I heard that every single state, yes, all 50 states, had snow on the ground this weekend.  That is crazy. I hope you are getting plenty of sunshine, but apparently odds are stacked against most of us. I’m sure that many of you are starting to slip into a natural winter depression.

Please make a plan to deal with it. I know it’s not easy to pull yourself out of a funk. But you can’t let it permeate right now. You need to keep making inroads into health and happiness. It is up to you to circumvent letting the depression take any further hold on you.

One of my clients from hard-hit grey, snowy West Virginia is heading to Phoenix. That may seem extreme, but is it? Most of us are affected to some degree by Seasonable Affective Disorder (SAD). Where are you on the continuum? I notice, for myself, that it comes in waves. But those waves are real.

People affected by SAD may sleep too much, have little energy, and crave sweets and starchy food as well as feel depressed.

Limited sun exposure can lead to a Vitamin D deficiency. Here is the Mayo clinic info about that: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/vitamin-d/NS_patient-vitamind

If you need professional help, please call your health care provider. Here are some ways I’ve addressed my own “winter blues.”

1) Grab any ray of sunshine. I look for any opportunities to bundle up and go out for a walk if I see the sun peeking through, even if it is for just 10 or 15 minutes.

2) Catch the rays through a window. Yesterday I took my laptop to a sunny spot at our library.

3) Move! I know it takes effort. Really I do, but if I can do it you can too! Start by lying on the floor on your back and put your arms as fully extended as you can above your head. Now arch your back and strrrrrrretttttch. Then get up on all fours and do a Halloween cat stretch and a sway-back cow stretch. Moooooo!

4) Move some more. I hate the gym and I was having trouble getting myself to yoga. I came up with a new idea: I rent a movie and for the first 30 minutes I do aerobics and stretching while watching the flick. I’ve actually gone the full 120 minutes a couple of times. I’ve revisited some classics (Breakfast at Tiffany’s) (Gandhi) and found some new favorites (Whip It). I suggest you avoid subtitles. What can you to do get your body moving? Just a little every day is a great, great gift to you.

5) Put on some uplifting music. Seriously. Shake your booty to the music that you love.

6) Have a good cry or a nap and then watch it pass. Notice that moods come and go. Sometimes I feel really low and have low energy in the morning and I expect I’m going to feel that way all day. If I’m looking for signs for it to pass, instead of focusing on the depression, I find that I can transition out of the valley easier.

7) Enjoy bright colored vegetables and fruit. I have no idea if this is sound medical advice, but how can you not feel better after eating this salad: fresh mango, pineapple, tangerine and grapes, with a light coating of honey and chopped pecans? How about a green salad with spinach, dried cherries, beets and salmon topped with a ginger dressing? I splurged on some grape tomatoes yesterday and had them in a broccoli and wheat berry salad. For a dinner party last week, I made a bright yellow soup from a butternut squash and pumpkin with ginger and coconut milk. Brighten up your diet. Brighten up your life.

And as I said, if you need professional help – get it. I lost a friend to suicide during a grey winter. Obviously she had other problems, but I’m convinced that her SAD which she treated with light therapy was part of the issue too. I would have gladly driven her to Phoenix and beyond.

Be your own good friend and treat yourself well.

Comments(4)

Name Your Competing Priorities So many of you are successful in most areas of your life (college, kids, job, spouse, extended family, hobbies, volunteering), but have one area that still plagues you. Perhaps it is your weight. Why are you successful in these other areas? Because you have directed your resources toward these areas … but then you have perhaps neglected to use your resources for your wellness goals. WHAT RESOURCES? ~~ Time ~~ Money ~~ Energy ~~ Thoughts

Does it take resources to lose weight or establish other wellness habits? You bet it does:

It takes time to try new recipes. You spend money on gym memberships. You expend energy in your kitchen, and then there is all that thinking and planning when you are counting calories.

COMPETING PRIORITIES

So all of these very important things in your life have been competing for your resources.

Perhaps you are at a place in your life where you are ready to make weight loss (or some other wellness issue) a priority. That is where I meet most of my clients. They are successful in most areas of their life and believe they are ready to make dieting a priority.

But still they struggle.

Today I want you to reflect on FOUR QUESTIONS so that you can be fully prepared to spend the resources that are necessary for you to be successful at reaching your goals.

1. What are my competing priorities? (Where do I spend most of my time, money, energy, thoughts?)
2. Do I see how this weight loss (or other wellness goal) is as important as those priorities? Keep in mind that as your new habits are established it will take less of your resources to maintain your momentum. So ask yourself this question also:
3. At this time of my life am I willing to re-prioritize so that I can gain some momentum with my weight-loss/wellness goal?
4. If so, what part of my life am I willing to temporarily put on the back burner?

These are not simple questions to answer, and these questions must be reexamined regularly as you go through process of establishing a reasonable diet — because your life is not a straight line but a journey of twists and turns.

Bear in mind that you can’t squeeze in a goal of any magnitude without your whole life shifting. If you can not give your diet or wellness goal more priority than you have in the past, so that you can get momentum going, then deal in that reality. I don’t want to say that you have to accept a scaled down goal, but you will need to adjust your expectations. There is another adage… do what you’ve always done… you’ll get what you’ve always got. You don’t want that, so make an real effort to see where you can, at least temporarily, shift your priorities.

THE GOOD NEWS!!!

The good news is, that if you follow the path and make the effort, your diet will become habit — and as the habits are formed the actions will take fewer resources.

Even more wonderful is that your resources will actually increase. You will have more energy. More energy will result in more productive time. And you know the old adage. Time is money.

You may spend a lot of “thought resources” getting into the dieting process, but you will soon come to find out that that those “thought resources” are a whole heck of a lot more useful than your current wheel-spinning thoughts of regret and remorse.

I hope you’ll allow me to be part of your journey and that together we will witness 2010 being your best year ever.

Warmest Regards,
Sandra

Comments(0)

Leslie was telling me she was so sucked into her work computer that she would find herself not even getting up to get a drink of water when she was thirsty. As a solution she’s implementing an idea my coach gave me – although, interestingly, I had the opposite problem.

I would get up from my computer too often…and mindlessly shuffle to the refrigerator as a handy procrastination device.

The solution is a timer. In my case, I set it for 25 minutes, and at the start of those 25 minutes I decide on my task. Then I glue my butt to the chair; I close my email window; and I do the task.

When the alarm goes off, my timer resets for five minutes, and I get up. For five minutes I attend to self-care, whether that be a bathroom break, water, yoga/stretching or (my favorite) sweeping my front porch or sidewalk — weather permitting.

Another use for the timer is simply to remind you to drink a glass of water.

You can either use a kitchen timer or do a search for a free computer desktop timer. I happen to use igoogle as my homepage, and they have several timer applications. I like the one called “work life balance.”

Comments(0)