Tired of Being Tired!

I’ve Been Tired for too Long…A0016-Tired-Man_leader

I must admit, that I have had spells that could only be described by the above headline!

How long can this last?

How can I be so tired?

How can I sleep eight hours and still be tired?

I have some insight to the answer to this question and it is so simple, I am hard pressed to believe I even asked the question. 

Based on my personal experience;

Since I have had my share of “over-weight” times in my life, I think I can relay that my personal experience is a text-book of all things valuable about weight related issues. I am not suggesting that I know everything about weight loss, or weight gain for that matter. What I am suggesting is that if I stop and think about my personal experiences in weight management, I can answer almost any question that comes up for me. That said, when I asked the question, “how can I be so tired?”, I already knew the answer. The answer was in my weight, and it was not the first time I had experienced this condition.

An Age Old Problem, Provides a Plethora of Answers;

During my lifetime, my weight has acted like a yoyo in the hands of a beginner. It would go up, and it would go down, and it would stop in the middle sometimes. You know that trick, right? That is when you aren’t doing it quite right and it gets a knot in the string and it all looks good as you spin it out of your hand. It starts down and you’re smiling and then it just STOPS! Yes, it stops and you just look at it and you start to think that it’s going to take a lot of time to get that string straight again. The next thought is, well, is it worth it? I’m really not that good at it. I don’t have that much time to practice and really, it is not so bad to be different. There are a lot of people who don’t know how to yoyo. They don’t seem to have it so bad. 

Well, if you switch the yoyo for weight loss and weight management, the words are the same, the thoughts are likely the same and results are the same. You give up because it’s too hard, takes too much time and when you look at people around you, you’re not the fattest or the most out of shape. To me the answer many times was to just associate with others that were just like me. I don’t think that did me much good. Have you ever done that?

How Too Much Weight Affected Me.

The reminder of the effects of too much weight is the cornerstone of my continued efforts to work diligently on my weight management. For me, the weight created a series of ill effects. Chief among them, was my overwhelming fatigue. I truly spent a good amount of each evening sleeping, or napping in the easy chair. I passed up many opportunities to exercise or even just go outside and do a little work on the house. So in a day where I spent ten hours working, I spent twelve hours either sleeping or horizontal in an easy chair. Not the life I had imagined when I was a star athlete. I have a hard time reconciling the thought of leaping over a raised bar 6’6″ high with just the power of my legs as I was reclining in a chair, to lazy to get up and get myself another Pepsi. I could have gotten up, but at 300 plus pounds, it was more satisfying to just remember the good old days

In addition to the fatigue, I was affected by a lack of assertiveness, a general dismissal of important tasks and a simple acceptance of very mediocre standards for my life. I have to tell you that not being driven and successful were the worst effects, but I knew that all was driven by my fatigue. The efforts required to do the very simple tasks was overwhelming and thought of increasing that overwhelm with exercise was difficult at best.

Don’t Despair!

Truly, don’t despair. The path to weight loss and maintenance is a self-perpetuating reward. The endorphins released during the exercise periods are a major aide to keep our inspirations high. The healthier foods provide much missed vitamins and nutrition and the increased activities help our sleep periods take on a regular pattern. Each time we make the effort to continue down the path, we find that the time that was spendt in the recliner is replaced with a different activity. These new activities not only continue the energy expenditures that maximize our workouts, but also support an improvement in our house hold effectiveness. We are going to keep talking about weight loss, how to do it as well as what you may be missing in it. See you soon.

Regards – Don