As the seasons shift, our health requirements also shift, and we all could use a bit of extra care during the winter. To ensure your well-being this winter, we’ve partnered with our beloved online health and wellness platform, iHerb, to share 11 winter wellness tips, making this your best winter season yet.
1. Take Extra Care Of Your Skin
Winter can be challenging for our skin. The cold air naturally lacks the moisture found in hot summer days. Indoor air during winter isn’t much better, often leaving the skin dry, itchy, and in need of hydration.
During the winter, pamper your skin with an infusion of moisture and a protective barrier against the elements. Regularly use an intensive moisturizer or body balm designed to repair the skin. These creams are typically thicker and more nourishing than what you’d use in the summer.
Consider investing in a humidifier as well. It can boost indoor humidity levels, preventing your skin from drying out.
Winter Skin Tip: Put a bowl of water close to a heating vent or radiator. This can promote water evaporation and boost the humidity in your home. For an extra touch, add a few drops of your preferred essential oils to create a pleasant aromatherapeutic atmosphere.
2. Try Dry Brushing Before Bathing
Engaging in a tradition from ancient civilizations that’s making a comeback, dry brushing offers benefits like improved circulation and natural exfoliation, resulting in a healthy glow. Plus, it feels amazing. Wondering how to dry brush?
All you need is a natural soft-bristle bath or shower brush. With the brush in hand, start by brushing the bottoms of your feet, using large, firm sweeping motions to “brush” your skin with long strokes, always moving towards your heart.
Continue brushing up your legs, belly, neck, and arms with firm strokes. Avoid areas with sensitive, irritated, broken, or inflamed skin.
Afterward, take a shower to rinse away the excess dead skin, and then apply a moisturizer to lock in moisture, leaving your skin smooth and soft with a winter glow. We recommend the natural dry brush duo set from EcoTools – the large brush is perfect for your body, while the small one can be used for your face and neck.
3. Take A Soothing Detox Bath
Though science hasn’t fully unraveled the wonders of a hot bath, the countless personal stories are reason enough to start running the water. Even if you usually prefer showers, the occasional bath can work wonders for your winter well-being. Not only does it ease the pain and inflammation of stiff winter muscles, but it also boosts circulation, reduces stress, and elevates your body temperature, aiding in the fight against infections and viruses.
A mere 15-minute soak in a warm bath can do the trick. I personally love enhancing my bath water with essential oils and natural bath oils. They not only add a delightful aroma but also prevent skin from drying out. However, it’s crucial never to add essential oils directly to the water. Without a carrier oil, they can cling to your skin and sensitive areas, leading to an unpleasant experience, if you catch my drift.
For aWinter lips, with their knack for cracking and chapping, can be as bothersome as a summer bug bite. It’s annoying, but it’s just part of the seasonal deal. To keep your lips smooth and supple, make it a habit to apply natural lip balm regularly.
We’re big fans of the Sierra Bees Organic Lip Balm from iHerb. Crafted with sustainably sourced beeswax, olive oil, sunflower oil, and healing vitamin E, these balms are not only effective but also USDA Organic, Non-GMO, cruelty-free, eco-friendly, and free from nasty ingredients like sulfates, preservatives, and artificial fragrances. Plus, they’re never tested on animals.
Available in packs of four or eight, I love strategically placing them around my house, car, and in my bag. With so many in the package, you’ll never be far from a lip balm when you need it. They also make fantastic little gifts or stocking stuffers. And with fun flavors like Creme Brulee, Mint Burst, and Pomegranate, there’s no way you’ll let your lips suffer from dryness this winter.
convenient, all-natural bath soak, I always turn to Abra Therapeutics. Their blends feature therapeutic essential oils, salt, and skin-soothing oils for a truly relaxing soak. And for an extra boost of moisture, a spritz of Deep Steep Dry Body Oil Rosewater & Aloe offers a light and natural way to keep your skin smooth and supple after the bath, preventing any post-soak itchiness.
4. Be Kind To Your Lips
Winter lips, with their knack for cracking and chapping, can be as bothersome as a summer bug bite. It’s annoying, but it’s just part of the seasonal deal. To keep your lips smooth and supple, make it a habit to apply natural lip balm regularly.
We’re big fans of the Sierra Bees Organic Lip Balm from iHerb. Crafted with sustainably sourced beeswax, olive oil, sunflower oil, and healing vitamin E, these balms are not only effective but also USDA Organic, Non-GMO, cruelty-free, eco-friendly, and free from nasty ingredients like sulfates, preservatives, and artificial fragrances. Plus, they’re never tested on animals.
Available in packs of four or eight, I love strategically placing them around my house, car, and in my bag. With so many in the package, you’ll never be far from a lip balm when you need it. They also make fantastic little gifts or stocking stuffers. And with fun flavors like Creme Brulee, Mint Burst, and Pomegranate, there’s no way you’ll let your lips suffer from dryness this winter.
5. Make Sure To Get Your Vitamin D
Vitamin D, often hailed as the “sunshine vitamin,” plays a crucial role in supporting our immune system and collaborating with calcium and Vitamin K for maintaining robust bones. However, since it relies on actual sunlight for production, the winter months, with their limited sunshine, can pose a challenge. Spending more time indoors and being bundled up means our skin gets less exposure to daylight, further reducing our ability to produce vitamin D naturally.
While certain foods like salmon, shrimp, oysters, tuna, egg yolks, milk, and mushrooms are good sources of vitamin D, they might not provide sufficient amounts, especially during the winter. To bridge this gap, supplements become a convenient option. Now Foods offers an excellent and affordable D-3 supplement with Vitamin K, ensuring a well-rounded formula to meet your vitamin D needs without relying solely on sunlight or specific foods.
6. You Still Need Sunblock
If you’ve ever hit the slopes on a sunny winter day, you know that winter sunburn is a real thing. So, if you’re spending any time outdoors or near windows, keep your skin protected from sun damage and continue to wear sunscreen throughout the winter months. If you use foundation, BB cream, CC cream, or tinted moisturizer, check the label to see if it includes SPF protection.
If not, make sure to find a sunscreen product that suits your skin and won’t dry it out. And don’t forget to apply sunscreen to your hands, which may be exposed during outdoor activities or while driving.
7. Stay Hydrated
We can often forget that we need those 8 glasses a day of water in winter just as much as in the warmer months. If drinking plain water feels less appealing during winter, try warm water with a dash of lemon or an herbal tea. Caffeine-containing drinks like coffee, energy drinks, green tea, black tea, and soft drinks don’t count towards your 8 glasses a day and can actually promote dehydration.
8. Support Your Immune System With Nutrition
In winter, it’s so important we eat lots of nutrient-dense foods, including dark leafy greens, and fresh fruits and veggies. Not only can they help curb those cravings for sweets, but they can also strengthen your body’s defenses and help you fight off those nasty winter bugs. If the cold weather makes eating salads and greens less appealing, I totally get you. Try making a green smoothie in the morning with kale or spinach, cucumber, apple, lemon, and ginger. For days when I’m super short on time, I make a superfood-packed green drink with the award-winning Paradise Herbs ORAC-Energy Greens. The best dry superfood blend I’ve ever come across, Paradise Herbs ORAC-Energy Greens, is 100% vegan and filled with alkalizing green juice powders, freeze-dried berries and veggies, superfood concentrates, herbal adaptogens, and probiotics.
It also has the equivalent antioxidant power of 24 servings of fruit & vegetables, so if you have trouble getting enough plant-based foods during the day, this is a quick and powerful way to do so. It does taste green, so if you’re not used to the flavor, I’ve found some lemon juice and a little stevia can make it taste great.
Recommended Product: Paradise Herbs, ORAC-Energy Greens
And don’t forget your omega-3’s! Mostly found in fatty fish like salmon, tuna, sardines, and mackerel, omega-3 fatty acids have been shown in studies to not only reduce inflammation but also promote healthy cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and liver function. It has also been shown to be an effective aid for those who suffer from depression, which can be common in winter.
Omega-3 fatty acids can also help give your skin a boost of hydration, which can help protect against winter dryness. California Gold Nutrition, iHerb’s house brand, is a super affordable way to keep super-premium Omega-3-rich fish oil in your nutritional arsenal.
Recommended Product: California Gold Nutrition Omega-3 Premium Fish Oil
When winter has you feeling sluggish, try adding a fulvic/humic mineral source to your health regimen. They’re a plant-derived blend of trace minerals that I’ve found boosts energy and can amp up your immune system.
Recommended Product: Morningstar Minerals Inner Vitality Concentrate Fulvic/Humic Minerals
9. Zinc To The Rescue
During the winter, there’s always a cold or some other bug going around. And we all know that feeling just before we’re about to get sick. If you feel something coming on, taking zinc may help to shorten the length of a cold and the severity of those icky symptoms. And some promising studies have shown that zinc lozenges may be one of the most beneficial ways to get a dose of zinc on the fly. I always have the Zand Sweet Elderberry Zinc Lozenges on hand, which taste yummy and, along with 5 mg of zinc per serving, are also made with a blend of soothing herbs, including hibiscus flower, orange peel, lemon peel, rose hips, and lemongrass.
Prevention’s always the best medicine, so try eating a diet rich in zinc-containing foods such as oysters, chicken legs and thighs, beef, oatmeal, yogurt, wild rice, tofu, hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, and mushrooms.
Recommended Product: Zand Sweet Elderberry Zinc Herbalozenge
10. Keep Your Digestive System Happy
With all the sweet and super-rich foods we tend to eat in the winter, it’s really important to give your digestive system a little love. Also, many of those rich foods can cause unpleasant symptoms like gas and bloating. And if you’re more sedentary in winter, your digestion can slow down along with your metabolism. So to keep me and my digestive system running smoothly, I make sure to take a daily probiotic.
It helps replenish those “good bacteria” that lie in our digestive tract, help us digest our food, and make up a considerable portion of our immune system. One of my favorite all-around digestive formulas is Digest-ALL Intestinal Care (IC). A blend of probiotics, herbs, and a full spectrum of digestive enzymes, this formula has everything you need to keep your digestive system happy. I love this formula because it also has anti-inflammatory digestive-friendly herbs like ginger, peppermint, and Triphala to soothe and calm.
Recommended Product: MRM Digest-All Intestinal Care (IC)
11. Get Moving And Stay Active
When it’s cold outside, and it’s basically dark by 4:00 pm, to say I’m motivated to work out would be a lie. I’d much rather be buried under a weighted blanket on the couch with a movie and a hot chocolate. But to stay healthy in the winter, we need to get moving.
Not only can exercise help release endorphins that boost our mood and beat the winter blues, but it can also boost our immune system to ward off winter colds and flu. Plus, burning off the extra calories from the cheesecake and 10 types of cookies I’ll inevitably eat during the holidays will help with those extra winter pounds.
Try to fit in some type of exercise at least three times per week. That doesn’t mean you have to be stuck in the gym. Staying motivated with exercise for me always comes down to doing something I enjoy like yoga. Some fun winter activities like a winter walk or hike can be a lovely way to get that blood pumping while spending some time outdoors. Even exploring a new town, park, or museum for an afternoon can be a fun way to get active without making you feel like you’re exercising. Other enjoyable winter activities can include skiing, ice-skating, running, snowboarding, or snow-shoeing.