Worried About Winter Fitness?

YOUR DAILY FITNESS TIP

By Jennifer Gruenemay, Special to Lifescript

If you’re not lucky enough to live in a warm-weather state where palm trees and sunshine are a year-round occurrence, you might be worried about your fitness goals. How are you supposed to do your outdoor workouts when there’s a foot of snow on the ground? Winter weather can easily put a cramp in your fitness goals, unless you’re willing to approach it with a can-do attitude and work with what you have. Strap on your mittens, scarf and knit cap, and get knee-deep in the snow for some activities that’ll burn a ton of calories.

Lucky for you, winter fitness doesn’t require that you partake in snow shoveling drudgery in order to burn a decent amount of calories (although clearing the driveway does burn 500 calories in an hour!). Just building a snowman can burn a few hundred calories in an hour, and time flies when you’re having fun. Or maybe you’re the type to ambush passer-by’s with well-targeted snowballs. Schedule a neighborhood snowball fight and you’ll burn over 300 calories an hour. Or for those of you who prefer pirouetting over getting pelted with snow, strap on your ice skates and hit the pond for a 500 calories per hour burn.

I don't know about anybody else, but I for one have been slowly gaining weight ever since my 50th birthday. I have been trying to cut my calories and get more exercise, but nothing seems to be working. Now that the weather has turned cold, cold for this 'freeze baby' at least, and with the holidays coming and family getting together to eat. I am concerned that I am in deep trouble trying to lose weight now.
Don't get me wrong, I have always liked eating and have found it easier to gain weight than lose it, but in the past when I have needed to lose weight, I have been able to lose weight, but now that I am 50, it feels like that has changed. Now it feels like I have to really work just to keep from gaining.
Some 'experts' are now saying that eating more protein is suppose to keep a person full to keep them from over eating. The question is how long will it take for another 'study' with the exact opposite findings? This is why life can be so confusing so many times. That when something is said, I for one have come to expect  the counter-diction.