What is Your Weekend Routine
February 16, 2008 by laura
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
When I was home sick with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and not able to do work- or for that matter play; days all seemed to be the same. There was no difference between a Tuesday or a Saturday, that is until I learned to develop a routine. My routine varied little day to day, but weekends were spent differently. They were easier and definitely filled with less guilt. These days, weekends are not easy. However, they are very different then the rest of the week for me. I need these two days, to regain a sense of balance. 5 days a week, I work in an office (in a somewhat stressful environment). I come home from work, stretch or go to the gym, cook dinner, either write for this or other blogs, try to practice a bit of guitar and prepare for the weekend of teaching. My routine varies very little. The big change is what I will be making for dinner every night.Now weekends are quite different. They are filled with activity, very little time for lounging or rest. However, they are filled with things that I love to do. This makes it into something that I can look forward to every monday morning. Actually now that I think about it, any activity that allows me to be still, and get out of my own head for awhile, can be considered to be rest. So my weekends are pretty well stocked with that kind of activity.Here is my weekend routine:Saturday –
- blog for CFS Squared
- drink coffee/make a little breakfast
- finish a movie that I started earlier this week
- warm up for an afternoon of teaching
- teach
- have a guitar lesson with my own teacher
- write more for b5media blogs
- read the current book that resides on my bedside table
Sunday-
- coffee and a little breakfast before 8am
- practice guitar
- get out and walk the Sea Wall – weather permitting
- early movie matinee
- home to cook dinner
- blog, blog, blog
- finish the day watching Dexter – which I really should learn to NOT watch before bedtime- it inspires bad dreams – but what can I say – I love this show.
Most weekends follow a similar pattern. There is a balance between work and fun activities. Every other week I devote an hour or so to acupuncture. I try to do at least one social activity on the weekend. Its hard to find the kind of time to do that. Even when I am not feeling overly social (and believe me that happens a lot), I try to make an effort to go to a place that has a lot of people. I will go by myself….and just watch the buzz of activity that is happening around me. It often gives me a little push to get excited about what I am seeing, and encourages me to get a little more active in the scene. When I look at my weekend routine, it seems to be a bit empty. But I skipped over the mundane chores. I know that some of you will look at that list and say,” I can’t believe you do that much”. And others will look at it, and say that I do very little. It doesn’t matter what people think about how much or how little I do. What is important is that the weekend is filled with things that I love to do. And that its a routine that works well for me. Routines are important when trying to find a way to live with CFS. They allow us to feel that we accomplished something, or at least help us feel like we are working towards a goal. Please leave me a comment about the difference of your weekday and weekend routines – and if they are different, let me know if this is a good thing for you, or not. OK step one of my Saturday routine is done….its time to make some coffee!
My changes in routine are dictated by DH’s work schedule (every week different) and my energy cycle (every day different
), not the days of the week. I do try to have some things that go every week on the same day (for a while it was a trip to the library) to keep a sense of order, but the schedule I’ve got is too necessary and too precarious to throw out 2 days out of 7.
I’ve been playing with a new idea the last two weeks. I’ve figured out that using one part of me doesn’t drain another, and that it’s sustained use more than cumulative that gets me fatigued – so I’ve set up 10 things that are different (logical thinking, creativity, social, cardio, stretching, etc), and hit a random number generator to mix them up. Now, it’s been a bit of experimenting, but it seems that I need to restrict everything to about 7 minutes at a time (I’ve got a ‘meditation’ program on my palm pilot where I set up a cycle and it generates tones after each session), and I do 4 in a row, then rest for half an hour. It’s very annoying to try and fit anything into 7 minutes, but I’m actually accomplishing more this way than I was before, and I go to bed not over tired or under exercised (mentally or physically). So far I seem to be averaging about 3 hours of this a day – trying to figure out if it’s too strenuous for more, or if I ditch it around dinner because I don’t want to play anymore
.
So my schedule looks something like:
- make breakfast, eat in front of SAD light while reading something light, write morning pages (”The Artist’s Way”) while drinking tea, yoga stretches, get dressed
- potentially get DH set up for the day
- quick email check, some blog reading (really have to watch the clock here, I can get sucked in soooooo fast)
- start schedule – do three or four reps, grab lunch in the middle somewhere (each cycle is a little over an hour, but I always push some part of it, or forget to start the timer again, and it stretches out…)
- make dinner, eat dinner, collapse for a little bit
- supposedly clean up a bit, etc, but usually tv or the internet until time to get ready for bed (usually 2 more hours)
I tossed it all on the 14th (just ’cause I felt like it), and severely paid the price. I got caught up in online stuff (reading and watching Project Runway on youtube) and by 4pm I completely strained my eye muscles. Couldn’t use them, and got the nice headache and nausea that always follows eyestrain for me – not a nice way to spend the rest of the day. No more “treats” for me – back to being a good girl
.
Jenna,
I really like your routine its a good one. I don’t think that I could stick by the 7 minute rule…but I like that its so balanced.
Routines are so important. I don’t care if people think it makes life dull. It’s definitely a necessity for me, and people who have a little something extra that lives with them (or within them) for us its CFS.
Thanks for sharing your routine….lots of good stuff in it.