We had a shot of colder air this weekend. Not cold like many of you experience, I understand! But it required a small adjustment on our part all the same. My favorite time of year is autumn with the cooler temperatures, but Kathy is from a warmer clime and finds it a bit harder. Not wanting to get into full blown heating mode yet (furnace inspection due next week), she was shivering with significant discomfort and could not seem to get warm. I am naturally a bit more active, plus I've spent many more hours outdoors, so it wasn't a problem for me.
Still, I know that feeling cold is a difficult thing. As a cyclist, this time of year, I WANT to begin adapting to the cold. (Even in South Carolina, winter on a bicycle can be very cold indeed! We can descend mountains at 50 mph plus, so wind chills can be dangerously cold.) but not everyone views it that way, nor should they. And suffering in the cold just has no point.
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Kathy gets much of her exercise walking her dogs, but she supplements that with rides on a nice exercise bike indoors. Even with her (multiple) daily walks, she likes to ride some just about every day. So, I suggested a little trick that I often employ. I suggested that she hop on the exercise bike when she can't get warm, when her toes are cold, for example. (I don't know about anyone else, but I know that just about the I only time I cannot sleep is when my feet are cold. Cold feet are no fun!) Even ten minutes can speedily warm the blood and get one feeling better! The nicest thing about such exercise, from a weight loss perspective, particularly if the session is extended to 20 min or more is that, the metabolism, once elevated in this fashion, stays 'revved' for some time afterward. Elevated caloric burn can continue for six hours or so after exercise. That is good not just for burning calories, but ALSO for staying warmer!
Kathy tried my hypothesis, and was pleased to discover that it functioned exactly as predicted! She stayed warm all weekend! (Today is forecast to be seasonally warm, so she'll be fine today!)
I originally learned the trick many years ago doing projects outside, but I did not think of it in terms of it being what it actually is: heating from within. Heating from using energy within our personal ''engines.' I am a cyclist, of course, and when weather is bad, I can sometimes be found doing a workout on the exercise bike, myself. There is a small air conditioning unit sitting right next to it, which I use even on the coldest days. And even with it on full, in an hour or two I can raise the temperature in the room five degrees or more, just from heat I generate.
Of course, I can’t heat a room continuously, much less the full house. But, sometimes, it is really nice to feel deliciously warm. And if one reaches that state through one’s own exertion, there is the achievement aspect, as well. Not to be underestimated!
Thinking about it, perhaps the ‘coolest’ thing about doing a dynamic activity for personal warmth is that it can represent a physical example of the truth behind Gandhi's fine aphorism:
Be the change you wish to see.
(Or maybe the change you wish to feel!)
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2) They are responsible; they don't like by a2nite — 128
3) brought me to tears.... by SeaTurtle — 111
4) And now in Florida, a mixed race jury is going to by MrJersey — 90
5) Oh My....In your face St Louis. by skillet — 80
6) One other thing that should have by corvo — 80
7) Good diary. But even if it had been mediocre... by Meteor Blades — 77
8) Chuck Todd by noweasels — 76
9) Organized by someone who had their eyes opened by Steven D — 76
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11) Their Version of the Constitution Is Like Their by Gooserock — 65
12) #sekritarmy is tired of the same old tricks. by jwinIL14 — 64
13) Oh Hai Whoknu! & Sum Of Us Made Box We Lies In... by leonard145b — 63
14) Chuck Todd is a wingnut tool by Technowitch — 63
15) Looking back by Ojibwa — 63
16) Mi Lady was so outraged! by JoanMar — 62
17) Ironic by matador — 57
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19) Yes, I immediately burst into tears last night by jardin32 — 56
20) Coward! He can say "thug" when no one is listening by doroma — 57
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22) The only thing that could be worse by MargaretPOA — 55
23) Some of us sleep in a guitar case... by asterkitty — 53
24) Ah, another generation of evil is learning by a2nite — 49
25) Wow. Very very unusual. Shocking really. Powerful. by bastrop — 49
26) Gwen was good on the Ebola hysteria by noweasels — 49
27) Registering Voters by bink — 48
28) Sekritarmy Eats Cheap Tricks 4Breakfast, Lunch... by leonard145b — 48
29) So are it's pals. by jwinIL14 — 48
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