Mommy Fitness: Sick! Sick! Sick!!!

February 21, 2013

At church on Sunday I started feeling warm. My body felt achy and my head felt heavy. We had a full day planned with business shopping and preparing the care home for furniture arriving on Monday morning. I’m usually a sport when it comes to ‘getting things done’ – regardless of how I’m physically feeling, but I needed to lie down and place blankets over my shivery, achy body.

My body temperature was 101.5.

Leaving church. Last moment looking cute for 4 days.

I was able to fall asleep, only to wake up feeling like everything touching my skin was burning my body! I removed my socks, my pants and my sweatshirt! I felt so hot, achy and fatigued. My husband followed my request to take the boys to the park, while leaving the sleeping baby with me. I rested nearly the entire day (except for an hour when I went downstairs to clean up!)

On Monday I still felt sick but thought I was just experiencing a “24-hour-flu” (even though I received the Flu shot two months ago) I knew I was still fatigued and a bit achy so I continued my errands and decided to perform just cardio and focus on stretching (since my lower back was killing me). That evening I also went to get a massage because I thought my body was aching because of high box jumps I performed on Friday. My therapist knew immediately that I still hadn’t overcome my illness – it especially showed in my eyes.

That night I took a really, long hot shower and tried to focus on sleep.

While I tried to rest as long as possible on Tuesday, I got up to get all the boys ready to drop Christian to preschool. It proved to be such an exhausting task. When I imagined taking all three of them out of the car just to sign Christian in (then having to repeat the process 3hrs later) I decided to keep him home for the day because I was too sick to function. The boys had all their shoes on and we were ABOUT to exit the garage door when I decided I couldn’t do this.

While I was able to take a bit of rest that morning, eventually I had to run errands for my care homes. Its grocery day, after all, and I can’t allow my residents to starve! My brother, thankfully, came with me, and did most of the work while I tried to manage the kids in the car. It was a rainy, awful day to be out – but I had to complete my tasks. This is one of the downsides of owning a business. I still had to answer phone calls, send faxes, emails, pick up medications, do grocery and complete payroll. I didn’t work out on Tuesday because I knew I needed to rest. My symptoms also progressed to my nostrils – making it hard for me to breathe. Not only was eating unfulfilling because I lacked smell, but it was very difficult because I couldn’t breathe when I chewed! I had to chomp quickly and then grasp for air in-between bites.

That evening after the boys went to bed, I went back out to grab a Neti-pot, Kleenex (which I already ran out of and it’s Wed) and Vitamin C. Today I took a teaspoon of honey with cinnamon and continued to take my Dayquil and Nasal Spray.

I am taking all advice to help combat this illness. I hate feeling sick. I have such a structured day and I’m beginning to feel helpless. There are no sick days when you have kids or own a business. While my fitness means a lot to me, this sickness has laid me up longer than I would like. I feel bad for missing my workouts but I can’t imagine running while snot is dripping all over my treadmill! LOL

I am so desperate for solutions that I even resorted to cooking a full chicken! Anyone who knows me knows I don’t eat anything outside of chicken breast or grounded turkey/beef. I don’t like anything on the bone. My best friend, Borina, suggested I make chicken soup from scratch so on my way home from running errands this morning I stopped by the grocery store and bought a full chicken for the first time. I even had to ask the meat guy where it was, haha!


When I got home, David and I switched kid duties, so I had to remove the skin and cut the chicken into pieces and place it in the pot. I don’t want to say I was disgusted…because that’s not an accurate description, I was more surprised and found the process ‘uncomfortably interesting.’ As I started breaking the chicken apart I started seeing organs! Were these kidneys? OMG! Is that what I think it is? I can’t break this? Can I? I feel like I’m in biology class?

These were all thoughts streaming through my head!

I kept washing my hands with soap every 3 minutes because I wasn’t used to touching ‘slimy’ things. I was reminded why I only eat chicken breast. (The real story  behind my distaste for bones goes back to when I was 10 and I ate a chicken leg. I saw a vein and was totally disgusted and never touched bones again…until today)

Anyways – I boiled the chicken with onion, then carrots, tomatoes and celery. I let it boil then simmer for about six hours. When my husband arrived home I served some spinach fettuccini with it and it was a hit!

However! I still have my cold…or whatever it is! It’s Thursday tomorrow and I feel like I wasted my week away. I’m praying for a better night’s sleep since my mouth and lips get unbearably dry during the night (because I can only breathe through my mouth). I definitely feel like a whale with how much I drink water and seem to retain everything I consume. My nose feels irritated, my tummy feels soft, my eyes feel tired and I’m going to shower then sleep soon after I finish this post.

Real Talk

So – what’s my lesson in all this?

–          I definitely think I need to focus on quality sleep. One of the children always wakes up during the night and disturbs my sleep. I don’t sleep well and with my task-filled days, I really need to start taking care of myself if I want to keep my immunity high.

–          Start taking multivitamins. I’m horrible at taking supplements and I know I don’t consume enough of the right foods to keep me healthy.

–          Rest more. I live life 100 miles a minute – which makes me collapse eventually…it happens a few times a year and I’m sick of it!

–          Don’t buy a whole chicken again. If I do, let my husband deal with it.

With that said. Goodnight!

1 Comment

  • Reply Jennifer @ Saludiem.com February 21, 2013 at 5:50 am

    I live by my Ageless Essentials from Isagenix. I love them, and they come in morning and night time packets… so easy! I just take one after I brush my teeth each time. Feel better!

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