We've been having something of a cold snap here in the U.K. these last few days... it's been down to minus 4-5 degrees at nights and only reaching 3 degrees during the says since Monday.
This may not sound like the coldest temperatures, compared to much of the European continent, but we are pretty soft and useless down here in the South and woefully unprepared to weather the cold weather, so a string of below zero nights is always newsworthy.
This cold snap is also unusual in recent history, I remember only one period of proper cold at the back end of 2022, while January - March 2023 was extremely mild, so this is the first proper cold snap in over a year.
Excuses excuses
Personally I've used this cold weather to delay doing a lot of positive stuff, such as starting my morning meditation routines like I'd planned to do in 2024.
Frankly, it's just too cold and dark to get up before 8.00, sunrise is still only at 8.10, so I've just been staying in bed and letting the house heat up for an hour from when my alarm goes off at 7.10 - at least I've tried!
Also dieting is a TERRIBLE idea when it's cold, one just wants to eat, which is what I've been doing: not too excessively, just NOT intermittent fasting, porridge for breakfast at around 9.00 is a GREAT way to start the day in these cold spells, so that's what I've been doing.
Tidying up in the evening is also a problem: my kitchen is the coldest bit of the house, so I've done minimal tidying every day.
I'm basically in survival mode, just doing what I need to work wise, and little more.
It's not all bad...
The upside of the last few days has been sun! I've made sure to get my vitamin D in, and I did make it out for a run today, at 12.30 - but even then the sun was below the house line on some parts of the route, running is tough in the cold, although I did enjoy myself.
And my house is pretty warm, well insulated, although it takes a while to heat up in the day once the heating has been off all night, but I'm not exactly struggling with a choice between heating and eating, I do both.
And of course I've got the heated body warmer which is certainly doing its bit, and plenty of hats to choose from.
I've also come to really appreciate the joys of my car's heating system, loving that toasty feeling, once it's warmed up for five minutes!
And this might be it...
We're back to warmer weather after this weekend... the forecast says 13 degrees during the day and around 6 at night, so next week will be a good time to get my self-discipline back up and going, and late Jan is the first time you start to feel the days getting a little longer, just about.
But for now it's a few more days of hunkering down and just taking it a little easy, maybe a few pints tomorrow too!