Lightboxes and other SAD-busting magic

Hi, everyone,

I haven't posted anything really substantial in a long time, but now that the election season is over, I thought I'd update my blog with a little post-Daylight Savings Time health advice.

Living in New England has made me fairly aware of how my mood is affected by sunlight.  Even when I lived in New York, the slightly increased degree of sunlight was better for me personally than it has been the last four and a half years I've spent living in Rhode Island.  Winters here are brutal--darker, but also with colder rain and winter mix, along with a harsh wind that slices through thinner clothing.  I've had to spend a significant amount of money on thicker winter clothes since moving here, because my cheaper cottons weren't cutting it.

While I haven't been officially diagnosed with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), which has been publicized over the last few years as a psychological, debilitating reaction to longer periods of darkness, I definitely feel the gloom that days hiding under wool and indoors creates.  Because I have been here so long, and know how I react to the wintertime (during finals period and the stressful holiday season, no less!), I have spent a great deal of time researching how to prepare for this time of year.

Drink Water.
I have always held that staying hydrated is the most important thing that a person can do to maintain their health.  The adult human body consists of 55-60% water.  This should be constantly replenished with fresh water, which we don't always think about because we are not sweating it out as much in winter.  It's really important to pay attention to what your body wants; it is very common to conflate thirst with hunger, and often when people think that they need to consume more caffeine, they actually are just slightly dehydrated.  Drinking coffee (or Red Bull, or Four Loko--well, that's a whole other can of worms) will not help this.  When I drink coffee, I try to make sure to drink more than the equivalent amount of water, so that I will not further dehydrate myself. 

Moisturizing is also really important.  My skin never cracked and dried in New York as it does here, because it is humid all year-round as opposed to very humid in the summer and dry in the winter.  I never had as many sinus infections as I do here.  Keeping hydrated and moisturized is another way to combat wintertime illnesses in addition to DST blues.


Exercise.
This one is a challenge for me, as I am not a naturally athletic or physically active person.  This semester, I made sure to keep myself on a rigid exercise schedule by taking a modern dance class as one of my courses.  This was a great move for helping my mood overall throughout the semester.  Dancing has made me aware of what's going on in my body for a set period of time each day.  The deep stretches that we perform in the class incorporate aspects of yoga, which increases GABA levels in the brain significantly higher than simply taking a walk does.  While yoga has turned off some people that I know  because it seems too spiritually-based and does not function as aerobic exercise, I would argue that stretching muscles that are not commonly used in everyday life builds up lactic acid, which activates your metabolism.  Yoga specifically allows for both stretching, building up lactic acid, and deep, controlled breathing, which supplies oxygen to the body so that "warming down" is not as necessary as in other types of exercise. 

But if you don't want to be all touchy-feely and do yoga, at least stretch in the morning.  Stretch further every day.  Learn to touch your toes if you can't (it's taken me about two months to learn that one).  Stretch places you didn't know existed.  If you don't exercise regularly, then take 10 minutes out of your day to stretch.  Even if it's during your lunch break.  And you have to hide in the bathroom stall to do it.  Just do it.  And then take another 10 minutes during your day, another "extended bathroom break" if you will, to do jumping jacks, or run in place, and you will feel awesome about yourself, about taking care of yourself, and your body will thank you.

Take Vitamins.
Sunlight goes away, and along with it goes Vitamin D.  Recently, a paper came out talking about a Vitamin D deficiency pandemic and how little sun people now receive.  There is much research pointing toward the inefficacy of orally taking Vitamin D (though I'm trying it out, anyway), because it needs to be processed by UV light in the skin and then activated in the kidney.  Research points toward those chocolate women's calcium supplements with Vitamin D as being the only effective oral way of absorbing these nutrients.

If you don't want to do this, then I recommend eating fish!  Iceland, even though it is a very cold and dark place, has a significant lack of SAD, theoretically due to the ingestion of fish in the region.  Eating veggies is also great, although fresh veggies are harder to find in winter months.  Frozen veggies used in homemade soup can be a great way to resolve this problem, in addition to eating fresh "winter" vegetables like squash and hardy or indoor greens.

Lightboxes
I'll admit--the first thing I did when I realized Daylight Savings was upon us was research lightboxes.  These are super expensive, though Jason Fitzpatrick from Lifehacker managed to find a $40 Dawn Simulator (they aren't shipping until January, unfortunately).

Luckily for me, my university's Psychological Services rents out light boxes to students!  I just rented the large one today for a $25 deposit, and I can keep it for two weeks.  The sun is going down now, so I'm going to hang out with it after work for a while.  I highly encourage people who have therapists to ask if they could borrow a light box to see if it works for them--there is no use investing $150+ in something that might not help their problems.

Good luck and take care.

2010 Election Results

Click here to check out the RI NOW PAC Endorsement results. 

Thanks to everyone who voted in the general election; I'm really excited to see what will happen in Rhode Island politics during the legislative session.

Quick Update + National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior Survey launched!

I am alive; Angel won the primary about 2 weeks ago; I have been actively volunteering with the CSPH; I had almost forgotten how much work being a full-time student is; I am not retaking the LSAT; I am going to take at least a year in-between undergrad and law school; I think having real law experience is far more valuable than having a high GPA.

Also!  Today, the Center for Sexual Health Promotion published the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior Survey.  This is a big deal, as the last time we've had a solid count of sexuality in America was in 1990, with the National Health and Social Life Survey.  The book "Sex in America" resulted from this study, and some problematic conclusions did as well, including extensions of already-existing social constructions of gender. 

BUT ANYWAY.  Read the summary of the report, it's exciting.  Condom use has increased, especially among Hispanic and black Americans, though it still has a ways to go.  Also, way to go, people, for acting outside of the normative categorizations of sexual orientations and skewing the results of what this means in a social context.  America can be pretty cool sometimes.

2010 RI NOW PAC Endorsements

Here are the Rhode Island National Organization for Women PAC endorsements.

(Please note that all the candidates in this post are 100% on RI NOW's issues in addition to the highlights I'm covering here.)

Campaigns I've been volunteering for :

Betsy Dennigan (National NOW endorsement):
Betsy Dennigan is an emergency nurse and attorney who is running for national office in District 2.  She is an able and worthy candidate and is focusing on healthcare, education, and stimulating the fishing industry and green industries in Rhode Island.  I've written several posts about her on this blog already.

Angel Taveras
 A strong progressive candidate for Providence, Angel is focusing his mayoral platform on housing, which the city certainly needs, and environmental issues, including municipal composting, which  I worked on back in 2008 (cut to terribly-kept old blog) with David Mittelman in congruence with Andy Posner of the Capital Good Fund.  I am sure that Andy will be invested in helping guide Angel through the process of finding sufficient land, finding staff, dealing with the NIMBY'd nature of gentrification within Providence, etc. He also wants to fix zoning laws, which, after having worked for the Census, I can see is a huge problem in the city.  The difference between commercial and residential zoning has really affected cost of living, making rent far too high downtown and turning Providence into a ghost town after business hours.  Providence needs a mayor who will actually help uncover and remove deep-seated problems, and I think Angel's capable of doing so.

Therese Caron
A criminal defense lawyer, Therese is a fighter for justice.  She is an advocate and self-identifies as a feminist.  She is the lesser-known Progressive face in the race for the District 2 Representative seat vacated by David Segal, but she will make up for it by working twice as hard in office.   While I would support either Therese or Chris in office, as I know them both personally, Therese's story especially appealed to me.  She was been a public defender for twelve years, and now works with helping low-income people in difficult situations.  She decided to run for Segal's seat when she found out it was vacated--after he announced it--on the basis that her daughter was in high school and therefore old enough to handle the time commitment that Therese would invest in the Representative position.  Therese is a true Rhode Islander, and I think she would serve her district well in office if elected.

Politicians I've met with or otherwise support:
Chris Blazejewski
Gina Raimondo
Theresa Tanzi

Ch-Ch-Changes

Hi, all!  This is a super-quick update.

First, I just thought I'd let you know that the layout of my blog is less ugly.

Second, thought I'd let you know I changed my major, from Literary Arts, which was somewhat unrelated to the work I've been doing, to American Civilization with a focus in Gender and Healthcare.  I think this will be far more helpful in achieving my law school goals.

Third, the Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health is moving--two doors away.  It will still be in the Grant building at 250 Main Street in Pawtucket, but it will be relocated to a larger space, which it desperately needs.  We start painting in a few days!

Fourth, the RI NOW PAC's endorsements will be rolling out soon, so stay tuned.

Fifth, I have continued to study for the LSAT, and I now recommend the ExamKrackers book for logical reasoning questions.  Way cheaper than PowerScore and way less dense/dull/time-consuming.  Oh, I am continuously on the search for an LSAT buddy in the Providence area, so if you know anyone, please let me know!

Take care.

Under Construction

I'm working on the layout of this blog, so please excuse its appearance over the next week or so.

Thanks, and take care!

Today was a big day in terms of meeting important women for me. I met Nancy Rafi and Gina Raimondo within the last four hours.

Nancy came into the Center today to speak with the interns as a personal favor to Megan about the important work she does in trying to end violence against women. Nancy is not only close friends with Megan (she helped fight the city of Pawtucket when they almost didn't let the Center open), she is also close friends with Eve Ensler, the creator of The Vagina Monologues. Nancy has also started her own nonprofit, the Rhode Island Crisis Assistance Center. It does amazing, immediate work for women to help deal with details in crisis situations, like providing clothing to women after going to the hospital for a rape kit, because the hospital will take clothing away as evidence and leave women to go back home in a hospital gown. Its next fundraiser will be in September, and it is an awesome concept. Called "Walk a Mile in Her Shoes," it is a walk in which men raise money to help prevent and raise awareness of domestic violence by walking a mile in bright red high heels. I fully intend to get the guys in my fraternity, including my boyfriend, involved. The interns at the Center will also have a team, and it's going to be a lot of fun.

After being thoroughly impressed with Nancy and the wonderful efforts she's made to help direct attention to relationship abuse, I attended Gina Raimondo's first "Money School" lecture in Cranston. Gina is running for Treasurer of Rhode Island, but is taking the position to the people by offering financial resources and lessons to Rhode Islanders for free. She covered basic information about savings, credit, and debt that, judging from the reactions of the people around me, were really helpful. I picked up a few tips, also, which is great, but mostly I learned about different resources for college funding that I hadn't known about. There are a lot of small organizations within the government that loan and help very specific circumstances, but are never used or known about and therefore aren't helping people. Rhode Island's unemployment rate is still ridiculously high and the cost of living is constantly increasing. Gina is trying to bring the Treasurer's office to the forefront of helping people directly, which is what the state desperately needs. She will hold banks accountable for taking advantage of their customers by holding control over the state's available bank fund, negotiating distributions of money among banks by requiring service to RI in return. I think her plans are great, and I sure as hell hope she wins the election.

This past week has also been full of candidate interviews and deciding endorsements for the upcoming primary. I think that I will talk more about that after the RI NOW PAC has come to a decision about all of its endorsements, but they are pretty exciting. We received over 30 returned questionnaires and have been choosing our candidates quite carefully. Once we announce our decisions, I will talk about meetings that I have had with specific candidates, and how lucky I am to have the opportunity to speak directly with the people who will be shaping the future of RI's policies. Also, the other women in NOW are amazing, and I'm super lucky to get to work with them so closely.

That's all for now. Take care.