Nov 19

Nov 19 7 Reasons To Exercise Outdoors This Winter

Hi, I'm Liz Moser, a Mayo Clinic and National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach.

Today I want to explore the benefits of exercising outdoors during the winter. And I also want to discuss my next calendar challenge with all of you. I've been calendar challenge free for eight months since I completed my 10-week Namaste Challenge last March. So, I’ve started a new one, and hang on for the details!

First things first, what are the 7 benefits of exercising outdoors during the cold and blustery winter months.

1 - Getting outside in the winter Increases exposure to the sun and vitamin D. 10 minutes of sun is all it takes to get a healthy dose, promoting calcium production and strengthening bones.

2 - Exposure to sunlight regulates your circadian rhythm and raises your serotonin levels. Both of which help ward off seasonal affective disorder.

3 - According to a 20,000 person study done at the University of Exeter, getting outside in nature for at least 2 hours per week increased reports of ‘good health’ and a ‘sense of wellbeing.’ The study found that participants who went on shorter hikes throughout the week; for instance, four 30-minute walks reported the same wellbeing levels. Therefore, you can break up the walking time and don’t need to take your 2-hour nature dose all in one long hike.

4 - The air quality outside is healthier than inside your home. Even during non-pandemic times, this is true, but it’s more so now because we are at home more during Covid-19 and we are cooking and cleaning more. Both the cooking particles and cleaning solutions pollute our household air. Meanwhile, there are fewer vehicles on the roads meaning less outdoor air pollution, as well. Therefore, get outside because the air is cleaner than inside your home.

5 – Exercising outside in nature improves your memory. One University of Michigan study showed how a walk in nature enhanced participants' ability to recall up to 20%. They also found that enjoying the walk wasn't necessary: the memory boost occurred on a blustery cold day as well as a beautiful spring or summer day. Getting outside in nature benefits your memory.

6 - Studies have shown that exercising in cold weather can transform white fat, specifically belly and thigh fat, into calorie-burning brown fat. Not familiar with white and brown fat? In a nutshell, not all fat is the same. White fat, which most of us are familiar with, stores energy in big, oily droplets throughout the body. This is the fat that, in large quantities, leads to obesity. Conversely, brown fat contains both smaller oily droplets and high amounts of mitochondria, which give the tissue its tan color. Mitochondria, the body’s power plants, use these fatty droplets to generate heat. So, exercising in the cold tends to turn your white fat into brown calorie-burning fat. Yay! That’s a good thing!

7- One Japanese research study measured the ability of a stroll through the woods to improve immunity. Scientists found that walking in nature increases intracellular anti-cancer proteins. And when you exercise outside in nature when the temperature is low, you have the additional benefit of keeping illness at bay because the cold air flushes bacteria out of your airways and lungs. Pretty important right now as we are concerned with maintaining our health and immunity levels.

Walking outside in nature at any temperature is beneficial because it increases your vitamin D levels, regulates your circadian rhythm, adds to your state of wellbeing, increases your intracellular anti-cancer proteins, improves memory, and the outside air quality is superior to inside your home, particularly now during Covid-19. If you exercise outside in the cold, in addition to all the previous benefits I mentioned, you also convert your white fat into calorie-burning brown fat, and the cold air flushes bacteria out of your airways and lungs.

There are many reasons to get outside and exercise, particularly during the cold months, and specifically this winter during Covid-19, while we are staying at home cleaning and cooking more and compromising our inside air quality.

For all these reasons, I have undertaken my next calendar challenge. I’m calling this challenge, "Operation Get Outside This Winter!" It started last Tuesday, November 10th, and it runs until the last day of winter, March 19th, 2021. If you are interested, check out the blog and video I created about utilizing a calendar system to build long-term habits.

The one stipulation of this challenge is I need to exercise outside every day. That’s it. I'm less concerned about the walk outdoors' duration because I’m already in the habit of walking 70,000 steps per week, and I have a treadmill at home where I can complete my daily and weekly step goal.

If interested, you can check out my blog and video on exercise and my weekly step goal on my website. I also record my daily steps on my nightly checklist, and you can check out my blog and video about nightly checklists on my website.

All that said, I’m less worried about the length of my walk outside and more interested in getting out in nature and enjoying the sunshine and fresh air.

One caveat: there are usually several days during Minnesotan winters when the wind chill is dangerously low. Those days, obviously, I’ll give myself a pass; otherwise, I’m challenging myself to walk outside every day, even if it's a short walk, for the rest of this fall and winter.

There you go! I’m looking forward to a winter of fresh air, converting white fat to brown fat, and improving my intracellular anti-cancer proteins while flushing bacteria out of my lungs. It’s going to be awesome! I’ll keep you posted!

I’m Liz Moser, a Mayo Clinic and National Board Certified Wellness Coach, and thank you for watching this video about the seven benefits of exercising outside in the winter and my new calendar challenge. If you have any questions about this video, about health and wellness, or wellness coaching with me, please reach out via my website at lizmosercoahing.com