susceptible to illness.

While it seems like there is no way to escape them, there are ways to help manage your fall allergies.

Most people just take allergy medicine and think they’re good, but there are other things you should be doing.

One really helpful thing to do is install a HEPA filter in your heating system. HEPA stands for “high-efficiency particulate air,” and it filters 99.7 percent of allergenic particles out of your indoor air system.

Along with the filter, try to keep the windows in your house closed, as all that outside air is full of pollen and other outdoor allergens.

Another way to help your allergies is to shower before bed every night. Throughout your day, you typically find yourself going outside and back in a lot. Every time you go outside, you are picking up particles from the air on your clothes, body, and hair.

Showering before bed is going to wash off any allergy particles clinging to you, and you can go to bed breathing easy.

Cut Down on Sugar

From October through December, there are a lot of holidays that involve eating copious amounts of sugar. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are all heavy in the sweet department, and while it may taste wonderful, it’s not so wonderful for our health.

Sugar causes a lot of harm to our bodies and is known to strip you of nutrients, cause and feed cancer, and play a big part in the development of diabetes.

But really, it’s unrealistic to say that you should avoid all sugar during these holiday events.

The key is to indulge in moderation. Staying healthy is still possible without cutting out everything completely.

Instead of snacking on candy in the weeks leading up to and following Halloween, get a bag of your favorite kind, take a few out for yourself, and give the rest away to trick-or-treaters.

For Thanksgiving, instead of making a different pie for every person’s taste in the family, come to an agreement on one and make that so you can avoid a week of leftover pie.

Christmas is probably the most difficult holiday to avoid sugar as there are Christmas parties going on from December 1st through the 25th. During this time, do your best to only indulge in sweets at the events, and avoid any at-home sugar intake. This way, you can fully enjoy yourself at parties without overdoing it in the long run.

Get Exercising

It’s hard to go outside when all you want to do is cuddle up in your warm house with some hot cider and a good book. But with all the food (and treat) indulging that happens this time of year, you’ll definitely want to get out and get some exercise to balance everything out. Luckily, fall offers some great exercise opportunities for everyone!

staying healthy

If you’re an outdoorsy type, there is no better time than the fall to go for a walk or a nice hike. The temperature is crisp but pleasant, and the leaves are changing, making the scenery extra beautiful.

Hiking is a great group activity as well, so you can make it a family outing or gather some friends for some mom-off-duty time. Staying healthy doesn’t have to feel like another chore. 

If you are missing summer and water activities, you might consider joining a gym with an indoor pool. If the gym has a spa or hot tub as well, even better.

Other than just being warm and relaxing, there are actually plenty of exercises you can do in a hot tub. The hot water is not only great for your muscles and blood flow, but the low-impact exercises done in the warm water are effective and promote muscle toning.

Staying healthy in the fall and winter months can feel hard sometimes, but it’s not impossible.

With a little extra thought and effort, you can ward off illness and keep your body in shape while still enjoying everything the seasons have to offer.

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Mila Sanchez is a very involved aunt to 4 kiddos and writer living in beautiful Boise, ID. Her ambitions include traveling the world, studying languages, and taking pictures of her dog, Baymax. Connect with her on twitter and instagram!

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