My husband tells me that I have lots of reasons to be tired. Of course, his idea of heaven would be that I quit my various jobs and stay at home and learn how to be a gourmet cook. And if I could take back the laundry and the dishes and neatening up, and all the other things he does, that would be terrific. It’s a hard world for husbands these days: they can remember their father parading around like the king of the castle, and yet there they are… doing the housework, taking care of kids, and taking out the garbage as well. But me giving up my job — or jobs — no way. I love being a professor, and I love writing novels as well.
On the other hand, I do get tired. So the other day I picked up a book called Tired of Being Tired. Apparently Jesse Lynn Hanley is a doctor who was formerly the medical director of the Malibu Health and Rehabilitation Center. She writes about the “adrenaline-rush lifestyle.” There’s a lot of commonsense in this book, and a lot of symptoms that I recognized. She offers ten simple solutions — ranging from exercising less (not a problem for me), eating small meals all day long, sleeping more, dropping caffeine. There are some slightly more exotic ones, such as cultivating self-fulfillment, as well. You have to understand that as a Minnesotan raised on a farm, cultivating self-fulfillment is not high on my list. But I understand the general concept: do what you like. Unfortunately, what I like is teaching, writing books, and raising my children all at once, which is leading to exhaustion.
However, that said, I’ve had this book for two months, and I’ve been giving it a try. It does seem to be working some, and I recommend it. The small meals thing is definitely a great idea. The other day I ate early and then got busy and was running around. I didn’t get home for supper until 6:30 (it was my husband’s turn to cook). By then, I was exhausted and cranky and I actually felt sick. But if I eat more frequently, I keep my energy up. I also started getting massages. Here again, my Minnesota ancestry goes against me. In Minnesota, women don’t trot off to a day spa and give themselves some time for themselves, at least not in the stolid Norwegian part of the country that I grew up in. No way. We’re too busy breaking the water in the well with a pick-axe so water can be boiled for oatmeal.
I’m making myself do massages though. Ah, the sacrifices. Hanley has a whole chapter on giving up your favorite poison: sugar, stimulants and drugs. As it happens, no one has offered me any drugs since college, and I gave up caffeine a while ago. If you happen to be like me and start vibrating like a tightly strung violin after sipping a cup of tea, give it up. That helped. But give up chocolate?
She must be kidding.
Barring that bit of foolishness on the author’s part, this is a good book. There are some frivolous bits (from a Minnesotan’s point of view) about getting various tests and eating seaweed, but if you’re up for that, I’m sure it will help. For me, following most of her simple solutions has really been improving my sense of exhaustion.
I ran this book by a friend of mine who is staying home with three children, two dogs, two guinea pigs and one rat, plus a working husband, and she says she’s more exhausted than I am and needs the book way more than I do. So there you go. This is a book for all of us.
