December! Winter is coming back again. Do you get stress because of gaining weight or catching a cold in winter? In winter, we tend to stay home because of cold weather, so we become less active than in other seasons. As a result, your weight can increase and if you do not move your body after eating high-calorie food, your condition will get worse. Even when the weather is warm and good, making time to do exercise is hard. However, it is very difficult to do exercise in cold weather. We should take several nutrients and exercise constantly to have a healthy body in winter. Which exercise is easy to do and which food is good for health, especially during winter? Here are some Gazette health tips.


◆Exercise

Before choosing a sport, it is better to choose a sport you love to do and can do steadily. Exercise is effective when we do it steadily, but if you do some exercise which you don’t have any interest in, you will quit the exercise in a few days. Furthermore, it can get boring even if it is your favorite exercise. At that time, it is good to try another exercise. The best exercise is the thing that you can do with joy.

-Warm-up
The most important thing is that you have to warm up before you exercise. Many people overlook the importance of warming-up, so they tend to skip the warm-up or do it inattentively. However, it is very dangerous. The muscles, joints, and ligaments which we don’t use on usual days can be hurt when we use them suddenly. For this reason, we should warm-up before we do exercise to strengthen muscles.

-Walking, Jogging
Walking and jogging are the easiest exercises and do not need any special exercise equipment. They are suitable for people who don’t have knowledge about exercise. They also can be done in our daily life. For instance, you can do them while going somewhere instead of taking vehicles. However, to prevent injury, you should wear suitable and comfortable shoes. Walking and jogging can be a great cardiovascular workout, strengthen the immune system, and increase metabolism. Twenty to thirty minutes is about right.

-Yoga
Yoga is the best exercise to do in winter because it can be done in a warm house alone with no special exercise equipment. Furthermore, you can get rid of your stress and get psychological stability through deep breathing and meditation. Yoga has several poses, so you can use muscles which you do not use on usual days. It makes your body flexible. However, bending the neck and waist is dangerous for beginners. For this reason, you have to increase yoga level or the number of times a week gradually. Furthermore, if you have a herniated disc, you should be careful during yoga. You should not do a pose like bending your waist too much. You should do yoga more than 3 times a week for 40 minutes at a time.

-Skiing and Snowboarding
Skiing and snowboarding develop balance, agility, and lower body strength. Furthermore, you can get a fresh feeling, speeding on the snow and seeing the beautiful view while exercising. Because you have to bend your legs and waist during exercise, it causes strain on the knees and waist. When you fall down, you can hurt your hips or break a bone when you crash. For this reason, you should wear equipment which can protect the body and suitable clothes and have knowledge about safety. Skiing and snowboarding are good when you do them 3 times a week and 2 hours at a time.


◆Food
People should take necessary nutrients from food. All kinds of food have various nutrients, but all kinds of food don’t have beneficial nutrients. Furthermore, nutrients have different roles in the body. For this reason, we should know which nutrients are good for where, and which foods have these nutrients. Let’s look at some food to prevent illness in winter.

-Cold
When the weather gets cold, we often catch a cold. A cold comes to you when your immunity becomes weak. To strengthen your immunity, tangerines and bananas are helpful.
First, tangerines are rich in vitamin C. Tangerines which are harvested in October contain much more vitamin C. Vitamin C helps to strengthen immunity and regenerates cells in the body. Furthermore, it speeds up metabolism to maintain body temperature. It also helps to strengthen the mucous membrane of the lungs, so it is effective in preventing a cold in winter.
Bananas have more than 6 times the vitamin B6 of other fruit. Because vitamin B6 is related to protein metabolism and cell growth, it is an important component to strengthen immunity. For this reason, if you eat two bananas a day, you can prevent a cold

-Constipation
The intestines are important to immunity and detoxification. However, because of cold weather, we are inactive and that causes constipation. To prevent constipation, it is important to eat lactobacillus and dietary fiber. We can eat lactobacillus in yoghurt and dietary fiber in kelp.
Yoghurt has lots of lactobacillus. It is effective to clean the intestines. Furthermore, it helps to activate the work of the intestines. However, lactobacillus is very weak in stomach acid. When you eat lactobacillus on an empty stomach, it often dies. For this reason, if you have an empty stomach, it is good to drink some water before you eat the lactobacillus.
Kelp has more dietary fiber than other seaweed, mushrooms, and vegetables which have much dietary fiber. Kelp has sticky sap, and when it enters the body, it expands. As it stimulates the intestines, it is very effective for constipation. However, if you eat too much kelp, it harms your health. The iodine in kelp makes your thyroid work worse if you eat too much. The best quantity of kelp is 8g a day.

-Increased weight
Many people have stress because of increased weight in winter, and they struggle to lose weight. To prevent increased weight, you should choose low-calorie food and feel full and satisfied by a small quantity. It is good to eat brown rice and buckwheat.
Brown rice has much more dietary fiber than other kinds of rice, and it makes you feel full and satisfied. The dietary fiber in brown rice blocks fat absorption in the intestines and helps it out of the body.
Buckwheat has lower starch and fat than other cereals. It also has protein and minerals, so it is the best food to control weight. Winter has very long nights, and we often eat a late-night meal. At that time, buckwheat is very good because it is easy to digest. Furthermore, it even suppresses your appetite, and it is good for a person who has a weak constitution to strengthen the body because of its various nutritional contents.


Eating good food and doing exercise steadily are important in every season, not only winter. Although many people make an effort to do exercise, it is not easy to do. However, the most important thing in food and exercise is eating good food when you eat and doing exercise you want to do when you exercise.
In winter, because of the cold weather, people are apt to do nothing and just stay in a warm house. If you think like that, it will be better to think winter is the season to get ready for warm spring. Then you can spend winter with joy. This winter, choose an exercise and food in the Gazette’s health tips. Then you can spend winter more pleasantly and healthily!