Physical self care - looking after your health and wellbeing when your already ill.

This post is following on from my basics of self care post yesterday, if you missed it you can find it here. Physical self care is probably the most thought of form of self care. It's also the one that needs adapting around flare ups/ relapses/ down days the most.

One day you may be able to do some yoga, eat 3 healthy meals, drink 8 glasses of water and take your meds.  Another day u may be able to take meds, drink some fluids and manage some stretches from your bed.

Both days count, your making a conscious choice to do something towards your physical health and wellbeing. This post isn't intended as medical advice and shouldn't be used as such it is just based on my experiences and ideas.

Move

Exercise doesn't have to be running a marathon. It can be as simple as stretching or moving whilst carefully engaging your muscles. I've found I can manage 3 mins of very basic yoga stretches 90% of the time. Just been in a swimming pool whether your swimming or not gives your joints a break as your weightless, just moving in water burns extra calories. On bad days stretching may help to keep the stiffness away and keep what mobility you have. If you have physio and can manage to do your exercises do those. Whatever movement you can manage to keep your joints and muscles going.

Gulp

Fluid levels are really important! Your body needs it to function. Aim to drink 2L a day, if you have POTS or some other condition requiring more fluid than normal you may have to aim for 3L. I find if I always have water on me everywhere I go I'm more likely to drink enough. fizzy drinks and fruit juices don't count as the fluid content is low and they are high in sugar.

Eat (If possible)

Food is hard for me. During a flare up of my fibro or ME/CFS I crave carbs and sugar. My mind tells me I need good nutrition to get out of the flare, anti inflammatory and energising foods etc. My body says eat ice cream and cookies for breakfast lunch and dinner.
I forgive myself if I go a bit mad but ensure I have at least had a proper breakfast and eaten some fruits and vegetables. Tomorrow's another day where I can try and make better food choices. I've found that ginger tea can help with nausea and peppermint can help with digestion and ease IBS symptoms.

Snooze

Sleep. What's that!!??

No seriously!?

Ok if your lucky enough to know what that is it 8 hours used to be the recommended amount. The typical advice now is 6-8 hours. Some people need less sleep due to their metabolism. I need about 10 hours as I struggle to enter deep sleep. 10 hours sleep normally gets me 2 hours deep sleep if I'm lucky.

It goes without saying lack of sleep can mess with everything, not just your physical health. If you really are struggling to get any sleep you may want to speak to your GP about some short term solutions to get some relief.

I don't know of any long term solutions to improve sleep but here's a list of things I've tried that have made some (if unpredictable) improvement:

*Clary sage and lavender aromatherapy
*kalms herbal remedy for sleep
*zoplicone (prescribed med)(v. short term as addictive)
*Cannabis oil (100% legal)
*Chamomile tea and radox bath.
*amitryptaline (prescribed med)

I also track my sleep using sleep for Android and I use relax melodies to help me get off to sleep. There are probably equivalent apps for iPhone and windows phone users.

If your sleep deprived but still cant sleep, schedule rest periods where you take some time to relax. This is especially important if you suffer from fatigue or are in a high stress environment/time.

How do you look after your physical health? Do you have any ideas or suggestions for physical self care? Let me know in the comments below.

As always thanks for reading, pop back tomorrow to catch the next post in the series covering intellectual self care.

Have a restful (if possible) day.

Laura :)