Monday, August 1, 2011

Day 351 – Goin' Easy on the Fun Stuff, But Having a Good Time

I am getting pretty good at learning how to have a good time even when my energy is limited. I am in the mountains and there are plenty of fun things to do – they just take a ton of energy – energy that I can't spare. There's hiking, swimming, boating, rock climbing, and lots of other kinds of exploring that require being in fairly good shape and having good stamina. I had a terrible day yesterday and although I got up early enough today, I was only up a couple of hours when I knew I needed more sleep and headed in for a three hour nap. When I woke up I was feeling a little rough around the edges, but I didn't want to spend the afternoon staring at the four walls wishing I was doing something interesting and fun. So I had a high protein lunch, got myself cleaned up decided on an outing.

We headed out late in the afternoon to catch a scenic dinner train. We boarded the train and found ourselves sitting beside a delightful gentleman and we wound up having a wonderful conversation all the way to the end of the line. At the last stop, we got off the train and I watched the engineer jockey around the engine to send us in the opposite direction and just enjoyed being out in the sunshine. All the way down and back we had beautiful scenery and we had a delicious meal. The trip made a day that could have been a wash-out a lot of fun. Now, I have to admit that a train ride for some people isn't much more fun than watching paint dry. But even before I was battling fatigue, I loved to ride on a train. I do the trip in to see my Lady Doc by train and it always feels like a bit of an adventure, so a long train ride felt like a great choice.

It's important that I find things to do that work with my energy level. I've had the experience of doing something for fun and finding that I have over-extended myself and I'm finished before the event has ended! It isn't fun to be out and about and all of a sudden feel like the energy has drained right out of me, and I have to head right back home. My hubby and I love car rides and we love to find new places to explore. He usually gets stuck doing the driving so today's train ride was nice because it was perfect for me and this time he could sit back and relax, too. There aren't many aspects of my life that aren't impacted by my fibro and fatigue. It's pretty annoying that having fun becomes something I have to carefully plan so that I can enjoy what I'm doing and then make sure I'm not setting myself up for a crash the next day. I'm learning that taking care of myself can means that I still need to have fun and do things that are playful enjoyable and of interest, if I am going to remain in balance. A good, old-fashioned train ride is just my speed.

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