As the late musical genius Mac Miller once said, “No matter where life takes me. Find me with a smile.” This is a mentality that we should all adopt that as we progress towards the cold winter season! Sunlight becomes less prevalent in our day to day lives, whether it’s the short days and longer nights, or it’s just staying inside to avoid the chilly weather. Have you noticed a drop in your mood, energy, and motivation within the last few months of the year? You could potentially have winters blues, also known as seasonal affective disorder. Winter blues could be considered the less significant segment of SAD because seasonal affective disorder is more reoccurring annually, specifically within a certain season of the year.

Importance of Vitamin D

Most people encounter SAD during the winter season, it is also possible to experience it within the summer which has led to 15% of Canada’s population to endure winter blues and 2% to 6% to encounter SAD (Melrose, 2015). Vitamin D becomes lackluster for most people because our bodies require natural sunlight to produce it ourselves. Approximately one-third of the Canadian population were below the cut-off value for vitamin D (Janz & Pearson, 2013). This means that this percentage of the population is at higher risk for bone related issues such as rickets within children or osteoporosis within adults. This is important to realize because our bones play an important role in our bodies such as:

  • Protecting our Vital organs
  • Providing Structure by anchoring our muscles
  • Storing Calcium

 Ensuring that you are reaching your recommended daily dose through diet or being in contact with natural sunlight can help prevent this. According to Melrose (2015), seasonal affective disorder occurs four times more often in women than in men and the age of onset is estimated to be between 18 & 30 years old.

Physical Activity in Edmonton

Physical activity has been known to improve mental and physical wellness, so this is important to consider when combatting SAD! There are a multitude of different types of physical activity that you can do during the colder months in Edmonton such as:

  • Walking along the river valley
  • Skating in Victoria Park
  • Sledding in Gallagher Park
  • Skiing/Snowboarding at the Snow valley, Rabbit Hill, or Sunridge hills

The possibilities are endless, but certainly do require some creativity! We should embrace the winter season rather than shy away from it because WE ARE CANADIANS!

Benefits of Physical Activity

All forms of physical activity can be done independently but can be exponentially more fun and exciting with a group of family or friends! One symptom of SAD is isolation which can further lead to an increase of depressive symptoms (Elmer, T., Stadtfeld, C., 2020). Socializing and physical activity results in a win-win situation in terms of treating those pesky winter blues! Feel free to end the day off with a nice warm drink or a bountiful meal at any of the cafés and restaurants along Whyte Avenue! Physical activity has been known to increase longevity, so feel free to invite along anybody and everybody! Exercise has also been seen to reduce catabolic hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol which are stress inducing hormones! If you are one of the rare individuals in life that do not suffer from stress, lucky you, but almost everybody seems to be stressing about something nowadays. Make sure you take time out of your day to do some form of physical activity, especially since the CDC recommends that adults need 150 minutes each week to help improve their overall health! This may seem like a lot but if you divide that between the days of the week, that is just about twenty-two minutes per day! With that being said, make sure to get those steps in today, tomorrow, and forever!

Author Bio

Hello! My name is Carlos Castillo, and I am currently a student at NAIT, enrolled to become a future certified personal fitness trainer! Exercise has become a huge part of my life ever since the day I started going to the gym. Not only has it helped me physically, but mentally as well, especially during the patches of my life that were hard to get through. I highly encourage anybody and everybody to pick up a hobby that requires some form of physical activity because of the number of benefits that come with it. Powerlifting and overall resistance training has been my choice of physical activity and recommend it to anybody looking to improve their overall health. Feel free to check out my fitness page @littlemanbiglifts, where I have displayed my progress throughout my years of training!