Holy. Crap. This week knocked me on my butt HARD. I was all excited for a long weekend, extra day to sleep in, all that jazz. And then the flu hit me. ALL FREAKING WEEK. I cannot remember the last time I was this sick for this long. I ended up having a five day weekend instead of three, as I was unable to be upright and moving on Tuesday and Wednesday. Even getting up to go to the bathroom, or to move from the couch to the bed or vice versa required a lot of effort.

Managed to make it into work Thursday and Friday even though I still didn’t feel 100%. But I couldn’t take another day of bed rest. I was going stir crazy.

The worst part – next to literally puking my guts out all week – was that I was too sick to get a workout in almost every day this week. I’ve said in past blog posts that the only excuse not to get a workout in was if I was on my death bed. And trust me, this week I felt like that’s exactly where I was at.

It still didn’t make me feel any better to skip out on those workouts, but sometimes, it’s better to listen to your body. There are times where trying to workout and do more than you can handle will do nothing but hurt you more. I couldn’t keep any food down. I had no energy to even get up off the couch – who was I thinking I was going to get up and burn energy I didn’t have??

It’s so hard to remind myself of this sometimes. I don’t want to take breaks. I have plans and goals and don’t have time to be sick, dang it! But maybe this was my body’s way of MAKING me take a break. If I wasn’t going to do it willingly, it was going to go to extreme measures.

It’s something we all have to keep in mind as well. A lot of us feel like we have to be go, go, going all the time. Allow your body to rest. Allow it to recover. Even one day a week for a rest day is good for you. I make it a goal of mine to do just that. And I’d be lying if I sometimes didn’t feel guilty for even allowing myself that one day! BUT NO MORE!! I am not going to make myself feel bad for giving my body what it needs.

And I’m going to try really, really hard not to go balls to the wall with my work outs once I finally feel good enough to get back to it. It’s like I think I can make up for lost time that way, but that’s not how it works. Maybe if I just keep repeating that enough times, it’ll stick in my brain. A girl can hope! 🙂

Anyway, I’m slowly, but surely getting back to normal, and I’m hoping next week I can get back to my usual routine. I’ll miss being around the pups all day long, but I’m sure they could use a break from keeping an eye on me too. 🙂

Until next time! 🙂

Megan Reiffenberger