Tuesday, April 20, 2010

When pollen derailed the fitness train

Things have been going really well lately in my fitness endeavors. I was getting at least one hour of exercise every day, some days more, and I was doing well with my calorie counts and seeing results on the scales. Then all that yard work I've been doing came back to haunt me. I've been very careful because I have icky seasonal allergies. When I work in the yard, I wear a mask and when I come back inside afterward I immediately discard the clothes into the laundry and take a shower. Alas, some of the nasty pollen found my respiratory system anyway. The pollen counts are very high right now, and last Wednesday evening I started to cough a little. By Thursday, I was having asthma symptoms -- coughing, constricted breathing, fatigue, the whole shebang. My asthma very rarely presents symptoms, so I tried to go to the doctor on Friday only to find him out of the office. So I toughed it out through the weekend, but I felt so bad that I've gotten no exercise and haven't been counting calories since last Wednesday. But, hey, maybe coughing actually burns off calories because when I stepped on the scales yesterday morning, I'd still lost two pounds since last Monday.

Now, I won't be surprised if I see a temporary tick up on Tuesday or Wednesday (I'm writing this around 11 p.m. Monday night) when all the non-fitness regimen days catch up to me. But I made it to the doctor yesterday, got some meds and am beginning to feel better. And I got back my voice, which had taken a temporary vacation. I plan to ease back into some exercise today, whatever my lungs can handle, and start tracking my calories again. I'm tantalizingly close to hitting the 15 pounds lost mark.

I could feel bad about the temporary setback, but I don't. I'll deal with any weight gain I might see as a result of the five off days, but I did what I had to do to heal -- rest, drink lots of water, and rest some more.

If any of you are allergy or asthma sufferers, take precautions. The pollen is particularly nasty this year. Good health to all!

4 comments:

Michelle Butler on April 20, 2010 at 9:22 AM said...

Trish,
I'm glad you are starting to feel better. I think you were wise to take a break from the exercise because you were so sick. The pollen is brutal this year. I forgot to take my allergy pill this morning and have one of those lovely pollen induced head aches. Best wishes for the rest of allergy season!

Trish Milburn on April 20, 2010 at 2:17 PM said...

Ugh, hate those headaches, Michelle. Hope you feel better soon.

Unexpectedly, I posted a bit more of of a loss this morning.

Michelle Butler on April 20, 2010 at 2:49 PM said...

Congratulations!!!

I'm expecting to gain tonight. Looking over my tracker for the past week reinforces that thought. I think I'm going to do what I did once before - tell the weigh-in receptionist to just put the sticker in my book if I gained and not say anything. I'll look at it in a few days when it won't bring me so down.

Sally Kilpatrick on April 21, 2010 at 7:26 AM said...

Trish. I feel your pain. Atlanta is covered in the yellow stuff. Oh, and congrats on the progress!

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