What is your morning routine, daily activity level and evening routine?

[verytiredallthetime]

Routine as in typical days, I know lots of people will have varied schedules. I have chronic pain and fatigue and am really frustrated (by lots of things!) at the moment. I'm struggling to get a sense for what is a 'normal' amount of energy to have if that makes sense? Worried that I keep shrinking and accepting and normalising extremely low energy - when maybe I need to be arguing with doctors that this isn't right.

I've just taken a shower and frustrated and pissed off that it's made me feel sick and woozy because showering makes my blood pressure go very low. I try to work round this by not showering early morning when it's worse, but even still, here I am feeling sick and like my limbs are made of lead.

Anyway! I'm interested in knowing what people's routines are like, and how tired you are or aren't?

How crap do you feel on waking? When does your head feel clear and alert? Do you feel like you have to 'spend' much energy on doing normal everyday things like making the breakfasts and doing dishes, or on personal care like hair washing and (if you wear it) doing makeup?

I feel like every tiny task depletes me more than 'normal'.

How many useable hours do you reckon you have per day before your brain shuts down?

Lots of questions, but keen to get a sense of a broad range of healthy and normal and see the reality of how close or far I am to it.

@SomeonesSomeone sorry to hear how much trouble you have with going to the loo. It sounds awful and I can well imagine how that effects the rest of your day then. I don't suffer in that way but sometimes going to the loo triggers my low blood pressure which is apparently A Thing, It makes me feel so fucking silly that taking a shit can leave me dizzy and needing to rest after, I mean what the fuck

I think you're likely to get mostly responses from people who do have issues with energy, which might skew the view.

Yes, but the general consensus is these very low energy states aren't normal - it's like a reality check. I can't live like this I'm only in my 30's and had been trying to view it as "oh its not really that bad, everyone else is tired too, just make more effort" but that's not really the case,

I need to fix it because it's definitely not on a spectrum of normal, even allowing for a range of difference in individuals. There must be something the right doctor or medication or supplement can do, something is wrong and I cannot accept it's not fixable.

I'm not asking to be one of nature's very energetic people I just want a modest amount of normal useable hours in my day

63, married, no kids at home now, working full time. Weekdays go something like this:

6:40 Alarm
7:30 Shower, dress, packed lunch
8:00 Leave for work - 30 minute walk
8:30 - 5:00 Work. Supposedly desk job, but actually pretty active.
5:45 Cuppa and catch-up with DH
6:30 - 7:30 Dinner (cooked from scratch)
7:30 - 10:00 Relax at home or maybe go to pub quiz, watch football etc

Weekends DH and I are usually out walking during the days.

I have a Fitbit and aim for 15,000 steps a day.

Five years ago I had a diagnosis of CFS/ME, which turned out to be vitamin D deficiency, ferritin deficiency and underactive thyroid. I've dragged myself back from being permanently exhausted and almost completely inactive to this.

You are right to challenge it! I wish I had. I just assumed I was fat and lazy so it was my own fault. Every time I did an exercise class I injured myself. It was so hard!

This programme is for Fibromyalgia. The theory is that I've become over sensitive to pain- my body thinks everything is going to hurt, so clamps up and locks down to stop me hurting myself. I do gentle, slow movements until my brain stops panicking about it. Gradually the range of movement increases, and I increase the repetitions. When I started, on a tired day I'd crawl up the stairs. Now I've been doing regular knee raises, and apparently the stairs aren't so scary!

I'm still shattered- I'm hoping that will improve eventually.

I can't live like this I'm only in my 30's and had been trying to view it as "oh its not really that bad, everyone else is tired too, just make more effort" but that's not really the case

No, it's really not the case. The vast majority of people who feel tired, leading into exhausted, can have that fixed pretty straightforwardly by getting enough sleep (eliminating the reasons why they can't sleep, situation permitting), taking moderate exercise, eating well and drinking enough water.

So, we're pretty much all knackered when we have a baby or non-sleeping children or something else that disturbs our sleep. And that can lead to eating crappily and feeling exhausted so you don't exercise etc.

But when that situation changes (the baby starts sleeping etc) then you start to feel better.

Your levels of exhaustion sound like something serious is going on and you should get a diagnosis and help for that as soon as you can.

@SomeonesSomeone Same! I get utterly livid if I can't poo in the morning and it ruins my day. I'm on opioids so know all about that struggle...

I'm one of those low-energy, living in constant pain type people so I am always knackered. It made me so sad when my mum once said that most people don't feel like we do, i.e. most people don't have that constant pain. I was so jealous, and weirdly surprised that I too had normalised chronic pain and fatigue. It sucks.

I think I'm still a bit lucky that I'm able to move around once my joints loosen up and I have painkillers on board, so I can take my child to nursery and myself to work (don't drive so walk A LOT) and back, but evenings after work are a complete write off. I work three days a week and after those three days it takes me two days to recover, and then I'm ready to take my son to places and do yoga. It's frustrating and trying to find something that works for your aches and fatigue is so difficult. Hope you get there OP!

7:45 - alarm (wake naturally slightly before)
8.30 - walk to work
9-5 - work, then walk home. Usually walk out to get lunch for full 30m of lunch break too.

Weds I work from home, and do a PT session at the gym. Saturday and Sunday gym plus housework.

I'm currently on a 5000 calorie a week deficit, so on 'normal' days, I'm subsisting on just 1000 calories a day - small lunch, snack, small dinner. With my exercise routine, it leaves me surprisingly energised.

Have you been tested for POTS op?

I have a well managed chronic illness, type one diabetes.

Daily routine
1am check bloods, if not perfect check again at 3am
6ish get up and check bloods, eat a snack
6:10 work out for 45 minutes
7 get showered, dressed etc
7:20ish wake up son and sort him
Leave for work around 8

12:30 lunch and do bloods before I eat

Pick son up from school at 4:45ish
Go to the park on the way home
5:30 make dinner and check bloods
6 stuff face with dinner
7 sons bath time
7:15 story time and bed
7:30 do as little as humanly possible, so xbox, read etc

11ish do bloods and have a small snack
11:10 ish do my daily press up/squat challenge

I’m a terrible sleeper, I do take melatonin but it doesn’t make a great deal of difference. Constantly being tired is just my normal.

Normal day for me:
Up at 7.30am, prepare breakfasts & packed lunches, get ready for work/school
8.30-9am school run and drive to work.
Work always busy, half hour lunch break.
Drive home 5-5.30/6pm.
6-8.30pm - Make & eat dinner, tidy up, supervise homework, do laundry etc. Might have kids activity drop offs/I go to gym once or twice a week.
8.30-9pm - bath.
9-10.30pm watch telly with DH/read.
10.30pm to bed.
I tire easily and need a lot of sleep.

6.30 alarm (though currently awake at 5.30am)
Awake / clear headed / warm, comfortable and don’t like getting up!

Up, washed, dressed, tea delivered to dh in bed by 7.

Boys’ breakfasts cooked, they eat while I cook lunches. DH up and sorting dogs / cat / laundry / kitchen. I usually prep dinner or practice music for 20 mins or so (both if I get the chance).

Off to work at 7.45 with boys; they sit in the dept until 8.15 or so and then walk across the road to school.

I work 8-6, episodes of walking around interpersed with sitting down so not physically very active but mentally on the go at all times (anaesthetist).

From work, I go to karate and usually train 2h or so. Boys train too, we arrive home around 8:45pm and eat dinner (dh will have finished sorting what I prep in the morning or it’s something I can throw together while boys in shower).

Eat, chat, maybe watch some TV. In bed around 10, asleep by 11.

Weekends is more physical activity than mental - we have karate 8-1 then after coming home and lunch we play games, walk dogs, watch tv, homework (boys) or revision (me), meal prep for the following week etc. The weekly shop is usually delivered at some point, which between the 4 of us takes around 10min to put away.

I would say in answer to your questions - my head is clear and alert on waking. Usual stuff like washing, dressing, breakfasts, lunches etc doesn’t require any conscious energy expenditure. Work requires mental and emotional energy, and I’m often feeling drained at 6. 2h of karate usually sorts that out. I have as much energy - physical, emotional, mental - as I need from waking to bedtime. I would say this is normal - the low energy states described by previous posters would not be. I also have a chronic autoimmune disease (hashimoto’s thyroiditis) and a permanently under active thyroid.

I take turmeric, co-Q10 and long acting anti inflammatories daily for chronic pain issues, along with the thyroxine.

I'm constantly tired but I home ed and I am carer to my autistic daughter.

Home ed can take up between 1 and 3 hours per day but my daughter is not playing ball recently so it's a battle. I challenge myself to do 5 things per day.

We go to 2 activities each week and every fortnight 2 more. So 4 fortnightly, plus appts like drs, physio etc. Then I add in trips, visits and the odd playdate, less now as younger daughter is now 10.

(Dwp also makes my daughter jump through hoops recently, so I seem to have an appt like that most months.)

But I spend 4 days most weeks in all day. Daughter walks the dog.
I also do religious meetings twice a week.

So my 5 things per day are cook something (not usually achieved but I do batch cook fortnightly), do 2 things in the house as still unpacking/decorating plus some cleaning/tidying, sort admin, do home ed and try to do 15 mins exercise or walking.

The last one I achieve twice a week at present. The others I do generally do, cooking is my worst so batch cooking saves me.

I get up at 10am, sometimes later and sometimes earlier. I get about 7 hours on a good night but it's so broken, I'm knackered. A bad night is no sleep. I have sleeping meds and still don't get many good nights.

I'm also dizzy when I shower and I'm undergoing tests but I've been feeling ill for years. I was very depressed and I don't think I'm super depressed now, however I do have days when I despair and get suicidal a couple of times a month. I suffer with ocd and low level social anxiety but you wouldn't think so when I'm out and about. Getting out is my battle so I try to stick to my routines. Adding in 2 new activities for September for my daughter was something I worried about all summer, we used to do more but I put them all on 1 or 2 days per week so I could have the downtime indoors. But this is a new area and new people. I tend to have a day in after a busy day out as otherwise I feel overwhelmed and too tired.

So op just do what you manage to do and be proud of that. Don't compare yourself to anyone although the routines posted are interesting. No point thinking about shoulds or shouldn't, just do what you can do.

5.20am - up, shower etc
6.20 am - leave for work, 15 minute walk to station, 1 hour 30 commute 😒
7.45ish - 3.45 - work. Boring dull dull dull at the moment. 1 hour 30 commute home 😒
5.15 - 8.30 - cook dinner, watch crap, play games
8.30 - 9 - fanny about. Get into bed. Have broken nights sleep due to vivid dreams / cat biting my feet or chewing my hair.

I too am foggy and tired all. the. time.