Beat the winter blues

The folks commenting on this Lifehacker post about "beating the winter blues" seem to have a lot of good ideas. Many of them boil down to "Get sunlight or bright artificial light, exercise despite the cold, and do things that make you happy." Somewhat obvious, but still good, advice.

http://www.lifehacker.com/software/depression/ask-the-readers-avoid-the-wintertime-blues-211945.php

Good luck!

Good luck to all on my FL who are trying to write a novel this month.

I've only ever written one extremely incoherent and crappy novel in my life, and it took a lot more than 30 days. So kudos to you all for even giving it a try!

Oh no-- they're on to me!

I've been accused, on someone else's LJ, of having no soul and being a Democrat.

Guilty as charged.

Dang-- am I that transparent?

Health at Every Size

So, I hate changing doctors because unless I only go to doctor's on the "Fat Friendly Professional" list (great resource, but there aren't that many in this area on that list), I never know what the doctor's ideas about fat and food and dieting are going to be like.

I lucked out with my last doctor (who, maybe unrelatedly, was pudgy herself) who mentioned that I had gained a few pounds since my last visit the year before, but never made a big deal of my weight.

I switched docs, mainly because I didn't care for the clinic I was at before, and I needed a check-up to get refills on my birth control prescription. Other than the fact that my visit started nearly an hour after the time it was scheduled for, things went mostly swimmingly. My blood pressure was 122/80 at the start, but the doc re-took it later in the visit, and it was down to 118/70-something.

Then, in the last 5 minutes, she suggests I cut calories and make it a goal to lose 50 pounds. I had a "Health At Every Size" speech sort of planned out in case this came up, but my heart started pounding, and I wasn't too coherent. I mostly managed to get out that I followed a health at every size philosophy, and didn't care about losing weight. When she tried to tell me that I just needed to "cut a few calories," I told her that yo-yo dieting (and since 90+ percent of diets fail, most dieters are yo-yo dieters, aka "weight cyclers") was bad for your health, and that U of M had done a study that showed that women who weight cycled just a few pounds just a few times in their life had worse heart health than never-dieters. She kept pushing the issue, so I told her, "I will never, ever, ever, ever go on another diet again."

I feel bad that I wasn't more coherent and that I came off a little vehemently. She's not a bad person, just buying into the ubiquitous obesity propaganda out there.

But, come on-- I've been fat my whole life. Does she really think no one has ever suggested a diet before? Does she really think I haven't lost weight before? I tend to get crazy and compulsive about food when I restrict in any way. The last 5 years have been the only time in my life where I had a steady weight (up a few pounds, down a few, but essentially in the same 7 or 8 pound range) since I started dieting at age 11, and I'm not going to fuck that up by trying to reach a size I'm not intended to be.

I think I should follow the advice I've heard before of writing out a letter about my health philosophy and my no-dieting stance and asking for it to be included in my health records each time I change doctors.