I mentioned in a previous article that no weight loss can equal success at times, but little did I know that I would soon be put to the test to see if I lived what I was talking about. It turns out that within one month, I encountered every single one of the items I listed, plus one I didn’t think of originally.
Illness: On February 10th, I shared with you that I took my first sick day in 10 years, but that was just the beginning of many more things to come (some serious, and some pretty hilarious). Even after I sent out that e-mail, my sickness lingered. I eventually ended up going to a doctor to get a prescription to get over it before a trip I had. When people come in to work with me, if they are sick, I send them home. There are times you rest your body and times you push your body. Since I try to take my own advice, this was a time I allowed my body to rest. I’m glad to say that it worked. I healed just in time to hop on a plane to Washington D.C.
Travel: Traveling can be pretty hard on our health and exercise plans. Washington D.C. was blanketed in snow when I got there, and trying to get outside wasn’t exactly easy. I did visit the hotel gym, but as with most hotel gyms, there wasn’t really anything in there. We were there to work, and work we did. We were in meetings from 8 in the morning until 10 at night. So we went to bed as soon as we could and slept as late as possible also. All-in-all I ended up with no exercise and was headed back home in just a couple of days. However, I ran into a problem. I brought my small suitcases for the trip, the ones without wheels, which lead to back pain.
Injury: When I got off the airplane, my back really started to irritate me. And within 2-3 days I couldn’t walk straight. It started in my spine and began moving down into my hip and leg. I’ve had pain a few times in my life, but I’ve never had pain stick with me for so long or affect me so much. I started doing physical therapy and some chiropractic work for it and was beginning to feel a little better, but then I sneezed.
Re-injury: When I sneezed I was on one knee. It caused my body to rotate and pain shot through my lower back on the opposite side. Despite all I had done, I pretty much had to start all over again. I then visited an Osteopath and she straightened me out again. I’m at about 90% right now. But in the midst of all of this going on, we had an unexpected situation occur.
Family Emergency: Last Tuesday night my father-in-law passed away. It was definitely a hard time for everyone. We will definitely miss him, but we know he is in a better place now. A lot of sleepless nights have happened since then, but that can be expected. Many of you have been through this, so there’s no reason for me to go any deeper into this.
I always tell people they can always focus on their health in some way. Since February 10th I’ve gone through more tests than I hope any of you have to go through. As a researcher, I wanted to see how I did after going through everything.
The end result: I lost 6.4 lbs of which 5 lbs was muscle and 1 lb was body fat. (I lost a little water weight too.) My body fat stayed the same despite everything happening. I wasn’t able to exercise for over a month, and was tempted with some pretty bad food, especially while traveling. Now that I’m starting to work out again, my muscle will return, and in about 4 weeks I will be back to where I was.
So how did I do it? I really focused on nutrition. I made sure I adjust my calories down a little bit due to inactivity, tried to include vegetables as much as possible, and focused on not giving in to temptation. I always tell people that nutrition is the most important thing for you to focus on. And after not being allowed to exercise for a month, I’ve definitely proved to myself (and hopefully you) that you don’t have to gain body fat even when things aren’t like you want them to be.
I’m looking forward to a better rest of the year.
Do you have questions about how I did it? Feel free to ask in the comments section below.
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