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!