Winter Health and Motivation

Akasha and I are not fond of winter
(Image by Modern Scribe Photography)

Oh, yes, January, I remember you well.

This is the time of year where I am too cold to think, to move, to do anything good for myself.

I won't drink water, no, water is too cold. Water makes me shiver, and warmed water is boring.  Coffee or tea fills that gap instead, something warm and with flavor.  Or booze. Alas, too much coffee, booze, and not enough water leads to upset kidneys and urinary tract infections and jitteriness and chapped lips.

Chapped lips! Yes, breaking, cracking, owie lips.  I've misplaced my lip balm from Spirit Horse Herbals, and must find something else, and soon.  The past few mornings have me waking with the taste of blood from my dried lips...either it's dry lips, or I'm a day-walking, food-eating vampire with a heartbeat. I'm not ruling that out.

Sore muscles...it's just so hard to convince myself to do yoga and stretch and move in a chilly house, when all I want to do is bundle up in too many layers, much less pull myself out of bed.

I'm such a grumpy winter pixie, y'all.  Pshew!

I think I need to suck it up and get on with things...so tell me.  What do you do to motivate yourself in your dark times and cold nights? 

I am addicted to sugar, and so are you.

Sugars by DeathByBokeh via Flickr

Occasionally I have to just cut out the crap.

The crap being sugar.

My body just doesn't appreciate copious amount of it, which is a really funny joke for someone who slings honey, isn't it?

Sugar is in EVERYTHING in the standard American diet.  Soda, coffee, juice, beer, wine, ketchup, salad dressing, bread, fast food and processed food.

Sugar is called by many names: Corn syrup, molasses, fructose, lactose, honey, sucrose, barley malt, cane, sorghum, caramel, maltose, dextrose, sorbitol...

Sugar is an addictive substance. Our bodies crave it with a fervor similar to that of nicotine...in fact, cigarettes were easier for me to quit than sugar has been.

You see, I've been living with chronic candida for many years now.  Candida are happy little microorganisms that live in our body and do their job.  But candida are like gremlins...you can't overfeed them or they'll ruin everything and scare small children!  Or at least make you itchy and exhausted.

Candida feeds on sugar.  And when it has an overabundance of it's favorite food, it grows. And grows. And grows...and spreads throughout your body.  Candida overgrowth can cause a myriad of symptoms from headaches to yeast infections in any moist, warm body areas, to systemic exhaustion, stomach discomfort, and more.

I'm never one for strictly following doctor's orders, as I'm not fond of prescription drugs.  The last time I saw a doctor for candida overgrowth I was given a medicine that made me break out in hives.
So I keep the miserable moments at bay by being aware of my nutrition.

I support my health and candida balance by eating live culture yogurt daily, and also by taking acidophilis supplements. But when I get too alcohol-happy, or have to can a bushel of apples (which involves a lot of tasting!), or gorge on cupcakes, I tend to suffer for it afterwards for days with exhaustion, itchy, dry skin, and worse.  Then it becomes time to watch the sugars in my diet.

I'm not crazy about fasting, so I try to be reasonable about it.  I don't follow the exact candida diet guidelines set forth by traditional western medicine, as I disagree with some of the standard assumptions about healthy sugars and live cultures.

Raw Sugar Bowl by Ayelie via Flickr

I do my best to eliminate from my diet:

Breads and pasta
Fruits and juices
Wine, Beer, Liquor (so hard for a pixie to do!)
Sugar (duh)
Honey (whimper)
Soda (not that hard, kicked that crap long ago)
Boxed Foods (seriously, even Mac n Cheese is full of sugars. I had NO idea until I started reading boxes)
Fast Food (sugar in every sauce; ketchup, mustard, ranch, in the bread and rolls, and sometimes even in the meat product itself)

Sigh.

And I consume:

Salads:  protein-rich, chickpeas, beans, boiled egg, avocado, crab, deli meat, tomatoes, cucumbers, mushrooms, and NO CROUTONS.  Also, cheese, but only a bit (lactose is a sugar).  I use herbal vinegars and oils to flavor the salads instead of bottled dressing.

Proteins:  Meat, beans, potatoes (sparingly), chickpeas, eggs, kale, broccoli, lots of heavy foods.  I love sushi fish at this point in my diet, but I avoid the wonderful sushi rice with it's sugared vinegar and keep it straight to sashimi.

Rice noodles/Rice:  Brown is better than white, but it is still a sugar food. Can't quit 'em all, and this is more easily processed by my system, I've noticed.

Live Foods:  vinegar with the "mother" - like Braggs, and if I do consume bread, it is sourdough!  The live enzymes help to balance the microcosm in my body. The same goes for homebrew drinks and fermented foods like kim-chi, kombucha, and especially wild-fermented food.

When I do this diet shift, I tend to feel that tomatoes and other "sweet" veggies are okay in moderation, because I am not trying to completely deny my body of it's needs, just eliminating the overwhelming sugars in the average American diet.

Coffee with My Sugar by sbluerock on Flickr

On day four of my most recent fast, I broke a mid-morning hunger with a salad topped with a handful of raisins.  The sugared, dried fruit was too much, and awoke my physical dependence on the sweet stuff.  That was a terrible mistake, as I spent the rest of the afternoon in a grumpy, antsy, anxious and snappy state that was unpleasant for myself and everyone else around me.

"MORE," my body cried, "MORE!"

In a couple of days, I will integrate more sugars slowly and gently into my diet, using honey vs. sugar whenever possible.  And I will do my best to remember moderation, so that I don't have to fast again anytime soon, but can find my balance and walk the line in health and well being.

How many sodas do you drink a day?  If you have chronic health problems with your stomach and gut, or fatigue and rotten moods, try scaling back the soda before you add a pill or diet onto your life to try to fix the bumpy patches.  I know it sounds crazy, and it'll get worse before it gets better, as with any withdrawal symptoms, but you might come out of the fire renewed and healthier with that one simple change.

How strong of an influence does sugar have on you?

Getting in gear

Things here in the mountains of Carolina are white and serene. The blowing, quiet snow is giving way to the sun, and the wind is in turn changing the frigid rivulets into grandiose icicles. The moon is waxing from a tiny crescent and everyone seems to secretly enjoy their snowdays while complaining about the weather out of the other side of their mouth. I, for one, appreciate a day built for drinking coffee and wearing sweatpants and shuffling from computer to kitchen and back.

Aloe and Kalanchoe waiting for spring

Sometimes the best thing we can do for ourselves is to settle and Be Quiet.  I've been fighting my annual case of winter boo-hoos by keeping myself busy with a ton of projects, and it's working in one way, but it is also straining my focus and making it hard to relax.

My body is calling attention to itself...my skin is asking for Vitamin A, my eyes and dry skin ask me to drink more water and up my healthy oils, and most of all, my muscles are begging for me to stretch and move more!  But gosh, is it hard when it's cold. All I wanna do is curl up with a book and tea and burrow into the covers.

How do you keep yourself motivated through winter? What are you working on?