Stress Report

I don't know if I have anyone left who might ever check out this blog as I have neglected it for A Very Long Time. Sad to say, I have been neglecting myself also, but much of it has been circumstances outside of my control (see any of the April entries on my main blog for details if you don't know them and want to.)

So I think today's topic is STRESS. And how to take care of ourselves through it. In February I had the issues of inability to sleep, followed by a whopper cold. Both of those sapped my desire and ability to exercise, but I was able to maintain decent eating habits throughout, for the most part. I was just starting to re-establish decent exercise habits (three times a week at Curves) when my mother fell in March and I took a week off work to care for her when she came out of hospital. I did a lot of manual labor that week, sorting out her apartment, but nothing systematic.

April came pretty fast on the heels of March. And since then, I've spent three or more days every week in a town about 90 miles from home, visiting my mom in the hospital after her debilitating stroke, clearing out the apartment I sorted in March, and spending mutual supportive time with my four sisters. One is the local sis who lives in that town; the others came from afar to see Mom one more time. In April, both my eating habits and my exercise habits plummeted.

To my credit, the local sis is an excellent cook with healthy eating habits. Also to my credit, I walk the one kilometer (.6 mile) to and/or from the hospital several times a day. It's a mountain town, so it truly is uphill both ways. And (literally, Thank God!) I've been able to sleep.

On the negative, I've eaten too much. And my local sis's neighbors and friends make sure to keep the family well-supplied with desserts...as though we need them twice a day. I haven't even tried to resist, to be honest. (I've just been thankful they haven't followed me home!) The other negative, of course, is that I haven't re-established a pattern for exercise.

What do we tell people who are under a lot of stress? We tell them that exercise does wonders to restore a sense of well-being. I know that. I've known that for years. And yet, it was about the first thing to go when April hit in all her glory. Yes, it's harder to maintain those habits when you aren't at home and your normal routine is shattered. But really, why do we ditch those good habits right when we need them most?

I'm no psychologist, but it seems force of will only takes a person so far. It brought me a very long way at this time last year, and I can only be thankful that 2006 didn't have this kind of April in it or I might well have given up long before I accomplished anything.

So here it is a week into May. I don't know how long my mom will cling to life after her stroke. She's still slipping, but it's somewhat gradual just now. At the moment I'm planning on two more trips over the mountain this month, unless she dies meanwhile. But I have to plan as though this stage will last a long time.

Just because things have leveled out a bit doesn't mean the stress is less. The adrenaline surge of it is gone for now, but the cause of the stress is still present.

I hereby vow to cope better!

I will try to do *something* for exercise every day that I'm home. Yesterday I took my bike out for a half hour spin after work. Today I plan to go to Curves over my lunch hour. The sun now rises early enough at this time of year that I can fit half an hour in before work if the day's schedule looks like it requires it. So...something. Anything. A 15 minute brisk walk will count. A bike ride. A Curves workout (three a week of those would be good as I am still paying my monthly fee and I think I made it to the gym three times in all of April!)

Food. We'd just begun to renovate our kitchen when the first of April's health crises hit, so the progress has been slower than we'd hoped. We've not been home nearly enough to really accomplish things! However, I do now have all the base cabinets installed. The section with the kitchen sink has a countertop; the sink is installed, and the stove's gas lines have been moved and so I have a cooking surface again. Still have two more sections of countertop to go, plus the upper cabinets, but...it's progress, and I can cook again.

Right. The food goal. Sorry, I got distracted! (That's been happening a lot lately!) It's local asparagus season so that's gonna help. I'm back to aiming for a minimum of 8 servings of fruit and/or vegetables daily. Back to analyzing carbohydrates according to the glycemic index. And dreading the weekend's dessert rush at my sister's. I'll make a plan about that later in the week.

So in the spirit of coming clean, I'll post the results of my Curves weigh-in later today, and start posting here more regularly again. I think we'll do some asparagus recipes yet this week. If anyone has any they'd like to share, I'd like to try them. Honestly, I'll likely cook asparagus six nights a week for the next six weeks, so a little variety won't hurt!