How to Protect Both Your Body and Your Wallet in the Chilly Autumn?

Make the chilly autumn weather more enjoyable, boost your resistance, and give your wallet a rest.

The autumn season is requesting an audience

Autumn is here, and along with beautifully coloured foliage, crisp air and the opportunity to wear fluffy sweaters and drink tuned cocoa come a few risks in the form of a weakened immunity and ubiquitous bugs, mental health crises and autumn blues, or a lack of energy of body and mind. In other words, there is less sun and the days are getting shorter, while autumn melancholy and tiredness are becoming stronger and layers of clothing multiply.

How can you make such chilly weather more pleasant and disburden your wallet at the same time? Biohacking, which allows us to know and optimise ourselves and our environment, brings us a few useful tips for free.

We are inextricably connected with our environment. That is why as soon as the seasonal change begins in nature as it gradually settles down to sleep (with a shortening of daylight and lowering of temperature), so does our body settle down to a similar “hibernation”. The biggest change in temperature and light occurs around the end of October, and we feel it not only as a desire to dress in white sheets for Halloween, but also at the level of immunity, digestion, or the activity of our genes themselves.

Nature and every living being in it is governed by more or less cyclical processes, none of which should be skipped or neglected. From a long-term perspective, we are simply not capable of functioning at the height of all our abilities all the time. Let’s be more patient with our bodies and minds in the autumn, let’s allow them to sleep a little longer from time to time, and let’s not stress them with too many excursions beyond our comfort zone or too many stimulants. I will not focus specifically on mental health today (although most of the techniques below may help with that, too), but do not neglect it! Put simply, what you performed effortlessly within the physical and mental realm in the summer might suddenly not be so easy. And that is perfectly alright, Sys.

The constant disputes over the thermostat setting

Is it really so great to live in a nonstop comfort of overheated homes?

We have got used to taking care of ourselves in a way that keeps us comfortable all the time. I do not want to write about the often stressful stepping outside of your comfort zone, but rather to draw your attention to nature and its gradual and natural changes. You don’t necessarily need to let it snow in your home, yet it is clear that our modern lifestyle provides us with ever less motivation to go out into the present weather and temperatures, cradling us safely in a constant year-round temperature within the four walls. Such a way of life may be possible and safe for certain age groups and sensitive individuals, but paradoxically, it weakens the healthy population in the long term. We lose the ability to respond naturally to temperature fluctuations and this makes us more susceptible to diseases and other risks. Different family members have of course different requirements regarding the temperature, and so a dispute over the digits on the thermostat and the financial possibilities of the family is born.

Have you ever noticed the onset of fatigue, lack of motivation to work or exercise, or a deterioration of sleep quality when your home was too warm? The perfect home temperature cannot be safely generalised. Your grandma who has difficulty walking, your seriously ill neighbour, your sister’s baby, the perfectly resilient niece, your partner, you, with your permanently cold feet, all of you will likely have different thermal comfort levels, and it definitely does not mean that you should immediately lower the heating at everybody’s house to the recommended (and read really only recommended) 18-20 °C. According to the WHO recommendations from 2018, a safe and balanced indoor temperature is at least 18 °C, while it may need to be adjusted for more sensitive individuals (1). Temperatures below 16 °C with humidity above 65%, on the other hand, have been linked with the risk of respiratory problems (2). However, not even this is completely determinative, as we know many resistant exceptions.

The perception of the ambient temperature depends on many factors, including the choice of clothing, humidity, the physical, genetic, and physiological parameters of your body, level of physical activity, or your last night’s sleep. Therefore, the preferred room temperature can change in a moment. Differences in perception have been recorded across different cultures and between men and women, with women generally being less satisfied with the ambient temperature (3). There is nothing wrong with this, because as women we change physiologically throughout our cycle. On the other hand, it does not mean that we cannot play with our abilities and push beyond our limits!

Proceed lightly, carefully, by building up your own resistance.

Steps to autumnal resistance

Tread lightly in the autumn leaves of cold and risks and choose the strategies that can help you personally. Some helpers can be bought at the shops, but an autumn menu can also be compiled completely free of charge. It depends only on your preferences, and so below I include recommendations for both alternatives.

[ Through cold therapy to feeling toasty ]

I used to feel cold all the time, wondering every winter what new layer I should put on. Then I started asking myself why it is that after some time, my body accepts the change, I feel cold again and have to put more clothes on. The answer came to me in the word adaptation and along with it the idea whether I might be able to reverse the whole process, letting the body adapt to a decreasing number of layers instead. And so my journey to a certain form of minimalism and cold exposure began. It has already saved me a lot of trouble with overfull luggage when travelling, money for heating, and storage spaces. 

The end of summer and beginning of autumn is also the best time to start carefully habituating your body to the decreasing temperatures. You do not have to stress your body excessively, just let nature gently lead you by the hand.

Cold exposure can help you to generate your own body heat, and in this way you will become less dependent on the stability of outside temperature and excess layers of clothes. Moreover, there are no extra costs associated with cold exposure - you can alternate cold showers with frozen vegetables from the freezer, a local pond, one less layer of clothing, or an open window.

You have probably heard that women’s approach to cold and cold exposure should differ from that of men. Unfortunately, there is little material available on cold therapy in women for now, which is one of the reasons why our Veronika decided to use the available research and her own ample experience to compile an ebook on cold therapy for women.

[ Let some fresh air in ]

One of the reasons we tend to get sick in the autumn is because we often shut ourselves in our homes or other indoor spaces, where we spend a lot of time with other people. A higher concentration of people in a dry, badly aired space is a delicious feast for germs, and it is you who will suffer the consequences. I do not drive the woman out for half a day, but I drive some fresh air in for the woman indoors. ???? Let some fresh air in - in moderation, but frequently!

[ Fidget ]

Micro-movements during the day will help your body on so many levels! Set an alarm and jump up every hour, exercise your diaphragm, work standing up for a bit, take a short walk with the rubbish or to a local farmer to get some food, do 10 squats or a few pull-ups on the pull-up bar in your door frame. In this way, you will support your psyche, blood vessels, and thermoregulation.

[ Sleep like a princess ]

Don’t be fooled. For us at Systers “sleeping like a princess” doesn’t mean piling up 10 mattresses, putting on a frilly nightdress, and enjoying a lit fireplace in your bedroom. There are many techniques that can help improve the quality of your sleep, including a cool environment in the room, which should be around 18 °C (15-19 °C) according to general recommendations. The temperature of the room happens to be one of the most important factors that influence the quality of your sleep (4).

[ Warm up with a drink ]

A toasty feeling, good mood and more energy during the day can also be ensured by various beverages, such as our favourite Golden Sun Milk, ZEN Coffee, or quality cacao with Ceylon cinnamon, a pinch of chilli, and adaptogenic chaga mushroom tincture or Cordyceps powder. On the other hand, beware of green tea that, even when drunk hot, cools the body, and so it is not a good idea to drink it before practising cold exposure in winter, for example.

[ Warmth in the tummy ]

As the beginning of autumn also marks a change in our metabolism, I recommend focusing on local and seasonal foods with antiinflammatory properties, rich in fat and spices. So I’m thinking about pumpkin, carrots, turmeric, ginger, garlic, cumin, ghee, beetroot, broccoli, kohlrabi, potatoes, meat and eggs from local farms, and from farther away for example wild salmon, as a source of antiinflammatory omega 3 fatty acids.

Don’t succumb to the autumn blues, we are in it with you,

[ with love ♡ ]

Bibliography: 

(1) WHO Housing and health guidelines. World Health Organization. 2018. pp. 34, 47–48. ISBN 978-92-4-155037-6

(2) World Health Organization. Environmental Health in Rural and Urban Development and Housing Unit. (1990). Indoor environment : health aspects of air quality, thermal environment, light and noise (PDF). p. 17

(3) Sami Karjalainen. Gender differences in thermal comfort and use of thermostats in everyday thermal environments. Building and Environment. 2007 April. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2006.01.009

(4) Okamoto-Mizuno K, Mizuno K. Effects of thermal environment on sleep and circadian rhythm. J Physiol Anthropol. 2012 May 31;31(1):14. doi: 10.1186/1880-6805-31-14. PMID: 22738673; PMCID: PMC3427038