How to Beat the Winter Blues in New England

With winter fast approaching, most of us are dreading the inevitable goodbye to endless summer nights, drudging out of boots and purchasing of rock salt. No one looks forward to packing their tiny bikinis, tanks and sandals to be replaced by bulky cable knit sweaters, corduroys and heavy socks. But it doesn't have to be all bad!! If you're dreading the winter half as much as I am, take some of these tips to help you survive until May.

1) Sign up for non credit courses at your local community college. - Get out and learn something! You'll meet new people and get something out of it. If you live in the New England area, check out southcoastlearning.org. They offer a ton of classes in a broad range of topics including everything from Managing Menopause to Ghost Hunting to Reflexology. The courses usually run once or twice a week and take place at local community colleges throughout the area. And they're cheap, too, running anywhere from $29 to $249 and usually including all the materials you'll need for the class.

2) Take a class at your gym. - This one will really benefit you the most long term. Joining a class at your gym is a win-win situation especially in the winter. First of all, if you stick with it all through the dark season, by the time summer comes around you'll have a totally buff new bod to show off on the beach. Also, joining a class puts you into a routine. Once you really get into the hang of it, you'll find yourself looking forward to your next session with the formally dreaded stationary bike. You may even get into it so much as to want to add another class to your regime. You'll meet people who may have your same fitness goals in mind, whether it be to lose weight, maintain or just tone up for the summer, and they can help you along. You can also hook up with people you were in the same position that you are in and may have some words of encouragement, dieting tips, fitness ideas, ones that work and ones that don't. It can be like opening the door to a whole new community. Another great benefit to doing a workout when it's so cold outside? It warms you up! Just be careful not to go outside while you are still sweaty as you'll risk getting sick.

3) Find a pottery class, art class, cooking class, any class! - Remember in high school when you absolutely hated life and everything it had to offer and the only light you had in such a miserable existence was your 12:40 afternoon pottery class? Newsflash emokid, that's because you enjoyed it! So why not look up some local pottery classes and take it back up again? Always wanted to learn how to make a better Thanksgiving turkey than your mother-in-law? Sure, you can watch Martha whip through it in a holiday special on TV, but why not get out of the house for a while? (even if it means you have to shovel out your porch and walk way and side walk and car and.... umm.. maybe you can skip your work out today?)

4) Clean up! - Clean your closets. Clean out your make-up drawer. Update your resume. Rearrange your cabinets. Alphabetize your CD rack. Organize your bills. Go through everything and get rid of whatever you don't need. Why wait until a lovely day in May to start your "Spring Cleaning"? Get it over and done with now while the weather is too cold to enjoy. Don't think of it as a chore. Do it when you have one of those days where you feel yourself melting into your couch and looking out the window to see just how much snow you have to shovel off your car is a chore in itself. Rainy, slushy day off? Attack the bathroom! Office closed due to stormy weather (i.e. 50 feet of snow and you can't open your screen door)? Get out all those boxes of old pictures, throw on your favorite sing-out-loud CD, pour a glass of wine and enjoy!

5) Start a long term project. - Well now that you've got all those pictures organized in neat little piles, what are you going to do with them? How about making a family album? Or buying one of those large frames with the little cut outs and organizing a new collage for the front hall? What about taking all those goofy pictures you have of you and your mom and making a really unique birthday card? So what if it's 5 months away! Craft stores like Michaels or A.C. Moore carry all sorts of supplies for projects like that. They have special scrap booking sections, bead sections and even sell the frames mentioned above. Buy some large spools of leftover material from last season at a discounted price and try your hand at a quilt. If it comes out lopsided with one side unraveling by the second time you use it, you're the only one that needs to know!

So you see, there's no need to give in to Old Man Winter and become a premature couch potato. It's only a few months, the sunshine will be warming our world again before you know it. Good luck and see you in spring!