Rest and recuperate

I’ve been doing a review of my goals and I’ve realised that I have this on my list more as a reminder than anything else. I have no idea what specific, concrete actions I would need to take in order to be satisfied that I had achieved this. Truthfully, I still can’t tell when it’s best to push through my lethergy, pain or whatever is troubling me and when it is best to rest.

So I am giving up on this for the time being. You might say I’m giving it a rest ;D

...than I usually do in an average week, probably. The drugs knocked me out. My neck muscle still is kinda knotty but isn’t spasming any more so I’m going to quit taking the heavy stuff and just rely on ibuprofen and the heating pad now. Hopefully the worst is over.

Started Thursday, been getting worse since. Went to the doc and got some good meds. No nerve damage yet. Waiting for the muscle relaxant to kick in to see how loopy I get. Not responsible for stupid behavior. ;-)

I’ve come down with a head cold. Which is fine, except I still have trouble with giving myself more than a day to get over it. I have this unrealistic expectation that after 24 hours I should be able to get back on my feet and back to work. It’s just not happening.

I mean really! My shoulder has been acting up over the last couple of days, making it difficult for me to get any writing done. I’m really starting to think I’ve got some serious issues around this. Ensuring my body gets enough rest to heal properly does not make me lazy.

Today I’ve had a realisation (again) about how much this affects me. I’ve been a bit restless the last two nights and haven’t slept as well as I might otherwise. Added to that, I’ve been really owrking hard over the last few days. Today I’m tired, unmotivated and procrastinating. I feel stressed because I can’t concentrate and I’m not getting the things I need to do done.

I’m going to have a nap this afternoon and take things from there.

Aaarrg! My week of rest is just about up and I still don’t feel any better. My calf muscle has still been quite sore and while out walking my boyfriend’s dog, I ended up running about 100 metres. Not a good idea. I limped home. I’m not ready to go back to running yet.

I was supposed to resume Tai Chi today, but for some reason it wasn’t on. I’m thinking in retrospect this is probably a good thing.

I still feel a bit fatigued and I’ve had a sore throat plaguing me all week. It seems I’m going to have to extend my rest time.

But it’s so frustrating! I just want things to be getting back to normal, and it completely refuses to.

I guess I need to remember to have patience.

I’ve started to realise that this goal may indeed be the most difficult of my health goals, perhaps even all of my goals. I find it hard to accept that sometimes I can’t keep the pace I set myself.

Things haven’t been 100% with my health over the last few days (mostly just little niggly things that are beginning to add up), so I’m taking a week off. The challenge will be not to do any running, though it discourages me to have to stop so early on in the program, and not to make any plans to go out, though I’ve already received an invitation. I need just to get better.

I think this goal is possibly the most essential subgoal to achieving my goal of respecting my body. I feel it’s important to know my limitations and to respect them. I’m not too bad with the former but not so good with the latter. I need to get enough sleep, to not delay meals because I’m trying to do too much. I need to take extra rest if I’m not feeling well. I also think it might be a very good idea to have a proper weekend, to have a day where I can be as indulgent as I like and NOT WORK!