Do you ever have times when everything feels overwhelming? And I mean everything.
Figuring out what to have for dinner. Feeding your pets. Changing into pajamas. Brushing your teeth.
Absolutely everything feels insurmountable, no matter how small.
And don’t get me started on all the extra tasks, like making sure to throw in a load of laundry so you have clean underwear for the next day and unloading the dishwasher so you don’t wake up to an even bigger pile of dirty dishes in the sink.
Sometimes, life just feels so hard.
And while I’m sure everyone feels this way at one time or another, I wholeheartedly believe that people with chronic fatigue experience overwhelm more often than average. After all, low energy makes it even harder to get things done.
So, what can you do when everything feels overwhelming?
Do.
Just.
One.
Thing.
Promise yourself that you’ll do just a single thing, even a little itty bitty thing, and allow yourself to rest afterward.
For this post, let’s focus on dinner.
That one thing could be grabbing a baking sheet and putting it on the stove. After that, you can rest.
But if you’re up for it, do one more thing.
Maybe you put some aluminum foil on the baking sheet. If needed, take a break. And don’t let yourself feel bad if you don’t get more done than this for now.
Give yourself a rest, then do one more thing.
Perhaps, take a look in the freezer for something easy you can have for dinner.
As a side note, it is such a blessing to plan ahead and always make sure to have freezer-friendly dinners available. That could be something you made yourself that you’ve put in the freezer or pre-made frozen meals.
Try to get reasonably healthy meals, but don’t beat yourself up if it’s just a frozen pizza. The key here is to make sure that you’re still fed when overwhelmed. It’s better to have a frozen pizza than just grab a bag of chips or cookies because you’re too tired or overwhelmed to cook anything.
I’m getting off on a tangent, but here are some of my favorite frozen items to keep stocked up in my freezer:
- Spinach feta pizza
- Veggie lasagna
- Bean and cheese burritos
- Fish or seafood (already seasoned)
If you eat chicken or other types of meat, you’ll have plenty more frozen meal options.
So, getting back to our “Just One Thing” method: You can pick out which frozen item to have for dinner and place it on the counter.
Take a rest if needed, then take a look at the instructions for the meal and preheat the oven.
Sit down and rest again if you need, then go ahead and unpackage the food and place it on the baking sheet.
Take a rest again. When the oven is preheated, go ahead and put your food in and set the timer.
You get the idea! Nothing fancy here.
You can make this work for almost any task when feeling overwhelmed. I know this isn’t the most efficient way to do things, but when you’re dealing with chronic fatigue, sometimes efficiency just isn’t going to cut it. If you push too much, you’re bound to crash. So, this is more of an energy conservation strategy.
It’s also a reminder that you need to show yourself some compassion when you’re not feeling well.
You may even find that by giving yourself the grace of only needing to do one thing, you might feel okay doing one more thing right afterward without a rest. But again, don’t push yourself. Just do what you can.
And when you’re ready to make your next grocery list, remember to add plenty of frozen meals to make things easier when overwhelm strikes.
Pizza, lasagna, or baked manicotti can be a meal in themselves, but if you buy a meat or fish dish, you’ll want to be sure to pick a frozen veggie to have on the side. My local BJ’s just started carrying a very tasty frozen butternut squash risotto, so I have that along with lemon butter tilapia. Perfect dinner for those days when I just can’t!
Now, what about if you are in the midst of a chronic fatigue crash? This can last for days, weeks, or longer.
I’ve got some easy meal strategies to get you through crashes—no Doordash or GrubHub needed. You’ll find that in my next post!
