Fatigue And Burnout

Fatigue and burnout affects everyone sooner or later. Even an old goat like me can get fatigue and burnout if I don’t pay attention to my activity.

Fatigue and Burnout

In the June of 2010, I was in good physical condition–for a seventy-five-year-old man with low brain power. I would run 6 to 8 miles on hilly trails; this is more difficult than road or track running.

I usually take two or three vacations each year and collapse on a beach for two weeks. This is my recovery time and I like to work this kind of a scheduled—it maxes me out and keeps me healthy and happy. My June vacation turned into a non-restful period and I returned home as tired as when I departed.

During the summer, winter and then fall, I overworked on my regular real estate maintenance duties. As winter approached, I was getting short on energy and I not singing to myself (no one else ever asks me to sing, even though I have a great singing voice. I have not been discovered.) Throughout the winter I had many visits by my great-grandchildren—along with the childhood germs that they normally host. My wife and I finally took a short vacation in March, 2011. We flew to Palm Springs and Death Valley, California for a cool windy week of rain and wind and came home pretty well stressed out.

April Brought New Challenges

April brought flood water that sent the chickens to high ground and caused my house a wet basement and mold problems. After two months of strenuous work and much consternation, I was finally into my routine spring yard and ground work—and everything went well, except for my stressed out aging body. I was facing fatigue and burnout—scary words for this healthy young lad. I kept losing my desire to sing, write and run.

Recognizing what was happening, I improved my diet by eating more nutrient dense vegetables and also more red meat and fish. This is recommended by Loren Cordain, PhD. In the book titled, The Paleo Diet for Athletes. Since my blood pressure was 113/73, and my resting heart rate was 52, I decided that all I needed, besides good food, was some rest.

Taking Down Days

Beginning on Thursday, June, 17, I took four “down days”. Today is the fourth day of the rest of my life. My muscles are all feeling fine now and I think that I have learned a good lesson. From this time forward, I will pace myself better—and use some common sense.

The purpose of this article is to help warn other people about the problem of Burnout and Fatigue.