I'm getting scared that maybe all I'm doing is trading one problem (si) for another one. I have had no energy at all since sometime in January, but figured it was just because I was working too much. The last few weeks I've been averaging like 55 hours per week between two jobs. It seems like I can never catch up on rest, and yet I keep staying up late at night to get things done that I can't finish during the day, talk to friends on the computer, and just have some time to myself. I didn't worry about it much, hoping that when things settled down I would be ok.

Then this week I have had the munchies all the time. I feel like I'm deficient on both chocolate and protein. I am a vegetarian, and I also keep skipping meals. I obsess if my weight gets 1-4 pounds above the ideal range for my height, and any more than that would really cause me to freak out. I'd like to lose 20 pounds and be at the bottom end of the range, but I don't think it's going to happen. This week, though, I feel like I'm out of control on my eating. I even ate dinner with the kids the last two days.

I expected work to slow down this week, and that I could catch up on rest. I'm also doing yoga or yogalates or something along those lines plus going for a run with the dogs every day if I have time, and stretching all the time. My muscles are all sore, and I don't think that the amount of exercise that I'm doing is enough different from usual to account for it. And I can't get warm, and I get dizzy, and my head wants to explode, and I can't concentrate on what I need to do at work (I'm at work now, but just about to go home and then straight to the other job). I thought maybe I was dehydrated too, since my lips are chapped and hurt, and the inside of my mouth too, but I've been trying to make sure to drink enough.

Last night I was talking to Angela and asked if she thought this was all something to worry about and she suggested that it could be anemia. When I looked it up, I have most of the symptoms, and I also read that most of the things that I eat (chocolate, dairy foods, vegetable, high fiber foods) tend to interfere with absorption of iron. They also don't have much iron in them either. I wasn't worrying about any of this until after thinking about it last night, and now I just want to curl up in a ball under my desk and sleep. I'm not sure if it's gotten worse or if I just gave up on thinking it will go away if I ever get a chance to slow down.

Well, that's a bunch for one post. Do any of you have thoughts on anemia? Will it work to start taking vitamins with iron in them? How long until it gets better? The sources I found last night seemed to be saying that once symptoms are showing up it could take 2-6 months to replenish the iron with supplementation. Yuck.

Thanks,
Rap