By William Coleman
With the cold setting in we are all adding some padding to keep warm at temperature plummets. With Christmas just around the corner we need to be careful to not get too lumpy and bumpy in the caravan this winter.
It is at this time of year that mammals gather as much food as possible and hibernate until the warmer spring months arrive. Unfortunately we’ve grown out of that and have to soldier through the winter and keep working.
I am certainly guilty of over indulging when I am in the caravan but it tends to get a little out of hand when it turns cold, warm and snugly weather just makes me want to eat all the cake and biscuits. This winter I am determined to make a change and not ruin the progress I have made during the summer.
Calorie Counting, It Really Does Work
It was not until I started to count what I was eating that I realised I was not eating a lot but what I was eating was several thousand calories. Now add to that my winter eating habits and I was staring down the barrel of a much larger waistband.
A great way to do this is to download an app that will scan the barcode of what you are eating and give you all the nutritional value of what you are eating. 4 chocolate digestives is around 250 calories. That is around 100 less than a large steak! So you can see that snacking just adds thousands of calories and does not keep you full. Limit the snacking and stay healthy is easy
with calorie counting.
Keep Moving
It is very easy to stay very still during winter touring. All you need to do is take one look out of your window at that grey day and just decide to stay put. But the less you move the less productive your body becomes and that is a very hard habit to break.
The best thing you can do is set a few movement goals, depending on how active you are normally day to day. 10,000 steps is a good start or make sure you do at least 250 steps every hour.
Also invest in some good outdoor clothing to ensure you can get active when the weather is less than desirable. Wellies and waterproofs should will keep you protected when you’re doing a winter hike.
Track Your Movement
By now I am sure that most people have a smartphone or some kind of smart watch so it can be quite easy to see how much you have moved, or not as the casa may be.
Apps can track exactly how many steps you’ve walked, calories you’ve burnt and distance travelled. This is a great way to see just how much you have done or need to do.
These will also track movement like cleaning the van or cooking. During a deep clean of the van a few weeks ago I moved just under 1km and burnt 278 calories. It really is surprising the kind of workout you get from keeping things clean.
