What lifestyle changes have you made? I’ve been going since April 2020 and I’m certainly not that far along. I’d say maybe 50% in my normal life, and about 5% as far as any cardio activity is concerned!
Cut and paste from an email I sent to another sufferer… The things I have found that have helped:
– Balancing my nervous system! I found that my battery ran down very quickly through everyday stress triggering my sympathetic nervous system. I’ve always been quite ‘on it’ and I wasn’t letting my parasympathetic nervous system soothe me back down (because I’d never really needed it!). The NHS course demonstrated how this really affected people with a CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) and taught me the basics of meditation. I used the HEadspace app and now just try to find 20-30 minutes as many times a week as I can to meditate. It has really helped.
– Avoid stressful situations. For me socialising in big groups was actually stressful, so I tried to meet friends individually.
– Get the best sleep you can. Do everything you can to prioritise sleep.
– Avoid alcohol and certainly excessive alcohol. Even a couple of beers can bugger up a night’s sleep or lead you into running the battery down further than you want.
– If you want to exercise, start very slowly and find your level. The level may well be different on different days, so be prepared for a crash! To be honest I wish I hadn’t tried anything for at least a year after infection. It took me a long while to accept that I wasn’t going to be able to just get over this. Eventually I bought an ebike which was awesome. It meant I could get the feeling of exercise but completely control how much effort I put in. This has helped me build a lot of stamina and resilience to the crashes. Also I started open water swimming. The cold water immersion also helps I think.
– Track your health. A real game changer for me was when I bought a Garmin watch that tracked my heart rate variability and sleep, and gave me a ‘body battery’ score. It helped me read my system better. I don’t rely on it totally but it is helpful to see if you slept badly and are only running on half a tank because it stops me overdoing it.
– Eat well and help your gut biome. Lots of veg, good protein, and fermented foods if possible. I also stated time restricted eating (I only eat for 10 hours and then ‘fast’ for 14). This is to help with my body getting rid of dead and broken cells (autophagy). Lots of interesting info on it at the Zoe website (
https://joinzoe.com/learn/<wbr />how-to-fast). In fact I’d really recommend Zoe as a good source of info on health in general.
– Change your recovery mindset. When I realised that recovery was going to take years and not months I felt a weight lift. It made me focus on making incremental improvements rather than big steps.
– Don’t listen to the crazies! A lot of the Facebook groups are full of crazy ideas and people swearing they’ve recovered through odd, expensive, or uncomfortable regimes. I would say 98% are total bollocks. There is one programme that even requires participants to tell everyone they are 100% better even when they are not! I’ve seen this lead to a lot of disappointment. The best resources I have found are The Long Covid for Endurance Athletes FB page (
https://www.facebook.com/<wbr />groups/350546636055303/) and Gez Mendinger’s YT channel (
https://www.youtube.com/@<wbr />RUNDMC1)
Apparently I’ve bought one. Had the page open on my basket checkout since this morning. Just flicked onto it now and it offered me delivery. Stuck it on the Amex. Let’s see what happens!