Sunday I woke up feeling pretty bad. The day before my family and I went to the beach, staying several hours in the sun. The boys and I had a blast in the murky brown water of my home beach of Galveston. I don’t love those beaches, but I do love the city of Galveston. Much like people say about their family members, only I am allowed to make fun of the Galveston beaches. To anyone else I will defend them! I say this because it does occur to me that it may have been the water that made me feel sick the next few days. My husband made the observation that the last time I was sick this summer happened to be after our last day at the beach. Coincidence? Probably.
Regardless, I progressively felt worse from Sunday morning and throughout the day. As I write this, two days later, I still feel achy and a vague sense of illness in my stomach. I won’t go into the details, but although I haven’t had any fever, it has become pretty clear to me that I have a virus of some sort.
Why does any of this matter to you, and what on earth can it possibly have to do with weight loss or menopause?! I’m glad you asked! Although I felt justified in being lazy, and taking it easy so I could mend, I decided it was important not to give myself a pass on exercise. Usually when I am sick I will not workout at all. I can’t bring myself to the energy level to do a good “sweat session” as I usually do. Most of the time my exercise is challenging because my goals are building strength and muscle, as well as increasing my cardio endurance.
This time was different. Since beginning this blog I have been much more aware of my choices and how they impact my lifestyle habits. What I know to be true of me is that if I give myself a pass on exercising when I am feeling “puny”, it will be easier to the next day and the next when I may be feeling a bit better, but still not 100%. So, instead I went for a short walk with the dog. Afterward, I felt more energized. However, the malaise continued through the next 24 hours. Again, I did a minimal strength training set, and later in the day walked.
This was completely a matter of maintaining my habit of daily movement. I listened to my body, and didn’t push beyond my comfort. If I did have a fever, I would have skipped the walk in the heat. A gentle yoga flow would have been a great choice in that case.
Habits are important. We work so hard to create the proper habits, integrating them into our lifestyle. Don’t allow a little virus to knock you off your routine. Its a big deal. Keep up with your wonderful habits that help you be your best. Even going to the gym just to sit in the sauna, if you need to maintain that habit of driving to the gym.
Be good to yourself!
Photo credit: RLHyde / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)