ME and the everyday balancing act

Haven't posted for a while.  I've been pretty busy "doing" Christmas.  It went well although it was a balancing act that needed good managing and I think I managed it pretty well.  I did have to cancel three social events in the last ten days before Christmas Day.  These were things I thought I would manage but when it came to it were just too much.  I did still fit in quite a lot of social occasions in those lead up weeks and they went well.  I was conscious not to stay at any of them too late and that definitely helped.
I have traditionally visited the Christmas sales every year on the 27th December with friends and family   members.  Over the last 4 years I have done this in varying states of illness/recovery.  The first couple of years involved me doing very little shopping and much sitting in cafes and restaurants. This year however I ploughed up and down the pavements of Bath carrying several heavy shopping bags.  Earlier this year my symptoms would have stopped me in my tracks, forcing me to stop and rest, but not so now,my body did everything I asked of it.  I did feel it for the following two days but even so, it is a sign of how much stronger I am now.
The other thing I noticed after having shopped hard for the day was that I had a better nights sleep that night.  I had had a bit of physical exercise.  The problem is, it's fine line between doing enough to get a good nights sleep and doing too much, and it would seem the boundary between the two can vary   day by day so it's tricky to judge.  Today I have walked one and a half miles.
As the New Year approaches I have been thinking about resolutions.  I like New Years resolutions as I think they help to focus the mind.  This coming year I would like to read more, play my bassoon more and raise some money for an ME charity.

Perrin Technique spots

A mixed time again this week.  I Felt good on Friday and then really rough on Saturday and Sunday, not quite right yesterday and today I feel fine again.  At the weekend my rough feeling felt pre-menstrual, but then nothing happenned.  I had had a huge amount of mental activity over Thursday and Friday and it's always easy to underestimate the toll this takes.  I have started taking more detailed info on my activity levels, which I hope will be useful to look back on.
Since my last Perrin appointment I have had some spots.  I seem to get two different types of spots which I associate with the treatment.  The first sort are more just blemishes, red marks on my skin, these tend to be in two places; just below my cheekbones in a line across my face and on my chest.  The second sort are more like normal spots, but they are different to normal spots in that they seem much deeper and very rarely come to a head.  I get these spots on or just to the side of my nose.  I'm sure it is the daily massages that are encouraging them.  Now I am more active one of the problems I am finding is that it is easy to forget my midday self treatment because I am so busy.  I need to set some reminders on my iPod and phone to make me stop and do it otherwise I get to 5pm and realise I have missed it.  I wonder if the spots will get less the more I recover.

Monitoring energy levels

It hasn't been a great week energy wise.  Last Monday was the worse day, but then I gradually improved during the week.  I always had the sense though that fatigue was just under the surface and any small exertion would bring it on.  On Thursday feeling somewhat better I went for a small bike ride down to the village but the minute I had to apply any real pressure to the pedals my thighs complained.  I was good for nothing when I got back.  On Saturday night I went to the pub to celebrate a friends birthday and very sensibly left at around 9.30pm and didn't go on to join the others in the curry house.  I came to the conclusion as the week went on that my body was busy fighting off some sort of bug this week.  It never did develop into a full blown cold but it has had an effect on my symptoms.
I rested all day Sunday knowing that Monday would be a big day out, and so it was.  I took a train to Bath and had a lovely day Christmas shopping with a girlfriend.  We pounded the streets for hours, stopping twice to refuel.  I felt good all day until about just after 3 o'clock when my thighs started to weaken.  Our pace had to slow, but we made it to the last two shops we wanted to visit and then onto the train.  I couldn't do anything else in the evening, but I had had a good day.
This morning I'm sat typing in bed.  My body is tired from yesterday's activity.  I woke at 5am which is so annoying.  it's annoying that the fatigue you feel with this condition doesn't translate into sleep.  How I would love to sleep from 9pm to 7am one night.  It's 7.53 and normally I would have been up for an hour and a half at least by now but today I am going to have to take it easy.  It makes me think that the whole Christmas period is going to be one of boom and bust for my energy levels which is not a sensible way to go forward, but at times unavoidable.  I think some of the features of Mickel Therapy will be useful over this busy period.  I need to put myself first, do what I want to do, be prepared to say no and go for it (also known as pushing through and not recommended by many).
I think I need to refocus on my levels of activity.  I found reading this article about exercise levels helpful:
Experiments with exercise

I am contemplating asking for a cheap heart rate monitor for Christmas. 
 I am a bit nervous about this asdon't want to get paranoid about what my heart rate is doing, but
equally I do think it might be a useful tool to monitoring the effect that different activities are having on me.