Tuesday 4 December 2012

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.

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