I tend not to weigh myself too often and try to use other cues, i.e. fit of clothing, overall body feel, and general energy level to let me know how the food intake vs. calories burned is going. After the past few weeks, I knew I was a little off, yet I wasn’t too concerned. After all, when you live in cold weather your wardrobe is in layers and it’s easy to hide those extra indulgences.
Then I had to be unexpectedly weighed. Uh OH!
A new poll reported on in The Daily Mail found that 59 percent of women say they pack on pounds in the winter months, with the average weight gain coming in at 4.5 lbs.
That is exactly what I had gained!
The reasons for this are many. A few of the top ones:
1) According to research from The University of Exeter, it’s ingrained in our biology to want to eat more in the winter months.
2) When it is dark out so early, we tend to stay indoors and do more inactive activities, ie sleep, watch TV and eat. The cold and icy weather tends to reinforce our hibernating habits.
3) The sugar and alcohol start flowing at an increased rate during all of the holiday festivities. We don’t always want to give them up once the holidays are over. What we are eating usually isn’t low carb veggies and water.
As I was talking to one of my friends about this, she showed me the following plaque she posted on her door to remind her that she has a choice in all of the above.
I now have this posted on my refrigerator. My body does want to eat more when it is cold and I do sit inside a lot more when it is dark outside and I love comfort foods. It was like an ah-ha moment when I realized that I get to choose how I want to be at this time of year.
MY CHOICE HAS POWER! And the coolest part is we do get to choose what we eat and how we move! Going forward I am making some different choices.
Sherri Richards
