Living in an ice box...and not trying to gain weight

Winter won't officially arrive for another five days, but in North Dakota, most of us are already tired of it and can't wait until it warms up.

When growing up in central Montana, you never knew when the warm up would occur because we had something known as "chinook" winds that could blow in during the night and melt all the snow by morning.

No such luck in Ice Box, USA...we will have winter at least through February, and maybe March.

I have quit my walking outside before work. Now the only extra walking I'm doing is to start my car and warm it up before I drive somewhere.

This morning it was about - 20 air temperature. Luckily, there wasn't much wind. By noon, it had warmed up to - 15 degrees F.

Last night, the Shwan man came by. I knew his frozen goods were going to be cold but they were unbelievably cold. For instance, I put a small loaf of their Andes mint cake in the microwave for 40 seconds to heat it up...which normally is long enough. Last night, the middle of the cake was still frozen while the icing on top had melted and was running off.

So what's a guy to do when he's stuck inside all the time. Sure, there's reading, watching TV and playing "Family Feud" on the computer. But there's also comfort foods -- like meatloaf, scalloped potatoes, macaroni and cheese -- that help us northerners get through these miserable days of freezing temperatures and little daylight...especially when we are not working and all the stores are closed because of blizzard conditions.

Well, there's the exercise bike in the basement. The problem with that is ... you can take it for a 45-minute spin and you really haven't gone anywhere or seen anything. It's much inferior to walking outside where the air is cleaner and each block smells a little different. Someone is frying bacon, I'm getting close to Hardees now because I can smell the homemade biscuits. But when you are in your basement riding a bicycle all you can really smell is yourself...and that it isn't very pleasent.

Okay, commenters...how do you get through the dog days of winter and keep your sanity and the extra pounds off from eating the holiday goodies and the comfort foods that keep us happy?