Tag: Winter

Seasonal Affect Disorder: Winter is coming…. 3 foods you can eat to fight back.

Posted on by Karac Avalron

Yes, winter is coming to the west and if you have anxiety like me, the bleak weather of the winter can really make a bad mood worse. November is a transition month weather wise, at least where I live. Fall is departing quickly, and the cold grey winter is near. Most of us soldier through and do the best we can. That said there are things you can do during the doldrums of winter to improve your mood. As someone once said, “you are what you eat”, thankfully that isn’t completely true because god knows what I would have morphed into after all these years.

Berries

Be it strawberries, blueberries or raspberries, the berry family helps a great deal when it comes to fighting stress and exhaustion. The berries are believed to prevent the release of cortisol a stress hormone thereby combating stress.

Dark chocolate

You know the feeling when on your lowest days, you get this strange urge to bite into a chocolate? It is because studies have shown that chocolates especially the dark kind have a high polyphenol content. Polyphenols are a type of antioxidants that can help you get through some tough feelings. Grab a bar with the highest cocoa content.

Bananas

Did you know that the carbohydrates from natural sugars and potassium in bananas can help fuel your brain and make you feel less mentally exhausted? Bananas are rich in magnesium as well, which can help with anxiety and make you sleep well. This winter have more bananas than you usually do, especially if you feel the blues.

Winter is coming.

Berries are remarkable, if you can work them into your diet you will benefit greatly. As I discussed in this blog post Cortisol is a huge culprit in many health issues. Anything you can do to combat it is a positive.

Of course, berries are not in season in the west right now due to the weather. You’re likely going to have to pay more to get them now, still berries are not cost prohibitive but do be mindful of cost. Blueberries are always a good value and usually run cheaper then say strawberries or raspberries.

Consider adding these foods to your diet. Balance is paramount when putting things into your body. Will it help? I don’t know for sure but the three listed, in moderation are very good sources of macro nutrients and vitamins. If the secondary effect is less anxiety that’s a win win!

Thank you for coming by and supporting my blog I really appreciate it. Want to see another post like this one? Click here.

Here we go again, another holiday….

Posted on by Karac Avalron

              

I know you’re thinking “Huh?” Ground hogs day ! Sure if we were to accumulate a list of the best holidays on the calendar it might not be on the top of the list, but like its black sheep brother Flag Day it’s on the calendar. Now I am bias, Feb 2 is my birthday. My whole life when age/birthday comes up I always tell people I was born on a holiday. So of course they try and guess, I tell them it’s in February and its immediately Valentine’s day or Presidents day.

They then get stumped and I tell them it’s Ground Hogs day. I normally get a smile, once in a while I get the obligatory “that’s not a real holiday” which I indignantly reply “it’s on the calendar every year” which normally ends the conversation LOL. So why IS it on the calendar? Why is this lesser holiday on the calendar every year? Well we know In the states every year in Punxsutawney PA the pull this poor animal out of its hole and determine if they can see its shadow or not. So if it sees its shadow we have 6 more weeks of winter, if not winter is supposed to end sooner.

The history is interesting, it goes back to German settlers that brought the tradition with them to America. It’s part of a Christian tradition Candlemas (Link) which was always celebrated on 2/2. In Germany they began selecting animals to help them predict the remaining length of the winter. The “shadow” of the animal was to represent the light of the candle from the Candlemas tradition.

“In 1887, a newspaper editor belonging to a group of groundhog hunters from Punxsutawney called the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club declared that Phil, the Punxsutawney groundhog, was America’s only true weather-forecasting groundhog. The line of groundhogs that have since been known as Phil might be America’s most famous groundhogs, but other towns across North America now have their own weather-predicting rodents, from Birmingham Bill to Staten Island Chuck to Shubenacadie Sam in Canada.”

It’s now become a national event with tens of thousands of people showing up for the event. We all know the movie “ground hogs day” with Bill Murray, but back in 1887 it was still a local tradition only shared among the German population. It grew as a novelty story over time as local and national papers picked up the story which helped them grow the tradition.

Brief History

Seasonal Affect Disorder: Winter is coming…. 3 foods you can eat to fight back.

Posted on by Karac Avalron

Yes, winter is coming to the west and if you have anxiety like me, the bleak weather of the winter can really make a bad mood worse. Most of us soldier through and do the best we can. That said there are things you can do during the doldrums of winter to improve your mood. As someone once said, “you are what you eat”, thankfully that isn’t true because god knows what I would have morphed into after all these years.

Berries

Be it strawberries, blueberries or raspberries, the berry family helps a great deal when it comes to fighting stress and exhaustion. The berries are believed to prevent the release of cortisol a stress hormone thereby combating stress.

Dark chocolate

You know the feeling when on your lowest days, you get this strange urge to bite into a chocolate? It is because studies have shown that chocolates especially the dark kind have a high polyphenol content. Polyphenols are a type of antioxidants that can help you get through some tough feelings. Grab a bar with the highest cocoa content.

Bananas

Did you know that the carbohydrates from natural sugars and potassium in bananas can help fuel your brain and make you feel less mentally exhausted? Bananas are rich in magnesium as well, which can help with anxiety and make you sleep well. This winter have more bananas than you usually do, especially if you feel the blues.

Winter is coming.

Berries are remarkable, if you can work them into your diet you will benefit greatly. As I discussed in this blog post Cortisol is a huge culprit in many health issues. Anything you can do to combat it is a positive.

Of course, berries are not in season in the west right now due to the weather. You’re likely going to have to pay more to get them now, still berries are not cost prohibitive but do be mindful of cost. Blueberries are always a good value and usually run cheaper then say strawberries or raspberries.

Consider adding these foods to your diet. Balance is paramount when putting things into your body. Will it help? I don’t know for sure but the three listed, in moderation are very good sources of macro nutrients and vitamins. If the secondary effect is less anxiety that’s a win win!

Thank you for coming by and supporting my blog I really appreciate it. Want to see another post like this one? Click here.

Polar Vortex Ugh….

Posted on by Karac Avalron

So in-between collusion, shut downs and Venezuela there is a weather event happening in the U.S. called the Polar Vortex. Ya it’s as bad as it sounds, it’s going to be cold LOL. First a summary of what it is.

“A polar vortex is an upper level low-pressure area lying near the Earth’s poles. There are two polar vortices in the Earth‘s atmosphere, overlying the North and South Poles. Each polar vortex is a persistent, large-scale, low pressure zone that rotates counter-clockwise at the North Pole (called a cyclone), and clockwise at the South Pole, i.e. both polar vortexes rotate eastward around the poles. The bases of the two polar vortexes are located in the middle and upper troposphere and extend into the stratosphere. Beneath that lies a large mass of cold, dense arctic air.”

Source

So they are looking at -47 degree (with the wind chill) in Chicago. Check out this forecast:

So I’m going to get this hit tomorrow predicted -20 with the wind chill. Is this abnormal? I don’t really know, I mean its January it should be cold. I recall over my life in Jan- Feb for a week or two where we were in the teens on the east coast. It’s unclear if this is part of the global warming issue, again I’m no scientist. I’ve done a little reading on it (wiki has some good references) and it seems that the reduction of the ice cap and snow in the northern hemisphere is contributing to larger vortexes when they appear. If I’m reading it right of course, LOL. I am no scientist but it’s supposed to be cold in January. Is it supposed to be -20+ with the wind chill? I don’t think so and in the Midwest they are getting it far worse than we are on the east coast.

Remember to cover up flesh, scarf, gloves and most importantly gloves. Even if you’re just going out for a quick run to the store bring your cold weather gear because if your car breaks down you’ll need it. Remember to check faucets you don’t normally use (do you have a sink in the cellar) and just run some water out of it one a day when the temps get this cold. Believe me a burst water pipe in the dead cold of winter is going to be a nightmare. Kids? Drive them to the bus stop and let them stay in the car until the bus comes.

Anyway February is almost here, maybe the Ground hog won’t see his shadow