by Koren Wetmore

If winter's chill tempts you to curl up on the couch and hibernate, you may collect unwanted pounds and miss a great fitness opportunity. This season, try instead to build a healthier you that will sail through the holiday feasts without a care for calories.

A winter fitness program can help you control your blood pressure, combat stress and even stave off depression. "For people who become depressed in the winter, exercise helps stimulate the release of [the brain chemical] dopamine, which elevates mood," says Brenda Rea, an assistant professor at Loma Linda University's School of Public Health in Loma Linda, Calif.

Exercise may even protect you from the flu, report researchers at the University of South Carolina. Their findings, published in the October 2003 issue of the American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, state that exercise boosts the function of the body's key immune cells.

Recommended Activities

People often become sedentary during the winter months, yet great indoor and outdoor activities are available, Rea says. Outdoor enthusiasts can choose from snowshoeing, skiing, skating and hiking. Those sensitive to the cold may opt for indoor choices such as weight training, aerobics classes or yoga.

Monica Harrison, 38, does most of her summer workouts outdoors, but come winter, she runs inside. "I definitely have a different training plan than in the summer," Harrison says. "We all bulk up in the winter months, so I choose to turn that weight into muscle. I lift heavier weights, do step aerobics and also yoga."

Marathon runner Val Ells opts for a combined inside/outside program...

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