i’ve been feeling completely and utterly exhausted lately. it always starts off so slowly - i struggle to get out of bed for a few saturday mornings, then it’s happening on weekdays and i’m getting to work later and later, and then after that happens for a few weeks it suddenly dawns on me that i’ve been feeling run down for far too long and need to do something about it.

i’ve been going to the gym about 5 times a week, which is good. we’ll put that in the plus column. except for when i’m exhausted, then it’s a negative thing and i don’t realise that i’m overdoing it. so my first step was to eliminate all fake sugar from my diet. there hasn’t been that much to get rid of anyway, but i made the switch from diet yoghurt in the morning to dairy farmers’ thick and creamy. there’s 100 more calories in a smaller tub than i’m used to, but the difference in taste in completely incomparable. real yoghurt! it’s amazing. i’m in love, and i can’t wait to wake up every morning and eat it for breakfast.

so there was one fake sugar down, next on my list was my afternoon hot chocolate. i’d recently tried the you’ll love coles individual sachets, and wasn’t overly impressed with the taste anyway, so i’ve switched to abundant earth organic hot chocolate. better value for money, far better taste, and no fake sugar crap. yay.

as far as i can tell, that’s all the fake sugar gone from my diet. according to calorieking i should be having 1500 calories a day, yet even after switching products i’m averaging about 1350 a day and having to eat extra on top of what i had planned just to make up for it. so, pretty happy with that.

next on my list was vitamins. about two years ago i went to give blood, but was refused and told i was anemic. oh, whoops. it suddenly all made sense - insane tiredness, very little red meat - ah, yes. so i managed to really concentrate on my iron intake and get myself back up to normal iron levels again. unfortunately, that seems to have fallen by the wayside. i can’t help it, i just really love chicken. so i’m back on iron tablets, and taking zinc and omega-3 as well, just to be on the safe side.

i quit fake sugar on thursday, so i’m up to day 5 now, and only on day 2 of vitamins. i spent the last weekend feeling utterly wretched. i’m amazed i was able to get out of bed, i had no energy or enthusiasm, and was in my pyjamas by 11pm at my brother’s 21st birthday party. (seriously, in front of all his friends.) today was much the same - my head was in a constant fog, with no motivation to do anything. it’s about 11pm now, and i think i’m starting to come out of it. i’m feeling much better than i have at all in the last 5 days, so i guess my body is starting to get over the WTF of it at all.

hopefully that was the storm before the calm, and i’ll feel much better in the next few days. i’ll keep you posted.