Sadness? Weight Gain? Blame it on the winter!

"Abracadabrafatsad"!



I blame the winter really...and ours started in May with plummeting temps and frosts way before we're used to it. It feels a bit like the endless winter in Narnia here, and I feel like the cranky White Witch/Snow Queen (Can't remember what she's called without consulting Wiki or my battered copy of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, so I will just call her WWSQ).  And not exquisite like the flawless waif that is Tilda Swinton either - I've been a WWSQ who's been hibernating and getting a little rounder and a little more Rubenesque while she awaits the thaw called Spring that is allegedly supposed to start happening any day now.


Yeah, what of it? Ever heard of Rubens?  

    

Is that...you?

 

So the last few months I have been feeling  a little bit slumped, a little bit blue and well...a little bit sad.  And I mean sad in a couple of senses.  I have moved about 83 thousand times this year and I have "stuff" stashed in 2 storage rooms, 3 apartments and a garage.  I don't know where anything is, and I am currently living in a house that's not mine in a suburb that I don't wanna be in. I have writer's blank/block or just a general inability to write anything that anyone, let alone me wants to read; I have internal struggles to deal with; one or two or three family dramas; and I have had a virus for months that culminated  a little while ago in the mother of all influenzas that laid me flat for 2 weeks.  This, I thought, was my body telling me something - I chose to believe it was saying "...rest...rest...rest." What better time to rest than while the Olympics was on? Yippee!! I thought. I can lie on the couch and watch people in the prime of their lives doing amazing things with not an ounce, a skerrick, a gram, a smidgen, a jot, of fat on them. 

But the coverage was awful and I was too cranky and then too tired to watch anything, let alone amazing athletes and their amazing bodies over and over again in the same two swimming races that the network insisted on playing over and over and over again, leaving me to think I was watching a swimming carnival instead of the Olympics.

Anyway, being ill, alone at home (except for the dog who is more like a cat and sleeps about 23 hours a day) gave me the chance (always on the look out for opportunity) to think about 1) why I was ill and 2) why was I SAD? and 3) why were the lumpy, round, jiggly bits that I had thought disappeared last year returning and placing themselves on various parts of my body?  I came to the conclusion that 3) was the answer to 2) and that 3) and 2) were the answer to 1).

Here is my logic on this one: stress (38,000 moves, no stuff, family dramas,etc) + winter = SAD. SAD + inactivity + stress+ delicious winter comfort food + wine+ stress + a lot more wine  + compromised immune system due to the aforementioned factors = round wobbly bits in the form of fat cells.  Voila! Questions answered and explained.

Why so blue?

But a little more on "SAD".  The dictionary tell as sadness is "emotions experienced when not in a state of well-being".  Yep OK I will agree with that.  My being wasn't well, so I was sad.  SAD however, is also an acronym for "Seasonal Affective Disorder".  Seasonal Affective Disorder is a form of depression that usually occurs in the winter months and can cause the following symptoms:

Depression

Anxiety

Lethargy (lack of energy and enthusiasm)

Weight gain

Oversleeping

Loss of libido

Withdrawal from others

Loss of interest in previously enjoyed activities

Dietary changes – for example, increased appetite for carbohydrates

Difficulty concentrating

Depression pattern that follows the seasons – usually symptoms start in autumn, get worse in winter, ease during spring and disappear by summer

OMG! Check out point number 4, and the one about increased appetite for carbs. And it all started at the end of autumn! I found the answer! I went ahead and diagnosed myself! I have Seasonal Affective Disorder!!  Look it up, I am not kidding! It is a real illness!. Best of all, it can be treated! (Did you note all those exclamation marks? I'm excited, how 'bout you?) Some of the cures for SAD are:

Increase sunlight exposure
Get some exercise
Let the light in at home - open the curtains and blinds
Look after yourself - eat well, drink water, cut down on caffeine, alcohol, sugar

But here's the best one:

"Holiday somewhere warm and sunny".

That's it - I'm taking the cure folks...no more SAD for me (and those wobbly jiggly bits can get the hell out of here too!).  I am booking a trip up north...to a writer's retreat, with a gym, a lot of sunshine and no curtains!

Goodbye cranky-impossible-to-please, immune-compromised,  a-bit-too-Rubenesque- for-my-liking WWSQ!  The thaw is about to start!

SWEAT IS FAT CRYING!

That was the huge banner I saw on my local gym’s Facebook page (I only went to the page so I could get a free water bottle J)

SWEAT IS FAT CRYING!!  What could  this really mean? I pondered. I mean it’s kind of humourous really isn’t it?  The idea being that you  go to the gym, work out and then you lose the fat,  and the fat  (sweat) starts to cry like a lost child at the supermarket. 

Sweat is a clear salty liquid; just like tears. I’m starting to see the connection.

OK, so sweating is what we do when we get hot (like when we are working out, or standing in 40 degree heat outside in the summer – not only getting sweaty but sunburnt as well.).  Sweat is our body’s cooling system.  When we are too fat (round, heavy, large boned, Rubenesque – see my very first post for fat descriptors) we can be prone to getting hotter faster than skinny folk because it takes us more energy to haul ourselves around. Sometimes this can make us cry and sweat.  Often it makes us sit in the shade and rest.

The lovely Sue Read, former elite athlete, personal trainer and currently psychologist extraordinaire (she's been an athletics champ, weightlifter, former goal keeper with the Matildas – Australia’s women’s national soccer team) knows a thing or two about sweat, having done a lot of it in her lifetime.

“If you don’t sweat when you exercise, you may as well stay at home and watch telly”, says our Susie, flexing a knowledgeable muscle or two.

“Sure, sweat helps our bodies to cool down when we are exercising, but it has other important uses as well.  It is also essential that if people want to lose weight they must sweat”.

Here are Sue’s top six reasons why we MUST sweat when we are exercising:

1.       Sweat tells us when our heart rate is increasing

2.       It signals that our metabolism is working

3.       Sweat and exercise helps us produce human growth hormone* – which burns body fat and builds muscle!

4.       Sweaty exercise produces important "feel good" hormones such as endorphins, which makes us feel happier, calmer and more relaxed

5.       It makes as younger looking, leaner and less wrinkly (therefore savimng money on botox and cosmetic surgery)

6.       A trickle of sweat looks great on a well-toned back, or a sexy cleavage!

*Human Growth Hormone is a natural hormone secreted by the pituitary gland of the brain.  What does growth hormone do?  It helps us burn carbohydrates and fat, and build muscle.  Best of all it makes our skin turgid – ie less wrinkly, younger looking and lean – it is the hormone of youth!! We love it.  We get a free kick of it if we have good quality sleep.  A diet high in carbohydrates  directly inhibits the production of growth hormone due to the release of insulin, which in turn inhibits the release of growth hormone .  That means if we only eat mostly bread, pasta, lollies, cakes, rice, cereal, and ice cream  (oh yeah - see my post on "Beige Food") then we are stopping ourselves from getting a free hit of the hormone of youth!

The downer is that human growth hormone is at its peak during puberty, and by age 21, we decrease our natural production by 10% each decade of our life.  Before you cry into your glass of wine or bowl of ice cream, there is hope!! We can recreate those youthful bodies by doing these key THREE things:

1.       Modify your carbohydrate  intake to decrease your production of insulin, particularly at dinner time.

2.       Have good quality, worry free, deep sleep.  Make sure  you have a good "going to bed routine" and make sure you are relaxed before bedtime

3.       Have a short, sharp high intensity exercise session just about every day. Ideally, this means interval training, and some weights work

The great news about all this is you don’t need to hit the gym for hours on end every day.  You can get a hit of the elixir of youth with half an hour high intensity a day! and because exercise can help regulate sleep...well the answer's obvious, isn't it?

Human growth hormone is at its peak production at night time - IF we don’t consume too many carbohydrates before bed and IF we get good quality sleep.  We can keep our human growth hormone levels at a high level and avoid the ravages of ageing just by doing a few simple things.

So…go to it!!  Get up, get moving and get sweaty.  Cry me a river.