Finding weight loss opportunities from falling snow

Successful weight loss is often a matter of seeing the positive side of a negative event. Snow has been known to wreck plans and sometimes even cars, but if you’re struggling to lose weight, snow is an aid to weight loss.

It’s an indisputable fact that if you want to lose weight you’re going to have to cut back on calories – somewhere, somehow – you’re going to have to take in fewer calories consistently than your body needs for its energy requirements. There is no shortage of inventive ways to do that. Some are so inventive that you may not even know you’re cutting calories, but trust me, if you’re losing weight, you’re cutting calories.

If you are sedentary you will need to cut back even more, in other words eat much less, than if you’re physically active. Your activity has a direct and indirect effect on your calories cutting and burning. Aerobic activity burns calories while you’re engaged in the activity. Resistance activities burns calories while you’re engaged in the activity and causes your body to burn more calories while at rest.

Sometimes it’s just hard to get motivated to do any activity at all.
We understand the importance of exercise for weight loss and health, but we find it hard to get moving. We work hard all day and when we get home we just want to relax.

We understand the importance of exercise for weight loss and health, but we find it hard to get moving. We work hard all day, and when we get home we just want to relax.

Our sedentary behavior causes us to feel guilty. Guilt doesn't motivate us to get active as much as it makes us just feel bad. Then we may want to eat to escape the feeling.

Our sedentary habits are hard to break. They cause us to feel guilty. Guilt doesn’t motivate us to get active as much as it makes us just feel bad. Then we may want to eat to escape the feeling.

There are opportunities to get active that we can’t ignore, especially in the winter. Sometimes you just have to move, not because you want to, and not because you know it’s good for you, but because you got to!

Mother Nature provides some excellent opportunities to burn calories that we just can't ignore.

Mother Nature provides some excellent opportunities to burn calories that we just can’t ignore.

Here is a great example of serendipitous physical activity!.There's no need to get yourself motivated to get to the gym. Your workout is all over your steps, your driveway, your cars, and your walkways.

Here is a great example of serendipitous physical activity!.There’s no need to get yourself motivated to get to the gym. Your workout is all over your steps, your driveway, your cars, and your walkways.

If you have been extremely sedentary, take care not to over exert yourself. Start slowly and take frequent rest breaks. Cold weather and snow (shoveling, operating a snow blower, or even walking through wet, heavy snow increases the risk of a heart attack.

Moving snow is a resistance exercise. It helps to build muscle. Calories get burned during the activity and helps to boost your metabolism so that you burn more calories at rest. You don’t have to go to the gym to get this beneficial form of exercise. Mother Nature dumped it all over your driveway.

Don’t wait for the snow to stop falling before you go out to remove it, especially if you are not accustomed to physical activity. It’s safer for your heart and multiple light workouts that will help you to burn more calories.

When you come inside after shoveling don’t just head for the couch. Cooling down after exercise is important. Yes, I know you were just outside in the cold, but cooling down isn’t about the temperature in which you were exercising, it’s about returning your respiration and heart rate back to normal. Stretching exercises are the best way to cool down.

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Getting regular physical activity burns calories. Burning more calories is a way of losing weight without having to create the calorie deficit entirely by eating less. It makes it easier to stick to a weight loss plan because you won’t have to cut back your food so much that you’re always hungry.

Seeing and more importantly, taking advantage of opportunities to be active is a good weight management strategy. Fight the urge to give the neighborhood kid ten bucks to clear your snow and get out there to do it yourself.

The better you get at turning negative into positive, the better and longer-lasting your weight-related victories will be!
Jackie Conn

About Jackie Conn

Jackie Conn is married and has four grown daughters and four grandchildren. She is a Weight Watchers success story. She's a weight loss expert with 25 years of experience guiding women and men to their weight-related goals. Her articles on weight management have been published in health, family and women's magazines. She has been a regular guest on Channel 5 WABI news, FOX network morning program Good Day Maine and 207 on WCSH.