Is there really such a thing as springtime tiredness? It sounds silly in English, I guess there is not even a real expression for this phenomenon, unlike in Hungarian (tavaszi fáradtság). According to Wikipedia:
As a translation of the German term "Frühjahrsmüdigkeit" (lit. "Spring tiredness), Spring Fever is the name for a temporary mood typically characterized by a state of low energy and weariness experienced by many people in springtime. It is not in the category of a diagnosed illness, but rather a phenomenon thought to be initiated by a change in the season.
It supposedly has something to do with the lengthening of days and the balance between hormones such as serotonin and melatonin and also comes with the body's readjusting endorphin, testosterone and estrogen levels. Phew, maybe this explains my recent low energy and moods and such. And I was thinking maybe I had cancer (inherited some amount of my Dad's hypochondria for sure). My recent travels probably don't help much with the balance of sleep hormones. Times like this I really notice how interconnected everything is in our bodies. How much we sleep (or I guess how much of the hormones we're making, is more accurate in this case), what we eat, what we think about all influence our physiology and general well-being. I have been trying to eat smaller meals, more often, veggies and fruits - I love fruits but for some reason, unless somebody puts them in front of me and tells me to eat them, I just forget (losing my mind?) - take vitamins, drink water, be outside in the fresh air (hm, does that exist in NYC?) and sun. Not sure what else to do...
The past few times I ran, it went horribly. I blamed it on jetlag, the time of day, what I ate the day before, but really, I just haven't had enough energy to get up the big hills - yesterday was particularly bad. I woke up early without the alarm and was so ready to get out there. It can be so frustrating to go all the way to the park (ok, it's really not that far but having to go to lab afterwords, I don't have the whole day) and then struggle through all the hills, which is what happened yesterday. I got up to the northernmost part of the park, and even made it up the really big hill there but just barely, and then couldn't recover on the downhill for the next uphill. I had to walk :( hasn't happened since the marathon. That's when the thoughts of cancer appeared in my mind...
Then last night in yoga, we had a substitute teacher. I go to this specific class because I really like the teacher, but yesterday's sub I liked even more! It was one of the hardest classes I have had in a while (probably because I took 3 weeks off). She put a lot of emphasis on correct form: she came up behind me during a longer downward facing dog - I am so far from having my heels on the ground - and asked if I could reach lower with my heels. I said no. Honestly, I was having trouble holding myself up; at one point, my arms felt like they were gonna give in and I had the image of me falling on my head (fortunately I held out and avoided a potentially dangerous and even more embarrassing situation). All of a sudden, she took hold of my hips and raised them super high, my heels almost reached the mat, my legs were screaming so loud I could actually hear them; she kept saying "squeeze your upper arms" and we stayed like that for a good 10 seconds - now that seemed like an eternity to me - after which I collapsed into child's pose (best pose ever in yoga or just anytime when I feel stressed or have back-pain). Today, my upper arms feel like I did some heavy lifting yesterday. I really want to have nicely toned arms, ah, that's so sexy!
The burrito after class last night tasted better than usual, I missed those Monday nights!
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