Dog Days

I don’t have a fever but my sinuses are clogged more than the Hoover Dam. I’ve felt more run down in the past two days than I have in my life and yet just three days out of the gym I feel like I’ve skipped class and missed a crucially important pop test. It is funny how when you finally find a groove and get your body used to being active or when you put it through a sudden change your body begins to fight back.

It isn’t the so called wall I keep hearing about. It is different. Humans, like most other animals on this planet, are habit forming beings. Whether they are good habits or bad habits, when you are used to doing the same thing for so long if you suddenly diverge from the norm your body will fight back. I am wondering if this is the case for me. My diet has changed dramatically and my activities have drastically increased and I wonder if my body is screaming “HEY! Sloooooow down and let me catch up!”

How in the hell do you stick to your goals when you’re sick?! I guess in order to get healthy, I need to heal first. But as I nurse myself back to my normal self and attempt to get back into my routine, I wonder if there is a way to stick to my program while being down and out? I have tried my best to eat healthy but when nothing has a taste and you go from not being hungry to starving, and from being cold to hot and finally to being bored with loads of energy to being exhausted, it is extremely hard to think about a diet and workout routine. And when it comes to juicing fresh fruits and vegetables (which has become a calming routine to me much like cooking) I find that the last thing I want to do is stand in front of a screaming food processor even though I know the juice would help more than hurt my current situation. When all you want to do is sleep all day, it is hard to motivate yourself to get up and do something, especially after having worked all day feeling the way I do. This is going to suck. One day out of the gym feels like it sets me back almost a week and I am going on day four of not working out.

I have done NOTHING but rest and take tons of cold medications and vitamins. I have also had soup every meal every day. Some of the soup is good for me and some not so good and of course the crackers are definitely not on my foods-I-should-eat-to-lose-weight list, but my main goal has been to recover so I can jump back on the horse, right? Even though it is common sense, everything I read says to get well before pushing yourself again. Unfortunately that means that today will not be a weigh day. It also means I will probably have to work twice as hard before my next weigh in and I am not even sure how long I am going to be out of the saddle. Therefore if I am going to be sickly, I guess I’ll go ahead and enjoy this little break, do my best to eat right and once I get over this crud get my butt back in the gym. Wish me luck because I never even considered the “what if” portion of my program. I wasn’t prepared for this but such is life. So it goes…