God I love the word whilst. I wish I were allowed to use it.
I was right when I wrote that post last night. I do feel better today. My nose is still stuffy and my cough is still bad, but I don’t feel so shitty, you know? I just have a stuffy nose and a bad cough.
So today, I worked out.
I really struggle with knowing when it’s appropriate to work out when I’m sick. I know the general rule is that if the sickness is in your head (runny nose, headache) it’s probably okay to work out, but that if it’s in your body or chest, it’s maybe not. But the thing is, I can have coughs for MONTHS. I had a cough over a week before the fire, and then the fire made it linger, and then I got this other thing before that cough every really went away. If I really stopped working out while I have a cough, I may not get a chance to exercise all winter.
{Also, I think that rule might be more for people who are training for intense events, like marathons or competitive team sports.}
Obviously there are days when I KNOW it’s not a good idea to work out. What I mean to say is, there are days I recognize I CAN’T work out, because I’m too sick. I think I’m pretty decent at recognizing those days. Saturday through Tuesday of this week week I couldn’t work out. I felt horrible and the idea of exercising never entered my mind.
But today I felt better. Sure I still had to blow my nose a million times and I still coughed a lot, but I didn’t swig any of that horrible, miraculous Robitussin (with expectorant!), and I didn’t feel like I wanted to crawl into a hole and hibernate, and I wasn’t counting the minutes until I got home.
So when I made the game-time decision, I went with working out.
I’m taking it easy. I turned the level down on the elliptical trainer, and I’m not getting my heart rate up too much. I can feel that my lungs are not up to the task of breathing heavily so I’m not making them. But I really felt like I needed to get my body moving.
I am definitely in better shape right now that I have been in a while (thank you martial arts!) and I do hate to see that physical fitness wane. But mostly I itch to exercise for my mental health – my god do I need those endorphins to keep from pitching my sanity off a figurative cliff. The thing is, I can’t fit exercise into every day, so sometimes I work out when I don’t feel great, because I know I can’t any other day.
How do you determine if you’re too late to exercise?
That’s hard core. I’m very self disciplined about working out when I’m tired or just don’t feel like it, since working out is my stress relief and also makes me feel good about myself. But when I get sick I can’t unless it’s a very mild cold.
If I feel something coming on and I don’t feel completely horrible yet, I’ll make myself work out because I know it’ll be the last time for a while. Then I usually don’t work out again unless I’m really on the mend even if I don’t have a fever. And I feel miserable with like a 100°F fever so I’m not working out when I have a fever. My nose runs a lot anyway, especially when I exercise, so if my nose is still really running after a bad cold I usually won’t work out.
My lungs are compromised so I am a vote for conservative decisions ~ now. I listen to my body and find movement that fits the situation. THEN, I always celebrate myself. I always used to push and push because there was no other choice. Now I can give myself grace and admit that the day isn’t right for pushing so hard but if I am careful now the day to do more will happen again faster and with less negative consequences. But I was never good at machine exercise inside so bad weather and any illness that involved dripping into my lungs was cause for a ‘bronchitis celebration party’ and easily put me onto antibiotics for months in a row…… hard not to learn that lesson!
Glad you are on mend. Happy you were able to work your body and release stress, certain any losses from illness will correct with in about a week. This has to have been a week of huge stressors at work and PTA …. Be as proud of you as I am of you!!!