I'm trying Very Hard to deal with my S.A.D. this year: lots of walking in the fresh air (boy, is it fresh at the moment, not to mention rain-washed!); working to a timetable for every day, so that I don't just sink into sloth on the sofa.
I've also prayerfully joined a Christian online dating site. I need to find out once and for all if the solitary life IS for me, or if I'm just settling due to mental and emotiional stultification.

My mental space is not great but it's not too bad except ~~ I've found it very hard this week to keep all the other things right and food as well. It's been unplanned and carb-heavy, thus, so am I!

To go for brutal honesty, I feel so badly about my eating that I don't want anyone to reply - but I know that if I don't lay down this mood marker, I will just sink farther and farther into the pit; and yet another regain will just finish me emotionally. So really, all responses welcome!

This is all good things! Working on your eating, depression, and figuring out your future are fabulous, even if you are feeling beaten down and trepidatious right now it sounds like you are on the right track.

I'll be praying all these endeavors go well for you and your eating, especially, settles back into a place you are more comfortable with

You are doing fine, and talking about things shows me that!!

It sounds like you are fighting the S.A.D. instead of giving in. You should be proud! Keep posting and let us know how it is going. Praying for you.

Sending you lots of ...sounds like you have a great plan to deal with your SAD and I'll be keeping you in my thoughts!

I was diagnosed last year with SAD and I still am trying to figure it out.
You are headed in the right direction, you are aware you need to do something before it gets the best of you and you are doing it. You should be proud.

SAD is hard. I suffered for years. It is still there but milder for me with some things I do to alleviate it. So I wanted to mention what has helped me, in case any of it may help you as well.

My Dr has be taking 1200iu of vitamin D3 daily.
I also take fish oil.
I have a DayLight full spectrum lamp that I get out around December, and it sits in the kitchen table and I eat breakfast in front of it every morning.
This year I also got a Sunrise clock that lights up the bedroom very gradually like a sunrise, at whatever time you set it to.

All those things have helped me tremendously. I have to say the D3 is the biggest boost of all. I also am taking sublingual B12 for energy.

I hope you feel better soon!

I was coming around the bend, heading home yesterday (or the day before?) and I was thinking about how "this is where I used to jog in the warmth and sunlight" and I am just so upset that I have to wait until spring for warm jogs in the sun... yeah, I can jog in the cold and I don't even MIND jogging in the cold, but I just felt so... sad. I come home and it is dark out and I feel like the day is over.

I am going to start doing more crock pot meals. It is a good time of year for that. Nothin' beats coming home to a hot, already cooked meal.

I tell myself every winter, if I get that bad, I am just going to go tanning. I did one year and it was awesome. (yeah, skin cancer, blah, blah - but I only did it for a few minutes - not to get tan)

Can you make plans with friends to meet for coffee in the evenings? Or hot tea. A warm drink and good conversation always lightens my mood.

I heard on the radio the otehr day that this is the time of year everyone craves carbs b/c it is getting colder and darker.

Oh! can i share a crock-pot recipe with you? it is for oatmeal
You take 4c water, 1/2 c half and half, 1c dried cranberry, 1c dried fig, and 1c steel cut oats, mix in the crock-pot and put on low before you go to bed (or for nine hours) and in the morning you will have yummy healthy deliciousness!

i am vegan so i did 3c water and 1c original soy milk. Also, i couldn't find the figs so i just did the cranberry. YUMMY!!!!!

This is alton browns overnight oatmeal.

-fm

Sounds like you have a plan in place to balance the tugging of the black hole. Kind of matches Robin's idea of committment vs. motivation when it comes to diet. You won't "feel" like doing anything but you do it anyway so that when Spring comes you'll be ready to slip into your new dresses and skirts and kick up those great legs!

I second the light therapy lamp/box. That is what I have been using the last few years. It doesn't make you feel as good as summer but it DEFINITELY takes the edge off of the worst of it.

Here are some links on amazon. Two different types, to get you started

http://www.amazon.com/NatureBright-S...9498976&sr=8-1

mine is kind of like this, just a different model:

http://www.amazon.com/Philips-goLITE...9498976&sr=8-3

I shelled out the extra money for it because they have found that it is the blue spectrum of light within' the full spectrum, that is what actually alleviates the depression and I know full spectrum works for many and not for others. I didn't want to find out the hard way it wouldn't help me, and then pay for two of them! ha.

Also, vitamin D, most definitely. I should be taking that. Maybe I'll get some tonight.

Glad to see you fighting the good fight though! Keep it up!

Rosinante

Didn't you buy a light box a little while ago? (Or am I imagining it? I'm sure you talked about it.)

Did joining the choir work out? If not that one, another one? Very uplifting, belting out a tune with others. Or doing a quiet one together.

Very well done for keeping going.

(PS Hope you don't blow away tonight. 80mph gusts expected here.)

Thanks for all the support, guys. I'll certainly look into the Vit. D. Light boxes I've investigated but not sure which to buy (will check out the links, thanks). Too cheap and it won't do the job, too expensive and I can't afford it.

It's blowing up a storm here. I've been out and brought in the wheelie bins, in case they blow up the street; I've brought in the clothes prop and the peg basket; me and the dogs are battened down!

It's the same here today where I am, the wind sounds scary out there. We really must be near to eachother lol.
I've looked into the light boxes as well but the cost makes me wonder if it really would be worth it.
Started taking my multi vits again yesterday, but wonder if I need extra vit d on top of that?

Yes, I was thinking about a top-up. The multivit I take is 400 i.u.s of D but it sounds like that's not high enough.