Last post I eluded to the that I might beginning to understand how to get through my consolidation cycles a little better. I didn't say want to say too much because it was still early in this cycle, and last one was so tough that I didn't want to jinx it.
Today I am over the hump of the really hard part of my cycle and this one went much smoother than last. After much reflection I have realized that I need to be active to have better cycles. Although it seems counter intuitive, because being active just tires me out more. But I have found that when I live the sedentary lifestyle I am just miserable. I find it makes it harder to keep positive in difficult times, the withdrawals and chemo symptoms hit me harder, and my body hurts more. I am most happy when I am active and living :)
The difficult thing with becoming active is managing the balancing act of my energy. It is very easy when doing activities to remember how strong I used to be, and fall right back into old habits. I have been very cognisant of this while trying to find activities to start.
After some reflection I decided that trying back out running shoud probably be out of the question. First, it is way to easy to slip back into old habits of pushing to hard. And second, it just isn't that fun :) And lets face it, when you are looking for things to fill your time, you better enjoy them.
Today I started my first day of a new activity. My friend and I went to a spinning class this morning. I absolutely loved it. It felt so good to work out again What made it even better was that I was in control of the output of my energy. I have a feeling that this class is going to become more a mainstay in my quest for activity.
The most difficult part of introducing activity into your life as a chemotherapy patient is being able to manage your energy levels. Even the days that you feel great, you don't even have a fraction of the strength you used to have. When I first got out of the hospital I was having a very difficult time managing my energy output. I would go overboard and crash, and then just repeat the cycle.
I was still trying to really learn how to manage my energy levels, when I was given an analogy to help.
Think of your day as a big bowl filled with candy. Each time you do something you take a piece of candy out of the bowl. You can't put any candy back so once it is gone your bowl is empty. The goal is to spread taking the candy out of the bowl over the duration of the day so that there is some leftover at night.
I love the visualization this provides. Everytime I am about to do something I now ask myself whether or not I really want that piece of "candy" or should I wait for a little bit.
Adding activity to our lives while going through chemotherapy is an important part of our recovery process. Just remember your candy jar and save some candy for the evening and night time :)
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