Healthy Ways To Beat The Winter Blues with Fresh Pressed Juice
Winter can be a tough time of year for your mood. The lack of sunlight, the gray skies, and the windy chill are a real bummer. Friends hibernate until spring, causing your social life to suffer, and your cozy bed seems more inviting than ever. The lack of vitamin D that comes along with winter can lead to a downturn in mood, and early sunsets just add to low moods. It doesn’t help that colds and other illnesses are all over the place.
Some people suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), which is a form of depression that only appears during certain seasons. However, lots of people also suffer from a milder form of blues brought on by the downsides of winter. If you’re feeling hopeless or wonder if you’re suffering from clinical depression, be sure to talk to your doctor. That said, if you’re feeling mild winter blues, a few habit changes might be all you need to feel better. Try some of the tips below for a happier, healthier winter mood.
Fresh Pressed Juice and Other Great Tricks for Beating Winter Blues
Get regular exercise.
When it comes to physical fitness, winter blues can definitely work against you. Few people are excited to go for a run or lift some weights when they’re feeling down, and the gray skies and cold temperatures make it far more tempting to spend all night on the couch. When it comes down to it, though, exercise is one of the most efficient ways to lift your mood and increase your overall health. Research has found that exercise can be incredibly helpful in helping combatting low moods and may even be a good option for fighting depression.
If you don’t love exercise, consider the core reasons behind your apprehension. It’s important to always exercise from a place of self-care rather than from a negative motivation. It’s fine to want to improve something about your body, but if you go into a workout session with self-hatred in the center of your mind, you’ll have a horrible time and will struggle to stick to it. Instead, go into a workout thinking about how good exercise makes you feel, and how proud you are of your body for breaking a sweat.
It’s also possible that you just haven’t yet found the workout method that’s best for you. Some people love solo exercise so they can zone out with music or a favorite podcast. Others love group classes or meet-ups because they enjoy getting social when they exercise. You don’t hate exercise - you just hate the types of exercise you’ve been exposed to so far. Try new workouts until you find one you like. You can sign up for barre, zumba, tennis, running, HIIT, or anything else that appeals to you. The key is that you don’t give up until you find something you love.
Schedule your workouts into your planner just like you would schedule a work meeting, and don’t be afraid to start slow. Even twenty minutes a day can make a big impact on your overall mood and happiness. You can also increase the benefits of your exercise sessions
Switch up your morning routine and Add Fresh Pressed Juice.
Morning is a time of the day that’s just for you, so treat it as if it’s sacred. You can use your mornings to catch up on fun activities that you don’t feel like you have time for during the rest of the day. You can also work on self-care routines that will keep you feeling happier and healthier during the rest of the day.
Start your day with happy-making activities stretches, exercise, meditation, reading, and listing out things you’re grateful for. You may also want to start spending your mornings using a therapy light, which can help replicate the sunshine we miss out on during the winter months. This can really help boost your mood for the rest of the day.
Mornings are also a great time to squeeze in an extra fresh pressed juice to ensure that you’re getting the nutrients you need. Our habits in the winter don’t always encourage all the fresh foods and healthy recipes we need. Fresh pressed juice is an easy way to combat this and take care of your health. In the morning, you’ll especially want to opt for juices with lemon, ginger, and healthy greens like kale. Drink it first thing to kick-start your metabolism, aid your digestion, and get some extra nutrients.
Add ginger to your routine.
Most people are more likely to experience colds, flu, and viruses in the winter. Not only is this flat-out not great for your health, but it can contribute to your overall sense of winter doldrums. We already spend so much time cooped up indoors in the winter, so when you’re sick, it can be frustrating to have to spend even more time at home trying to heal. Sickness tends to mean hours spent in bed and in front of the TV as you get better. That much extra lounging might feel fun at first, but it quickly becomes a downer as you start to feel like you’re missing out on life. It certainly doesn’t help that you probably also feel, well, really sick.
A helpful solution to this problem? Lots and lots of ginger. Adding ginger to your routine can help your body fight off illness, and it can help you alleviate cold symptoms. Ginger is a powerful antioxidant and can get your body on the road to healing. When you enjoy ginger regularly, you may experience a stronger immune system, steadier blood sugar, a decrease in stomach issues, and steadier blood sugar. You can make ginger an easy part of your routine by adding it to hot water, or by enjoying a Pure Green fresh pressed juice shot. Pure Green’s Immunity Shot, Wake Me Up Shot, and and Dirty Ginger Shot all have ginger to help you increase the amount of ginger in your life.
Reset with a 2 day juice cleanse.
Many of us spend the winter loading up on rich comfort foods, and while they may taste great, they don’t always provide our bodies with all of the nutrients we need to thrive. “Simple” carbs and other comfort food ingredients have also been known to bring down moods, which can just sink you deeper into the winter blues.
A 2 day juice cleanse is a great way to reset your eating habits and help your body detox. A 2 day juice cleanse is a great way to ensure your body gets all the nutrients it needs while aiding your system in its natural detoxifying process.
Get quality sleep.
This can be a tough one, because lots of people are tempted to sleep more than they need in the winter. Too much or too little sleep are both harmful, so the key is to strike a healthy balance. Lack of sleep can weaken your immune system, derail your ability to focus, and make you feel down in the dumps, which certainly doesn’t help with beating the winter blues.
Excessive sleep, on the other hand, can throw a wrench in your regular routine, make it hard for you to feel well-rested, and can bring your mood down.
Life is busy, and it can be hard to make sleep a priority, but it’s important to focus on healthy sleep as much as you can. An unhealthy sleep routine can become like a domino effect, and everything else in life can suffer because of it. Try to go to bed and wake up at the same time each day. Drink chamomile tea at night if you’re having a tough time falling asleep. Learn through trial and error how much sleep is the perfect combination for you. (Many people thrive on eight hours per night, but for others, seven might be the magic number.)
Break out your journal.
One of the hard parts about winter is that people hunker down and spend less time out and about. This impacts our social life, so it’s no surprise that many people feel isolated and depressed in the winter. Remember that a friend is always a phone call or text away, and that there’s nothing stopping you from going out more in the winter if that’s what makes you happiest.
That said, on nights when people simply refuse to venture out into the cold to hang out, consider channeling your downtime into creativity. Get out a journal and start jotting down ideas that inspire you or new hobbies you’d like to try. Write out what your ideal life looks like to you. Write out what you’re most grateful for. Do a “brain dump” writing session for a few minutes to simply get your anxious thoughts out on the page. Journaling can lead to all kinds of attitude shifts, surges of happiness, moments of inspiration, and positive life changes. All you have to do is put pen to paper and get started.