Weight Watchers want you to share your autumn and winter healthy living triumphs and/or pitfalls - £300 voucher to be won! NOW CLOSED

[EllieMumsnet]

For many, Autumn often symbolises a time to be with family, wrapping up, staying indoors with a good movie and indulging in our favourite comfort foods. The healthy living habits from summer can often take a backseat and, as a result, these cooler months can often put our health goals and weight loss journeys on pause. With that being said, Weight Watchers want you to share any funny autumn and winter healthy living pitfalls or triumphs you have gone through.

Zoe Griffiths, Head of Programme and Public Health at Weight Watchers, adds: “For many, the shift in season will bring with it a change in outlook. It’s a time when we start to notice that maintaining a healthy lifestyle is becoming be more difficult. In fact, working with psychologist Professor Geoff Beattie, we have identified that 18th September is the date when the seasonal shift begins to impact Brits’ lives. But just because the seasons have changed, doesn’t mean your outlook has to too. You are very much still in control of your own healthy lifestyle!”

"Weight Watchers has a plan to help avoid those pesky pitfalls all autumn long! Introducing… The Weight Watchers Guide to Owning Autumn. The Guide will be updated each week throughout the season to help counteract the seasonal shift and make it easier for people to take control of their weight loss journey and overcome the lifestyle challenges posed during the cooler season."

Zoe continues: “At Weight Watchers, we believe that you can say ‘yes’ to the things that you love and still enjoy a healthy lifestyle – any time of the year! That’s why with food, activity and wellbeing deeply engrained in our philosophy, we have designed the new Guide to Owning Autumn, which provides motivation, support and tips and tricks, so that you can enjoy the cooler seasons while showing autumn who is boss!”

Watch this video to find out more!

Have you ever convinced yourself that colder weather calls for an extra glass of wine? Perhaps you’ve managed to fool everyone that you went to the gym by wandering around all day in your gym clothes, when actually they’re just so comfy? Or maybe you successfully managed to dodge all the chocolate that your kids collected at Halloween?

Whatever your healthy living pitfall or triumph, post them on the thread below. All MNers who comment will be entered into a prize draw where one lucky person will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!
MNHQ

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Well so far I've made pumpkin soup! Yay healthy triumph
But I've also made mulled wine ... not such a healthy triumph haha

I love a good cup of tea and biscuits on the sofa with the heating on especially in Autumn when the weather gets chilly, but I have 3 dogs to think about so they get 2/3 long walks a day! My diet isn't great at any point in the year and even more so in the colder months, but in my head I make up for it with the walking.

Exercising in the summer is easy(ish) but getting out in the cold/wet/dark is much more difficult to get motivated for. My wife and I gee each other up to encourage us to go if we are wavering.

I find that September is a month of new beginnings- even more so than January, so September is the month I start new regimes, personal ones and family ones. I always start making the kids take extra vitamins in September. I don't find that winter stews make me put more weight on as they fill me up quicker so I eat less of them. I guess the real issue is I have the tendency to move less in winter as there is less motivation to get out and about unless it is a necessity.

we tend to eat more in the colder months, maybe we should move somewhere hot!!1

we tend to eat plenty of "warming up meals" that are heavier such as homemade stews with dumplings and crusty bread or chilli con carne rather than salads and baked potatoes :D

I use my slow cooker all the time in winter to make healthy soups, casseroles and curries. Unfortunately the cold, wet weather makes me much less likely to excercise!

I suffer from fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis & am on Methotrexate so my immune system is severely compromised particularly in Autumn & winter when all the bugs are flying around. I've just been diagnosed with glandular fever which I've had for 5 months but my GPs have just been saying it's my fibromyalgia but I knew something was wrong so I went private & have to be referred to the Infectious Diseases clinic for treatment as my body just can't fight the infection because of my conditions & medication. For the last few months I was sleeping for 16 hours a day so had no quality of life whatsoever but I discovered an amazing drink which has helped my energy levels so much, GO! Kombucha. I was lucky enough to win a case of it in a competition & after drinking it for 3 days I stopped sleeping throughout the day so I've stocked up on it & been drinking it ever since. It's a pro-biotic drink, fermented raw tea with a Kombucha culture, sounds disgusting but tastes delicious. There are various blends, my favourite is the China White which actually tastes like Prosecco so, for people like me who don't drink alcohol but who actually love the taste of Prosecco it's perfect to have a glass in the evening

aaah yes, stuffing the face with those stodgy puddings? well this year I am trying a new tactic on keeping the wobbly ass volume down...

yep, i decided to "grow autumn" - long term plan goal here. I got an allotment back in January, and have thought ahead about all those gooseberry crumbles and apple pies I have baked and frozen for the man and my son - but I dont want to be eating all of that as I know I wont burn it off like they do - so I have grown some mahoosive squash - well the one i harvested the other day I could hardly lift off the ground so its mahoosive to me! I am going to do a big massive batch of squash soup (i reckon about 4 pints worth in that squash) and get it frozen so I have my own warming treat which is fat free, sugar free but full of taste and warms my soul! (and having the added benefit of being able to put it in a flask and take it to my allotment to warm the cockles after a good digging in the cold).

Only problem i have found so far is I need the man to chop it so it will fit in the oven to roast it! haha. You can check out the size of my squash on "A Pendle Allotment" on Facebook! There is a nice photo of it on a chair!

Love casseroles - I know winter is here when the smeall of braising steak fills the house! You can always squeeze all kinds of veggies into stews as well!

Autumn is time for warming food but it doesn't have to be unhealthy. It would be great to have a local supermarket that only sold healthy foods and was free of any temptations. Life would be a lot easier that way! (kind of like 30 years ago when your mum went to the grocers and butchers and the sweet shop was a once a week treat - 10p pick and mix!)

I am usually quite good in the winter because I love chunky hearty soups and winter vegetables especially butternut squash. However, I do have my 'oops that chocolate fell into my mouth' moments. 2 years ago on boxing day, all the advent calendars were reduced in my local shop to 25p so I bought 3 for the following Christmas (one for each child) but when November arrived the following year, I really fancied chocolate and we had nothing in. And then I remembered the calendars. I accidentally ate all 3 calendars and disposed of the evidence!!!! So I had to end up buying more advent calendars anyway. The worst thing was, it was that Kinnerton kids chocolate that isn't that great so to be honest it wasn't even worth the calories! Haha

more stews/lobby and healthy cottage pies which are probably better than most salad dressings in the summer!

I find September I good time to reset my healthy eating habits after a summer of socialising and holidays. I find that, by the end of the summer I'm craving done routine and the opportunity to meal plan and cook properly - the keys to healthy eating for me

I am still in my summer diet at the moment - eating lots of fruit. When it gets colder I tend to snack more and prefer stodgy dinners.

I do OK with maintaining my healthy eating despite changing seasons - if anything, it's summer that makes me feel more likely to indulge a little! I enjoy healthy, warm soups, hot drinks (tea/coffee), filling fats such as salmon with green veg. Plus hot lemon and water in the mornings. I think I'm doing well!

Hearty strews with autum and winter veg lots of it and tough meats cut lean to slow cook.

Stay positive even though the weather takes a turn for the worst and continue with exercise.

Once the cold weather starts i start making soups more often and we cook healthy oats cookies

A good slow-cooker chilli!

I'm definitely pleased that it's slow-cooker weather again.
In summer I use it to cook a gammon joint to make ham, but in winter I can make stews and lovely spicy daal.

We have an amazing pasta meal that we cook up freezers full in autumn! It has a spicy tomato sauce and lots of veg and is really healthy but tasty and filling too! If there is an afternoon of heavy rain where we can't get out walking that is the ideal time to cook up a huge batch and fill the freezer!

On the upside, I increase out veg intake with hearty soups and stews.
The flip side...I just can't help foraging and making hedgerow jams which, obviously, we have to have with homemade scones and clotted cream :/

I definitely do less walking during the Winter evenings because it is dark before I finish work. However I do cycle to and from work and I try to make up for it by going for longer walks at the weekend and going to the local swimming pool. This takes away any guilt I would otherwise have for eating extra cake and chocolate

I love Autumn, hearty porridge for breakfast and chuck meat and veg in the slow cooker for the day for stews and casseroles for warming evening meals. My favourite time of the year