In the winter your body has to work much harder to regulate its core temperature, so expect yourself to feel more tired than usual. You might need to eat and sleep more. Also, the days are short and dingy. Wear bright socks and stay social and happy.
Warming Up
Make sure you do plenty of cardio to get your muscles warm, and stretch well.
Cool Downs
Just as important as warm ups if you want to keep your joints released and maintain your strength and flexibility. It only takes a few extra minutes but it will be the difference between you being able to do the splits or not.
Self-massage
Spiky balls, foam rollers, golf ball under your foot. Pay close attention to keeping your calves and feet loose because lots of people find their shins start to get sore when it gets cold.
Moving Mountains
Even if you have flexible muscles you won’t be able to stretch all that far unless your joints are also released. The BEST thing I have found to help me maintain my flexibility is going to Moving Mountains with Jules, and practicing being mindful about my body and alignment, and the amount of effort/tension I put into tasks.
Eating Well
Make lunches, freeze meals, don’t skip breakfast. It’s common to need to eat more in the winter because your body has to work harder to regulate its temperature. So make sure that you are eating good food that is nutritious as well. Unfortunately, Mi Goreng doesn’t fall into this category. If you want food ideas, see the end of this article.
Sleep
It’s easy for sleep to be the thing that gets sacrificed as the work load intensifies; try to be mindful not to let this happen, or at least for it not to happen more than one night in a row. It sounds difficult if you have lots of lines to learn and scenes to prepare, but if you are working with a body that has had a full night’s sleep, you will actually be able to work more effectively than if you are dealing with a fatigued body, and therefore you decrease the amount of time you need to put into studying. Remember, study smart, not hard.
Thermals
Super great if you don’t like wearing lots of layers, and if you don’t want to have a higher gas bill by having your house heater running. Pretend you’re camping. If you don’t’ own any, keep an eye on Aldi special buys for some good deals, or have a look in Target and Best N Less.
Food ideas
Slow cooks are amazing because you can just chuck all the ingredients in which will take you about 10-15 minutes in the morning, let it cook all day then come home to a hearty, warm meal and a house that smells divine. Plus, you will have plenty of leftovers to freeze for the rest of the week. If you would like some recipes comment below.
Couscous is a good and cheap lunch for Uni. It’s pretty boring by itself though so you can try adding mixed herbs, lemon juice, mandarin pieces, slithered almonds, tuna, sultanas, corn kernels or beans (I buy the mini cans and keep them stocked in the cupboard) etc. Get creative. This meal also takes two seconds to throw together in the morning or pre-pack the night before and it’s filling, long-lasting energy.
Veggie Bowls are another one of my favourites. Roast some pumpkin, sweet potato, carrot, beetroot, parsnips, apple… any vegetable that’s on special really. You can use mashed potato as a base, or fry some cabbage, zucchini, capsicum. You could chuck some spinach, peas or mixed greens on top. Add sour cream, mayonnaise, thousand island dressing, chutney, relish, parmesan or mozzarella. You might also like to add some salami, ham or chorizo on top. Basically, just walk through Coles or Curtis Fresh or anywhere that sells fresh produce and pick a bunch of veggies and things that are cheap and make up a yummy bowl with them. You can also freeze pre-cooked veggies in containers (not potato though coz it goes gross) and make a week’s worth of meals this way.