Living with a chronic illness can be very challenging, especially if you are symptomatic. Many chronic illness are invisible to the ones around us, which make having the illness even that much harder to deal with
So what is a chronic illness? A Chronic illness is a condition or disease that is constantly symptomatic, and or one that will last for a long time, usually until death. In order to be classified as chronic however, one must have the condition or disease for at least 3 months.
On a typical day, we wake up, get out of bed, take a shower, get dressed and head off to work, without even thinking about it. Most people don't need to navigate through their day, and decide what needs to be done, from what one would want to do.
A chronically ill persons wakes up with only a certain amount of energy each day, and they need to carefully decide what they need to do each day to be able to get to the end of the day. To better understand this concept I strongly recommend that you read The Spoon Theory by Christine Miserandino who helped her friend understand what it was to have a chronic illness with a bunch of spoons.
Food Tips
Eating healthy is important to keeping your body functioning. However cooking meals everyday is not really possible for someone who is sick.
- Spend a few hours each week and cook two or three large healthy meals and divide them into servings by putting them into meal size food containers. Make anywhere from 7 to 14 meals. You can freeze a some and have some in the fridge.
- Buy fruit and veggies that you can easily snack on. Cut up the veggies and store them in snack size food container.
- Plan meals for more than a week. It easier to plan a few weeks meals especially if they are going to use some of the same ingredients
- Get groceries delivered to you doorstep. Many people live near large grocery chains that deliver, and you can order what you want online. This is great for people living in urban areas, that can no longer carry groceries for long distance.
- Farmers market and organic delivery, there are many farm shares that will deliver to your house organic fruits, veggies, milk, cheeses, breads, and eggs.
Managing Time
Time management is extremely important for the ill. Here are a few tips on how to get everything done each week
- Clean something for 5 mins everyday, If it is sweeping the floors, cleaning the bathroom, or dusting. Just doing it in 5 min intervals will help you get it everything done by the end of the week, and will not consume as much energy
- Plan your outfits ahead of time. Knowing what you are going to wear each day saves time and energy every morning
- Wear clothes that are comfortable. Many with people with chronic illness have varying degrees of pain, and anything tight can make the pain worse.
- Have bills automatically paid every month. Almost all utilities, and credit cards have automatic pay options you can sign up for online.
- Do the majority of your shopping online. You can pretty much buy anything online from clothes to appliances.
- Keep things organized, when you use something try to put it back in its place.
- If you haven't used it in the last 3 month it is probably time to get rid of it. Clutter is a chronically ill worse enemy. It means more to clean, more to organize, and more energy wasted on something you don't need, and use.
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