Tired

At this very moment, my thoughts should all be in the two 3000-word essays I have due in a week, because I am a) working all weekend, b) I am seeing my boyfriend for the first time in 4 months on Tuesday and essay writing will be impossible for at least 24 hours from that point.

I should not be blogging, yet here I am. Why, you ask?

I needed an outlet for talking about something that has been part of my daily life pretty much since my fourth year at Uni started just over a month ago. Namely, tiredness. This is also why my blogging has dropped to almost-zero since Uni started. So here I am, sharing the reason behind my quietness.

I didn't think having a part-time job and studying would be this time-consuming. But then, last time I did this, I was working 8 hours a week in high school. At this moment, I am routinely given almost 10 hours above my stated availability.

But balancing my studies and work are not the worst of it. I've been feeling very weak ever since I got sick, even after I recovered. Today, I got home from work and thought my legs were going to give out. My hands were shaking and I felt lightheaded. And while I was hungy, I had had a small fruit salad less than 2 hours before, so my blood sugar can't have been that low.

I'm constantly cold. And while I could attribute this to our flat being cold, I'm cold even when the heating is on, and no one else is as cold as I am. I can only type, or read, for short periods of time before I need to sit on my hands to warm them up. I hold a warm mug or a jar candle while I read online articles to keep my fingers from going numb with cold.

My recovery time from exercising has lengthened, and when I get tired quicker when I am exercising. It's third day since my Bodypump class, and my thighs are still so sore and tense (despite stretching and hot showers) that I find it hard to walk normally.

I am tired all the time, and the shortening days and constant rain are making it worse. I wish I could point to an easy culprit for my symptoms, but I do regular exercise, walk everywhere, sleep minimum 7 hours a night (and usually find it hard to get out of bed with anything less than 8) and eat a fairly healthy and balanced diet (and I only say 'fairly' because I succumbed to buying a pack of biscuits this week...).

Could this be just the lack of sunshine, or stress? I really don't know.