The Pits

I woke up this morning and realized that it has almost been two weeks since I have been to the gym. I’ve had a string of bad luck over the past couple of weeks and I’ve noticed something about losing your grove. It is hard to get back.

Last week, I fell ill and was out of commission for a number of days. The sinus infection I had was one of the most miserable I’ve ever had in my life. Even though I didn’t have the flu or a cold, I felt like I just wanted to die. There is something very strange and unnerving about not being able to breath out of your nose for five days straight. There were times where you’d think I had lost a family member because my eyes would randomly begin to water so much it appeared as if I were sobbing.

On top of this, we had a Mardi Gras weekend. Leighanne was missing her heritage and roots very badly so I decided to do something to lighten her spirits since she couldn’t be there to celebrate. We made boudin and gumbo that weekend, and took a trip to the farmer’s market downtown to look around. Also, more specifically, to eat at Nooley’s which is the closest to the real Cajun deal as we can get this far north. When it was all said and done, I can assure you I didn’t even want to know the amount of calories I consumed and trust me, the pity and self loathing followed suit in a big way on Monday. I was in the pits, for sure.

I had to remind myself that two days of cheating isn’t that bad and it isn’t that hard to catch the band-wagon, especially since I had been doing so well for nearly two months. But then the two day migraine that literally knocked me on my ass hit. It has been since before Leighanne and I started dating since I have had an extreme migraine and this one hit with the force of a dump-truck traveling at high speed and running head-on into a brick wall. I was wiped out. So that took the first two days of the week from going to the gym. Then, last night, I’m leaving work and my car wouldn’t start. After fiddling around with the battery for a while, I finally had a nice older gentleman stop to ask if I needed a jump start. It was after seven by the time I got home and at that point it was time to start dinner and get my juice made for the evening and morning. Tonight, unfortunately, I have late meetings so the gym isn’t looking that great either. It’s a good thing my Friday, Saturday and Sunday are wide open because I’m hitting it up like Wal Mart on the first of the month. Cue Bone Thugs n Harmony "First of tha Month."

Diet wise, this week has been really good. I’ve stuck to my calories, had a night of vegetarian style dinner (which I’ve come to not like tofu as much as I thought; just burned out I guess), chose wisely for dinner on Tuesday at Subway and am still staying within my calorie goals. However, my weigh in next Tuesday is DREADED!!! I am deathly afraid one weekend of not-so-good-for-me food and a week-and-a-half of no gym time is going to pack on a few pounds. I am praying I haven’t ruined everything I worked so hard for this year.

What I am seeing though is what I like to call fitness remorse. I am thinking I have reached a new level in my healthy lifestyle that instead of loving the fact I have not been to the gym as I would have in the past and not feeling guilty about what I eat, it is KILLING me that I haven’t been as strong as I can be and am ready to get back in my habit. I have also come to the conclusion, and though this is not an accurate diagnosis based on any medical findings, I am telling myself the migraine was brought on by eating poorly, no exercise and not having had fresh juice in three days. Now that I have had several days of juice in me and have been eating right I feel back to normal. Therefore, I am going to keep telling myself that the weekend of bad decisions nearly leveled me so that in the future if it ever looks enticing to jump off that band-wagon again, I’ll suffer dire consequences and writher in pain like I did on Monday and Tuesday.

Another good reason for getting back on track is that my ultrasound results came back today. In direct contrast to what the nurse told me, I do have Fatty Liver Disease. It isn't drastic enough to require a perscription and my cholesterol isn't high enough to require medication either. However they did find what they beleive to be a polyp in my gallblader lining, which they beleive to be Cholesterolosis. It is very mild and as long as it doesn't cause me any pain (which I have never had any) in my upper right abdomen, it is perfectly fine. It is a buildup of cholesterol in the lining of the gallbladder and is harmless. It only occurs in about 5% of the population and everything I've been told is that they are very common. However if you were to compare this to, say, 5% of students passing a test or if you had a 5% chance of rain over the weekend, I'd have to argue against the commonality of these results. But hey, I'm not the doctor. If it becomes painful then it is a simple removal of the gallbladder, which in this day and age is a couple of key sized incisions with a machine. Very Star Trek-ish if you ask me. But as long as that doesn't happen and as long as I get back on track with my healthy eating habbits and excercise, the Fatty Liver Disease is completely reversable. That should be motivation enough!! Cheers to catching back up to that wagon and hopping back on!