October! Wow! Pumpkin spiced everything from coffee to hot dogs. Right? October is a birthday month for me, and on the 8th, I complete my 67th orbit around the sun. That’s a lot of mileage on this guy! The seasonal changes have always been a sign for preparation. Just like spring is the signal of rebirth and summer, fall is the signal for summer’s end and winter's dormancy. Now is the time for us to prepare for winter and all it brings with it.
In my weekly Facebook and Instagram video this week, I referenced Aesop’s fable of the grasshopper and the ant. The fable warns us of the danger of not looking ahead and preparing for what is coming. I think it would be wise of us to do as Aesop reminds us to do. We need to prepare for the seasonal changes and what those changes could mean to us and our health.
Have you ever noticed how many people are sick with colds and the flu come January? Have you experienced the lack of drive and energy that seems to come as we crawl through January, February, and March? Why is that? Why does it always seem to happen to us? Well, on this last trip around the sun, I think I figured it out! We are like grasshoppers, and we fail to prepare.
Think about how the next few months will play out. You are likely two weeks or less away from have bigger supplies of highly sugared products in your house than normal. You will be preparing for Halloween and Wal-Mart knew to put those products out in August. They know you will eat it all and have to buy more several times. Your blood stream just got a super injection of sugar.
Three weeks after Halloween, we gather together for Thanksgiving, and we hog up on turkey and all the fixings. We overeat, overload our systems on too many carbohydrates, and many times we start to add in a little bit more alcohol than we are used to just to add to the festive cheer. This super blast of more sugar and alcohol stresses our digestive, nervous, and immune systems even more.
But hang on! There’s more! Right after Thanksgiving we start celebrating Christmas with parties, late hours, and even more alcohol. We add to that the financial stress of worrying about how we are going to financially make ends meet as we go into Christmas. We get to add to the mounting stress the fact that the weather has gotten colder, we are getting less sleep, and there is less of that essential daylight that helps keep us feeling mentally fit.
Finally, as we nearly collapse from exhaustion, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day happen and we finish off this barrage to our health with a sterling performance of massive amounts of sugar, alcohol, overeating, and no rest for 24 to 36 hours straight! And we wonder why the flu, sickness, and depression are all so prevalent in January and February!
OK, you grasshoppers! It’s time to change it up a little. I challenge you to do things different this year! Let’s all promise to make some of the changes that we will discuss over the next couple of blogs to see if we can’t keep from completely and purposely destroying our immune systems before we jump into January 2023!
Be sure to watch for the next blog where I will pass along some tips to help make you more of an ant and less of a grasshopper for this winter.
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