How I (try to) stay healthy and fit during the off-season

Winter may or may not be coming in Colorado. We’ve had an unusually warm fall and it’s looking like an unusually warm December. But with the cold and dark approaching at like, 4:30 PM nowadays, it’s super easy to fall into a rut.

A lot of people suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, which doesn’t make getting out of a rut any easier. To stay healthy and fit over the holidays and throughout the winter, here are some things I personally do. Use these as inspiration to implement in your own life, or not.

1. Stay hydrated

I drink water like it’s going out of style. I have two 32 ounce Nalgene bottles — one orange and one grey — that are always filled with filtered water, and one is always chilling in the fridge, full. The other is usually in my hand.

I regularly drink 3 or 4 of these in a day, in addition to one glass of water upon waking up, and several cups of tea throughout the day. Some say you should drink your weight in ounces of water. Figure out how much water works for you to feel good and hydrated or talk to a registered dietitian.

As athletes, we need to drink even more water and electrolytes because of how much we sweat, or least, I do. You could figure out how much you sweat during a training session to make sure that’s…