Winter Warmth (Especially when fasting!)

WARMTH!!!

One of the strategies I've adopted to stay as awesome/athletic/healthy as possible these days is fasting. Intermittent fasting, extended fasting, cheaty fasting, all kinds of fasting. One side effect of fasting, even when you do it right, is being chilly. The muscle aches and headaches go away pretty easily with salt and/or painkillers, but the chilliness needs more ingenuity -- especially in winter!

<Dr. Jason Fung, modern father of fasting (which he notes is an ancient practice) created a collaborative space for thousands of us to talk about how we make it work for us, both a paid group at www.thefastingmethod.com, and a free Facebook group.>

Just in this morning’s TFM group chat, Coach Larry mentioned sunshine being a good healthy thing, and since I’ve just been through a week of -20*C Alberta winter with lots of snow and clouds, I mention the following strategies I am using to stay warm (especially since fasting often makes us even more chilly!):

* Wood fireplace and a nice warm willing lover

— okay, I don’t have either of those at the moment, but they’d be the Rocky mountain ideal for staying warm. In lieu of those, all of these:

*Electric Blanket

— thanks to another TFM member turning me on to this solution a couple of years ago! It is way more effective than the space heaters I always had running at my feet under my desk before.

*Christmas lights indoors

— their cheerfulness are necessary in this black and white snow-bound season (in fact I have heard that winter lights originated in Norway, where the extra dark of winter really needs lighting up — as a Canadian, I claim the right to copy that winter tradition!). For many years now I have always strung them up in my kitchen/main room/office space to keep my heart hopeful in the dark season.

* Salt lamp

— again, just a warm cozy light that feels good, and some people say the extra salt in the air is good for immunity

*Beeswax candles

— The bees go around all summer gathering the joy and beauty of the flowers, and then with beeswax candles, I feel we can smell up that summer sunshine and love all winter. (was especially useful to me in Nova Scotia during 24/7 all-fog winter weeks on the shore — really brightened my days) (in those Nova Scotia weeks, I also sometimes took a half ounce of good smoky Scotch whiskey early in the morning to shake me out of the fog, which if I’m deep in fasting didn’t kick me out of it. That’s only medicine to use if strictly needed, and not overindulge, but if you don’t have a fireplace, it is functional medicine, I think.)

*LifePro sleeping bag sauna

— Another woman who had (like me) Lyme disease and mold poisoning mentioned this to me as part of her health maintenance, and I’ve discovered its joys, too! Infrared yoga and tons of sweating (along with fasting) have helped me clear out mold poisoning when I get really bad doses of it. When infrared hot yoga isn’t available, an infrared sauna is great. If neither of those are available, go for the sleeping bag sauna! I vouch for it.

*Red therapy light

— these are touted as being the newfangled gadget that’s good for your skin… I got a version that has a number of lights on an adjustable tripod, so I can shine them close to my face while I take a little power nap, or just beam them down on me while I’m working or reading. I think they are helpful for warming up my mood and generally making me feel nice. Anyway, I believe they do, so that’s half the battle.

*Winter exercise

— my car has been in for warranty work so I’ve discovered getting really really sweaty biking through the snow to yoga class… I do think that a healthy metabolism does help me get less chilled overall these days, than before I began fasting and healthying up… however, I have also noticed that exposure to winter cold exercise, even when I’m sweating, does seem to leave me with one of those bone-deep chills. Then it’s time for a hot shower, sleeping bag sauna, and red light treatment. All more warming than any of the old-fashioned sugar-laden remedies!

<note, I accepted AI's idea to do me an image.... how ironic that they slipped sugary marshmallowy chocolate into it! Decided to leave it to see if any readers will comment on how incorrect that is. :) >