Low heat. Long time. Keep the lid on.
Yall its October, my birth month! This is the month that my whole feed begins showing people in oversized hoodies running in the dark at 5am, talking about their winter arc.
I use to want to be one of those people. Those 5amers. Those runners. There was a time when I use to try extremely hard to be them + I felt miserable. It just wasn’t my bag + that’s ok. Doesn’t keep me from loving + participating in a good winter arc my own way, no 5am run required.
The overall concept of the winter arc was started in gym culture with the idea to bulk up all winter + cut before summer. The beauty about the winter arc is your focus is the literal foundation + can be anything you want to focus on for your betterment. This year I am personally using fall/winter season not only as my Winter Arc, but also as a way to combat seasonal depression as the days get shorter.
The Winter Arc for Women: Your Body Already Knows its Winter
I’m talking to the ladies. Winter isn’t just a backdrop for your goals. It’s doing something to you, whether you want to admit it or not.
Less light reaches you + your body takes the darkness cue as a sign to wind down earlier. Believe it or not, you are not lazy at 7p in December. Your body is doing exactly what bodies have done since the beginning of time.
If you are local to Charlotte, here is something you may not know. From about November through February, the sun sits too low for your skin to make much vitamin D. Melanated skin already needs more sun in general, so if you noticed that you feel a little bit slower/lower that really might be the biology talking. I am a big believer in getting your labs done, you can ask your provider to check your levels. It is always better to know your personal data, than not.
For women, our bodies already goes through a “winter” every single month. When I teach about the cycle, I teach it as four seasons + your period is your inner winter. The bleed itself is the slowdown. Women have been living a winter arc every month or so our entire lives + nobody has ever called it that. I always say words mean things, so when someone tells me to lock in like winter isn’t happening, that’s like fighting the season or going upstream in a canoe.
Truth Moment? There isn’t any winning in fighting a season in your body. Your biology will always have more stamina than your motivation.
The winter arc that works for us, works with the season. Low heat. Long time.
The Slow Cooker Taught Me This First
Oh honey, I just LOVE a slow cooker in the winter. When Khyra was little + it was just the two of us, that slow cooker was my co-parent. I’d put everything in that morning, put the lid on, + walk out the door. By the time we got home after school, dinner was ready + the whole house smelled like love. Like somebody had been taking care of us all day.
Somebody had. LOL. Me. Eight hours earlier.
Thats what I want your winter to feel like. Not like a microwave. 75 Hard is a microwave. High heat, fast, impressive for about a minute, + a lot of folks end up with something burnt on the edges + still cold in the middle.
A slow cooker asks for three things. The right ingredients. Low, steady heat. And you keep your hands off the lid.
Why Slow Actually Works
There is a study that I always come back to all the time. The researchers at University College London followed people building one new daily habit, like eating fruit at lunch or going for a run before dinner. The median time for that habit to start feeling automatic was 66 days. The range ran from 18 days all the way up to 254 days. The harder the habit, the longer it took. If you missed a single day, it didnt wreck the progress.
Sit with that for a second. For the most part, we have all been told it takes 21 days to create a habit. Black + white. I personally have beat myself up mentally + emotionally when I have been “unable” to create a new habit in 21 days. When reality is it takes almost two months for the simplest habit to stick. Much longer for the harder things.
The winter arc runs October 1 to January 1, thats about 90 days. Real time to truly make some habits stick, if you go low + slow instead of trying to change twelve things by Tuesday.
What’s in My Pot This Winter
Here’s my Winter Arc. Cozy, but dedicated.
- Aerial: I’m currently in intermediate 1 in hammock + I would like to walk into January intermediate 1 in lyra too. There is a slim possibility of being promoted to intermediate 2 in hammock as well if I keep showing up how I have been.
- Pottery: I’m back in the studio regularly + I want my throwing to get consistent. I want to finish projects. Not just throw + never fire or glaze pieces. This means I need to be on a consistent schedule to throw, trim, fire, glaze + fire.
- Reading: I want to get back into completing books in a week vs starting + never finishing.
- Sourdough Baddie: I have a starter + Ill be baking bread all winter. Nothing says patience + slowing down like getting into the sourdough life.
- Hair Growth: Im on a growth journey! I officially decided we were done with the bleach + the ginger life. Ill be spending this winter, deep conditioning, scalp massaging + all the things to grow thicker + fuller hair.
You notice something? Almost everything in my pot is a body thing. Everyone of them takes physical effort + will lean on the relationship I have with my body heavily. Am I eating enough? Sleeping enough? Taking my vitamins? That was on purpose. That’s what I want this winter to be. Me, in my body, on purpose.
How to Build a Winter Arc that Actually Sticks
- Pick your ingredients. Two or three things. Not twelve. I know my list looks long, but most of it is stuff I already love + already do. I’m turning up the consistency, not starting from zero. I’m leaning into the areas that bring me joy. Chose things you actually want, not things you think you’re suppose to want.
- Tie each one to something you already do. The researchers point to this too. Habits come easier when they’re attached to something that reliably reminds you. Vitamins with breakfast. Ten pages before bed. Stretching at the start + end of each day. Your new thing rides on the back of an old one.
- Track by your cycle, not just the calendar. Plan your hardest push for your higher energy weeks + give yourself the gentler version during your inner winter. If you want to a place to actually see that, my Rooted in Her Rhythm planner was built exactly for this, + you can start with just one cycle.
- Keep the lid on. Every time you lift the lid on a slow cooker, you let the heat out + add cooking time. Same thing with the winter arc. You do not have to post your progress every day. You do not have to check the next persons progress every day either if they do choose to post. Comparison lets the heat out. Let it cook.
- Plan for the missed day. You will miss one. Remember the study. One missed day doesn’t undo anything. Just put the lid back on + keep going.
If You Want Somebody in the Kitchen with You
Here’s the part I can’t not tell you. Ninety days is three months. Three months is exactly how long I work one on one with a woman.
That’s what my coaching is. Three months of figuring out what your body is actually doing in the season it’s actually in, + building a way of living that makes sense for you. Your cycle, your energy, your sleep, the thing your body has been doing for two years that you’ve been calling normal.
Start this month + you finish your arc in January, fluent in your own body instead of starting over on January 1 like everybody else.
It starts with 20 minutes. Just a conversation. You tell me what your body’s been doing + Ill tell you what I’d look at first. You leave with something either way.
Whatever’s in your pot this winter, put the lid on + let it cook.
Winter Arc Questions, Answered
How long is the winter arc? Most people run it from October 1 to January 1, about 90 days. That’s three months, which is long enough to build a real habit if you go slow.
Is it too late to start my winter arc? No. October 1 is a date somebody picked on the internet. Your body is always in season. Start the day you read this + you’ve still got a whole season ahead of you.
Is the winter arc the same as 75 hard? No. 75 Hard is a fixed list of rules + if you miss one task you start over at day one. A winter arc is completely yours. You pick the goals, you set the pace + one missed day doesn’t send you back to day one.
What are good winter arc goals for women? Pick tow or three things you actually want, tie each one to something you already do + plan around your cycle instead of fighting it. Body goals work beautifully here, because winter is when your body is asking for your attention anyway.
Till next time
XOXO
Denawa Deniece