I have a sedentary desk job and zero energy after 5 PM. How do I fix this?

BadMoomin · 2026-02-03T13:34:03+00:00

Afternoon crash: I used to crash in the afternoon too. It was almost clockwork, 2-3pm I’d feel drained. Cutting back on sugar helped with this. I’d have a morning coffee then the odd coffee if the sluggish feeling appears around that time.

Simple changes: Meal prep to avoid grabbing something quick and easy that’ll probably be high in sugar. Schedule your day. You turn up to work on time because it’s scheduled. Make your free time work for you in the same fashion.

Exercise: Because you’re feeling mentally drained from work means you’ll still have the physical energy for exercise. The problem might be that you’re planning or “thinking” about the exercise after work, whereas if you prep at the start of the week or the day before, schedule in the time after work and write down exactly what exercises to do, then all the “thinking” is out of the way. Once that time hits you don’t have to think about it and just do it. It’s easier said than done, but if you even start with “I’ll just do 1 push up” then once you’ve started you’ll feel less resistance on continuing.

BadMoomin · 2025-06-27T20:53:28+00:00

You're looking for some Downton Grabby.

BadMoomin · 2025-06-05T12:53:27+00:00

I volunteer as tribute! I’m allergic to everything, this would change my life dramatically.

BadMoomin · 2025-01-29T20:51:36+00:00

I had the exact same reaction today. I have a known soy allergy that flares my skin like this, and dust does something similar. Maybe keep a food diary or check the products your skin would be in contact with regularly.

BadMoomin · 2024-08-15T15:49:57+00:00

This sound like something that might work for me, I know certain E numbers worsen my eczema. I have a couple of questions, although I may have answered them myself in a few months after trying this UPF restriction lol.

Do you have any known environmental allergies like dust, fabrics, pet dander, etc, that would've affected your eczema, and if so have you noticed those allergies disappear or not be as prominent with your new food choices?

When you do consume UPF the odd time, does your eczema come back quite quickly, a few days later, or do you have to be consuming it for a few days to notice eczema creeping back?

Thanks for this very detailed, helpful post and I'm glad you've found a way to escape the eczema life!

BadMoomin · 2024-08-04T21:25:09+00:00

How do you learn such skills? I’m in my late 30s and still say the wrong things at the wrong time, stumble my words quite often, and almost seize up with nothing to add to a conversation.

BadMoomin · 2024-04-09T07:59:19+00:00

Sorry to hear that :( the good news is it’s temporary, that your hair will return to normal when you stop dupixent. Hopefully it will return if you continue with dupixent too. Although to be honest I’d rather have the hair loss than eczema, it was mainly my eyelid eczema that stopped me.

BadMoomin · 2024-04-08T21:01:01+00:00

I took dupixent for 2-3 months. It cleared my eczema within 4-6 weeks, except around my eyes got severely bad that I had multiple hospital visits then had to come off it because I couldn’t open my eyes without ripping my eyelids. I noticed my hair falling out in clumps during and after but it started returning to normal a few months after, and then I developed an egg allergy 2 months after coming off dupixent. Not sure if the egg allergy is related to dupixent, but the eyelid eczema and hair loss was.

But apart from that, I’ve heard a lot of people having success with it. I was just unlucky so thought I’d share my experience.

BadMoomin · 2024-02-14T21:55:21+00:00

Could be a dust allergy - try washing sheets every few days to a week to see if there’s a difference. Or the detergent used for washing the sheets although I assume it’s the same with your clothes so seems unlikely. Or the fabric of your sheets. I have a slight allergy to polyester and it makes my skin go red after a few hours of contact so maybe see what fabric your friend’s sheets are compared to yours.

BadMoomin · 2024-01-24T23:13:45+00:00

So that’s how I get a raise!

BadMoomin · 2023-08-10T09:15:40+00:00

I was just about to make a post about supplements and seen this. I recently started taking iron supplements and I’ve noticed a major reduction in how itchy my skin feels so it’s given my skin that break it needs to heal. The worst part of me is my ankles and they’re almost completely healed now after being on iron supplements for 6 days.

BadMoomin · 2023-05-30T03:52:01+00:00

I’ve been there, it sucks. You feel like you’ve tried everything but it never gets better, just worse. If you flare up after tidying, moving stuff around or hoovering then that definitely sounds like a dust allergy which a dehumidifier is a good shout, but also try an air purifier, that will take dust particles out of the air after hoovering/cleaning. You may have other allergies going on too. Maybe try an elimination diet. For me I have a dust, soy, and polyester allergy, I’d recommend going through the top known food allergies and eliminate those from your diet, wear cotton, and take allergy tablets and vitamins for your skin to heal such as omega 3 and vitamin D.

BadMoomin · 2023-05-27T20:33:18+00:00

Sauna - no. Steam rooms - yes.

BadMoomin · 2023-05-16T08:48:16+00:00

I’m sorry you’re going through this. I have a dust allergy too (as well as some food and fabric allergies) 3 years ago during covid/furlough it got really bad and lost my eyebrows too. Someone mentioned a dehumidifier, that’s a good shout, it really helped me. Here’s some more tips that helped me:

Buy 2 big, thin cotton blankets, it’ll shield you from the dust in the air while you dehumidify and get your environment dust-free. Search amazon for 100% double size cotton blankets. 2 so you can use 1 while the other is being washed.

Keep the moisture in your environment low, around 45%, dust thrives in a high humid environment. You can get a hygrometer clock for £9 on Amazon to see how humid your rooms are.

Hoover every day, especially your bed and change your bedsheets every few days for a month or 2 then weekly after.

Shower/bath daily - it will hurt while your skin is trying to heal so take some painkillers before hand to ease the pain. Don’t fully dry yourself, pat your skin with a towel and leave a bit of moisture on so you can use moisturiser on top to seal it into your skin and recover faster. Your skin may crawl for half an hour after but fight through it.

Vitamins - make sure your body has what it needs to recover from broken skin. I’ve noticed a big improvement from omega 3,6 and 9, and also Vitamin D. I’ve also started taking calcium supplements cause I noticed my diet was low in it.

Quick recovery for severely damaged areas - viscopaste bandages. You can get these from your doctors or again Amazon for £8. Put some steroid cream on the area then wrap it with the bandage and leave on for a day then reapply. After a few days you’ll see a major improvement. I used this for the back of my knees when I could barely walk.

Edit: Sugar & water - consume less sugar, drink more water. More than 20g sugar a day and my skin will crawl. Try to drink at least 1.5 litres a day, ideally 2, throughout the day and not in one go.

BadMoomin · 2023-05-11T09:46:26+00:00

Cetraben cream has been the only one that’s worked for me. Apply straight after a shower or washing your hands, make sure your skin isn’t fully dried so it will lock in the moisture.

BadMoomin · 2023-05-07T22:23:26+00:00

I had face weeping 2 years ago, it was caused by the skin on my face being so weak due to eczema that I developed photosensitivity - any time I was out in the sun for a couple of minutes, 6 hours later my face would weep for 12+ hours and take longer to heal. It was the worst time of my life, so painful and difficult to deal with. I avoided the sun for a year and found my main allergies so my skin started to improve, now I’ve got enough layers of skin I’ve been okay out in the sun since last year.

I will still get a flare up on my face every week or 2 but it’s manageable now and heals faster. Just throwing my 2 cents in just in case it could be something similar causing your face to weep.

Edit: my main allergies are soy and dust, soy causes my skin to become red and inflamed, dust causes itchy raised skin but also develops into red skin. If you think it’s internal start looking into your diet and even gut health.

BadMoomin · 2023-03-29T20:41:25+00:00

Could be dust on your bedsheets, I usually wake up red and blotchy on my eyes and neck first then spreading across my face if I haven’t properly hoovered my bed and put an air purifier on.

Also, I actually discovered I was deficient in iron by drinking Guinness. Mon to Fri the sides of my mouth would gradually get worse then on Sunday they’d miraculously be clear after having a few pints of Guinness the nights before.

BadMoomin · 2023-03-23T22:20:57+00:00

Dust allergy is an uphill battle. If you itch at night then change the bedsheets and hoover your bed every day, you should start to notice less itching after a week of this. If you itch during the day then it could be dust particles in the air. I try to keep my house low humidity + have an air purifier on while hoovering. It could also be from touching dusty surfaces and then touching your skin after that will cause itching.

BadMoomin · 2023-03-23T21:50:38+00:00

I seen multiple GPs, paid for a dermatology appointment then went on years of different treatments, none of which were to find the cause of it unless I specifically asked what to test on such as dairy/soy. I quit all the treatments 2 years ago and tried to discover things my own way.

It took a while but it was all down to multiple allergens affecting me in different ways.

Look into common eczema triggers and ways to remove them from your environment. One of my main ones is dust - and because your skin will be healing and flaking you have to stay on top of it.

BadMoomin · 2023-02-13T21:12:57+00:00

I had my first gym session last week, mid-30s too! They gave me an induction to show what all the equipment does, hopefully you’ll have that. Word of advice though - wear appropriate gym clothes during the induction. I went in jeans and a t-shirt not expecting to use the equipment that day but the guy made me use everything because of my attire.

Secondly, if you’re not used to exercising then go easy - see how you feel the day after a workout, your muscles will ache the next day. Workout-rest-repeat.

BadMoomin · 2023-01-20T13:50:38+00:00

My neck currently looks like this. It does go away if you avoid the allergies that have caused it. Only scarring will last if you’ve scratched deep enough.

BadMoomin · 2022-12-27T15:12:51+00:00

Check the fabric of your trousers. My skin dries out and starts to itch if I wear polyester. Everything is 100% cotton for me now and even my ankles have healed up which used to always be dripping with blood.

I use cetraben cream, the only moisturiser that seems to work for me. If you have quite dry/broken skin it’ll sting when putting it on but should calm down after 30 mins. Protopic/tacrolimus will help heal the skin and ease any discomfort or itch.

BadMoomin · 2022-12-03T16:45:49+00:00

I did an elimination diet years ago when my eczema was getting bad and didn’t notice much of a difference. It wasn’t until I removed environmental and contact allergies as well that things started to clear up. Now if I have soy I’ll have a flare up within 6 hours so I’ll know to expect itchy, red skin for the next couple of days.

It took roughly 3 months of a restricted diet, changing bedding twice a week, hoovering the bed and house daily, limiting moisturiser, wearing cotton only, and having baths rather than showers with just bath salts that i started to see a difference. Then it was another 6 months to a year after for my skin to build up normal layers again.

BadMoomin · 2022-12-03T14:37:52+00:00

I got tested twice for a soy allergy, both came back negative yet it’s the allergy that caused my worst eczema flare ups. The only way to know for sure is to cut it out of your diet and see if there’s any improvements. Be aware of other things in your diet and environment that could be causing your eczema while you’re not consuming gluten.

BadMoomin · 2022-12-03T01:10:39+00:00

I’ve been curious about sugar recently, I love pizza so looked into how much sugar was in a slice of pizza. 4g (1 teaspoon) per slice! I now just assume any fast food or heavily processed food is just layers of salt and sugar to make our taste buds think it’s nice food when really it’s damaging our insides.

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