Being Sick, Exercise as Medicine, Fatigue, Goals for 2014/Bringing in the New Year

I am so very sorry I have not kept up with this month. So much as gone on,everything from my birthday to holidays to being ill. Even this Christmas I came down horribly with the flu and it's still not entirely gone. The one thing I have noticed is that everyone seems to have gotten it at work, yet again another sign I need a new job. The job I have again you ask? At a call center with circulated recycled air and sharing computers, headsets etc. means sharing plenty of germs that don't get out of the building. Most people have kids and are interacting with outside sources and bringing new bugs into the building as well which feeds more germs. It's just not a healthy environment. And then sitting there all day too does not help.

Now admittedly work is trying to do something about that and they are starting a walking club, of which I've signed up for. We'll see how that goes for the new year. I also had my ergo assessment almost two weeks ago, and thus far better for my back for sure. I don't have as many issues with my shoulder and the massage therapy is definitely helping. Especially when the therapist gets right into the sciatic nerve. More info on sciatica can be found here. But massage therapy can only help one's health so much and there is so much more I can do and have been advised to do such as continue walking. However for the past week I have stopped walking to work only because I was very ill and this flu went right into my lungs. It could have been pneumonia almost, in fact it's still there but not nearly as bad as it was. I woke up Monday with a fever that though it broke sometime around noon, it was high enough I was seeing things and found myself dehydrated and overheated and on the floor of my bathroom when I came to at one point. Remember, always drink lots of water and fluids when ill. Chicken soup does wonders especially because of the salt and water content, you need this for electrolytes. Electrolyte drinks are best and sports drinks though are good potentially for hydration when doing workouts are not best when ill. They don't give you enough and are quite often filled with sugar. When my sister was ill with the flu I went looking for some ideas if you didn't have some stuff on hand or couldn't get to the drug store by chance to get an electrolyte drink mix. This site was just one of many that I found about mixing your own with certain recipes and most kept to something very similar.

Moving on I have been gathering up a multitude of articles on different health subjects. One of which I thought was interesting was the use of exercise as a form of medication. The article on this was quite interesting and I tend to agree. It can certainly have a multitude of benefits but I wouldn't go off any medications that are absolutely required. I do believe exercise is a great way to reduce certain medical issues that could come about, as a prevention measure. I also further found an article on fatigue,"7 Weird Reasons You're Tired All The Time" and in fact most of them are admittedly true for most people, including myself. Certainly something to consider or ask your doctor about if you are having trouble sleeping. I might also add that I had a semi discussion with my massage therapist about this and charlie horses, for charlie horses it's your muscles contracting and telling you to rest and you should have lots of water and perhaps more potassium in your diet. However it goes without question that when your body is ill or you have muscle spasms or even soreness overall, it's your body's way of telling you that you need rest. You are tired, your body is fatigued and or the muscles overused. You can go and go and go like the energizer bunny but even the energizer bunny's batteries have to be replaced at some point and unlike him we can't "replace" our batteries. We have to take care of ours so they don't erode to nothingness. So please when your body says slow down, try at least to listen. I've learned the hard way and am trying to slow down.

Now lastly for this week/month and year of 2013, I'm going to go on to motivation and goals. I found this article today "22 ways to stay motivated to lose weight". A good read and certainly some ideas to keep in mind for any goal to keep healthy. I agree with all points. This leads me to believe that, you know what, I can do this. I am horrible at motivation and I just need to find the right way to motivate myself. I have been trying and little goals like less pop with more water,  have been successful. I have kept to less pop, more water, more veggies, less eating out, and trying to walk more. I have tried to do other exercise and if I hadn't gotten this cold/flu I probably would have kept to that goal this month. I did keep to my goal in November of near perfect attendance at work and successfully walked for the most part to and from.

This year for 2014, I want to keep to the goal of less pop, more walking and exercise and eating better. I don't want to set a goal for how much weight to lose, I know already I must have lost a little bit in some areas because admittedly I'm getting stretch marks around my waist. So it's going off somewhere. I must be patient. I am still in a healing process for my shoulder and back and eventually I will get to where I want to be. If it's not by the end of 2014, that's ok. I'm making progress and that's all that matters. I'll probably make more resolutions but not all are regarding health. Making too many goals though, is a challenge and not healthy and one should take things one at a time. Let life lead the way and don't let it get you down! Everything happens for a reason and we might not all reach our goals or get what we want done but we might get what life wants and what we need to have done. There is a true difference between what we want and what we need.

Anyway this is the last post of 2013, so I hope everyone had a good year and I look forward to more posts in the new year! Hope everyone has a happy, safe and healthy holiday! :)

Update On My Own Health

So sorry everyone for writing so very very late! It's been weeks I know and a lot has been keeping me busy. Lots to write about and I promise to write another quick entry this week again. Maybe even a few, but for now an update on my own health. 

Last week was a week of five days off, one of which was my birthday, and I spent it mostly resting and doing nothing. I had my massage appointment on the Thursday, went well and learned more about charlie horses. In fact drinking more water and eating more potassium is a good thing as apparently these spasms can either be caused by lack of potassium absorption in the muscles or just an indicator that overall I've been overusing the muscles and so ti's my body's way of telling me that it needs rest. I was also told by the massage therapist that I should definitely continue to walk and do Zumba and other forms of exercise when and where I can and keep active. Even if it's light activity. I shouldn't over do it though like I did even with laundry as that made things worse in my lower back lifting the baskets, so it was suggested that I get a roller basket for my clothes instead. Overall the therapy seems to be working and that's a good thing because I can walk faster and I can sit straighter and it's not hurting as much. There is still going to be pain and some days like on Friday this week where a migraine will come on due to the overuse of those muscles. She did warn me I'll notice which muscles I'll use more and that there could still be pain but it is in the works. :) 

I also have been drinking a ton of water! I can't seem to get enough of the stuff lately. I bought myself a brita filter for my Brita jug and put that in the fridge. I've been drinking much more lately and can't even really stand pop so much now. I also have been craving and wanting fruit and veggies like grapes, carrots, tomatoes, mushrooms, oranges, grapefruit, bananas. My body seems to want to do an automatic cleansing, I don't want junk food and I don't even really want processed food so much. But sandwiches, soups and even crackers with a bit of cheese seems to be preferences now. This is a good sign and I feel much better for it. I also find that I'm sleeping differently. Been wanting to go to bed a bit earlier and getting up earlier as well. I don't know if that's a good thing or not but seems to be that I am getting about 6-8 hours sleep and any more than that makes me sick.

Speaking of being ill I find that heat or being overheated or sleeping too much makes my stomach turn. I also find that going to the mall or essentially being surrounded by people for more than a couple hours at a time with busy hustle and bustle  is highly stressful and also makes me sick and stressed. I actually found that though I'm feeling lonely when I'm by myself I feel more energized. I don't feel the energy draining out of me. 

So all in all feeling better and finding what makes me tick. It's good to listen to your body and find out because otherwise you just get worse. That's really all for now, I have a series of things that I have listed for the next health topics that I'll make sure I'll touch on in the next couple entries. I don't want to run out of ideas though! :) Until next entry everyone have a good week and stay healthy!