Hand on heart: When it is cold and wet outside, how often do you get out into the fresh air, do some exercise and eat a vitamin-rich diet? Very few people get up in the winter and take care of their health. But now is the time to take care of your health so that you can start the spring full of energy.

It's the same every year: Until February, it is cold and mostly wet or snowy in our latitudes, and the sun rarely makes an appearance. For many people, this hardly provides any motivation to eat healthily and get enough exercise, thus preparing body and mind for the coming spring.

But now is the right time for this. Because the glimmers of hope for the end of the dark season are increasing from week to week. Slowly but steadily the days are getting longer, the snowdrops are in bloom and now and then the first birdsong can be heard. Those who now cleanse the body of toxins and begin to take care of their spring figure will be thankful for it, spring, when leisure activities shift outside again, clothes become looser and the mood generally regains its lightness!

The problem is that very few people get their act together in winter and take care of their health. But even the cold season should not prevent a thoroughly healthy lifestyle. For those who have been sluggish and lazy over the winter days and have eaten a predominantly unhealthy diet, the approaching spring should offer wonderful motivation to finally throw off the ballast of winter and gain new strength.

The poison must be removed from the body

Over the course of the year and especially during the winter months, metabolic waste products and thus acids and toxins accumulate in our bodies due to the numerous environmental toxins to which we are exposed every day, poor nutrition and an unhealthy lifestyle. Many industrially processed foods cannot be processed or not completely processed by the human digestive system and are deposited every day in the form of quantities of undigested residues. The body classifies these ingredients as toxins and produces mucus to coat these toxins and ensure that they are excreted. People who eat convenience foods, soft drinks, alcohol, sausage and the like every day also produce mucus every day, which, if it accumulates in excessive quantities, can no longer be excreted properly and remains in the intestines. Intestinal activity is negatively affected and layers of mucus remain in the digestive tract, the respiratory tract and the lymphatic system.

If more and more waste products accumulate and are not properly removed, all transport processes in the body run more slowly. Depending on the physical type and life circumstances, this restricted metabolism can manifest itself in a wide variety of physical symptoms or diseases. Physical and mental signs of these "pent-up" processes can be listlessness, constant tiredness, too many pounds or cellulite, but also allergies, inflammations that do not subside, and even a wide variety of chronic diseases.

It is important not to overload the body in its natural detoxification mechanisms. We must ensure that accumulated toxins are properly removed from the body and do not spread throughout the body. To do this, it is important to stimulate the metabolism and support the detoxification of the organs. Fortunately, there is not only spring cleaning for the house, but also the spring cure for the body. This has a long tradition and is especially useful in spring, as we need lots of vitamins to start the warmer days full of energy. Now we can get rid of the metabolic waste products that have accumulated mainly over the winter, but for some people also over many decades.

Exercise and activity are essential for everyone

Exercise should not be neglected either. This does not necessarily mean that everyone should start the new exercise with the plan to run a marathon quickly. Because a new study shows that even one minute of active exercise a day can contribute to a longer life. In the paper "Association of wearable device-measured vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity with mortality", Emmanuel Stamatakis, Matthew N. Ahmadi, Jason M. R. Gill, Cecilie Thøgersen-Ntoumani, Martin J. Gibala, Aiden Doherty and Mark Hamer conclude in Nature Medicine that short activities such as climbing stairs have similar effects to a workout at the gym. Short, vigorous activities in the daily routine, for example power walking, intensive household cleaning or playing with children or pets, could significantly reduce the risk of dying from cancer or heart disease, they say.

According to the platform Business Insider, the study shows: "Those who really only took moderate physical exercise and those who nevertheless had a daily dose of exercise, for example in the form of short but strenuous activities [...]. Although the short activities lasted only one to two minutes, they were associated with similar health benefits as more structured exercise. Typical exercise recommendations call for 150 to 300 minutes of moderate activity per week or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous activity."

Just no overloading!

So the focus is on sporting activity. After all, exercise and activity are the be-all and end-all for anyone who wants to get fit and do something good for their body. It is important that no one overloads themselves. Most people overestimate their fitness level in the middle of winter. They think they can immediately resume sport with the intensity they stopped in autumn. But this is wrong, because if the body is not challenged, it breaks down muscle mass and shuts down its metabolism. That's why you shouldn't look at the clock and chase kilometres, but rather start loosely and simply resolve to get fitter again. Thus naturally purified and made fit, we can start the spring full of energy. And by the way, a spring cure will also help us overcome spring fatigue more quickly. So the beautiful season can come!

This text may contain translation errors as the translation was done by an online translation tool.