STEP 1

Everyone experiences fatigue from time to time. A little fatigue, on a daily basis, is normal. It’s even healthy. A certain amount of daily fatigue is a sign that you’re living a full and active life.

A large amount of daily fatigue, on a chronic basis, on the other hand, becomes problematic when it starts to affect your ability to participate in daily life: when you reach a point where you have to withdraw from a certain number of important activities because you’re too tired or too exhausted to go on.

Of course, certain people are more at risk of chronic fatigue and exhaustion than others:

• people who repeatedly suffer from poor sleep (in quantity and/or quality),

• people with unhealthy lifestyles (poor diet, lack of exercise, substance abuse,…),

• people with one or more underlying mental and/or physical health condition(s),

• people who suffer from chronic stress,

• people who consistently overdo it (overexercise and/or overwork),

• people who consistently underdo it (mentally (cognitively) and/or physically).

Are YOU in one or more of the above categories?

Fatigue assessment questionnaires can help you quantify and monitor your fatigue levels over time. They can help you and your healthcare team understand the impact of fatigue on your daily life, and determine if your fatigue levels have gotten to the point where you would benefit from further evaluation and intervention (high to very high levels of fatigue).

In STEP 1, you will assess your levels of mental and physical fatigue with the help of the following assessment questionnaires:

• the MENTAL FATIGUE Assessment Questionnaire,

• and the PHYSICAL FATIGUE Assessment Questionnaire.

At the end of each day, this week, you will answer all of the questions in the above questionnaires with either a “yes” or a “no”. Every time your answer is a “yes”, you will place a check mark in the corresponding box. Once both of your questionnaires are filled out, you will have a better idea about where you’re starting from before you embark on The LEFTOVER SPOONS CHALLENGE…

Are you more often than not in the low fatigue range? Moderate fatigue range? High fatigue range? Or very high fatigue range?

Sometimes, fatigue only manifests itself the day after you’ve overworked yourself (worked yourself beyond YOUR capacity) mentally and/or physically.

How is it for you? Do you normally feel the fatigue right away, on the day of? Or rather only starting on the next day?

Now, before you move on to STEP 2 of The LEFTOVER SPOONS CHALLENGE, I strongly suggest that you keep your filled out fatigue assessment questionnaires in a safe place for future reference. They will help you compare your “befores” and “afters” as you work on improving your mental and physical energy levels…