Autumn is the time to get your body ready for surviving germ-ridden winter, so dust off your gym membership, London, and start looking after yourself.

January is traditionally the time when we all rush to the gym and furiously swear off alcohol for at least a week. However, now is the time to be doing all that, according to experts. It is the change in seasons, the shift in the weather from warm to chilly, which creates our bodies’ need for a good dose of healthy living to ward off infection.

Seasonal eating can go a long way to fighting off winter colds and flu. Not only is seasonal food fresh, therefore more nutrient rich, but it is also packed with exactly the type of vitamins and minerals you need for this time of year. Butternut squash, sprouts, broccoli and apples, for example, are crammed full of vitamin C and other nutrients which will build up your immune system. Elderberries have been shown to fight against catching colds and flu and onion and garlic are believed to do the same.

Getting some exercise will also help boost your immune system. For most, the summer months means a wasted gym membership. London is full of lonely rowing machines and treadmills. Do a good deed and make them feel popular again. No gym membership? London gyms often do a pay as you go option, or you could even get outside and exercise in the cold. In fact, the benefits of exercising in the cold go beyond merely getting fit.

Being cold makes your body burn brown fat for warmth, which also burns through calories (probably why we instinctively go for more calorific food in the colder weather). As few of us have to suffer cold anymore due to the wonders of modern technology, we end up putting on extra weight over the winter that we would otherwise have burned off keeping warm. So by exercising outside you could even start shedding pounds into the bargain, instead of steadily layering them on like most people. Alternatively, if the thought of sliding around on the ice like Great Uncle Arthur after his Christmas sherries puts you off, stick to exercising in the gym and just plop your feet in a bucket of ice every so often.

The gym membership industry is currently valued at around £2.5bn and that includes all of the private operators such as Virgin Active and Fitness first. If you were to strip those companies from these figures then the overall amount that the UK spends on health and fitness is actually less than the additional cost heading towards the NHS over the next decade or so, and that does not account for the existing costs we already have to pay.

One thing this country has is a lot of fitness facilities. Whilst we push ahead with building fancy new gyms to line the pockets of big companies you will find hundreds of gyms across the country that are hugely under-utilised. If a gym operator had the option to collaborate with a government funded gym membership programme perhaps we could get people using these gyms more often too, and possibly save a lot of small gyms from going out of business over the next couple of years.

No gym membership? London gyms can be visited on a pay as you go basis with www.payasugym.com.

No gym membership? London gyms can be visited on a pay as you go basis with http://www.payasugym.com

Author Bio: No gym membership? London gyms can be visited on a pay as you go basis with www.payasugym.com.

Category: Wellness, Fitness and Diet
Keywords: payasugym, health, seasonal health, gyms, gym membership