My Journey With Health And Fitness – Dealing With The Colder Weather

I got home from the support group I facilitate this afternoon and was surprised to see that my husband had brought up the Christmas tree. Now we usually have a rule that there is no decorating for Christmas before Dec 1st but apparently he decided to get it set up a bit early to get the new cat used to it. So far the cat has stared at the tree for a few minutes but then got bored. It could be a different story once we put decorations on it on Saturday.

The weather has again taken a turn but I have decided to do everything I can to keep walking/running outside. Having said that, this morning it was below zero and extremely foggy and icy so I hit the dreaded treadmill. But in general I am pretty prepared and most particularly I continue to find ways to always be wearing reflective gear (this is especially important now that the fog has started to roll in).

It is really simple to say just layer up but quite frankly this needs to be done very strategically. While it may start out great wearing multiple layers, as I exercise more I warm up more and thus need to start removing layers. Instead I have gotten to the point where I have found my ‘cold tolerance’ level and dress accordingly. That means figuring out how much cold I am willing to deal with knowing that once I am warmed up I will be ok. It also means being cognizant of how heavy a workout I intend to do. So far I am doing pretty well with this but again, avoiding the dreaded treadmill is a real incentive.

But there are some other things that I do. For example, when I head off to bootcamp at 5:10am each morning I remote start my SUV to give it ample time to not only be warm but fully defrosted. I have multiple toques that I can wear (though usually for the first walk it is the heaviest one which also happens to be reflective). Then there is which scarf is going to work out best from me (today when I went walking in the morning it was the thickest one I could find). Finally is my gloves which range from thin magic gloves to full out wool mittens. To top all of that off I also have a supply of those hand warmers that you put in your gloves. Those things for me have been a life saver.

At this point I am still trying to do as much outside work as possible but I know I may soon have to give it up. Still the game plan is doing this as long as I can. Oh, and while I say I am dealing with the weather please note, I have no qualms about doing so with absolutely no sense of colour coordination. Sometimes my outfits are almost outrageous but really it is not like I am trying to win some sort of fashion award.