Lately I’ve been doing lots of yard work. For a week or two I was paying attention to how I was feeling and not overdoing it. About a week and a half ago I started focusing on what I wanted to get done rather than how I was feeling and I ended up over doing it.
I use a FitBit One which is similar to a pedometer but it tracks lots more information like floors climbed, sleeping patterns, and I can log additional information like my daily food intake, weight and so forth.
On an average day where I’m not working on the computer a lot my FitBit usually shows me taking around 3,600 steps. Two Monday’s ago I don’t remember what I was doing, but at the end of the day my FitBit showed I had walked 9,770 steps and climbed 6 floors. By the end of last week I was still doing more than I usually do physically and I was starting to feel it. I kept focusing on what I wanted to get done rather than what I felt like.
Saturday was the first day I didn’t work in the yard. I went to a baby shower and on the way I started to get a headache while driving which turned into a migraine. By the time we left the baby shower I was really not feeling well. Even though I drove there my sister-in-law, Vicky, drove us home. When we got home I was nauseous and exhausted. I took a nap and that helped, but I could already feel that I needed to take it easy for a couple days.
For the most part I rested Sunday, excluding the jumping song I did with the nursery kids at church. I’m our church Nursery leader so I’m in charge of stocking the treats and doing music time with our two nurseries. I had some little frog pictures on sticks that I gave to each child to use with the song. The front had a girl frog, the back had a boy frog and both had hearts instead of spots and a big smile. We sang “When We’re Helping We’re Happy” and we hopped around as we sang it. I didn’t realize how tiring hopping is.
Monday I was scheduled to help with my 10 year old son Aaron’s school field trip to “This is the Place Monument and Park”. I kept debating on finding someone to take my place on the field trip as I knew from past experience in going with my daughter’s class that this was a lot of walking. I really wanted to go so I just did it. I didn’t walk with them on their short handcart pulling/pushing hike, and I tried to sit as often as I could, but I clearly overdid it. Then that afternoon when I got home I walked around the yard explaining to the guy I’ve hired to help with the yard what I need to have done and proceeded to help with a few things. According to the stats on Monday I was at 8,462 steps but I really thought it was about 10 thousand and that I’d climbed 18 floors (it had some inclined walking). I was really tired and I think I may have taken a nap that afternoon which was really frustrating to me because I hadn’t been taking naps for months preceding last Saturday.
Knowing I have fibromyalgia, logic would say that I should have rested the next couple days, but no that wasn’t my plan. The next morning I got up and worked in the yard for 2 hours and moved around and spread 3 very large bags of bark. My daughter helped for a short time, but I knew I had overdone it again. I’m pretty stubborn and I still have so much I want to get done it’s frustrating to have to stop. I’m happy with the results in my flower bed, but not with what it did to me physically.
Yesterday I didn’t do any yard work. Yay me! I went to my weekly massage which really helps me maintain my fibromyalgia. I went to lunch with my daughter, sisters, sister-in-law, a couple nieces and my Mom. I started on another migraine. I was able to stop it with some over the counter Rx, going to the chiropractor and taking a nap. Then last night I went to a church women’s group back yard dinner gathering and had a fun time.
Through all of this I have been getting enough sleep. However, while getting enough sleep sleep plays a major role in maintaining health with fibromyalgia it isn’t the only important thing. Self care is crucial. Doing things like drinking enough (which I’m really good at doing and have been doing well at), eating healthy, regular moderate exercise and for me a weekly massage and visits to the chiropractor as needed. However, probably the biggest thing to be consistently good at is moderation in all activities. This is the thing I struggle with the most.
And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order.
Mosiah 4:27
After all of this it’s hard not to focus on the negative, but today is a new day and I can do better today and focus on my healthy accomplishments. Today my plan is to moderate my activity and probably do less than I’d normally expect of myself so I can rest my body after all the overdoing. It’s hard to see all the things I want to do waiting for me, but they will wait. I have to keep reminding myself that my health is more important than immediate gratification.