Saturday mornings I leave at 5:30 AM to do volunteer work. Recently when I stood at the bus stop I noticed with dread that it was pitch black without a hint of sunrise. The short days and cold are coming and I don’t feel ready. It doesn’t make any sense as despite climate change the weather patterns are quite similar now versus when I was younger – and for sure how long the days are on any given day has not changed more than a few milliseconds every century. I should know this. And yet there seems to be a huge disconnect between how I view the cooler months versus people with a healthy relationship with mother nature. Just look:

Month	Many People	Me
September	I love these cool mornings	These cool mornings feel good but I know what’s coming – and I don’t like it.
October	The leaves are gorgeous! Let’s enjoy Thanksgiving and have cider and donuts	The leaves look and smell wonderful. But I know what’s coming – and I don’t like it.
November	Sweaters, flannel and warm socks, tea, soup.	I was born during this time of year. Why do I dislike it so much? Maybe I can squeeze in one more nice long ride before the year’s over – as long as I leave at sunrise.
December	It’s the holidays!	I don’t believe in Santa, or Jesus. Also there’s snow on the ground now. Everywhere I go requires multiple layers and often waterproof boots.
January	OK, now it’s a bit cold, but it’s lovely weather for skiing and skating parties.	I feel crappy and maybe need to change my attitude about winter. Let’s double down on exercise and add a few Zwift bike races to the mix.
February	Honestly, I don’t know what people think here. They seem happy enough though some coworkers may be happy thanks to spending time on a beach in Cuba.	It’s been three months since I’ve gone for a nice ride outdoors. If the roads are dry and the snowbanks aren’t big I could take a long ride in the country but what driver would be expecting to see me? Too dangerous.
March	Roll up the Rim is starting at Timmy’s! The kids are on March break. Let’s all go somewhere interesting!	Roll up the Rim is starting at Timmy’s! It’s always really cold when it starts but it’s the first sign of pre-spring. When it’s done the snow will be melting.
April	°Days are starting to warm up. Maybe we’ll have a drink on a patio somewhere soon.	That’s it, it may be 4°C outside and I’ll have to watch for black ice on the paths but I’m going to commute by bike no matter what.
May	Victoria Day!	First day of the year to go outdoors without a coat!

So yeah, maybe I have some work to do.

This year I feel a little worse because we had three months of warm weather that I didn’t appreciate enough and now it’s going away! I wasn’t paying attention. I saw the sun, felt it on my face when I left the office and on the few bike rides I did this summer (The featured image shows some of what I missed out on – spot the mink in the photo!) and took it for granted. I planned to enjoy it sometime – but instead enjoyed it in less mindful ways. Sometimes online, sometimes watching TV, sometimes reading a book – all things I could just as easily have done in February. Nothing terrible in and of itself but the fact that I didn’t think about it meant that I also missed out on things I really wanted to do.

I’m not going to let September get away so easily. So what I’m going to do and what I’ll challenge you to do as well is to pick three intentions for the month. What are some things you know you will enjoy but don’t always set aside the time or preparation to do? This month let’s do those – and let’s look at the things we’re going to do to make it easier for us to do those. Here are mine:

1. Cook a new meal this month – I love cooking but I also have some delicious ‘go-to’ meals I always default to despite being thrilled when I try something new that comes out good. I checked out a Malaysian cookbook from the library that someone online recommended and will try at least one. To make sure I do this I’ll not just add the meals to my calendar but the task to review the recipe and get any necessary groceries beforehand.
2. One indoor bike race per week – it is really fun to push myself. I don’t care so much about winning but I do love trying to keep up with others and use that to motivate myself to do better than my last race. To make that easier I’m going to mark my calendar for every Sunday to choose the race.
3. Ride outdoors at least 40 km/week, preferably more. I can’t simultaneously be sad that I didn’t ride outdoors so much this summer and not go for rides outdoors. Either I want to or I don’t. For this I’ll commit to at least one commute to work (weather permitting – wet laptops are not good) or a 40 km after work or weekend ride. To facilitate this, looking ahead at my running schedule, the weather and planning that commute or weekend ride is key. Getting things ready the night before makes it even easier.

To provide a bit of structure, I’m also aiming for the following habits:

• Exercise: 6 days/week of exercise – that’s 3 run days (for the training), 3 bike days and one full rest day. If I’m feeling tired or need another recovery day I’ll have a lighter day.
• Meditation: 20 minutes daily in the morning
• Vitamins: B complex, D and Iron supplements
• Work from home: 3 days/week (With this extra time at home my secondary goal is to use it well)
• Regular Bedtime: Start getting ready for bed at 9 with a goal to be asleep by 9:30 every night. (I wake up around 5 so this ensures I get a good night’s sleep)

Let’s start with these things and see how I do.

Your Turn:

What are three things you’re going to do this month that you’ll be glad you did? What are you going to do in advance to make it easier for you to accomplish?

What habits are you going to aim to accomplish and what metrics will you track? For this month, if it seems overwhelming, leave your habits as-is and just pick a metric or two – like your mood on a scale of 1-10 and see how it goes. As we progress you can track more things and start to see what things you do make a difference in your mood.

Metrics and Habits

Warning, lots of “quantified self” data ahead with statistically-questionable conclusions being made. TL;DR: I’m looking at lots of different variables to help enjoy myself more this winter. I already know one big one: exercise – but I’m trying to see what else may be a fit.

Last year’s experiment really showed me that tracking habits and metrics related to what I’m trying to improve is important. Lately I’ve been using exist.io to track a bunch of new metrics against my mood, focus, motivation, and willpower . That site looks at those against all sorts of data. Right now I’m tracking those against weather (including hours of daylight), exercise type, duration, and intensity, stress levels (based on heart rate variability, average and resting heart rate, steps, flights of stairs, meditation time, and the all important sleep. It even logs how many music tracks I listen to and when. I’ll summarize that information and share some of the interesting correlations it finds. So far here are a couple of the things it’s showed me:

“Run” might’ve had something to do with your mood yesterday. You usually tag your mood higher on days with this tag.

On the downside, it says of my mood, that this week wasn’t as good as last week. Normally I have been averaging a score of 7/9. This past week was 6.3/9. That’s a 10% drop. We’ll have to watch that one.

One metric I do want to pay close attention are my minutes spent active. Last year I found this was the most effective thing I could do to keep my mood up. A look at the trend for the past year shows that perhaps I should not be so quick to blame the sun.