The Origins of the Speci-... I Mean, My Exhaustion

So since I wrote last, I have discovered the core issues around my exhaustion, and they feed into each other, compounding everything.

I am overweight (as I mentioned in my first few posts), and this causes all kinds of issues. When I run, my joints are overstressed and so they produce additional cortisol, which makes me more tired. I also tend to have a sore lower back at all times because I carry so much extra weight around my middle and my core is weak, so running makes this go out more.

I also don't sleep well. Some of this is due to untreated sleep apnea that I have had for my whole life, but which gets much worse when I put on weight. Because of this, I have been a side sleeper for forever.

The second part of the sleep issue is that my IT bands on the sides of my legs are constantly sore (it runs in the family). Even with a fantastic mattress (I have the Purple, and I love it), I still wake up multiple times during the night to turn over to the other side because they hurt. The fact that my lower back is sore compounds the IT band problem and also makes my hip joints ache really badly when I side sleep, but because I have sleep apnea, I cannot sleep on my back. Result:

Actual video footage of me during the night. I get reeeeaaaaal ugly. And green.

So all of these things together makes for constant exhaustion, but because I'm so sedentary, this hadn't really popped into active awareness. Also, it totally explains one of the reasons WHY I've been so sedentary - if I have no energy, I'll stay sitting for as long as possible.

Because of all this, I simply cannot continue any kind of marathon training until these items are addressed, sadly.

Solutions:

First, I need to lose weight. I'm doing the Jared McDonald Metabolic Reset - so far, I have lost around 13 lbs in 23 days. I have 20 more days in my losing phase, so I hope to get under 200 lbs by then! I'll likely need to do another losing phase in January, after the holidays, to get to where I feel I need to be, around 170 or lower. I cannot exercise while on this diet.

Second, my mom got a CPAP machine for me. It arrived yesterday, but I will not have time to figure it out for another couple of days, but once I do, I'm hoping sleeping on my back will sidestep the sore hip and IT band problem as well as letting me sleep better at night.

Between all of these things, I'm hoping to restart full training for a marathon in March of next year, though I plan to do some running again once I am past this part of the diet. I won't be able to do the Sketchers marathon in LA like I was hoping, so I'll be on the lookout for another one later in the year.

I'll post again in a few weeks to report how the diet and sleep apnea are going!