It’s been a rough week where I have had minimal productivity. I realized after the low vitamin D diagnosis that I had been doing some things on my own to fight the effects which weren’t particularly healthy including eating a lot of junk food and gaining some weight. Upon understanding a bit more about what was going on, I decided that I needed to make changes. Unfortunately, I may have rushed into making the changes a bit too quickly.
The problem with the vitamin D deficiency is that taking the high dose pills doesn’t rectify the deficiency right away. From others that I have talked with who have had it, it appears that it takes a few weeks to several months before the fuzzy head symptom goes away. My attempts to live healthier ended up making the fuzzy head even worse (I now see that there were very good reasons that I had been doing the unhealthy habits) to the point I didn’t even feel safe driving a car. I found myself in a Catch 22 of continuing to do some of the bad habits which help me to function better, but aren’t going to be good for me in the long run, or be more healthy, but not be able to function very well until my vitamin D increases.
The first few days I stopped eating constantly as I had been and tried to limit myself to regular meals with very little snacking. It was a disaster. My head had never been foggier (the body felt fine, but the head just couldn’t focus) and although I tried to keep my normal daily routine, I failed miserably. I didn’t feel comfortable driving with my head as fogged up as it was which kept me at the house (current house sitting job) most of the day, but even then, I could only work at the computer for a short time before I lost all concentration. It was quite frustrating as I always have more than enough to get done, and I wasn’t even getting the basic things I needed to do each day.
With eating healthy not working, I started to experiment to see if there were other things that I could do to help clear my head a bit It’s been a frustrating exercise that I have only partially mastered at this point. I figured out that both exercising and getting outdoors helps to clear my head for at least a short period of time. The issue is that up until this point, I have been the type of person that sits in front of a computer and works for hours straight to get things done (I went to a college where I took one class at a time for 3.5 weeks, and we did an entire semester’s worth of work during that time. Since then I have always been the type to focus well for a long period of time rather than many short periods). This current ailment has made it so I can’t focus for long periods any more.
What I have been trying to do is exercise or go for a walk for about 30 minutes which will clear my head for about 30 minutes – 1 hour. I keep repeating this until I can get the basic things I need to get done each day. I have also gone back to eating a little more of the junk food along with drinking caffeinated tea as this seems to help some too. While this will work short-term, I’m still not being nearly as productive as I would like to be and my head remains much more foggy than I would like it to be.
All I can really do at this point is keep my fingers crossed that the vitamin D pills do work and clear this up sooner rather than later. Until then, I have a system in place that allows me to get all the basic work I need to get done each day, but not a whole lot more. I’m beginning to get frustrated because I am usually quite good at working out solutions to problems that I have, but my solutions thus far have done very little to improve the situation — and patience with this type of issue is not my strong point. Any and all suggestions on how I might be able to improve the situation would be greatly welcome.
The one good thing from all of this is that it has kept me at the house and I managed to go through the entire week without spending any money at all which is great news for the minimum wage challenge. I remained house sitting the entire time and didn’t do any traveling since I didn’t feel comfortable getting in to the car.
This Week’s Spending
Food: $0.00
Car: $0.00
Housing: $0.00
Travel: $0.00
Health: $00.00
Misc: $0.00
Total: $0.00
Total Spending
Food: $27.89
Car: $45.00
Housing: $0.00
Travel: $0.00
Health: $565.00
Misc: $19.00
Total: $655.89
(Photo courtesy of david.dolphin)
Gosh I hope you are feeling better soon! One thing you could have the doctor check: (you won’t like this) is your testosterone levels. My husband and a friend’s husband both were diagnosed with low testosterone and low vitamin D – My husband is taking both now and back to normal, but he was pretty down (physically and emotionally) for awhile until he started taking them.
I don’t think testerone is part of the issue since my body feels fine physically. At this point it’s all in the head, but if I do feel that my body is beginning to wear down, I’ll certainly keep that in mind.
have you tries taking 2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar 3 times a day? I have recently started doing this and it helps so much.
No, I haven’t — and at this point, I’m willing to try almost anything. I’ll see if there is any in the house where I am house sitting and if not, I’ll buy some the next time I drive by a store.
Your body makes vitamin D on its own when you get a little sunshine. I would spend as much time as is practical outside. If the weather is temperate enough, take your laptop outside to work.
A little caffeine to get past the fuzzy is something many people around the world do every single day, don’t beat yourself up over it. I would try to stick to more natural things, like tea, coffee or chocolate, and avoid syrupy concoctions that have caffeine.
Sounds like you could really use one of those treadmill desks. Sadly, they are not portable enough for your nomad lifestyle and not inexpensive enough to afford on minimum wage.
But maybe you could try moving your work station higher up, like on a kitchen counter, so you can at least stand and maybe sway side to side or lift your heels behind you while you work. Or if you work on a laptop and can find a chair with wheels, maybe you can walk/scoot yourself up and down a hall (or around the kitchen if that’s the only room with no carpeting) while you work.
(One thing about working at home: you don’t have to look professional (except on Skype); you just need professional results.)
Good luck!
I hope you get to feeling better soon, as it sounds like a horrible problem to have. Good job on the money challenge though, even though I am sure it’s little consolation when you are feeling that crappy.
I am currently taking 8 week classes to where I can have at the most 4 classes going on at the same time. It’s sort of like the 3.5 week ones you talk about with intensity and not doing anything except eat, sleep and study. It always helps me to watch my diet, exercise and get the heck out of the area for awhile. Sorry you are so foggy.
There are those seasonal disorder sunlight lamps. Hope you find something that works!
I have been wondering about you. Have you been back to the doctor? I’m just wondering if this might be something more serious or maybe I’m just a worrier. Quite likely.
I certainly hope you feel better soon. I didn’t know having a Vitamin D deficiency could do this to a person. I’m just a little surprised in light of you being outdoors so much hiking and whatnot.
I’ve just looked vit D deficiency up and it seems 90% is made from sunlight exposure for a surprisingly short time per day – during the summer here in the UK, better if you live further south.
Apart from that this is what is said.
excellent food sources (greater than 5mcg per portion) of vitamin D include 2 teaspoons cod liver oil, 70g sardines, 100g tinned salmon, pilchards or tuna, 110g of cooked mackerel or herring and 130g cooked kipper
This might be worth looking at for your healthy snacks – not sure how popular kippers are with you and a pilchard is a larger sardine sort of fish. Herrings are small and bony cold water fish, kippers are smoked versions – not popular these days! Sorry if you already know all this.
I take cod liver oil capsules for arthritis, but take them as you start a decent meal as they can ‘repeat’!
Not made myself clear there. In the UK in winter there is not sufficient UVB in the winter, if you live further south then there will be UVB in the sunlight in the winter.
I went through a Vit B deficiency a few years ago. My hair and eyebrows started falling out I was so low. I was so tired I could barely walk across the room or concentrate. It does take about a month to get to feeling more human. Sorry. I feel for you! Hang in there. It does get better.
I’ve missed seeing your posts – I hope you’re doing better!