10 February 2009

Analysis: Does my Chi just hate me?

Lately I've been in some sort of "funk" Not limited to just loosing my groove, as Es did with training, but something just hasn't been right. I've been very restlessly sleeping at night - I either toss and turn, or I can't seem to drag myself out of bed. I try to go to bed early, I lie awake until midnight, fall asleep, and then can't muster the energy to get myself out of bed in the morning. I love swimming, but I lose the battle of getting up to swim in the mornings lately. No strength workouts either. I started utilizing the snooze button, something I've almost never turned to. And we're not just talking about hitting it once; no no, I hit it repeatedly for 2-3 hours, from 4:50am to sometimes 8am.. I've always been the type that can operate on very little sleep, can get up at the ass-crack of dawn no problem. I've been feeling very lethargic as of late, and I can't pinpoint why.
So, I set up my own personal investigation on myself, to find the root cause of the problem. These are my findings:

Dehydration - When I do wake up at night, I'm often extremely parched. I'm not one who usually has this type of issue, so I started recounting the amount of fluids I've been taking in. I realized I've been drinking maybe 24 ounces of water per day for the last week. Maybe. Yikes. One of the effects of dehydration - weakness and fatigue. Check. Time to start major hydration strategies.

Malnutrition - I started to look at what I've been eating. My jaw continues to pop out of socket whilst biting/chewing, and is in a perpetual state of soreness. I've let this get the best of me; and, upon review of my diet over the last two weeks, I'm consuming maybe 700 calories a day. 700 calories. Psychological effects of malnutrition? Listlessness, tiredness, apathy, disinterest in what is happening around you. Dull spirit, possible irritability, and poor memory. Check. Uhh... seriously not good, time to start forcing myself to eat.

I believe those are two of the major factors right now. Underlying factors most likely include a bit of depression as a result of some recent events in my life, as well as post traumatic stress. There's been some tough times dealing with the effects of my dad's death on my family. There were some issues between my mom and sister, due to some miscommunication and expectations, coupled with general emotions out of whack... that of course I had to get sucked into to straighten out. Sometimes taking care of my mom is a very draining task, because it forces me to deal with my own emotions (I'm totally an emotional stuffer.)

Time to start taking care of myself, or I'm going to have some serious issues down the road. I'll report back how the increased nutrition and hydration alter my current state. My Chi is out of whack.

Or, maybe its just on strike?

3 comments:

Sarah said...

Holy crap girl, 700 calories??? That is NOT healthy. Drink them if you need to but get some calories in! That's an order. There's no way you can handle all those emotional issues on an empty stomach :)

D said...

Time to get yourself over to Jamba Juice a couple times a day. I wish we had them here. Actually, it's probably a blessing we don't!

Rainmaker said...

Sarah summed it up bets. 700 calories? Holy crap. I like D's suggestion, go hit up Robeks or Smoothie King for both some hydration action and calories (although they can be lower than you think). With you training you're way way way low on cals.