Over the years, some wild trends appear all the time.
A few years ago, everyone had to go out and run a Marathon, which was previously only for the wildest athletes. And in this time of Corona, almost everyone has started walking 10,000 steps a day, while probably the most popular thing you find on social media at the moment is winter bathing - despite the fact that it has always existed.
Personally, I wish I had been on the wave of running a Marathon, but a knee operation has not made this challenge possible, and it is very time-consuming and in reality not particularly healthy for the body. However, I believe that it strengthens and moves one's psyche a lot. Have you run a Marathon?
Never in my professional life have I had as much "free time" as when both of my stores were forced to close. The 10,000 steps has clearly been tested and I have to admit that I like it a lot :-) But it is time consuming, so it will be difficult to achieve once my shops reopen.
I definitely think that my daily walks do something good for my mind. Exercise also gives it, but it's not the kilos that show it - even if I walk fast. Michelle Kristensen has recently told about the background for the 10,000 steps in Go' evening Denmark - the phenomenon comes from when the pedometer was invented in the 60s in Japan. Here everyone was encouraged to participate in an event where you had to walk a minimum of 10,000 steps.
Subsequently, it has almost become a sign of health if you walk 10,000 steps a day :-) Do you get to walk 10,000 steps a day?
I'm the biggest frostbite and hate anything that makes my body cold. It must be said that I suffer to a fairly high degree from something called Reneau syndrome. Here you get completely white fingers and toes, which hurt a lot - not least when the fingers and toes get warm again.
That's why you see me wearing giant gloves from October to April with warmth in them.
Over the years, many have enticed me to try winter bathing, but I have always refused - just at the thought of voluntarily freezing.
In November 2020, my sister-in-law (who is a hardcore winter bather) persuaded me to try going in the water. It was approx. 6-7 degrees both above and below the water. I only did it because all our kids wanted to do it too and because there was a sauna which was said to be the finishing touch according to my sister-in-law.
I thought it was really cold and even though we went in the water 2 times and in the sauna 2 times and everyone thought it was great, I wasn't thrilled at all. It didn't give me the kick everyone is talking about - and why expose yourself to the cold? When I subsequently talked to people about it, the answer was often that the water had not been cold enough at 6-7 degrees.
The other day a friend asked if I wanted to try winter swimming. She had only tried it once before and wanted to do it with a newbie. Wow, that was difficult, because it's not something I think about myself, but in these crazy times I need something different to happen than what usually happens in my life.
So I said yes on the coldest day of the year. Minus 4 degrees and windy (felt like minus 10 degrees). But the sun was shining and the company was top notch. We had all the right 'equipment' with us, and then we just had to turn off our brains and throw ourselves into it.
On the jetty we meet some hardcore winter bathers (both older and younger ladies). They start by saying that it is the coldest they have experienced in a very long time (after all, we had a warm winter last year) and that it was very brave of us to go in, if we had never tried it before.
Now it was at this point that I thought "drop it, stay sitting in the sun and enjoy your coffee with warm fingers", but the devil got to me and within a relatively short time I was lying in the icy water.
Was it a pleasure? No, damn NO, it was freezing cold, but the worst part was getting out of the water while your hands were frozen solid in 2 seconds, so you could hardly take off your bathing suit and put your warm clothes back on. Well, it hurt so bad.
Afterwards we had a croissant, coffee and the sun right in our faces, and it was GREAT. The rest of the day I was tired - some say it may have something to do with one's life energies. Does anyone know anything about it?
I simply don't think I'm the type to get a kick out of winter bathing - SORRY TO SAY - but that doesn't mean I won't try it again.
If only the research could say unequivocally whether it is actually good for health, blood circulation, the heart, the skin and possible weight loss, etc., but after reading a lot about it, unfortunately it does not indicate that winter bathing can be scientifically documented as something positive on those parameters. Oh wow!
However, it is believed that winter bathers have the opportunity to produce more brown fat, which burns the white fat (our unwanted fat stores).
The heart primarily beats faster just before you dip into the cold water due to adrenaline, but no more than if you just have to catch the bus or drive through a yellow light and have to hurry. The same applies to blood circulation.
However, it is healthy for our blood vessels to contract and expand again, which is what happens in the cold shiver.
If you want to go swimming in the winter, it is probably mostly for the mental reason that you should do it. And hopefully research can definitively document a wide range of benefits from winter bathing - SOON:-)
Now enjoy the cold weather, which has become brighter by a full 2 hours.
Feel free to send us pictures of the crazy things you're doing at the moment and hashtag #smukgørdigglad