Too sick to exercise?

When should you say “enough is enough” and take to the couch or your sick bed instead of gearing up and working out?

I’ve been down for the count for almost a week know with a cold/sinus infection. While researching the idea of exercising while sick, I came across the best advice: “"Do what you can do, and if you can't do it, then don't”  Seems like a no brainer! You know your body best. The point of exercising is to improve your overall health. If you are pushing yourself too far, then you are really defeating the purpose.

Other words of wisdom include don't exercise if you have a fever or any sort of lung issue. While I haven't had either of those issues, all of my symptoms being in my sinuses, I've opted out of exercising for the past week.  I was so run down on the weekend that I napped for a total of 7 hours over 2 days.  I never nap, so this was a sure sign that my body needed a break.  And the pain of a sinus infection made just moving my head an ordeal.  I can't imagine doing lunges or toe touches; I'm pretty sure my head would have exploded.

I'm taking one more day to overcome my headache and fatigue and plan to get back into my routine of 30 minutes of exercise a day starting tomorrow.

Check out these links to some articles on exercising when sick:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/exercise/expert-answers/faq-20058494
http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/cold-guide/exercise-when-you-have-cold
http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/10/health/exercising-with-cold-flu/

Do you work out when you are sick?

Weigh In - March 2

Last Week's Weight - 216
Current Weight - 218.0

Weight Gained This Week - 2

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Two steps forward, 1 step back.

This week's gain is really no surprise. I only exercised 3 out of the 7 days, I'm fighting a sinus infection and I turned to comfort food after a long, hard week of training at work and being sick.

I know that when I get back on track on Monday that I will continue to lose and improve. Overall I did lose a total of 2 pounds in February, bringing my total so far this year to 7 pounds lost.  As long as these small gains don't outweigh the losses, then I'm happy.

Adaptability

Some times you have to be adaptable.  No matter how well thought out your plans are, life sometimes gets in the way.  Like today.

• Got an email from school about Liam having another headache
• Got home to find Hilary sick 
• Realized I had 20 minutes to get to school to sign up for parent teacher meetings
• Noticed that we are almost out of milk
• 3 math questions took over an hour and all of my patience
• Have my own headache from being in an all day, boring but mentally taxing training session for work

So while I got in lots of walking going to the school and then for milk, I did not go to Tae Kwon Do tonight and I did not substitute with a work out at home. 

I did stick to my eating plan, with no extra snacking.

I'm calling the day a wash, having a cup of tea and heading to bed.  I'm all out of adaptability.

Weigh in - Feb 22

Last Week's Weight - 221.3
Current Weight - 216.0

Weight Lost This Week - 5.3

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Well that is a loss I can get used to!  I don't think I've ever lost 5 pounds in one week before.

This was a great week overall.  I exercised every day for at least 30 minutes, using the BeachBody videos that came with my 21 day Fix package.  I've never really been a fan of workout videos, but I have enjoyed these ones.  It helps that they are only 30 minutes long, give you frequent 15-30 second breaks and offer modified versions of each exercise if you can't keep up.

I also had the Shakeology shake every morning for breakfast.  It truly filled me up, helping me keep my overall calories each day between 1300-1700, lower then I've been able to get on my own.  Even with the low calories I wasn't hungry.  And even better, I didn't have any cravings all week.  Often when I get Liam a snack of cheese or pretzels, I'll help myself to a few bites.  But not this week, it just didn't seem interesting to me and I was already satisfied with what I had eaten.  I even made it through Saturday and Sunday at home without any snacking.

I've committed to sticking with the shakes and workouts for 21 days, so 2 more weeks to go.  I had set a slightly random goal of wanting to lose 15 pounds during the 21 days, something that I thought would be great to strive for, but didn't really believe I would be able to do it.  After all, the most I've ever lost in a week before was 2 pounds.  But after this mornings weigh in, I believe it might just be possible.

No Thank You

The smell of a vanilla cappuccino wafts down the row to mingle with the scent of toast and peanut butter. A plate of homemade cookies sits on the desk to my left. 3 rows over is the bowl of expensive dark chocolates, placed out for people to help themselves to. At lunch time a delivery person walks by with 15 piping-hot pizzas, leaving a trail of aroma in his wake. Someone does a mid-afternoon run to the store, coming back with mini chocolate Easter eggs and a box of Halloween sized chip bags to share. At least once a week someone forgets their lunch so they run and grab take out, bringing it back to eat at their desk.

These are the office food pitfalls that I navigate every day. I arrive with my healthy, pre-packed, pre-measured lunch, making sure that I don’t have any change on me so that I can’t augment my meal with an extra snack from the vending machine. My co-workers know that I am trying to eat right and lose weight, and in fact, more than half of them are doing the same thing. Mostly they don’t offer me whatever item is currently being passed around, but every now and then I have to deal with what I refer to as “the pushers”. You know the type…. “Aww come on, just one won’t hurt you, have a cookie/chocolate/timbit/snack.” And they seem genuinely insulted when I decline, as if our level of friendship is directly related to me accepting or refusing their fares.

Too many times of late I have fallen into the trap of accepting just one, having a wee taste or sampling something new. I know that individually none of these will derail my progress, but I don’t always have the willpower to stop at just one. So for my own success I have had to take the stance of saying “No Thank You” to all of it. One day I may be at a place that I won’t have to refuse, but I’m not there today.

Do you have “pushers” in your life? How do you handle them?

21 days

After gaining weight for the last 3 weeks, it’s time to knuckle down and get serious again. Luckily that coincides with a 21 day challenge I’ve signed up for. I was recently introduce to “Shakeology”. Not one to believe in fad diets, supplements or other snake oil ideas, I was pretty skeptical. An online friend who is a Team Beach Body coach, hooked me up with a couple of free samples to try. It was surprisingly tasty and my research has me believing that it really is made of all natural, good for you things. Since I like shakes, I figured I would give it a try.

The 21 day challenge also came with food containers to help with portion control and some work out videos. Since I’m old pro at calorie counting and portion control, I don’t think I’ll be using the containers as intended, but they do make good containers to take my lunch to work in. I was initially resistant to the work out videos as well, but I tried on last Thursday to see what it was like. I only made it through 20 of the 30 minute workout before I thought I was going to throw up, and it took 3 days before my thighs recovered enough that I could get in and out of a chair on my own. The part that I like the most about the video was that even though it was led by a skinny, chipper, I-workout-10-times-a-day woman, they had a regular sized woman also featured doing modified versions of the exercises for those of us who can’t keep up with the skinny, chipper leader. I found I was following a little bit of both of them – more so the modified versions as time wore on and I got more and more tired.

My goal for these 21 days is to drink one of their shakes every morning (I bought the chocolate version, and wow, is it great tasting!), keep my calories under 1900 a day and to work out at least 30 minutes a day – either at TKD or one of their videos. 3 weeks is a small enough time frame to not be overwhelming. We have no plans or celebrations in the next 3 weeks, and won’t be renting cars either, so that will keep me out of the fast food drive thrus.

Yesterday I weighed in, got Hilary to help me take my measurements and some "before" pictures (which  won't be sharing!)   I'm really hoping that this is the kickstart that I need to get myself back on track!

Weigh In - February 16

Last Week's Weight - 220.9
Current Weight - 221.3

Weight Gained This Week - 0.4

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Apparently last week's lesson didn't stick, so I repeated the same pattern with the same results.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
-Albert Einstein 

So, it begins... again.