It’s so hard to get up in the morning once winter kicks in. Your warm bed and blanket are so inviting you don’t want to leave the bed and hibernate for hours. You might be tempted to stay indoors, watch your favorite shows on repeat and forget about your exercise regime. With the days being shorter and the sun barely showing up in the sky, it’s so easy to give in and forget about your motivation to keep yourself active and healthy. Your only motivation left could be your body’s craving for something hot and spicy to eat.

To fight your winter laziness, you can try the following tried and tested strategies.

Think about Your Eczema

If you’ve been battling eczema for a while now, you might experience allergy flaring up during winter. The dry air and your obsession with your indoor heating can aggravate skin dryness. Since your skin can’t contain its moisture, you end up with an eczema attack that is much worse than what you experienced last season.

For your skin’s sake, get up your bed, keep yourself hydrated and go outdoors as often as you can. Encourage yourself to run your important errands instead of lazing around inside the house. Consider taking Vitamin D supplements as these are known to improve symptoms of winter eczema.

If you work from home and can’t help but stay under your indoor heating system’s comforts, consider investing in a humidifier to add moisture to the air. Avoid hot baths, use gentle moisturizing soaps, a thick moisturizer, and dress in just enough breathable layers. If your eczema persists, consult a dermatologist so that they can advise a proper skincare solution.

Call a Friend

A friend who will commit to keeping you out of bed might be the very solution to your laziness in winter. Ask a reliable friend who can go out with you for a daily walk to the park or an indoor workout alternating your place and theirs. Choose one who will encourage you to eat healthy food items in the winter instead of your favorite bowl of instant hot ramen or your other selection of winter comfort foods.

Be careful when choosing your winter buddy. You don’t want to end up calling someone who is a lot lazier than you are during winter. It would be better to find a new friend or colleague that you are still trying to get to know more or someone you know will hold you accountable if you choose to skip your winter dates.

Cook Up Healthy Winter Comfort Food

Food can make you happy, and it brings people closer. The right food items can make one healthier and help cut a few inches off your waist. Cook for your loved one, and the effort alone will make them feel attracted to you more.

Think about these reasons for learning new winter comfort foods. You get to learn new recipes you can share with family and friends. You can even help yourself maintain a healthy weight and achieve a slimmer waistline by cooking and consuming the right food.

Quick research can already lead you to hundreds of pages of tasty recipes that will melt your heart and make your tummy during winter. This will also make you go out of the house, do a bit of grocery shopping, meal preparing, cooking, and cleaning up, which adds to your daily exercise. Since you will be the one who is doing the cooking, you know exactly what you’re putting in your body and can be enough motivation to start eating healthier.

Give Yourself a Chance to Relax

Winter can be overwhelming due to many reasons. Since days are shorter, you struggle to accomplish your tasks before it gets dark. You could be pressured to catch up with your social obligations and manage the stress of preparing for the impending holiday.

So, make sure not to be hard on yourself by giving yourself a break every now then. Meditate, take breathing exercises, and take a short nap if you need to. You will find that you will feel much better after a while instead of trying to rush into finishing all your tasks in one go.

At the end of the day, you can indulge in a warm Epsom bath complete with your favorite scented candles. You can read a book or write in your journal with a cup of your beloved tea or coffee. You can even consider getting a couple of houseplants so you will have something to care for if getting a pet is not an option.

Winter laziness is real. There is even science to back it up. If you allow your laziness get the best of you in winter, you can end up with a Seasonal Affective Depression (SAD). Don’t let the winter ruin your mood, your waistline, and your mental health. Give yourself various reasons to wake up, get up, and actually get everything on your to-do list done.