Staying well this winter

As the temperature starts to drop and Winter nears, it can often be a challenging time to stay healthy and feel your best. Here's our top tips for protecting your mental and physical health at this time of year!

Make healthy winter meals

Fruit and vegetables are full of nutrients, and eating a balanced diet that includes at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables per day can help your immune system work well. Homemade soups, curries and casseroles are full of vegetables and perfect for a cold winter day.

Check out this recipe the perfect winter vegetable and lentil soup: Winter vegetable & lentil soup recipe | Good Food (bbcgoodfood.com)

Stay active

Keeping active not only benefits your long-term heart health, it can help strengthen your immune system.

Colder weather, rain and shorter days can make staying active feel harder, but it's important to do what you can!

• Meet up with a friend and enjoy an autmun stroll

• Schedule time in your day for activity - this could be in short 10 minutes bursts throughout the day

• Exercise at home - there's lots of free videos online that you can follow along to, check out: Home workout videos - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Boost your winter mental health

Winter can be a tough season for many of us, so it's important to make sure we are looking after our mental health as well as our physical health.

Evidence suggests there are 5 steps you can take to improve your mental health and wellbeing, and we call this 'The Five Ways to Wellbeing'. This involves:

• Connecting with others

• Being active

• Taking notice

• Learning

• Giving

  
  

To find out more, check out our Five Ways to Wellbeing blog here.