A Parent’s Guide to… surviving Winter 2020

It’s common for activity levels to drop as the temperatures head in the same direction.  In addition to this seasonal effect, many clubs and gyms have also had to close due to the November lockdown, making it increasingly difficult to keep active.  
Creating a weekly activity routine is a great way to ensure you enter 2021 feeling positive and healthy. Plan different home workouts throughout the week (There’s great circuit and yoga videos for free on YouTube!) and there are also some great apps to try out together as a family, including Zombies Run, StreetTag and GeoCatching. Have fun! 

With reduced exposure to sunlight, our bodies aren’t getting the Vitamin D it provides us with. Vitamin D deficiency can lead to bone deformities and weakness.  

Fortunately, there is ways to boost our Vitamin D by taking in certain foods, such as oily fish, including salmon, mackerel and sardines, as well as red meat and eggs. You could also investigate the nutritional information on the back of your breakfast cereals, fat spreads and non-dairy milk spread packets, as many are supplemented with Vitamin D! Yay! 

When the evenings are dark, cold and wet, and we find ourselves spending more time sat on the sofa, there is always the calling from the kitchen, specifically from those high fat, high sugar, high salt foods often known as comfort foods. Thinking on ways to avoid such foods is tricky, but replacing them with equally comforting but healthier options can reduce the impact they have on our health during winter. Here are some healthy alternative recipes to the usual comfort foods Banana Biscuits, Blueberry Breakfast Bars, Banana Pancakes and Butternut Squash Mac ‘n’ Cheese OR experiment as a family by creating your own perfect soup recipe over the winter (and share it with us!) 

Not all comforts need to be food related, treat yourself to a new hot water bottle, special winter PJs, a movie night or some family board games.  

Seasonal Affective Disorder, triggered by the cold and dark, can lead to low energy levels, low self-esteem and anxiety, and often results in emotional eating. Being aware of what triggers our emotional eating is a valuable skill and planning how to combat these triggers is time well spent. Putting together a list of ideas to use when these moments present themselves can help us avoid them. These may include scheduling a call in with a friend, going for a windy walk or taking a warm bath, instead of reaching for the biscuits!