Illness vs fitness - who should win?

Over the last few weeks I've been feeling a bit run down and over this week (after lots of late nights and being stuck in the snow) I found myself feeling unwell.

Now I am usually - I'm ashamed to say - a bit like men are regularly accused of when ill. I feel sorry for myself to the extreme and I am a stroppy and sulky patient.

However, when I'm trying to lose weight and get in shape I instead face a battle between whether to relax and mope vs wanting to lose weight and progress with my fitness plan.

So what should you do when you're feeling ill, you've got a cold, you're all runny nosed and funny headed. Should we head to that gym and carry on exercising, or is this bad for us and we should rest up and get better first?

If you're like me you'll find you'll receive a mixture of responses.

Over the last week or so I've been given a host of advice:

I'm under the weather because I've been putting my body under stress from dieting and exercising
I should rest up and let my body get better
The reason my cold is lingering so long is because at times I've tried to do exercise
You should always work through it and carry on with your exercising
Perhaps I've been pushing it too hard and should ease off a bit on the exercise

And the guidance goes on and on. So who's right?

I thought seeing as I've been in a cold-ridden confused state, others may well have been the same and might benefit from me giving a definite answer.

So I've done a bit of research online and the general consensus seems to be this...

...exercising when you have just a common cold is fine!

BUT you need to learn to trust your body, obviously if you ache all over and are finding it hard to breathe then strenuous exercise is not a great idea. When you do decide to exercise, tone it down a bit. Pick something a bit less hardcore.

If you've got a high temperature don't exercise because then it can be bad for you.

I've found some useful info across the following sites:
http://goo.gl/K1A2X
http://goo.gl/HpyXO
http://goo.gl/cjsVA

Feeling unwell and wanting to keep on that fitness track? Then follow the rules:

Are symptoms above the neck?
Is there no high temperature?
Are there no body aches?

If you can answer yes then feel free to get exercising, BUT at a reduced pace. Maybe instead of a hill run go for a brisk walk. Or shorten your usual session time.

This week I've completed two sessions of my hardcore 20 minute workout DVD (but on level 1 only), a 45 minute gym session (less time than I'd normally do) and a 1hr 10 gym session (long workout but I slowed down each time it felt my body was finding it tough). I have also stuck to my points allowance.

So my weigh in is tomorrow, I shall let you know the results and hopefully the experts are right, I will keep in shape and my cold will shift. Until tomorrow morning's weigh in...

Father's Day & Flu

Well today is Father’s Day and as we already know my Dad is not here this year – he’s off in Canada enjoying himself. I’ve already sent him a text and sent an update email on what’s going on over here with me. But I also thought this morning when I woke up of my friends who unfortunately do not have their fathers here anymore and I’m sad to say I know quite a lot of people who are young and without their Dad. So just a quick thought today out to them and any others who have lost their Dad xx

On another note as my Dad wasn’t here I was due to go to the in-laws today for some food and family fun, however so far I am still in my little flat dressed in my jogging bottoms and makeup-less and my boyfriend is sat joining me. The reason why? Man flu.

We both got absolutely drenched recently when we went to the Isle Of Wight festival – you know the one that everyone always says has lovely weather and in fact on occasion when they’ve been there has been almost too hot? No, not when we were there. We had sunny spells don’t get me wrong, but then came Sunday – the day of rain, a whole day and night of rain and super strong wind to be exact, it just did not stop. This in turn resulted in an absolute mudbath within the campsite, the fields which played home to the various stages, stalls and bars and the ‘car park’ (cut to memories of me trying to push the car wearing clean flipflops in thick mud…)

Due to the rain, mud and my new wellies letting in water (when will I learn not to keep buying ‘bargain’ clothes/footwear etc) we both went to sleep in a cold tent absolutely soaked and shivering. Now welcome to the result – we’re both ill, I have a sore throat, tickly cough and a mushy head and my man, well…he is dying, absolutely dying. Of course he is – he’s a man…

All credit to him, he actually is pretty ill if I’m honest, he’s got an awfully high temperature, he can just about talk and he’s full of aches and has completely lost his appetite. I also know he’s pretty ill as he adores his niece and nephew and is currently giving up the opportunity of seeing them to stay at home and get better.

I’ll admit I am not a typical girl in that sense and can myself be accused of being struck down with ‘man flu’ on many occasion. When I get poorly I completely feel sorry for myself and it’s all I can focus on and I use it as a great excuse to have tons of chocolate ice cream (for my sore throat of course!) But this time round I’m trying to ignore the fact I’m ill as I have a job interview Tuesday which I HAVE to be normal for and I have interview prep and job hunting to do. Therefore I have to just get on with it and deal with being unwell.

So why is it guys seem to develop this uber awful version of whatever illness they get? What makes things so much harder for them? Should us girlies be more sympathetic to their woes?

Well if you want to help your man in his hour of need, check out this site I found it very entertaining, sure to generate a few giggles, even if it doesn’t miraculously cure his dangerous disease!

However, perhaps I need to step back and consider he genuinely is ill and in fact does suffer more than me? According to some research last year there is indeed evidence stating that men put fun and ‘adventure’ above their health and so are more prone to get sick.

For now I’m going to grab the Ben & Jerry’s out the fridge and ease my throat, whilst enjoying the sounds of huffing and puffing coming from next to me as my boyfriend tries to deal with his sickness and make sure I’m fully aware he’s still ill…