Back To Reality

Groan! We were on vacation for two weeks. Most of the time we were on the ocean. We have been home for a few days already but I allowed myself to stay in vacation mode until this morning. In the past two weeks, I:

• Have not had a doctor appointment - that changes as of 1045 AM this morning. I have an appointment with my therapist. Later this week I see the periodontist and have a medical exam for my Social Security Disability application. 
• Gone to the gym - I thought I needed a break. I haven't been sitting on my butt. I have gone and floated around the ocean and made sure I did get some exercise in.
• Taken care of housework or home repairs or work - Back to repainting the rooms in the house. I will start with one wall of the basement today. It will probably take me several days to finish because I have to rest in between but I really hate the dark navy blue that is on two of the walls down there. I figure it will take me a year to paint at this rate. The cleaning lady is coming on Wednesday so I also have to tidy up so she can clean.
• Gotten together with any friends. I am meeting one for lunch tomorrow and will probably catch up with a couple others on the phone in the next few days.

But this has been a welcome break. I don't think its a vacation if you keep doing all the things you normally do. Even thought I do not go to work any more, I do need a change of pace from time to time and get away from it all. 

Not having doctor appointments is a nice break. I tried not to think about my medical issues except when I am in so much pain I couldn't do anything. It was a needed mental health break. 

I usually go to the gym three times a week. I have felt a bit flabby from time to time but I also wanted to see how I physically do without going to the gym. A big part of it was to see if I actually had a reduction in pain by not exercising. Or to state it differently, are my regular workouts causing pain or other problems.

I have no schedule for painting the house. I just hate the colors the rooms were painted. I have no expectations that I am a perfect painter but since I can't work any more, I can't justify paying someone to paint. Nor to I expect to rush through this as I am so limited in my physical abilities. But its one thing that I can do to help around the house. 

Not talking to friends is fine. We were with my family and its not like I have a huge social calendar that needs to be juggled. I will catch up with all in the next few weeks. 

An emotional break from a lot of obligations made me relax more. Unfortunately it has to come to an end and I will go to the gym and my therapist this morning to get back in the swing of things. 

Stress is evil

I have been blogging a lot about my stress filled life. Stress is bad. But stress can be a motivator to make you try harder to do something better. But mostly its just bad.

My non-medical brain says that if you are stressed, you are tense, making bad choices, not getting enough rest. And that all leads to the bad things like high blood pressure, hypertension, and all sorts of other things. Google 'does stress cause cancer' and see how many hits you get. Then Google something a long the lines of the bad effects of stress, there will be lots. And if you search on the good effects of stress, there will be very few.

I spent some time this morning reading about the benefits of yoga. I have no idea why but for some reason I ended up there. I do not do yoga because my doctor says I should not do any exercise that requires me to twist and hold poses - this includes yoga and Pilates.

I have decided I really need to do something about the stressors in my life. Life always does have its ups and downs but learning to cope with them better will help a lot. I am not going to take up meditation - because I don't have time - but I do things that help me that are meditation-like. Knitting for example (google that one and you will understand) and gardening are the two that come to mind. I do one thing and focus on its mindlessness will allow me to relax and decompress. I also need to sleep better so I am rested. And eat better, because you can always eat better. And relax more.

If I prepare myself better for the stress in life, I will not get as stressed. I had too much stress and wasn't getting enough rest and I couldn't handle everything. The last thing I need is any more ailments, stress induced or not. That would be more stress. And I really do not need any more ailments.

Dealing with stress, or not

So I have had a tiny bit of stress in my life recently. And I have been trying to do too much and ended up exhausted. There is a difference between fatigue and exhaustion and being tired. When I hit the wall, I have all three.

Everyone goes through stressful periods in my life. When I am stressed, I become an emotional eater and eat everything in sight. Then when faced with a boat load of stress, I stop eating because I am too stressed. That would be nice, I am too fat, but I really don't need any more stress at this point.

I am going to spend the next seven days avoiding stress. I will get some rest and not stress. I am at the point where I am running out of the oomph I need to keep going. My phone is on quiet time, where I won't get beeps at every CNN headline or FB  notifications or Twitter.

I think if I went to a doctor appointment at this point I might get a reprimand of some kind for being too stressed and doing bad things to my blood pressure and all that. I have a doctor appointment a week from Monday so I have one week to whip myself into shape.

Crap. I'm doomed.

Its a holiday

We all need a  holiday once in a while. A holiday is a day to enjoy. Its Christmas and for the religious, they may include services in their day. For the non religious, services will probably be omitted. But for all we should take a day to include friends and family and food. Some will head to the movie theaters. Some will head to a Chinese restaurant.

As an official US holiday, we should take the time to enjoy ourselves. The news just listed a bunch of restaurants which are open today. Anyone who has to work, should have been given it as an option and not a requirement to keep their job.

Shopping? Absolutely not. Its not a day to rush out and spend money on things we don't need. I grew up in Massachusetts where on Sundays as a child, nothing was open except the drug store and corner store for a few hours. You could not go shopping if you wanted to. So we didn't. We enjoyed ourselves with friends and family.

Today, take a moment to enjoy yourself with out spending a cent. And with out going to a mall. Take a few minutes hours to enjoy what you have. Relax, don't think about work, and enjoy.

And appreciate your health.