During 2021, I barely left our flat in Kazakhstan. Granted, we had to quarantine for our first ten days in the country, having taken two transcontinental flights from Dulles. Beyond that, having an infant/toddler in a new (second world) continent during a pandemic, my threshold for exposing our family to the virus was low. I desperately did everything I could to keep the Pamper Pirate healthy.
We were living in a country where you cannot necessarily trust the public health data. Cut to getting our adult vaccines and finally, the Pamper Pirate getting his vaccines. I finally felt safe(r) to enjoy outside life again. I feel like I need to interject to say, that our family was enjoying life indoors. Lots of toddler crafts.
Until the back end of last year, I also never really enjoyed the cold weather. We took twice-weekly sled walks around the park last year, always bundled up! This year, we continued with the sled walks but prior to snow sticking, I embraced cold weather running. I think there is something to confronting cold weather either bundled up for longer periods or less so for short bursts of time.
This past winter whenever the temperature bested zero degrees Fahrenheit, l would even scamper outside in an outfit not exactly fitting for a cold day. I reframed these periods of time during cold days in a lesser outfit as a free cryotherapy session. It was the antidote to staying inside during the majority of 2021 and actually felt amazing in short spurts of time!
That said, now that the KZ assignment has concluded, I will never complain about cold weather in the states again.
I am not a health care provider. Please consult your doctor before trying cryotherapy or walking outside in the cold.
