My Winter Habits

Every winter, I get into a very confusing state of activity. It's the time of year where I get the urge to be active and the desire to be lazy simultaneously. Lady Winter, she comes... and she's-a comin' in fast! So it's time for me to start figuring out what sort of habits to set into motion.

Our house doesn't have central heating. So on cold winter mornings, I need to get up early (or at least, before the kids are up, and preferably a half an hour before I'm even up, if that were possible! haha) and get a fire started in the woodstove to heat the house. Of course, as much as I'd love to do so, I'd also love to sleep in past noon. I don't have anywhere to be anyways, except maybe once a month.

I have this eating habit, where during the hot months I don't get hungry at all, and during the winter months I'm consistently hungry throughout the day. It's not healthy, and most of the time it's subconscious, and I don't realize I'm doing it.

I think I can safely lay some of the blame for my winter eating on the television; there's not much else to do when it's too cold to go outside, so we tend to group up in the living room (near the wood stove) and surf through Netflix and our overflowing movie shelves.

As much time as you'd think I'd have in winter, I should be getting more writing done in my book. I can never seem to focus enough--especially while chasing down active kids and cleaning the house--and always remind myself that there is no rush. It doesn't change the fact that my book isn't going to write itself, but I know I'll have a little time here and there to pick it up and get a few pages done.

Then I have my games. I love my tablet, and it has a lot of useful apps including internet, camera, calendar, and notepad... but it also has a lot of fun games. Now, I'm not going to list ALL my favorite games, but I will tell you the ones I'm currently obsessed with. They are TeamLava games: Bakery Story, Restaurant Story, and Dragon Story. In the first two you run a bakery and a restaurant, designing them and preparing food for your customers, and in the last one you own a chain of islands and raise and breed dragons. Cute little games for sure (and if anyone picks them up, feel free to add me on any of them, my ID is CrystalHPK).

I also get caught up baking. Running the oven is a great way to heat the kitchen, and with my winter hunger, there are a lot of new recipes I like to play with. This winter might be a good time to type up all the recipes I've added throughout the year and file them into my cookbook (my grandmother made it for me when I got my own kitchen, and I'd like to keep it organized).

Between the cooking and the eating and the oversleeping, it's a good thing that I also get the winter urge to work out! I have an exercise bike and an elliptical, and last winter I used the two of them to work off 30 lbs! It's no secret that over summer (and with the return of my depression) I gained a little weight back. Nothing more than I've weighed before, but enough to be discouraging. So I'm excited to get back into my workouts and get things moving again (and the pants size dropping again!).

I've happily decided to combine some of these things to allow for all of my winter habits. Whenever I am watching TV or playing my tablet games, I will be on a workout machine. It's too easy for me to sit on the couch and get lost in my games for hours at a time, so this way I will be productive during the times when I am being lazy. ;)

Of course, there will be a few things I can't do while I work out, like my Italian lessons or studying my tarot cards. Those require full focus and attention, and preferably a flat stationary surface. But this is a great start, and it's not much of a lifestyle change, so I don't feel like I'm taking on too much at once, and it helps alleviate the guilt I feel at my lack of physical activity. Mainly since there's not going to be a lack anymore. ^_^

Well, those are my plans anyways. What are some of your winter habits? Are there any changes you'd like to make?