In a rut

Bleh - not sleeping well at all lately and it is impacting workouts. Dragged myself to the gym this morning half asleep and did 30 min of cardio. Didn't work out all weekend even though I planned to work out. My eating has been ok but I have zero energy from lack of sleep. Part of it is allergies, some is work stress related (lots of new projects), and some is just general frustration with the usual joint pain, etc. I'm optimistic that the rest of the week will go better and plan to get to bed early tonight so I can get up bright and early to do some lifting. Thanks for letting me vent =) Stacy

Hey that's what we are here for. Stress will kick your butt!! I know. I feel ya. How about herb tea before bed? I usually drink some Celestial Seasonings Sleepy time tea "Extra" with Valerian in it. It is very soothing and helps to send me off nighty night! Also melatonin is safe and helps sleep too. I have ankylosing spondylitis, fortunately I have been in remission with it for a while, but I understand the joint pain. Do they have you on anything for that? I used to do ice massages and that helped take a lot of the inflammation down. Hang in there kiddo, don't over tax yourself. You can actually make it worse. Vent anytime! We all have our days, believe me I know! Val

Vent away, no problem. You did go to the gym today, that is what matters, not if you made it yesterday. Be o.k. if you miss, you may need some rest.

It is 6am Wed morning and I feel as if I could go back to bed for 10 hours. I went to bed at 9pm last night and got up around 5am but still no energy as it took me a long time to finally fall asleep. I think I just need to catch up from the lack of sleep. It's really impacting my moods too. I'm going to go for a walk in a little while but can't see doing much more than that. I do have a huge herbal tea collection as well as melatonin. I will give that a try tonight. The only thing I've taken for the joint pain is advil. I'll also take some tonight. I try to avoid taking it on a regular basis. Great ideas. Thanks guys.

Hiya Stacy, Just a few thoughts on your current challenges. I have fibromyalgia, which is a sleep-impairment based disorder. If I don't get enough restorative sleep, I will flare. New, additional, or different stressors on the body, I will flare. It's pretty much that simple. For me, having unmanaged stress of any kind, whether physical or mental, will leave me feeling awful, pain, brain fogged, moody, no energy to do much of anything. That all rolls together in what results in a flare for me. So I feel your pain, on a somewhat regular basis. Having said that, you have identified the antagonists to feeling good right now already. Stress, allergies, need to get brought under control, or at least in such a way that will remove them as antagonists while you're sleeping. Focus on how you can relax during the hour or two before you sleep. Are there stressful things that can get resolved and therefore elminated? How do you calm yourself down or make yourself feel better/more relaxed during high stress periods? Some things happen in our lives and around us that we truly don't have enough control over to eliminate and it may be a situation that just needs to run its course. That happens to me sometimes, like when I'm travelling on a big negotiation that is very intense and goes day and night for upwards of a week. I know it's gonna be exhausting and stressful and that it's going to hit me with a big backlash physically, and try to accept that and relax through it. Sometimes I have rituals to separate myself from the inevitable stressful situation from my personal down-time, like taking a long hot soak in the hot tub while listening to some nice soothing music and sipping some sleepytime tea, and I wind down (or a soak in the bathtub with your favorite bubble bath and some lit candles! But gentle exercise also helps me to fatigue the muscles enough that they relax while I'm sleeping and don't spasm. Even 5 minutes of vigorous exercise can help to improve quality of sleep. Just also wanted to make sure that you aren't at a point where you're overtraining, which can leave you feeling rotten *after* a workout. Generally, a workout should leave you with elevated mood, energy, and relaxation. If you feel worse after your workout than you did before you started and if you also think that overtraining might be a possible thing happening to you, it might be worth just taking a couple of days off from the gym and then coming back and jumping in again. Sometimes the body needs some downtime, too. Have you been sick? Exercise while having a virus can be counterproductive as your body needs its resources to heal itself. Hope you feel better soon! Try not to be hard on yourself; you're doing great! With kindest regards, Donna E. www.teklawgirl.biz Like I said, this may or may not apply to you.