Tired of Feeling Tired

I am tired all the time. All the time! And there are life reasons. I have 2 kids, and I am home with them all the time. In fact, I am rarely away from my children. That is reason enough to be tired all the time! But not really. I eat fairly well (I do eat junk, but both my husband and I cook, and make healthy meals) and I've been exercising more in recent weeks. And when I sleep, I sleep hard. Now granted, I don't sleep as much as my body would like. I compensate for a looooong day of parenting by staying up later than my body would prefer. So I sacrifice a little sleep for some down time. Some desperately needed and wanted down time! But there are nights I am SO tired that I can't make it through my kids bedtime, and I conk out with them. I am TIRED! And I would like to get some energy back.

I feel that while there are probably several things I could do right now that would help, the one I feel I can change right now is diet. I did some research tonight on fatigue, gluten and eczema.

In recent weeks I have had some long hoped for success with improving the condition of my skin. I have attributed this to my recent switch from steroid cream to Bergamot essential oil. And perhaps it deserves all of the credit. But I have also started taking fish oil (omega-3) supplements in recent weeks, and probiotics in recent months. These things could be making a difference too. And a brief reduction in gluten and dairy occurred as well, but I didn't stick with it for very long. So some part of this, or a combination of all of it, has helped me to improve my skin. But it plateaued again, and I want to see more improvement. So what of this am I not currently doing? The diet thing.

Oh, and after feeling fatigued and irritated for what seemed like forever I started this blog, and after working on a more holistic lifestyle, which included all of the above changes, I started feeling better. Less tired, and much less irritable! But it's coming back. It's coming back.

So I'm at it again. Now I am not going to go crazy over this and erase all gluten and dairy from my life and from the diets of my family members. But I'm going to try really hard to keep them both very low in my diet. And it's hard. I mean, in one sense, it's simple. Eat things that don't have gluten, right? But I'm a grazer, and many times throughout the day I grab a handful of this or that. I don't even think about it as I'm doing it. So today, day 1 of my renewed efforts with diet, I grabbed a handful of goldfish crackers that were out for my daughter. It was down the hatch before it even registered that I had done it. Shoot!! So that is hard for me. But I don't call the day a loss. I have not had much gluten or dairy overall.

I am less tired than I was yesterday. I had a short period of time after lunch when I felt really fatigued, but it was probably just a result of blood working on digestion rather than energy. Overall I feel better. But I am long way from feeling energized and wakeful. At the moment it's just degrees of fatigue! But I'm hopeful that I can make a difference through diet and exercise, and if my skin improves, well, this would become a life change!

But 1 step at a time. I will report back with an update in a while. So hopeful!