I’m sick, right?
(P.S. Thank you all for the wonderful suggestions on clearing my sinuses! Not only did you guys come up with some great tips – Oil of Oregano seems to be helping but boy howdy the bread-stick burps are hard to get used to – but you made me laugh myself into a coughing fit like a million times. Looking at you Jenny S. and your suggestion to “sink yourself as deep down in a pool as you can go and blow your nose. The added water pressure will push out all that congested stuff. Then swim away as quick as possible so you’re not to blame for the boggie in the pool.” Pretty sure she meant boogie. Either way. I’m dying.)
I’ve been sick basically since Monday. So what was I doing at the gym Wednesday morning? Puking. Naturally.
Let me back up: I have these assignments for the different venues I write for (day job, bills, all that) and one of them sent me to try out this superhardcore new workout (more on that in a different post – I don’t want to taint their Google results with stories of vomit and snot). Setting up the time, place and childcare to do this workout has been a massive pain and so when I felt myself getting sick Monday night I figured if I sucked down enough Airborne and made an offering of my fave legwarmers to the god of group fitness, maybe I’d be able to pretend I wasn’t sick long enough to get through an hour of working out.
You can see how this is going to go badly, yes? Well, I couldn’t. After all, I’ve done this before: remember my bootcamp workout I did delirious with a fever of 103? I’m shocked I even remembered enough to write about it and I maybe hallucinated the part about the pull-ups. Clearly my plan was flawless! No way would I be betrayed by my tissue-abraded, red-raw Rudolph nose and feverish eyes! So I downed a bunch of cold medicine and showed up with my game face on.
Lie #1: “I’m so ready for this!” I exclaimed. “This is going to be awesome!”
You know what people do when they know that you’re going to write about them? They try to kill you. No seriously, people (understandably) do their very best to show the workout at its hardest and most intense. But I also think there’s an element of “Let’s see how fit the fitness writer is…” (Answer: Meh. I can guarantee you most fitness pros can waste me.) And so I jumped and lunged and push-up’ed and whatever’d – I seriously got so light-headed I barely even remember what we did – as I stared at the clock, willing it to go faster.
Normally I live for this kind of thing! I love getting my butt handed to me! I love trying new stuff! (And for the record, the workout was really good. I think it would have been fun had I not been, you know, filled with phlegm. And shame.) But that day I was in over my head. I made it all the way until 5 minutes before the end of class. FIVE MINUTES. I almost toughed it out. But as we knelt down for one last round of push-ups, I felt it coming up. And by “it” I mean barf and by “up” I mean most definitely out.
Lie #2: I grabbed my phone that was nearby and faked a phone call, making that I-must-take-this-call-that-is-so-important-it’s-worth-interrupting-a-class-for face, as I jetted out the door. (Why couldn’t I have just told them I was sick? Why was I so afraid of backing off? Why was I so afraid to look like I couldn’t do it? Stupid pride.) Sliding down the wall, my plan was to just sit until the nausea passed and then go back in. Nope. My body was determined to publicly humiliate me for being a moron. I could feel the puke right behind my lips. I sprinted to the locker room, found the first garbage can I could and draped myself inelegantly over the top of it.
As I heaved into it, I heard a voice behind me, “Well, that doesn’t look good.”
Another woman added, “Way to go! That’s some hardcore sh*t!” (Oh geez… was she complimenting me on this? There’s a post for another day.)
Done turning myself inside out, I collapsed back on the bench with my arms over my eyes, trying hard to not give an encore. I was still so nauseous I couldn’t even answer them. Dumbdumbdumbdumbdumb my brain chanted in rhythm to my heart beating rabbit-fast.
“Are you okay?” the first woman asked.
Lie #3: “I’m fine, I’m just pregnant,” I answered. Pregnant?! That is all my brain could come up with? How about a simple “YES”?? Let me be totally clear: I am in no way, shape or form preggo. I am a liar.
“Ohhh… Um, congratulations?”
I stumbled out before I could dig myself a hole any deeper and went back to the class where thankfully they were just doing cool down stretches. You’d think I would have made my exit then but no, I still had to do the interview portion and look appropriately interested and excited when all I wanted to do was lie down and die. (Ooh did you see my appropriate use of “lie” instead of “lay”? There was an awesome discussion in the comments of my post where I used the wrong grammar and I’m super proud to now say that I know the difference! Look at me learning stuff! I love you guys. Except… doesn’t “lay down and die” just kinda sound better?)
Eventually I made it home where I spent the rest of the day in bed wishing I could die. And that was when my sickness went from irritating head cold to debilitating I-can’t-stand-without-nearly-fainting flu. I’ve spent the better part of two days cocooned in my bed watching reruns of LA Ink (blame my sister!) – you know, except for all the mom stuff I still have to do like drive my kids to school and get them food and break up fights and why won’t you stoooop asking me for things can’t you see Mommy’s siiiiick?? Tonight I’m finally starting to feel human again albeit with a horribly painful cough (oh hai, elephant on my chest!). Although I still have my deep, raspy, phone-sex-operator voice so that’s fun. Seriously I wish I could keep my sick voice all the time! It’s so much radder than my normal voice. Then I could sing tenor like I’ve always wanted.
I’m pretty sure this whole mess could have been avoided by just admitting my human weakness (hello, everyone gets sick!) and rescheduling the workout. Or even just ditching out on the workout when I started to feel bad. I’m sure they would have understood – indeed they probably would have preferred me to do it when I was in possession of all my faculties and not spreading noxious germs around their gym. But now instead of having a head cold for a few days, I’ve given myself… I don’t know what for I don’t know how long. Which is what I mean when I say I got busted. I don’t think the gym ever realized I was sick and I doubt I’ll ever see the ladies to whom I lied about being pregnant to. But I’m definitely busted in my own mind. While I thought lying would make my life easier, it actually made it much worse.
A note about my exercise addiction: Right about the 3rd paragraph, those of you who’ve been with me a long time probably started wondering if my compulsive exercise habit was back in black. While I don’t always have the best insight into myself, I really don’t think that’s what this was. I worked out Monday morning (when I felt totally fine), skipped Tuesday and Wednesday morning with my T25 girls, did the barf workout later on Wednesday, skipped today (Thursday) and will be skipping tomorrow morning as well. While I’ll admit I’m a little anxious about missing so many workouts, I’m making a conscious effort to rest. I even told my T25 girls that they could set up a memorial of dirty socks in my spot, in my honor. Which… they have plenty of since T25 goes better for me in bare feet and I keep leaving my socks in their basements. I’m gross. Anyhow, my point is I think this instance was really more about me being stubborn and thinking I could just grit down and bulldog my way through it so I wouldn’t have to go through the inconvenience of rescheduling and pushing back deadlines. That and my pride. Which I left in a pile of vomit in the locker room.
Have any of you ever tried to tough something out when you were sick? Anyone ever get caught in a lie like this? Does anyone else like their “sick voice” better than their real one??
PPS. For some reason my RSS feed glitched and my post Just Because You Can Do Better Doesn’t Mean You Didn’t Do Well didn’t get sent out. I don’t know how to fix that so I’m just plugging it here. ‘Cause I really liked that one:)
1. At least Feedly handled the “Just Because” post, or else there’s a demon in my computer that digs up your posts and sticks them into my Feedly. 🙂
2. I have a little sticky on the wall next to my desk – an elaborate lie/lay/lain chart, because for goodness’ sake, I can’t remember the details.
3. I suspect that you didn’t really make whatever you had that much worse by doing the workout. Maybe slightly – but the bug you had is the bug you got, and while you might have been able to avoid the puking, you probably would’ve still been sick in bed for two days. Sorry? 🙁
4. Good thing I didn’t offer any sinus-clearing tips – that pool thing would’ve been hard to beat…
yes I am familiar with pushing through my boundaries. I have chronic fatigue disorder, but also managed to exercise myself to quite a healthy life some while ago. Therefore (with the help of a mentor figure) I decided I was healthy enough to go to gollege and study Journalism. You know, a little bit of willpower, I could overcome anything. It even went rather well for the first half year, then a little less and eventually I had burned myself completely out. It took me five years since then to get myself to the same level of health (somewhat) since then.
the thought that I could willpower myself through anything was definitely untrue and I have paid the price for that thought.
This might be the biggest lesson in my life, going through my boundaries will result in disaster.
We DO live in a society however where being “weak”, no matter how human it may be, is barely tolerated, I don’t know how it is in America but here in the Netherlands you can get a talking to at work when you are ill to often. So it’s no wonder that we tend to ignore that kind of thing and do our jobs anyway.
I’m sorry you’re not feeling well, I hope you’ll feel better soon.
I find it to be the same in the states as the Netherlands, Paula. Especially out here in the west. You are suppose to “Bite the bullet” and get through it. If you curl up in bed with no significant outward signs of sickness, then by golly, you are a “wimp”.
I’m a nurse t a hospital and we are told not to come to work ill if the illness is contagious, but if the census is high and the staffing is low, you better come and wear a mask. If not, then you need a doctor’s note.
Get feeling better Charlotte. Sounds like bronchitis to me, :).
I have definitely ‘pushed through’ an exercise while sick and made myself sick-er! An episode of being about a month pregnant and pushing through P90X Chest and Back whilst showing off…and then feeling nauseous and awful the rest of the day come to mind. I had this mentality in my early twenties that to be fit you had to do the most extreme, painful workouts you can find. I really don’t believe that anymore. It is much healthier to do workouts that are challenging, but not brutal- and not everyday. Or you will end up will burnt out adrenals and injuries. Not that I know this personally 😉
First – I’m really sorry that you have been so sick (hopefully by today you are feeling better!).
But, this cracked me up!! Mostly because I could see myself doing the same thing. The funniest part was when you told the lady that you were pregnant – I wouldn’t have been able to think quick enough to come up with that!!!
About 8 years ago it was December, I was out of sick days, and I had an out-of-town vacation planned for the holidays that was going to eat all the rest of my days off for the year. I pushed myself and pushed myself to work. I even pushed myself at home, getting up at 5am to clean the bathroom before dragging myself to the office. Finally I “succumbed” to working from home, which quickly turned into all-day naps interrupted by phone meetings and occasionally responding to an e-mail.
Five rounds of antibiotics (including the one in clinical trials that finally worked), I recovered from my pneumonia and sinus infections (but it took much longer to recover from the antibiotics)! Never, never again.
I’ve pretty much stuck to it, and I’m pleased to report that there have been NO work casualties (except my guilt/pride – which *still* bugs me and I *still* have to tell it to shut up) from my practicing self-care when ill. (They are probably much happier not to have my sorry, coughing self there anyway.)
Ah, you told them you’re pregnant! It’s like a sitcom 🙂
I hope you’re truly on the mend now!
I was raised to believe that I’m not *really* sick unless I have a high fever and/or am vomiting (or exploding from the other end). Otherwise, suck it up, power through, and get it done. As a result, I also have trouble having empathy for people that want to “rest” all day because they have a cough and “body aches” (what even are those? I’ve never experienced them and feel pretty sure it’s dehydration), e.g. my dear husband, but that’s another story 🙂
So I’ve definitely pushed myself through some workouts when I wanted to just be falling in and out of consciousness on my sofa. I did read somewhere though that for certain types of illness (colds, maybe?), light workouts can speed recovery.
The worst I probably did was insisting on running 5mi the day after a miscarriage. I wanted the “escape” of running, but I’m pretty sure that I prolonged the awful crampy-ness and bleeding by doing so.
Even science says strenuous exercise depresses the immune system. I imagine it can only go more pear-shaped if you’re already ill. Also, for me, cold meds make me throw up, or at least feel like it. I almost ralphed at the Congden Mansion in Duluth, MN once. You know, the place they don’t even let you take photos lest the flash of cameras fade the textiles, or whatever. That was due to some daytime cold medicine I needed to get through a family trip from h. e. double hockey sticks. I don’t take it anymore. I think it ramps me up so much that my body overreacts by puking. Super fun. I also can’t handle caffeine or alcohol very well at all…(I’m highly sensitive. OK?) Hope you are feeling better, and way to think on your feet about morning sickness! I chuckled pretty good at that one, you little liar you… : )
I’m pretty sure I would have done exactly the same thing you did Charlotte! Earlier this year I started feeling sick during HIIT class but decided that clearly powering through was the best response. I spent the rest of the next 2 days puking. That was the first time I’d thrown up from natural causes (ie: not self-induced or alcohol-fueled) in over 10 years. I won’t be doing that again. I think those of us who have ignored our bodies in the past (over-exercising, eating disorders, etc) don’t always know when to listen. A lot of times I’m not sure if it’s my brain or my body telling me I can’t do that last Tabata or that I should do one more set of push-ups or whatever. It means I push myself way too hard or not hard enough sometimes.
I think I would have done the same thing! Ha!
Oooh, story time. We’re sharing a stomach this week, I suppose. I woke up Saturday with a totally yucky stomach and had the peak of my peak workout weeks planned for this cycle of triathlon training. Well, I just figured I’d tough it out since I didn’t really have an opportunity to reschedule and sometimes I have GI issues during races and figured this couldn’t be worse. Yeah, it was. I made it through 56 miles on a bike trainer (stomach was *ok* but I couldn’t sit in aero, had to sit up the whole time) and through a MISERABLE 10 mile run in the 80-90s and humid heat. I ducked into the house every few miles to use the bathroom and will my stomach to cooperate and stop doing flip flops, and then somehow convinced myself to head back out each time (I took THREE potty breaks in 10 miles). Some major mental toughness training, sure, and I had nothing come out either end that was tragic, but I was sick for 4 days after.
Do not be me. I did not enjoy this last week…
I hope you feel better, sounds like we’re both on the mend.
Gross and sad and hilarious all at the same time. Let’s face it, those of us who love to work out want to work out even when we shouldn’t, like when we’re sick. It’s so hard not to do our favorite thing, not because we’re addicted, but because we miss doing the thing we love!
Fitness classes being super hard when they know you’re writing about them is like driving by a cop, we all want to super obey the laws.
I would have done the exact same thing. In fact, I have. I mean, I don’t write for fitnessy magazines or even review classes, but I’ve made plans with friends to go on hour long bike rides and when the time, even though I felt like utter garbage (weak, dizzy, etc.) I still went. I wish I could say that only happened once, but sadly, I’m not that smart.
I’m also very curious about this new workout AND about T25….hope you are going to post about it soon!
That sounds terrible Charlotte! Just got over a cold myself – and took Oil of Oregano! It indeed works for infections (not sure if it works for viruses), and I think it sped things along a bit.
It’s always tempting to work out when sick – you feel like such a slacker. Hope you are recovering well, great article by the way!
Jay
P.S. Yes I’ve told a “white lie” to save face (I’m trying my best to stop though). The truth is always the best option!
You could say “lay myself down and die.” It doesn’t have the same panache, but it would be grammatically correct.
Great post! I’ve been a loooooong time fan and reader of the Great Fitness Experiment and have finally started my own blog about Beating Exercise Addiction. Thank you Charlotte for the inspiration and letting me put in a plug 🙂 Check it out everyone! http://www.exercise-addiction.com/blog/
Question of the week: What have I given up in life in order to sustain an exercise addiction?
I hope you feel better!!
And while I don’t really consider this an illness, but I remember going to my first ever Zumba class without eating a proper breakfast… My roommate told me not to eat so much or else I’ll get horrible cramps. So I took her advice and are a tiny cereal bar…
Biggest mistake ever!!! While I was already unfit and an hour of nonstop dancing was hard enough, the no breakfast thing really got me and I felt like I was about to faint!! I tried my best to tough it out, but at the 45min mark I felt I was ready to collapse and decided to sit down. Even the instructor knew something was up so she told me to take it easy and have some water.
The end story was that I was ready to get back after a 5 min doze out and survived through without any physical or mental scars 😛 but I’m never doing that again…
Until when I recently tried to do HIIT while with only a smoothie in my tummy and learned that is not enough either… Oh life 🙂
I ran a half-marathon while recovering from Hepatitis A against doctor’s orders! I wouldn’t recommend it.