Give me ENERGY!

Do struggle to keep track of your exercise routine? Do you lack motivation or accountability? Do you forget what your goals were? I know a website that might help: It’s called Traineo. It’s been a while since I found this website, and many other people have sung their praises, but thought it needed to be shared here. Here’s what they have to say:

Motivation, Support and Accountability are the keys to achieving a weight loss and fitness goal. Our mission is to create the most effective weight loss and fitness community on the web by combining the latest software technology with sound information and services from the world’s leading health and fitness experts. traineo is the culmination of over three years of development, testing and focus group studies in partnership with leading experts in weight loss, health, sports and fitness.

While geared a little towards weight-loss, the principles and techniques are no different for anyone wanting to build their strength and fitness (especially those of us who lack energy!).

It has areas to track your exercise, your diet, your weight, your goals… and an easy way to add friends as mentors to keep you on track! I’ve attached a screen shot below, but why not head over there and check it out yourself?

More details at: Traineo.

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13 Additional Sure-Fire Ways to Live a More Relaxing Life
Here we have some really helpful tips that were very relevant to me. I especially liked this one:

9. Do just one thing at a time. Single tasking and focusing on doing just one thing at a time not only decreases stress but from my – and many other´s – experience gets things done a whole lot quicker than if you multitask.

Disability a difficult option for chronic fatigue sufferers
Here in Australia, things are much easier, but this Ohio news site has a few insights into getting government support - including what you will need to have to qualify.

Area doctor battles fatigue
Another article posted today from the same site as above. It’s a good one to show skeptics, as it has a lot to educate and build awareness. Worth the look, and some good insights:

Nancy Klimas, a professor of medicine at the University of Miami in Florida, has treated more than 2,000 CFS patients in 20 years and blames a genetic predisposition, affected by a triggering factor - possibly infection or toxicity - that alters the endocrine and immune systems.

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Do you want to start walking, but have no-where nice to go? For me, that was quite an excuse. Around the oval twice is not my cup of tea, I get bored easily (and I used to get tired too).

I remember when I used to live on a main road, and was never excited to go for a walk. For a long time, I didn’t know that there were many lovely walking routes very close to my house. I even pulled out the street directory periodically and lamented about the lack of nice places to walk near my house. That was until I talked to my brother (a bundle of energy), and found out many nice places were around, they just didn’t show up on the map!

While I couldn’t handle more than three laps around the oval down the street, I went from walking 5 minutes a day, to being able to walk 45 minutes, just because I enjoyed where I went and did it regularly.

You might not have a very active brother that has explored your whole neighborhood, but you can have Google Maps. Simply type in your address or suburb and country (don’t worry, it’s not saved anywhere), and you’ll find a map of your area! You can click and drag the map around and zoom in and out for detail. But that’s only half the fun:

Google Maps allows you to switch to a aerial image of your neighborhood, meaning you can see patches of trees, roofs, and often even who has a pool on your street! This is a great advantage, as you can then map out a route that includes a lot of patches of trees, making your short walk more enjoyable. You can even save and print your maps, and show the aerial photo, with street names on top!

Many people have found this useful for walking already, and quite a few have their own recommendations and tools!

If you have any ideas, let me know in the comments!

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Here’s a great inspirational story that Sandy has linked to:

I was sick and in extreme pain constantly. I was unable to lead anything close to a productive life. It affected my family too much - especially my little girl. I could not even play with her…Well, it’s certainly been a long, long journey with many hurdles, but as I sit here today I have a wonderful life as an artist. And I am riding six to eight horses a week as well as riding in a show next week.

I’d like to encourage everyone not to throw in the towel. Keep working with all those you have around you - doctors, family, friends, therapists, pain management specialists, etc. - to get a system and maintenance that works for you. Don’t stop trying.

Have a read of the whole letter, it’s very inspirational. (Hat Tip to Sandy for finding it)

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I’m not that keen on talking about blogging too much, but this one has me puzzled…

Over the past two days I have received a huge amount of hits, in fact 15 out of my top 20 “referrers” have come from different web mail companies. I’m so confused! Where did so many people come from?

If there was a newsletter that went out - I missed it! So if anyone wants to leave in the comments what the email was, or forward it onto me, I’d love that! Thanks!

– A very Puzzled Coops.

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