Backseat Positivity
"Able to make serious topics lighthearted and fun - I even laughed at some points!"
Get your bi-weekly dose of positivity in this fun podcast with Dr Dawn Barlow, who helps you navigate all of the weird/best/worst parts of life!
Dawn takes you on the self-improvement journey you didn't realise you needed... Bought to you by a doctor who hasn't had life as sweet as many of her comrades. She knows firsthand just how rubbish life can be, yet has managed to turn her life around for the better!
From relationships to mental health to happiness, make sure you buckle up twice a week (Mondays and Thursdays) the join her and her guests for candid self-improvement. Don't forget of the course, the "weird thoughts" segment, where Dawn and her guests share weird thoughts from their lives.
Dawn says:
Sometimes life reminds me of being in a washing machine. It's a bit spinny and turbulent for a while, but then it stops and gives you a little break before spinning you into oblivion once more. It feels like the washing machine wants to wash something bad out of all of us... positivity.
Some might EVEN say that positivity is shouting from the backseat and no-one wants to listen to it... [backseat positivity] More than once a week, but less than 4 times a week, you can shove me in your auditory canals and listen to me chat about L.I.F.E., self-improvement, mental health and anything else that my little monkey-mind paws can grasp onto.
Sometimes other humans actually dare to join me.
It's candid, it's fun. Woo!
Backseat Positivity
Embracing the Chill: A Traveler's Guide to Conquering Cold Climates
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Ever braved the biting cold and found yourself wishing for a warmer adventure? Let me guide you through my own frostbitten mishaps and the crucial wisdom they've frozen into my memory. My travels to the icy realms of Norway, Sweden, and Canada, along with a nail-biting ascent of Kilimanjaro, have taught me the hard way that preparation is key to not just enjoying, but surviving in cold environments. I'll be unpacking the layers of my journey, from the dangers lurking in underestimated weather to the lifesaving gear and strategies that kept me warm.
When the sun dips below the horizon and the cold starts to creep in, a good night's sleep can feel like a distant dream. In this chat, I'll spill the secrets to turning that dream into reality with the right sleeping setup. Listen as I recount my own night-time blunders and how they led me to discover the wonders of a four-season sleeping bag, the underestimated power of a sleeping bag liner, and the thermal magic of a simple hat. You'll hear why hot water bottles can become your best friend in the great outdoors, and how the right thermals can mean the difference between shivering and snoozing in blissful warmth.
Wrapping up our thermal voyage, I'll share the essential cold weather gear checklist that should accompany any thrill-seeker facing the frost. From the necessity of smart wool socks to the innovative hot rock that soothes your hands while charging your phone, I've got you covered. And it's not just about what you wear—what you eat plays a pivotal role too, as I'll explain the caloric firepower needed to fuel your body's natural furnace. Join me, and arm yourself with the knowledge to embrace the chill and turn winter woes into wondrous escapades.
Please consider helping me out, I'd seriously super appreciate it! <3
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So we've covered going on holiday in hot places. But what about cold places? I've had some real disasters when I've traveled to cold places, because you can pretty much survive as a human in a warm place and you might struggle with dehydration and heat exhaustion etc. But you can actually die. I mean, you can die in a hot place but you can die a lot easier in a cold place. And I tell you what. I've made some real mistakes and I've learned from them.
Speaker 1:And I'm going to tell you the situations today because you know we don't just go on holiday to hot places, like I've been to Norway. That was a holiday some people go to, like you know, antarctica, maybe not Antarctica for a holiday, but like Greenland or Iceland. Greenland, iceland is cold. Yeah, norway, sweden, canada is quite cold and although they may sound or mountains, I've climbed Kilimanjaro. Oh my god, I actually like thought I was going to freeze to death on that on top of that mountain. We climbed it at night, like the summit night you do at nighttime, and it's so cold. I honestly like, oh god, and the sleeping bag as well wasn't thick enough. So let's get into how we stay warm in cold places, because it can be a real like dampener on your mood and also drain energy from you so quickly if you're freezing cold all the time. So yeah, let me tell you about some situations that I've been in Number one when I was 16, I think I was, and I did my Duke of Edinburgh award.
Speaker 1:This is like a rite of passage for anybody in their teenagers. I actually completed my Duke of Edinburgh award when I was like 25 or 24 because I was like I need to finish it. And I actually did it in the end and people were like, oh, but you're like not 16 and I was like, yeah, I started when I was 16 and I just didn't want to not complete it. So I actually have finished it not that it made a difference to anything whatsoever, but anyway I completed it. It's basically like this kind of wholesome-y challenge thing where you complete I think it's five sections residential, charity is it charity or volunteering, physical learning, etc. Those other things and my last one I needed to get was residential and a learning one. So I learnt the language and I went on a expedition medicine residential trip which was super fun and I really liked it and it also completely fit the bill for ticking off that section. Anyway, when I originally did my DAV, my expedition, the practice expedition, I made a huge mistake.
Speaker 1:Basically it was April. We were in the middle of the Breckenbeekens, which is like Wales, which I don't know if you know but it's like not warm, let's put it that way. It's. I thought. You know, it's kind of warm during the day, it's like spring, and I kind of thought, well, I'll take a sleeping bag liner with me, fleecy liner, I'll wear lots of clothes, it'll be fine. I was trying to save on space.
Speaker 1:Now it's probably one of the biggest regrets I ever have, because I didn't take a sleeping bag and I basically froze the whole first night. I like I got to the point of not shivering. I was that cold and that is an actual thing. If you get so cold that you stop shivering, like that's not a good sign. It means that you're below like 35 degrees, I think, and yeah, it ain't great. So I basically laid there in a lot of pain because being cold is kind of painful, because all your joints like ache, and I laid there till the morning. I didn't sleep. I don't know how I got through the next day. I feel like nowadays, if I don't sleep, I honestly feel like shit, like actual shit. Like I feel really anxious in particular, and the anxiety is what gets me rather than anything else. Like I can deal with the tiredness, but it's the anxiety feeling in my chest that I'm just like oh, I don't wanna go with this. So I don't know how I do it.
Speaker 1:When I was younger, like I don't ever remember feeling tired, like I used to go out on nights out when I was 18 and then go into not uni well, yeah, uni the next day. So I basically didn't take a sleeping bag. The guy was like I told him the next day. I was like please have you got a spare sleeping bag because I nearly died last night. And he was like what? Like why did you think this was a good idea? And I was like I don't know, I was trying to save on space and I'm 16. So I don't have a brain cell or any common sense, so, and I need to learn from my mistakes. You know, I need to fuck up and learn it the hard way, basically, and I learned that and I have never done it since, obviously. So there have been other things.
Speaker 1:Kilimanjaro also, I was very cold, although, yeah, that was actually after the Duke of Edinburgh thing, I still didn't take enough warm stuff. It got down to minus seven one night. But I basically learned from the mountain guides there and I was like how do I be warmer in my sleeping bag? Cause it's so cold. And they gave me stuff and I'm gonna go through that today. So at first, I think we need to discuss how we lose heat. It's gonna be pretty brief.
Speaker 1:Number one transfer from a. So if you're sat on the ground, if you notice the ground is really cold, you can like feel it's like the reason why we wear slippers, cause the heat basically gets dragged from your body into the surface of the floor, which is cold, and that's why I can't wear, you know, just socks on the kitchen floor, because my feet start to freeze and I get really cold. So I have to wear slippers now and it's honestly a game changer, like just removing that barrier. So basically just not sitting directly on a cold surface. Number two is wet, being wet. We all know that being wet cools us down, but sometimes that's good and a lot of times when we're in a cold environment, that is not a good thing and we can be wet from having wet clothes or we can be wet from sweat, or we can be wet from I don't know a shower, or do you know what I mean? There's loads of reasons or we spilled water on us or we fell in a river, and that is another way.
Speaker 1:The third way I'm not saying these are, you know, exhaustive, but these are the main the third way is wind. So basically it removes the warm air around you that you've kind of created there's like warm air bubble and it brings cold air and takes the warm air away. So it basically means that all the warm air next to you is getting replaced with cold air and then that cold air gets energy transferred into it, heat energy, and then that gets taken away and it's basically just moves air like moves heat off of you. These are really important to know because we need to know, like, how do we avoid being cold by doing these? So things to avoid?
Speaker 1:Number one I've put getting sweaty. But that's kind of not really avoidable. I think if you're in a cold environment like, you're probably less likely to get sweaty. But the main thing is gonna be, if you do start feeling hot, to take any layers off so you don't sweat as much. So you know, if you're wearing a hat, take it off. This is just when you're moving around, and then when you sort of when you're, when you've stopped, you can put all of that stuff back on. It just means that you don't.
Speaker 1:You don't wanna be wet from sweat, and if you are wet from sweat you need to wear stuff that is like wicking, so like just wearing normal clothes like this that are gonna hold the sweat on you is not a good idea, even in a hot environment, cause eventually it's gonna get cold at night. You know it doesn't stay hot all the time, so you want stuff that's gonna take the, basically be wicking, and they might advertise it as like dry, like dry work or you know, just like wicking stuff, or there's a lot of it around and it's not that difficult to find, but it's worth getting. You know, if you are going to a cold environment getting a few thermal layers or a few like wicking tops, or just remembering like, okay, I can't get really wet, so take off, like, as you know, as many layers as you can and just if you are walking in the sun at that point, just taking off your, you know, even if it is cold, taking off enough layers so that you're still warm but like not sweating, and that's quite. That's like sometimes a bit of a fine balance to try and find, but I find it quite easy because I basically sweat quite easily. So I start off in a lot of clothes and then I take them pretty much all off, so and that's why you have a backpack and just shove it in there.
Speaker 1:The other thing is I think I've already said this don't be in direct contact with the floor. So if you're sleeping it's really useful. You don't just want to sleep directly on the floor. The things that are good are to get those things that you can blow up and they have air in them and they're a bit better than they're like just like slab ones, because the air creates like a barrier between the floor, which is cold, and you can actually warm up that air in that like blow up bed, because they're really thin, there's not that much air to heat up and it can produce. You know you won't heat up that much, but it's not going to be as cold as the floor and also not as hard as the floor. So actually the main reason for not sleeping on the floor is actually heat reasons as well as comfort, but you don't want to be in direct contact with the floor because it's just going to suck all the heat out of you.
Speaker 1:Other things are to get out of windy locations. I mean, that's why we sleep in tents, isn't it? To stay dry and to stay, you know, to get away from the wind. So, but if you're you know you're not in a tent or ever you might need to sit somewhere that's a bit more secluded so you don't get like wind like making you really cold. The other thing to be considered of is wind burn.
Speaker 1:I don't think people take this seriously and the thing that I do is I always wear a buff. So a buff is like it's like one of those scarfs that is like a donor and you just pull it over your head and you can get ones for cold weather. I've got two. I've got one for hot weather and one for cold, because even when it's hot, you still want a buff, because you get sunburn, you can get windburn still, and you can get dust as well, go into your mouth and your like nose. So it is good. I always like to have something that I can cover my face with and you know if you're going skiing? Oh, I didn't, I didn't even think about you know, this could be a good podcast for if you're going skiing.
Speaker 1:So, getting you know, sunburn and windburn are two things that would come together. The windburn like dries out your face and, um, I had it really bad once. I got sunburn and windburn together. I just didn't understand that you needed to put sun cream on when you're skiing. And, yeah, it was so bad. Oh, it was so itchy and painful. I was like scratching it off. It was like in, you know, I had like the goggle marks as well. It was awful.
Speaker 1:So let's move on to some products. Um, oh, wow, where do I even start? Wow, I don't even know. No, okay, let's just start the top.
Speaker 1:Good sleep items. What does that even mean? Dawn, I think that means get a fucking great sleeping bag. If you are going to kill a manjaro, the thing is they're expensive, I get it. Um, but if you have, I got a three, what they're called three climate, three season sleeping bag. Now, awake there, I just realized you might not even be sleeping outside, but let's say you are. If you're sleeping outside, get a good sleeping bag, okay, and by that I mean four seasons, and If you haven't. You need to take a sleeping bag liner. You need to. I've got a fleecy one. I didn't have one when I went to Kilimanjaro and I regretted it.
Speaker 1:Now the good thing is the mounting guides were like they gave me hot water bottles, which is fine if you've got hot water available, but you know, if you're going with a group then they probably have a fire or, you know, gas or something like that. So they made me hot water bottles every night, which was so cute. They wanted to keep me well. Basically, I mean, they want to keep everybody well, but me in particular, because I was working as the doctor. So they were like Uh, anything I asked for, like they gave me it pretty much, apart from super glue. That was the only thing they didn't give me and I was fine with it. You know, I sat on my sunglasses and I broke them and when I got home I fixed them, but that was the only thing they didn't give me. They're so fucking nice. Honestly, I can't cope with it. So, yeah, I still have a thing that I need to send them.
Speaker 1:Actually, I'm so bad, um, anyway, good sleep items are when I slept outside, I slept in a hat and I slept in my thermals. I didn't put loads of layers on, because the reason is you want your sleeping bag to heat up. If you wear so many layers, then you're not like, basically, your sleeping bag needs to create like its own little micro climate. If you put loads of layers on, there's no like heat being given to the air and there's no like circulation of heated air going around the sleeping bag. Also, you end up not heat. So if I've got my arm next to me, my body, if it's got like loads of layers on, then my arm isn't being heated by my torso, for example, but if you're just wearing a thermal, your arm being next to you actually ends up like they give each other heat and it's like, honestly, it's so great.
Speaker 1:Now I had these hot water bottles. I ended up having two. I put one in the bottom of my sleeping bag, next to my feet. Oh, my god, my feet were so cold. I slept in thermal socks as well, thermal leggings, thermal socks and two hot water bottles and a hat, and they gave me a sleeping bag liner as well, actually. So basically, I had one hot water bottle at my feet and one hot water bottle it at my like tummy like my. You know I held on to it. Basically, you really want to make sure that they're screwed up tight because you do not want a water explosion in the night.
Speaker 1:But and this is also applicable to like, if you're staying in somewhere that's cold, you know you can take hot water with you. And that was one thing I did regret when I was climbing Kilimanjaro is I didn't have a thermal flask, I just used my. I think I did actually, but I didn't put hot water in it. I put cold water in it. And when you're cold, when you're freezing, cold and climbing, and you're like running out of energy and your body is like not really producing that much heat, to put cold water in your Mouth and drink it and it just goes in your stomach and then your body has to heat that water up. It's like so soul destroying. So what I would do next time is I would get a thermal flask I've actually got a camelback thermal flask and I would put not boiling water but, like you know, water that has been boiled and then you can all just you know hot water that's drinkable and then put some cold water in with it as well. It's not to act as like a hot water bottle or anything. It's basically so when you're freezing cold, you drink the water and you're not like Immediately depressed from drinking freezing cold water because that is so sad.
Speaker 1:Um, I've already mentioned thermals like so important. I've got so many not so many thermals, but I have quite a few, and not only the under armor are really great. Like I can fault them like they are really great, they're really good quality and they do a really good job. I do have some other thermals that aren't under armor. They're like cheap, but I do prefer the under armor. And I've got some RAB thermal leggings as well, which kind of you know they kind of aren't just leggings like that go underneath stuff. I can wear them as normal leggings as well. So thermals are important.
Speaker 1:If you're going skiing, wear thermals. You can always take more off. You can't put it like on. And then obviously you need you need gloves. Oh my god, gloves. I think I went without gloves as well. Honestly, I make so many mistakes. I'm just like you just forget all of this stuff. I went without gloves. Somebody lent me gloves. I only needed gloves for the summit night and that was it.
Speaker 1:And because it was so cold, a hat. I obviously took a hat, literally so important. You lose most of your body heat from your hat and your like abdomen and chest, that's where the most blood is, so under your neck as well. So that's why you need a buff or a scarf. But a buff is like good, because it's not going to fall off, it's not going to undo. You can also put it over your face. You don't need a buff, but like that kind of thing. You don't specifically need a buff, like you could get another brand is what I'm saying but like it's definitely worth having a neck, hat and gloves for sure. Like don't go anywhere without them.
Speaker 1:And thermal socks as well. I've actually got smart wool socks and they cost a fortune. I've got about two or three pairs of the smart wool cooling socks and the smart wool warming socks. So they've got two like types and I've got three, two or three pairs of each. I think they cost like 20 quid or something per pair. It's insane.
Speaker 1:But once you've got them, obviously you're not going to be wearing them like all the time, but they are so useful for times when you do need them. So if I'm going somewhere hot, I'll take the, so I'm. When I go to Asia, I'm going to take the cooling socks with me and I don't wear them every day. They're not like an every day sock, they're like an activity sock. So if you were, if you were going like hiking or trekking or, you know, skiing or something like that, you would wear those socks, but not just like I don't know, I'm going to go walk around, so you probably don't need them. If you're just doing like everyday stuff, like you probably just get normal socks. But they are amazing, yet expensive Foil blanket. These cost honestly like two quid, but they are useful in so many ways.
Speaker 1:Number one if you're in an emergency situation, even if you're like going skiing or something, or if I was going on dart more, I would still take this with me. Number one it can act as an SOS flag and they're reflective and they would draw so much attention so you you know if you're in danger, then you can just wave it, and if the helicopter's coming over, that would be great. Number two they are heat, they're like insulating. So if you do end up having an incident where you fall in water or something like that, or your clothes get really wet, you can put this around. You take your wet clothes off and put this around you and it will heat. Well, it will reflect your own heat back, so it's great. They're also reusable amazing.
Speaker 1:And you can also use it as a shelter, if you know you need to. If things go wrong, you could use it. You know it's quite noisy, but you can put it over your. You can like make a little shelter under a tree or something. And then another reason is you can put it over your tent and it basically um, it reflects the sun, so you know it can help with keeping the tent cooler. Anyway, I've also got a hot rock, which is that's the brand, and it's basically a battery pack, but it also, if you turn it on to heat mode, it will heat and the battery from the battery pack will heat up the hot rock and you can put it in your gloves or you know, I don't know in your armpit or something like that, and it's basically like you can use it as a hand warmer. It's really great. I haven't yet had to use it like to its full potential, but when I nearly like froze to death on Kilimanjaro, I was like, let's get one of these. So I've got one and you can also, like I said, charge your phone with it, which is great.
Speaker 1:Also, food. Guys, the main way to keep the fire burning is literally to feed the engine. Your body is a thermal machine so you need, if you give it, food, it will produce heat for you. I think one of the main reasons why I got so cold on Kilimanjaro was because not only is it so cold, but also my body was like just completely empty, like I'd barely eaten anything. We were tracking like 12 hours a day and I just I don't think I had enough like heat giving off, like nothing was coming off me and like stuff was, but like not the same, you know radiator level. So the more you eat, the more fuel your body is going to have and it will give off so much heat. I noticed this when I went to Asia. Basically whenever I used to eat I would get so hot afterwards and that was just my body, like getting rid of the extra energy that it didn't didn't need and that was obviously like probably didn't need to eat that much. But I've noticed that since I've been like dieting, or since I've been on my weight loss journey I don't like to call it dieting Since I've been on my weight loss journey. I am so much colder because I have no extra calories to give off as heat, so my body is like no, let's keep hold of that one. And basically I'm like, yeah, I'm so much colder. Finally, I mean, get good, this is actually okay. Two more. They both pertain to the same thing, though.
Speaker 1:Number one is waterproof clothes. You need a waterproof coat, like it doesn't matter where you're going. If you're going somewhere cold, you need a waterproof coat because if it rains like or snows like or you fall over, you know, even if you're going skiing, it needs to be waterproof, because if you fall over and then snow gets in and oh and it melts, big disaster. You know you can get some of that out, but not all of it. So you want to wear something that's nice and waterproof and potentially windproof, depending on you. Know, most things are windproof now, to be fair, but you probably don't need waterproof trousers. As much like you can cope with cold legs, you can't really cope without with a cold body and head like. Those are the two main things you want to keep dry and finally, dry bags. Guys, there is nothing worse.
Speaker 1:When Charlotte and I my friend, we went and climbed a mountain in Vietnam. It's called Phan Zee Pan yes, that's its name. It rained the whole time. Two days straight it rained, poured it down. It was like we were in a shower and I.
Speaker 1:The thing is, dry bags are really expensive. So I didn't have any dry bags, but I did have the common sense, or actually, to be fair, it's because I've known a lot of like military people. They would always talk about wet kit and dry kit and I learnt from that and I was like right, I'm not letting my stuff get wet. So I double bagged everything in like bin bags and plastic bags, and what you do is you put your clothes in plastic bags, tie it up really tight and then turn it upside down and then put it in the next one and tie it up. So it's you know. You don't tie it up in two bags with the knot next to each other, otherwise the water could just seep through.
Speaker 1:So, ideally, dry bags. They are much better because they're like fully waterproof. But if you can't, then bin bags or plastic bags are also a great idea. Plastic bags are not as good as bin bags because they tend to have holes in so that children don't suffocate in them. I learnt this the other day. Bin bags tend to not have holes in because otherwise they leak bin juice everywhere. So bin bags are better, but sometimes you know if you're in like a foreign country, maybe not the easiest to get hold of.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, keep your, keep your wet clothes separate and your dry clothes. Dry that, because there's nothing worse than getting into wet clothes or like staying in wet clothes at night, and you know your sleeping bag needs to be dry, completely dry. You don't want a wet patch. It will literally make you so cold because it will probably freeze and then it will just be like having an ice pack in bed with you. So anyway, that is how I have learned the hard way and I hope you don't make that same mistake. When you're going to cold environments. Honestly, don't take it like lightly whatsoever. They are so dangerous, they can really do damage and people you know people can literally die out there.
Speaker 1:So always take more than you think you need, like if you think, oh, just take I don't know a three season sleeping bag, no, if you do, then you need to be prepared to be able to get hot water bottles and have a sleeping bag liner and have a hat and thermals on. That was the only way I managed to cope. If you're going anywhere than minus 10, you need a four, four season sleeping bag. Like for sure I would go out and buy a new one. I know it's expensive they're like hundreds of pounds but you might not even need a sleeping bag.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's say you need a coat coat worth it, coat and hat. I've got a seal hat and it's got like foil in it. It's like a foil hat, so it basically keeps the heat in so, and it's like a beanie as well. It's really good. So, yeah, hats are the vibe and you kind of look cute in them as well, right? So also, when you're traveling like, who has good hair? No one. So anyway, I hope you guys have benefited somewhat from that. I'm off on my travels in literally like two days time how crazy is that? Wow. And yeah, I hope you guys enjoyed it. I upload every Monday and Thursdays and I'm teaching you life lessons from me, messing up, basically so, and having a miserable time whilst doing so. Anyway, thanks so much for listening and I will see you in the next episode.
