My Body Didn't Get the Memo

 



My Body Didn’t Get the Memo

 

March proved to be a tough month for me. It actually started at the end of February. I was having some bad stomach pain that was the result of something that I was eating. Over the next several weeks, I saw a couple of doctors without coming to any conclusions. What really frustrated me is the impact on my workout routines and the frustration building up enough to impact other areas of my life. This blog also suffered, hence, the reason this is the first time in over a month I have posted. I had a level of feeling frozen or paralyzed from getting anything done. Then, at the end of March I contracted the B strain of the Flu. I ended up in the emergency room due to an extremely high temperature. While in the hospital they did chest x-rays and a stomach ultrasound. The doctor was able to figure out that I have GERD, which is what caused all my stomach issues. The number one thing I have to give up is caffeine. Now my stomach has been much better, and I am recovered from the flu. 

 

Not sure that my body realizes I have a plan and goals to meet. This last month I felt like my body was failing me. I have been working so hard on my fitness goals and the one thing that I would think would respond to the daily exercise and mostly good eating would be my body. It seems it did not get the memo. I felt like I had given up on myself. I know there were times I could get to the gym, and I just chose not to. I allowed my body to dictate my choice. There are times when we need to listen to our body. For the most part, I feel like I did that. But there were still times I could have pushed myself a bit to do something. Even going for a walk would have been good. It can be so easy to allow our circumstance to dictate our success or lack of. 

 

I finally stepped back into the gym a week ago, and man did it feel so good. Don’t get me wrong, it was a grind. While I was sick I lost 9 lbs, which is not a diet I recommend using. Being at the gym felt great, even if I felt weaker and the weights felt like twice the weight. What really felt great was the community that I had built at the gym. I walked in the door and multiple people asked how I was doing and where I had been. That in and of itself was so motivating. Nothing like a little community to lift your spirits. Prior to getting the flu, I stayed with my closest friend and his wife. I consider them to be family.  My friend's wife is on her own fitness journey. We had a great conversation about all the things she has had to do to get results. Not just diet or exercise, but she also had some challenges hormonally that she was not aware were impacting her progress. I loved seeing her committed to her goal. She is a busy mom, and has committed fully to her fitness goals. One night it was almost 8pm and she had just finished putting her daughter to bed. She came out and immediately went in to get her Peloton workout in. I was so motivated by her dedication to be healthy. 

 

It has felt great to be back in the gym again and on that grind. Waking up at 4 am was not easy and it took about a week for me to reset. This week I am starting the second phase of 75 Hard. I am looking forward to blogging my progress and what my routine is like. But for now, make sure that when things are tough your body gets the memo. If you need rest, take it. If you need to get off your tush and get to work, get after it. Just make sure you get your body aligned with your mind. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What Does Tough Really Mean?

Image
  I t is 6:30 on Sunday night. I grab the needle and vial of Methotrexate. The medicine is used to block an enzyme that is needed for cells to live. In many ways it shuts down the immune system, but it helps with pain relief. I inject it into my wife's arm as part of a weekly routine. We like to joke that on a weekly basis my wife does Meth. This injection is in addition to a Remicade infusion she gets every six weeks. She has what an invisible chronic sickness called  Ankylosing Spondylitis.The illness is a type of arthritis that causes inflammation in the joint and ligaments of the spine. Over time it can cause a person's bones and joints to actually fuse together. She has been dealing with this since she was a teenager. The thing is that it causes constant pain. In her own words, “it feels like someone is jamming a sword up the middle of my spine”. It is a pain that she has ENDURED for over 25 years.  Over the last year, I have spent a lot of time reading books themed ...
Read more

The Mirror

Image
The Mirror 15 years ago I was in a small men's group at my church. We were all talking about the challenges we were facing as men from the previous week. I don’t remember what I was speaking about other than it was revolving around shame and low self-esteem. I do remember one of the older men in the group saying something to me that has stuck with me to this day. He said to me, “you need to get to a point where you can stand in front of the mirror naked and look at yourself, but not just look at yourself. Look at yourself in the eyes. When you can do that, then you will know you are ok with being who you are.”  A couple of days later I tried, and I could not do it. I did not like the man I was, how I looked, and how I was living. I could look into my own eyes and know that every situation I was in was because of my choices in life. That is the power of the mirror. When I looked directly into the mirror, I could not hide from anything.  People spend all kinds of time in front o...
Read more

Brotherly Love

Image
  Right around 4:30 am every morning I get the bird whistle alert of a text message. It has become one of my favorite things in the mornings. Without fail, it is my big brother. He is checking in or to see if I have made it to the gym yet. We exchange a handful of texts that vary about our workouts, how sore we are, or what we did the day before. Some weeks it is to encourage one another to just keep going when we feel unmotivated. That was my role last week. Rob was not feeling it and I was able to check in and let him know to keep pushing. We did not make an accountability agreement; it has just become that for us. I was excited to see his text this morning that said he had totaled fifty miles of running last week. He indeed pushed himself for the week.  Our relationship was not always like this. In fact, it was rather tumultuous after our dad died. It was not from a state of hatred or anger, but because of pain. Death of a parent will do that to you, as I am sure some readi...
Read more