Recently, we both were sick in the same week, and we are talking in bed with a fever not moving sick. Being sick is very hard for us because we are such active people and it drives us nuts to be off our training schedule. Not to mention when you check your steps to see you have had a grand total of 700 steps for the day. Yep that will really help out your ranking among friends! But if you really think about it getting sick might just be a good thing and it might be our bodies way of telling you a few things.
While being sick is an inconvenience of the largest kind, it's also your bodies way of telling you to slow down and take some time for yourself. It is so easy to get into a training schedule, or a routine of working out; then forget to give yourself those rest days. Tegan is the worst at this! You get in a groove and you're feeling good, starting to see those numbers on the scale come down, so it's only natural to start to push your body. To a degree you do need to push your body but if you push too hard or too fast, your body will push back. Hence getting sick.
When you are actually sick the best thing you can do is get as much rest as you can. We understand that this is easier said than done, things still have to be accomplished, kids still have to be taken care of. However important those things are, we recommend to try and stay down as much as possible. These automatically become rest days, allow your body to recover and push those fluids. Both of us have had very stern talking tos from our doctors about going back to training too soon. Take at least two days after being sick to get back into things. The longer you are sick the more days you will need to recover. When you do get back into it don't just jump right back into things. You will need to work back into it slowly. Take the first day to just walk and get your steps in or however you count done, don't do much more than that. If you are training for a race, the next day you can start back with a SHORT and SLOW run! If you get back into it too fast you risk making yourself sick again.
Prevention becomes very important when you are training, while this won't keep you from getting sick it might help you not get as sick. When you are training you are essentially breaking down and building your body up over and over again. This can cause your immune system to not always be at it's best so anything you can do to aid will be helpful. Both of us take a multivitamin everyday. This seems like such a simple thing, seriously our moms had us do it when we were younger, but let's be honest this is something as an adult most of us aren't very good at doing. Women, no matter what your age a prenatal vitamin is one of the best you can take because these usually are the most well rounded vitamins, espically if it has DHA, folic acid and iron in it, they also tend to be gentler on your stomach. Tegan's doctor even recommended she take one even though she isn't pregnant and not planning on getting pregnant anytime soon.
One of our favorite tricks we have learned is to drink Emergen-C, or something similar, after our work outs. We can not begin to tell you how useful this product can be. Not only do you get a great dose of Vitamin C, helping your body to absorb the nutrients you are taking in better, but it also helps to put electrolytes back in your system. Many people will reach for a Gatorade, or PowerAid to help replenish themselves after a work out, while these things are great they also tend to be really high in sugars and carbs. For those of us who aren't Michael Phelps or an elite level athlete those sugars and carbs can actually do more damage than good.
Stay healthy, but if you do sick take a few rest days and get caught up on all those shows in your Netflix account you've been meaning to watch!
Remember we aren't medical professionals, so always check in with your doctors for further advice. Take care of yourselves, you got this!
The Fitster Sisters
The Fitster Sisters
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