Sue Tydings. (Fit People).

When doctors diagnosed Sue Tydings with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) in 1999, she stuck her nose in as many books as possible on the subject to understand better what invisible monster had beset her.

After all, before contracting the syndrome notorious for draining strength and stamina, she had cycled for at least an hour a day most days of the week for 10 years. She ran nine-minute miles in a four-mile race. But in 1999 she began feeling inexplicably run-down--and unrefreshed by sleep, no matter how many hours she snoozed.

"This is not a temporary tired. This is your brain shutting off. You're in a `duh' stage. But I'm lucky, because every book I read [on CFS] had a chapter on how to collect disability," says Tydings, still a full-time legal secretary in Phoenix, Arizona.

She laments the pounds she's put on since, then because of inactivity, yet thanks God every day for being able to function at work and in her new marriage. The syndrome apparently manifests itself in varying degrees of severity. So, though she can now name her nemesis, the 42-year-old Tydings says she's faced with the delicate business of getting back into shape without overdoing it.

Besides pronounced fatigue, CFS can include symptoms such as the loss of memory and concentration, sore throat, tender lymph nodes, muscle pain, multijoint pain without swelling or redness, headaches of a new type, pattern, or severity. A half million persons living in this country may suffer from CFS, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and both cause and cure remain mysteries.

Tydings says she struggles most with feeling tired and battling gnarly headaches. However, to prevent de-conditioning, widely accepted treatment guidelines include light exercise. She walks with her husband and is exploring other programs in the hopes of finding a routine that works without wiping her out.

Another side of health involves eating well, and Tydings admits that she has battled "food demons" for years. But she also reports that CFS has made her body extremely sensitive to junk food. So coping with cookie cravings and eating right has become more critical.

"I look at my body as a machine and the food I put in it as fuel. I now need to put premium stuff in there," she explains.

Health and fitness setbacks might crop up more frequently for CFS sufferers. But Tydings says that the inevitable discouragement has not been all bad. It has led her to consider the preciousness of strength and stamina like never before.

"It's caused me to focus on working with what I have and looking to Him to be my strength instead of me being my strength," she reflects.

She's leaning on God more these days. For instance, Tydings says she used to jump on the bike to exercise her stress away. That's a good thing. But though she's lost that healthy outlet, she says that He has not left her high and dry.

"When I can't just exercise that off, I know He'll help me to deal with it," she says.

Of course, there's more than one way to walk. Tydings says that when her body falters, her spirit continues to press on with encouragement from her theme verse, James 1:2-4: "Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing" (RSV). *

* Bible texts credited to RSV are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright [c] 1946, 1952, 1971, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission.

Pam Mellskog writes on health topics from Lafayette, Colorado.