I am writing this entry on a morning when a major snowstorm is predicted in a few days. There are two types of people: Those that love snow and those that despise it. Personally, as I get older, I like the snow days less and less. The reason: After we have a few hours/one day of that pretty snow it then turns to dirty slush, freezing streets and a heightened propensity for people to fall down. At the ages of 50 and above, those falls can be quite damaging, with the subsequent fractures of arms, legs and/or hands leading to pretty messed up lives for months if not years. Also, small businesses tend to be impacted very negatively by snowstorms. Talk to restaurant owners, local shops and/or medical/dental office owners and you will not hear many proclaim the great virtues of a major snowstorm.
On the health front, being “locked in” for several days usually provides challenges to our weight-control efforts. I recently posted an entry about “boredom” and a locked-in snow or other severe weather day certainly can lead to boredom-related activities. Often, people will take those locked-in days and do things such as:
- Bake warm cookies and/or cakes
- Repeatedly go to the pantry and snack on all of those derailing sources that produced the weight-control issue in the first place
- Break open that nice bottle of wine and join your love for a drink in front of the warm fireplace as those snowflakes descend outside
- Play board games with your family members and engage in distracted snacking
Perhaps the locked in days provide an opportunity to actually help your weight control efforts:
- If you have home exercise equipment such as a treadmill, rower or elliptical, use that extra time to exercise more than you usually would have done that day
- Prepare some high-protein meals that can be used for additional lunches or dinners that week
- Start a food journal and/or some other writings that help you focus on your weight control efforts and inspire you to continue your journey to better health
- Open up all of those blogs that you have not read that Posner writes so often in the attempt to help you achieve your weight control goals
For most people, being “Locked-In” due to weather is not that much fun. Try to make it a health-improving time as opposed to healthy-hurting.
And probably one of the best renditions of “Let It Snow” is Old Blue Eyes tune…enjoy Frank
