Cold weather & weight

I used to call it ‘hibernation mode’. You know what I’m talking about: that urge to eat heaps of potatoes and then sleep for six months. That.

Winter is not only here, it is HERE, with a vengeance. For the past 48 hours in Winnipeg, Manitoba, it’s been clocking in at -51 C, which is roughly -60 F for those of you who speak Fahrenheit.

Ever since Christmas, my fasting friends, clients, and forum-mates have been struggling, and I’m crediting two things: 1) holiday cheats, and 2) the cold. Let’s look at those two things.

1) Holiday cheats: the problem with cheating a little bit is that it leads to more cheating. It’s a slippery slope. Eating just a bit of something which is known to be very much addictive (some reports have even claimed that it’s on par with cocaine and heroin!), so eating just a small amount of it can lead to cravings for ever more of it. The inherent problem here is that we can’t just never indulge again. I’m not even suggesting that as an option. I’m just saying that it’s important to remember that our indulgences can make it harder to get back on track after, so if you’re having trouble, it’s not because you’re weak. There’s a logical reason why. For me, the answer is always fasting. Fast longer. Fast better. And then tread carefully in your eating windows. A couple of tips for that:

• Make sure you’re eating enough. Yes, really! If you’re limiting your overall caloric intake, you’re going to be more likely to feel hungry, deprived, and unsatisfied, which just paves the way for greater amounts of cheating.
• Fill up on healthy fats (best: extra virgin olive oil, butter, ghee, avocado, fatty fish, walnuts. Also good: full fat dairy, other nuts (except peanuts, which are a legume), and go crazy on low carb veggies, especially leafy greens! Broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, green beans, cabbage, and every variant of lettuce and lettuce-adjacent green (spinach, kale*, arugula, Swiss chard, beet greens, etc) is safe! *kale: some people find raw kale difficult to digest, even painful – you may want to cut this with other greens, or steam/mix it into sauces. Just a word of warning!
• Find non-carb/non-sweet indulgences. This is largely a mental health thing. If we constantly feel that we’re behaving virtuously, we’re more likely to fail. Personally, I find it hard to feel deprived when I’m eating bacon, cheese, nuts, heavy cream, and avocados! Happily, I love all of those things, and when I feel full from good fats, I stop missing the other things. One thing I love to have as a treat now and then is mascarpone or ricotta (because mascarpone is $$!) infused with cinnamon and vanilla, topped by some low-carb berries. How to make it: stir a shake or two of cinnamon and about a teaspoon of vanilla extract (bonus if it’s the real thing, but the imitation is fine) into about 1/3 cup of mascarpone or ricotta, give it a good stir, and let it stand for about 30 minutes before eating it. Top with toasted walnuts, almonds, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, or blueberries and enjoy. 🙂
• Keep drinking that green tea! The catechins in green tea (its antioxidants) contain a natural appetite suppressant, which can really help when you’re fasting! There’s also a bit of evidence that green tea can boost weight loss, though I’m not sure of the exact science there. Drink it anyway; it’s full of vitamin C!

2) The cold. Some studies seem to think that cold weather actually boosts weight loss, but all evidence I’ve seen has said just the opposite: most people gain in winter and lose more easily in the summer. I’m no expert, but I strongly suspect that the increased darkness of winter messes with circadian rhythms and, at the very least, makes us much more reluctant to venture outside and keep active. Seasonal depression also hits many people hard, and it’s a no-brainer that depression and weight gain are very strongly linked. People also typically struggle with post-holiday depression as the celebrations fade and the long winter looms ahead. It’s not an easy time of the year. And speaking from here in the frozen prairies, I feel instinctively that my body is trying very hard to make sure that I don’t freeze to death in a snow drift somewhere! We just went over some tips for how to eat to battle the post-holiday months, so here are some additional tips for fighting the cold & the winter blues:

• Humour. Spend time with funny people. Watch comedy shows. My go-to is political satire – need my Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, and Seth Meyers fix!
• Upbeat music. Find some in whatever genre you love. It helps, it really does!
• Take up meditation. Meditation is a proven stress-reducer. Not your thing? Try practising gratitude: every day, take a few minutes to think of five things you’re grateful for that day. No repeating the same five things you just said yesterday! They can be small like, “I’m grateful that I caught my bus this morning”. Avoid wording them in the negative, aka “At least I didn’t miss my bus this morning”.
• Spend some time with some art. Apparently looking at brightly-coloured artwork in particular can reduce stress!
• Find a gym/pool buddy. It’s cold out there, but having a friend to keep you company (and accountable!) helps. This is less about weight loss – exercise has a surprisingly low effect on that – and more about mental and overall physical wellbeing. Gyms too expensive? Join the seniors at the mall and walk laps there! I’m lucky to work in a particularly large museum, and on fasting days when I don’t need to eat during my breaks, I walk the ramps!
• Tea, tea, tea! I know I already cited green tea above, but it bears repeating! Hot chocolate used to be my go-to for a cold winter’s night. My personal motto now is, “you can always have another cup of tea”! There are so many kinds of tea in the world. In fact, let’s break it down: tea – as in the actual leaves of the camellia sinensis plant – comes in several different varieties, all categorized by how they’re processed and how deeply oxidized and/or fermented they are. There’s white tea (the least processed and most delicate), green tea (pure magic), matcha (powdered green tea), oolong (semi-fermented), black (all the way fermented), pu’erh (exotic and fun). And then there are a few other things that we call “tea” which are actually other things, such as rooibos tea (a different plant altogether), herbal teas (which are either herbs such as mint or chamomile or fruit/nut infusions). Avoid the fruity ones during a fast, as fruit contains sugar. Also: be VERY careful about teas that come from shiny tea stores. I won’t name names, but I worked in one for all of four days and read a whole lot of tea ingredient labels that listed sugar and stevia in particular. Read your labels! But otherwise, drink that tea! A hot cup of tea can also fool your stomach into thinking that it’s been fed. It’s surprisingly effective!

So bundle up, fast on, and take heart! Spring will come one day… meanwhile, one day at a time, yes?

Author: SandraBender

Human rights educator & advocate View all posts by SandraBender