It was ten below all week longer here, and the thought of ice water and tank tops just makes me ache thinking about it!
Living in a cooler than usual environment is not a matter of suffering or self-torture...it's an awareness of how we tend to keep our bodies much warmer than our environment, and a conscious effort to acclimate to cooler temperatures. I'm not sure how that changes for someone who lives in colder climates, except to say maybe a thinner material for shirts, or waiting until you are getting cold before adding the next layer of clothing...? I do know mild cold stress doesn't automatically mean an extreme shocking icy water polar bear plunge experience - it means being lightly dressed and getting comfortable with temperatures between 60 & 66 degrees, especially for us in mild climates). When cold is experienced, the body burns available fat stores to keep the body core temperature steady. The energy required to do that is a huge untapped resource. The whole idea is only make the body work a little harder to stay at normal temperature.
Just before shivering, the mitochondria kick in and generate heat from stored fat. And by making the environment around me just a bit cooler than usual, i am forcing my body to fess up some of those stored calories it has stashed away in my thighs, buttocks, hips, waist and arms.
Perfect! That's exactly what the fat storage mechanism is meant to do. And our environment it is a hugely overlooked aspect of how we live in the US. I wear a hat rather than a coat when its chilly, and my family thinks i am weird for hanging out in a tank top and shorts in the fall. I need to tackle the weight of my blanket on the bed next: To burn more fat while asleep would be great, so why not try it out?! Ray says "Habituate to lower temperatures over time and don’t give in to the increased hunger; this is your sign that the fat is melting away." Humans NEED an environment cooler than their biological set point to discharge of excess metabolic waste heat.
