Will I be able to continue this when the winter comes?

I've noticed this pattern several times before in my life:

When summer starts, I am suddenly driven with all sorts of energy.  I want to do something positive with my life.  My activity level jumps.  I start eating berries and fruits (they're in season).  I seem to be happier and much, much less depressed.  Finally, I actually have the motivation to get out and do things.

I don't know if its seasonal affectiveness or just natural human biology, but when the dead of winter hits, I lose all of that motivation.

I'm concerned because this year I seem to have made more positive changes than I ever have in the past.  I'm truly happy, or at least a great deal happier than what's normal.  I want to keep striving to make myself a better person.  I want to be fit and healthy, and I don't want to wait until next summer to just do it all over again.

And so, I fear the winter.  I will not feel the cleansing effects of the warm summer sun.  I will be forced to eat frozen berries.  I will not be able to ride my bike or play outdoor sports.  I may not even want to drudge the cold to make it to the gym.  I will most likely sleep longer hours, and my motivation will drop like a rock.  I will again be lonely and depressed, and powerless to stop it.

Does anyone else have these problems?  I can't even remember how many times I've stopped a workout program due to loss of motivation in the winter months.  Does anyone have any suggestions that can keep me on the track despite the emminent winter cold?

--J

Summer just started 3 days ago. You will do better if you focus on what you can do today. As you probably know, there are lots of things you can do in the winter to overcome depression and the blahs, but it is not winter now. You are projecting a problem, some call them "what-ifs". What if this happens? What if that happens? When you focus on today and take care of yourself, do the next right thing, pay attention, you are doing everything you can.

Maybe you have unrealistic expectations of yourself. In any case, when winter comes, you can look around you, and take the tools and help that is offered. For now, focus your abundant energy on continuing the good changes you have already started. Positive changes take a while to settle into routine, so focus on maintaining the progress you have started.

What positive changes do you see, in addition to being happier? I find myself a lot happier too, now that I am actually losing weight and moving around more. And I agree, I love summer fruit and the leafy blooming beauty of the season. Focus on the positive! Seriously it requires focus and attention to stay positive.

I'm not going to lose any motivation this summer.  I am focused.  I am 100% dedicated.  Besides just feeling great, I have lost 10 pounds, gained confidence and boosted my self-esteem.  I have no intention of stopping this, and right now I have plenty of energy to see it through.

Fair enough, Summer did just start.  I'm just worried that I am borrowing all of this energy artificially, and that I will not be able to continue down this path when all of this energy goes away.

I've seen it before is why.  Its a gradual process, I don't even notice that I'm doing less and less every day until one day in the deep of winter I realize how depressed I feel.  I just don't want it to happen again, so I'm trying to be ready for it.  Maybe I can see it coming this time.

--J

I suffer with the exact same thing.  This past winter was so particularly bad that I feel panicy thinking about next winter.  My therapist told me if I continue to think that, it will be a self-fullfilling prophecy.  Her advice to me was to take Vitamin D suppliments because that  is the vitamin we absorb from the sun, and there is absolutely no way to get enough of it in the winter naturally.  She also told me to focus on the things that are good now and try to prepare a way  to change those things a little so they still help in the winter. Here's an example: if you love walking in the summer but can't in the winter, consider getting a walking exercise video you can do in your home.  Another example - if you freeze some of your summer fruit that you purchase now, it might remind you of the situation when you bought  it when you pull it out in the winter.  Hope these ideas will help you, and if you think of any other good ideas, please let me know.

The winter months are tough I live in Maine a cold climate with little sunlight in the winter. So I know what you are saying. I literally have to force myself to stay in a routine of bundlingmyself up and walking everyday and watching my intake of calories. It is much harder in the winter but it can be done you have to hear your inner drill seargant voice telling yourself to do what is necessary for your health. A sun lamp helps me too. I hope tis helps.

Well, it's September now and my body and brain chemicals are already taking a dive.  I use a light box (for SAD) in the winter, take Vit D, Eleuthera, Citalopram (St John's Wort if not on medication, but I've been on medication for over a year non-stop now), and Passiflora & Avena Sattvia (or whatever it's called) (for anxiety).

Like jaminv I didn't used to notice it sneaking up on me, but I've become much more aware of the patterns of behaviour that lead up to feeling depressed - I start ~behaving~ differently before I actually ~feel~ different - I'd have thought it would be the other way round, and that's probably why it took me so long to spot the pattern.

The thing that has had most impact on making me exercise is having got rid of my car and getting a bike instead - I use the bike to get to work.  I couldn't use it for commuting last winter because I wasn't fit enough (I used the bus), but I am now and I'm hoping to keep going with it through winter.

Another trick I use to make myself exercise is to encourage other people!  I have a friend who comes round to do circuits with me (need to set another date - we've missed a few weeks), and another friend I go bike riding with (need to set up another date.... ), or I arrange to meet someone in town rather than them coming to meet me at home, and it means I have to cycle there.

Usually I do feel better for  the exercise, but sometimes I'm just turning the wheels.  If nothing else at least I'm burning calories (depression = weight gain for me).

One of the reasons for joining this forum was to find some motivation and maybe set some realistic goals.  I think I'll start with Bill's sound advice (on another thread I think) of just commiting to 5 mins a day when I'm not getting any other exercise, and doing more if I get into it.

Having said  that, I've done no exercise today (despite having planned some) and have no intention of doing so either.

Mebbe I  should? It's only 5 mins?

Yeah but it's warm here by the heater (I've even got my hat on) and cold everywhere else.

But once you get moving you'll soon warm up.

Yeah but then I'll need to have a shower and it's only 5 mins.

And on and on and on.

I totally have the same probs. As soon as there is a patch of sun my energy sky rockets and I feel happy and normal again! I too can already feel the SAD coming on.In fact today is the day that has totally made me aware that it is SAD time, and time to figure out how to head it off before it is too late! Do you find that vit D really helps? i have heard this but not really done much about it. how about your light box? I used to use one, but as I was soooo depressed anyhow, I didn't really notice any difference...or maybe that was just the clonazepam...lol.  feel free to message me. cheers,

the yellow canary.

Depends how bad things are whether or not these things help me theyellowcanary.  I'm not actually sure if the Vit D helped or not - the logical part of me wanted to experiment methodically and see what actually made a difference, and the depressed part of me just wanted to do everything I could to get out of that hole.

The light box does help in the early days (I've had it several years so I've been able to monitor its effects), but as I'm supposed to use it early morning, and difficulty waking in the morning is one of my symptoms, I'm not always consistent.  And when I'm depressed of course I just CBA sometimes - it's even too much effort to switch a light on!

I also have a similar thing going on with exercise - with mild depression it really does help, but when the depression gets worse it seems to have no effect - I remember one years desperately exercising like a demon and eating all the right things to boost my serotonin levels - my brain must've been ~swimming~ in seratonin! But it made no difference, then as I got worse I just couldn't keep it up and after many years of managing without meds I had to go back on them.

I'm not sure my depression is affective at all - I've had plenty of therapy in the past, and I have a good life.  I now suspect my brain chemicals are just out of whack for some sort of organic reason.

OOOO Boy do I have the same problem. October is my "trigger" month for upping meds. I was able to lower them this summer for first time with help of natural supplements. Still feel good but feel like the ground is starting to slide.  Im scared that I will have take it back up. Im trying to keep track of things that Unwind me. Trying not to sleep to much. Up at 5am. to bed between 8pm to 10 pm. I try to only take 2 hour naps.  Just want to eat and sleep!

yager, I am going through the same thing, I am under my sun lamp and they have uped my antideppressant. I hate it but I was on a downward spiral gaining 40 pounds in 6 weeks! Good luck to you.

Does the sun lamp help?? I have always went tanning before but as i get older my skin doesnt like it. Im trying to keep on top of it before it gets out of hand. Im not sure how you feel about natural supplements but I have had some Good resultes. Spirulina which is a freshwater algae 3000mg a day made an incrediable change for me. Talk to your DR first. it is cheep for what it does. About 14.00 for a months worth.

my sunlamp helps talk to your doctor some insurances will pay for it if you have seasonal affective disorder. I use mine about an hour a day, a half hour in the morning and half hour at night to lengthen the day.

You know, until I started reading this thread I would have said that it didn't apply to me. But since my father had SAD I  started to read it.

He was so depressed around Thanksgiving and Christmas. He loved to garden and not being able to cultivate and watch his plants grow, working out in the garden must have been a contributing factor. When he was 65 he was diagnosed with Leukemia and given a year to live.

When he was 70, he was contemplating suicide quite often. My mother was finally able to convince him to get help and he was put on Anti-depressants. They lived in Wisconsin at the time. I insisted that he needed a dog. (My mother protested quite vehemently that he did not like dogs) He needed something to get out and live for. I got him a rescue greyhound. He and that dog took 3 walks a day because they didn't have a fenced in yard. It started out just around the block, but soon, the 2nd walk of the day progressed to 2-3 hours, miles and miles at a nice slow pace. In all kinds of weather. Greyhounds are already trained, they never pull, usually walking right beside you at whatever pace you set. Anyway, my father lived to be 83, 17 years longer than the doctors gave him. I think that the dog had alot to do with that. It forced him to get out when he would normally have just been sitting around moping.

Now how does this relate to me? Well, my father never had a weight problem, but I do. I have suffered from mild depression off and on since my early 20's (I am 46 now) And until I started reading this thread I did not notice that my ups and downs in weight really did correspond to the seasons. I don't get SAD, but I do start putting on weight usually starting in Sept/Oct, and I start losing it around March or April. I live in Texas now, so the winter months are not as depressing as when I lived in Wisconsin, but evidently nobody told my body that. It's like I am trying to store up fat to get through the winter or something. I lose all my inspiration, don't want to exercise, eat things I KNOW I shouldn't and don't really care. I DO care, but I tell myself as I am scarfing down a No-No that it doesn't matter. I also have a fenced in yard and so my dog does not HAVE to be walked, he has hip dysplasia and long walks aren't good for him anyway. I guess I am not offering any advice, but just commiserating. It's nice to know I am not the only one that this happens to.

I was told by my psychiatrist that it is normal to eat more during that time of year it is in our genes from our past to store before winter, just like the sqirrels are gathering for winter we know it is coming by lack of light, so we pack on some weight, I don't know if I totally buy into it but it sounds reasonable. That is why extra light is so important to everyone during that time of year even if you don't suffer from SAD.

SOOO Not alone!!! I did good all day but son just went to friends and husband will be late....ate fried potatos and an orange creamsicle without even thinking. and yes i was good and added it to my calorie count. UGH!!! Bill your right it is like hybernation!!! I sleep so much this time of year!!

PS just found out we are moving to Kentucky...Cant wait for the SUN!!!

I'm just now starting to feel the pull.  The miserable weather here in Michigan is making me complacent.  It's been absolutely gastly out here - cold, rainy and dreary for the past few weeks.  It's making it so much harder to get up and move around.  Outdoor sports are out of the question most days.

I don't know how bad it will get this year.  So far, I am still working out and being active most days, but I have skipped a few days I probably shouldn't have.  I'm worried that the number of days skipped will gradually get more and more until I'm just sitting around the house all the time again.  In the cold, snowy winters months, I just know it's going to be a real chore to motivate myself...

--J

lol. Im in michigan toooo. i so agree!

I've been trying to hold onto the positive, and so far I've done a pretty good job.  Here are a few examples:

Last year I bought a really nice coat.  It was a wool petty coat, and it looks really nice and is really warm to boot.  I remember last winter not being so hard (or long), because I stayed pretty warm the whole time.  I also looked great doing it.  This year I bought a new hat to go with it, so I should be able to rock some warmth in style.

Last December I moved, and now I live less than 5 miles from work.  Even in the depth of winter, on the worst snow days, it's still really easy for me to get to work safely and quickly.

I've got several friends that like to go iceskating, and are very willing to go with me, perhaps even offer a few pointers.  This gives me some good opportunities for a winter activity that burns calories, and I might be able to strengthen a few friendships while I am at it.

I've also recently lost over 30 pounds.  While this is kind of counter-productive to staying warm in the winter, I still feel really good about it.  I've had to buy a new wardrobe as a result, and I've been able to pull off some really nice styles that wouldn't have looked right 30 pounds ago.  Winter is a time when more clothes is better, having a stylish wardrobe is a big confidence booster.

There are plenty of reasons for the winter to bumm me out, but I have been trying very hard to hold onto these positive thoughts.  I've been able to keep up my activity level (for the most part), and keep exercising which has definitely helped my mood.  As long as I can continue doing all this, I should be able to make it through the winter.

Here's hoping...

--J