Don’t Slip with the Seasons
As the days grow shorter and the light fades earlier, you can find that your well-established routines start to wobble. Cooler weather and darker evenings can quietly reshape your behaviour in ways that make healthy habits harder to maintain. Suddenly, the walk you looked forward to after dinner feels less appealing in the cold, the lure of comfort food grows stronger, and mornings feel heavier when the sun isn’t there to greet you.
These seasonal shifts are perfectly normal, but they can sneak up on us if we’re not paying attention. A few things that commonly creep in include:
- Less movement. Darker mornings and evenings often mean fewer steps and a decline in outdoor activity.
- Richer food choices. Hearty, calorie-dense meals and sweet treats become more tempting when it’s chilly.
- Disrupted sleep. Shorter daylight hours can affect circadian rhythms, leaving energy levels lower and cravings higher.
- “All-or-nothing” thinking. When routines are disrupted, it’s easy to slip into the mindset that consistency is no longer possible until things feel easier again.
The good news is that none of this is inevitable. With a little awareness and intention, you can keep your habits dialed in, even as the seasons change. A few practical strategies:
Anchor your movement. If you’re less likely to walk outside, plan alternatives. Strength training, yoga, or a quick online workout can be done at home in the time it would take to scroll through your phone. Setting a fixed time, even just 30 minutes, makes it much easier to stick with. The Advanced Strength Calendar is a great option here, as all the workouts are 35 minutes or less. Or, if you want something more relaxed, opt for Motion Mastery, our amazing mobility program.
Choose warming, nourishing foods. You don’t have to avoid comfort food, but you can adapt it. Think hearty vegetable soups, protein-rich stews, or oven-roasted root vegetables instead of heavy pies or pastries. You’ll still feel comforted while keeping energy and nutrition balanced. Try Tracy’s Moroccan beef stew, or Kim’s versatile bean ragu.
Use light to your advantage. If natural sunlight is limited, get outside during daylight hours whenever you can, even if it’s just a ten-minute walk at lunchtime. At home, keep rooms bright in the morning to help signal your body to wake up.
Tighten your routines. Small shifts add up quickly in autumn and winter. Be deliberate about things like setting a consistent bedtime, preparing nourishing snacks ahead of time, or scheduling workouts in your diary as non-negotiables.
Keep perspective. The goal isn’t perfection; it’s maintaining momentum. One indulgent meal or missed workout doesn’t undo your progress. What matters is returning to your habits the next day.
As the seasons change, so will your energy and environment. But with foresight and some flexible strategies, you can keep your health habits strong and steady and arrive in spring feeling proud of the consistency you maintained.
Muscles in Menopause
Over the summer Tracy ran a webinar, focusing on training in menopause. The replay hasn’t been released to our wider community – until now! Here you can watch or listen to Tracy’s webinar on “a new approach to training in menopause”. If you have thoughts on training in menopause, come and join our free Move Daily Hustle Facebook page – our community hub with tens of thousands of likeminded Movers. Ask questions, share advice and join in the conversation.
Join Tracy and Guests on Move Daily Talks
Every Saturday Tracy is joined by a special guest on her hugely successful, and informative podcast, Move Daily Talks. Here is the latest release for you to listen to, learn from and enjoy. Or watch it on YouTube.
This Weeks Workouts!
Here is your handy reminder of the current week’s workouts. All of the workouts are available either free via the YouTube channel, or are the Members Exclusive workouts, which you can access if you sign up to our Membership. Don’t forget that the workouts are released across the week and so make sure you are signed up for YouTube notifications by subscribing to the channel.
