The Low Iron Woman

Lately I've been feeling sluggish and had a real negative outlook on the chances of me actually being able to finish my marathon in November. Running just seemed next to impossible, and even my speed walking had slowed to a deathly pace. And while I can normally function pretty well on 5 to 6 hours of sleep a night, even 8 didn't seem like nearly enough. And halfway through any exercise, be it my yoga or training or whatever, I just felt wiped out. This was not the Angel I've fought so hard to become over the last two years.

And, as I mentioned recently, my weight loss had pretty much come to a standstill. In talking to my weight loss consultant, she suggested that I go get bloodwork done (which I scheduled, despite my lack of interest in doctors). But during our conversation, she told me about another client who had a similar problem, but turned out to be anemic. Well, at that point in the conversation my ears perked up. I have such a healthy diet filled with beans and green vegetables and some red meat that it could be a problem. In high school I survived on pizza, doritos and ice cream, so iron deficiency made more sense. I was later telling a friend that if I wasn't single, someone would probably think I was abused because I'd been getting crazy bruises really easily. Like a mere graze against a book shelf and my arm is black. Also, a major sign of iron deficiency.

So while I'm adding lots more spinach to my diet (trying to make up for all the watermelon I was eating this summer, which is apparently high in iron and maybe kept my levels up), for the next few days I'm also taking a supplement. In only five days, I feel so much better and back to my normal self, though I'm still keeping my upcoming doc appointment just to make sure there's not something else weird going on.

I may have my energy back, but I'm still having mild anxiety attacks about the marathon though... Is it normal to wake up at 2 AM in a cold sweat thinking you should be out running?