Seasonal Eating Habits

I read an interesting article earlier this week about seasonal eating habits. In the depths of winter it’s all too easy to turn to stodgy comfort foods and then spend the first few months of the new year getting rid of that extra weight. We’ve all done it, despite our good intentions. But even if you manage to eat the same year-round, if your activity habits change in the winter and you spend more time sitting indoors, you’re still likely to gain extra weight during the winter months.

Sounds obvious doesn’t it? But I can honestly say that was something that had never occurred to me before. People who know me have heard me complain about not having my own car and having to walk to work no matter what the weather – but maybe I’m lucky! I can’t change my activity levels in the winter, because I’ve got no alternative.

If, like me, you’re having a “lightbulb” moment as a result of this, what can you do? Well, one solution is to be sure you’re still counting calories in the winter so you don’t have to do so much work when the warmer weather arrives. If you do want to turn to comfort foods, homemade vegetable soup is a great option because you’ll be getting plenty of vitamins and minerals (which will also boost your immune system and help fight off any colds that are going around) without being heavy on the calories. Seasonal fruits such as clementines are sweet enough that they can stave off sugar cravings too. Also, as we’ve said before, try and stick to ‘good’ fats such as those found in fish, avocados and nuts which will help fill you up without being bad for you.

So in short, if you’re less active in winter, you should be paying even closer attention than usual to making healthy eating choices.