Walking In (or Inside) a Winter Wonderland

There’s noth­ing like a nice long walk on a crisp fall day or in the warm sum­mer sun. But as the cold win­ter weath­er sets in, it can be easy to trade in walks for an after­noon snug­gled on your cozy couch. 

That is actu­al­ly very com­mon. In the US, near­ly 60% of adults say that they are less active in the win­ter than they are in warmer weather. 

How­ev­er, it’s impor­tant to keep up with exer­cise year-round – and walk­ing is a great way to get the phys­i­cal activ­i­ty you need. 

If you’ve been keep­ing up with the lat­est Tik­Tok and Insta­gram exer­cise trends, you may be famil­iar with the ​“Hot Girl Walk®.” This is a 4‑mile walk (or any dis­tance you can walk com­fort­ably) where you think about what you’re grate­ful for, achiev­ing your goals, and, of course, how hot you are. 

Even if you’re not into it, the ​“Hot Girl Walk” is onto some­thing. It pro­motes the phys­i­cal and men­tal ben­e­fits of walk­ing. And whether you’re already an avid walk­er or it’s some­thing you’re hop­ing to get into, the cold weath­er doesn’t need to stand in the way. 

Also read: Boost Your Steps Per Day — Hint: It’s Not Just About Walk­ing More

Here are 4 ways to con­tin­ue your walks and make sure you still get the ben­e­fits of walking: 

1. Find a new place to walk. 

Tread­mills, walk­ing pads, and gyms with tracks all allow you to walk indoors. How­ev­er, walk­ing with­out going any­where or cir­cling the same track over and over again can get a lit­tle bor­ing. For­tu­nate­ly, you don’t need to invest in expen­sive equip­ment or a fan­cy gym mem­ber­ship in order to get those walks in. 

Look for oth­er places that you can walk around inside for free. When you need to go shop­ping, go ear­ly and take a pow­er walk around the mall first. Spend your after­noon walk­ing around a muse­um rather than sit­ting on the couch. Be cre­ative and find a place where you can enjoy yourself. 

If you do want to go the gym-type route but don’t want to spend a lot of mon­ey, con­tact your local com­mu­ni­ty cen­ter to see if they have an indoor track you can use with­out being a gym member. 

2. Stay root­ed in mindfulness. 

Walks aren’t just great exer­cise – they can help you keep your men­tal health intact. They can low­er your risk for depres­sion and boost your mood. 

If you’re into the ​“Hot Girl Walk,” you may already be aware that walk­ing is a great time to prac­tice mind­ful­ness and gratefulness. 

If you are shak­ing up your exer­cise rou­tine this win­ter, try to look for exer­cis­es that incor­po­rate mind­ful­ness. For exam­ple, you might want to try yoga. Yoga uses dif­fer­ent pos­tures and pos­es to improve your mind-body connection. 

Also, take some time to prac­tice grat­i­tude every day. Try writ­ing down what you’re thank­ful for, start­ing off each day by think­ing of some­thing you’re thank­ful for, or going out of your way to tell oth­ers why you are thank­ful for them. 

If you’re plan­ning to try long tread­mill runs or intense car­dio this win­ter, make an effort to also prac­tice mind­ful­ness. Swap out a car­dio work­out for yoga, prac­tice deep breath­ing, med­i­tate – all of these activ­i­ties can help you be mind­ful and get the men­tal health ben­e­fits you would get from a walk. 

3. Try a win­ter walk. 

Who says that you can’t still walk outdoors? 

Going on a win­ter walk can be peace­ful and allow you to con­nect with nature. Exer­cis­ing in nature can reduce anx­i­ety, boost your ener­gy, and help pre­vent Sea­son­al Affec­tive Dis­or­der (a form of depres­sion that comes with the change of the sea­sons and usu­al­ly emerges dur­ing the winter). 

Also read: Is it a Win­ter Funk or Sea­son­al Affec­tive Dis­or­der?

The trick is to be very care­ful and take pre­cau­tions when doing so. 

If you’re up for ven­tur­ing out and exer­cis­ing out­doors in win­ter, make sure to: 

• Be picky about when you go out. A chilly but dry day is good for a walk. A snowy, icy, or par­tic­u­lar­ly frigid day is a good one to stay indoors. In gen­er­al, it’s safe to exer­cise on dry ground when the tem­per­a­ture is above 32°F.
• Wear the right shoes. Even if you can’t see ice, there might still be some, so it’s impor­tant to wear slip-resis­tant shoes (like those with rub­ber soles) that reduce your risk of sliding. 
• Bun­dle up. Going out­side in cloth­ing that doesn’t keep you warm isn’t just uncom­fort­able – it can also be dan­ger­ous. It can increase your risk for hypother­mia (low body tem­per­a­ture) or frost­bite. Keep your hands, ears, and head covered. 
• Stay hydrat­ed. Dehy­dra­tion might seem like a hot sum­mer day prob­lem, but it’s actu­al­ly some­thing that can hap­pen year-round. 
• Put sun­screen on uncov­ered skin. You can still get a sun­burn in the winter. 

Wher­ev­er you choose to walk, make sure that you can eas­i­ly go indoors if you need to. For exam­ple, if you usu­al­ly walk around a near­by park, dri­ve to the park rather than walk there so you can hop into your car. 

Also read: Cold-Weath­er Exer­cis­ing

4. Repur­pose your TV time. 

From sit­coms to true crime doc­u­men­taries to real­i­ty shows where peo­ple get engaged hav­ing nev­er seen each oth­er, Amer­i­cans watch TV (includ­ing stream­ing dig­i­tal con­tent) for hours on a dai­ly basis. If you can relate, why not use that time to keep up with your walking? 

If you don’t have a tread­mill or walk­ing pad, try walk­ing in place. Walk­ing in place might not give you the most intense work­out you’ve ever had. But it does get your heart pump­ing. And, just 30 min­utes of walk­ing in place can burn about 100 to 200 calories. 

You can make in-place walk­ing a lit­tle more chal­leng­ing by lift­ing your knees high (more like march­ing) or walk­ing quick­er. To increase the amount of calo­ries you’re burn­ing, swing your arms from side to side. 

Even though it’s inside and in place, make sure to pay atten­tion to what you’re wear­ing. Opt for com­fort­able shoes with good sup­port and com­fort­able, breath­able clothing. 

It doesn’t mat­ter how, when, or where you decide to exer­cise this win­ter. The most impor­tant thing is that you’re being active and stay­ing safe. So what­ev­er the weath­er may be, put on those run­ning shoes and bun­dle up, or grab a yoga mat, and get moving.