HATE WINTER.

[taimatsu]

I am wearing a long-sleeved, high-necked t-shirt, with a vest-top underneath, trousers, tights, socks and shoes, and I am STILL COLD. My fingers are freezing and my toes aren't any better. And this is in the house with the heating on.

What have I got to do to stay warm? It's not like I can spend all my time in bed (it was warm under the duvet and snugglyrug, for sure) or do household tasks in a coat and gloves. As it is I'm feeling really bad about leaving the heating on for a few hours, and am probably going to have to turn it off shortly.

I've got to wash my hair today, and that's going to mean a not-quite-warm enough bath, in a freezing cold bathroom, with steam coming off the water, and dying of cold when I get out.

And feeling so cold indoors makes me afraid of going outside, and I actually *have* to go out to buy laundry tablets, collect my new earmould and take a book back to the library. I am a cold and unhappy Lucy, and it's only going to get worse.

Comments

How else to stay warm...

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

30% of body heat is lost through the head. If you can stand to put a hat on, or wrap a scarf around your head and neck, this will help you stay somewhat warmer. It looks silly but for my money I'd rather be warm and look silly than look fashionable and be cold, especially if I'm only in the house anyway.

Moving around also helps. It can be quite hard to get going if you're feeling lethargic from the cold, but if you can get yourself to get up and move around for five or ten minutes every half-hour it will probably make a difference.

Hot cups of tea (herbal if you're avoiding caffeine) can also be a huge comfort. Hot water bottles are a personal favourite of mine as well (if the hot water from the tap isn't hot enough then I fill them from the kettle, but do be careful and make sure you use a hot water bottle cover if you do this, I've burned myself on uncovered ones before now).

I don't consider a vest top and a long-sleeved t-shirt to be 'dressing warmly', myself, but I'm Canadian and have slightly different standards to deal with. The tights-under-trousers depends entirely what the tights are made of; I find osme of my tights are wonderful as long underwear and some are useless. Shoes that are too tight will almost definitely be cold.

It's worth going around the house and stopping up any huge sources of cold draughts. At our house there is a kitchen fan which goes straight to outside and quite a lot of cold air was coming through there so I taped some bubble wrap over it - the kitchen still has lots of other leaks but isn't quite so uncomfortable as it was.

If the temperature is not actually that cold but you are finding you feel the cold an inordinate amount compared to other people, it is worth checking out whether everything is okay from a medical standpoint.