3 Easy Ways Tropical Girl Survived Winter

I was born and grew up in all year long tropical country. With all the humidity and crazy hot sunshine, being drenched in sweat is something that –as gross as it sounds- I’m very used to. Even sleeping with 24^oC AC is (sometimes) too cold for me that I have to hide under layers of thick blankets!

However, being exposed to all the movie about winter wonderland, white Christmas, white winter, and all snow related made me wonder how it feels like to experience that season. Long story short, I bought me tour and travel package to Western Europe 2 winters ago. It was my very first encountered with everything I’ve seen in holiday movies.

me, one winter ago  (my own photo)

My first-hand experience taught me 3 basic but crucial ways to survive winter.

1. Wear long-john.

This is my biggest regret on that trip. I didn’t bring (even one!) long john. Keep in mind that it was my very first time in winter country. The closest weather I’ve experienced to that was when I travelled to HK-Macau, which was around 15^o C. Or you can say >10^o C warmer than Western Europe at that time. Unfortunately, because it was a very packed tour, I didn’t get the chance to visit H&M, F21, or even a funky local shop that sold long-john. With that being said, every day I tried to layer as much as possible.

I also made a silly little mistake though. On my first day there, as someone who like going to the gym, I worked out at the hotel fitness center. I tried every equipment possible, which was good because I maintain my fitness routine even when I was on holiday. But my fault was, I wore the only long-john like t-shirt I brought and drenched them in nasty post workout sweat in just 2 hours. I knew I could just wash them, but here are my excuses. First, it was too thick it needs quite some time to dry. No, there’s no washing machine in my hotel room so I had to manually wash and hang it to dry. Second, being in a tight package scheduled tour, I just went back to the hotel at 10PM. After some hours of procrastinating on my phone, I finished my workout at about 2AM. Lord knows I had no energy to do anything other than to sleep. Third, I had to wake up at about 5AM and checked out 1 hour later. There’s no way the clothes would be dry by then. Or in short, no time.

The point is, always wear long john (and top it off with thick outer of course) on winter. On my second time winter trip, I’ve learned from my mistake and brought some long-johns which truly made the trip much more pleasant.

2. Moisturize every part of your body

When I say every part, I mean it. Winter air somehow makes my skin becomes extremely dry. I didn’t realize it on the first few days of my trip. But after some days there, I was taken aback by how my skin had become. My face was bloody flaky. If I scratched my face, the skin would be ripped. Not only that, it also pretty hurts when I scratched my face. It felt… sore. (Is that even the right term though?) Anyway, enough for my disgusting face skin. Now, move on to my other skin. My legs and arms were in the nasty shade of brown and scaly. That was my first time seeing my skin became so dry that I felt displeasing. Seeing that, I immediately applied my go-to moisturizer which I believed was the thickest one there was, Vaseline petroleum jelly. I rubbed it all over my body and face and left it overnight. Although the dryness wasn’t magically gone on the next day, it surely wasn’t as bad as when I applied none of the moisturizer. So second lesson learned! Apply the thickest moisturizer overnight all over the skin for maximum result.

3. Eat more!

I think it is safe to say that I’m not the only one that feels easily hungry when the climate gets colder. I’ve done some research (which is literally typing ‘why I get more hungry on winter’ on Google) and a lot of researchers are also trying to find an answer for this question. One interesting statement I found say that the digestion of food heats up bodies and warms people up in the process. So it is very common when the cold weather strikes, people think they’re hungry, when in fact they’re just cold. Subconsciously, food has become a quick fix for instant comfort and warming up bodies’ systems and distracting people from the discomforting feeling of being cold.

I use that as an excuse to eat a lot more food on winter. Not to mention, that I was on holiday anyway. So all was good! Of course, I always try to choose my food wisely. When I still ate meat, steak and cheese was my favorite. But my last winter in Japan, I chose to ate vegetables soup or ramen for my comfortable food. Other than that, I also liked roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes. It tasted especially good to eat on a super cold day.

So that’s my 3 basic way to survive the winter as someone who lives and grows in tropical country. Although I’m always shivering and missing the hotness of sunshine, I always look forward to have another snowy holiday when winter is just around the corner. Christmas pop song that’s played in almost every store and pretty New Year decoration in every corner which is very pleasant to see, makes me feel at ease and excited to celebrate both them in a weather full of thick coat and comfy pair of boots.