[Qiviut]

When I had cats, they would find ‘sun puddles’ on the floor & snooze, all warm & cozy ... I envied them.

I used to get SADS in the winter. Vitamin D helps with that. Once I started hiking in the mountains pretty much every weekend in the winter, SADS went away & I also never got sick.

About 6 weeks ago, I broke my coffee habit. It just didn’t taste good to me any more. Now, because I need some caffeine, I drink tea in the morning & often, have a cup in the afternoon. Tea is a source of L-Theanine so I’m getting some that way - I didn’t realize it until you mentioned theanine & I looked it up. :-)

[FamiliarFace]

I normally take extra D in the winter but I realized the other day that since I’ve been taking the theanine, didn’t really notice the SADS which is always my signal to take more D. Daily walks for a couple of miles. Rarely get sick, like you, though it happens occasionally.

I’ll be honest. I have a little coffee with my cream and sugar. I never drank coffee until I moved to the Midwest, only tea. Hot tea in the morning, and sweet tea the rest of the day. That’s how it was growing up in the south. I have learned to have much less sugar in my tea than I had growing up.

We still have one cat. He loves his sun baths wherever he can find them. Doesn’t matter where.

I only had a meal plan made until today, so this storm has me caught off guard a little bit. I don’t have any fresh potatoes left in the bin, so I will have to make do with what’s in the freezer, and canned veggies, too. I have enough of most everything so I will just try to be creative and work on getting rid of some of the stuff in my pantry. It needs to be rotated anyhow. Perfect time to use things up. (Can’t tell you how long it’s been since I ate canned food. Hardly ever do that, but I don’t feel like getting bundled up just to be with the masses at the grocery store.)

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Another thing that may help with mood is Creatine. A year after a stroke in 2018, I started going to a gym. I was told by a trainer at Planet Fitness that Creatine was originally developed to help older people conserve muscle mass. I used it for that purpose but also found that it also helped a lot with mood.

Creatine: A Treatment for Memory and Mental Health

I never used it for intensive bulking up type training, but still use it several times a week.

[Diana in Wisconsin]