I hesitate to post about being sick on this blog. I mean, if I'm so into health and fitness, I shouldn't be getting sick, right? Maybe, but as I reflect on the whole experience, it's been quite interesting. Even though I did get sick (I caught it from my husband...darn him!), I can truly see how my dedication to exercise and clean eating over the last few months has drastically improved my body's ability to fight off this bug.
First, let me talk about my stress level. The people who know me best, like my mom and husband, know that I'm prone to be a stress ball. I always have been. I think anxiety runs in my family. So as I anticipated attending Placement Exchange last week (essentially a huge job fair where thousands of student affairs practitioners interview for jobs), I anticipated 5 days of never-ending stress. Interview after interview with departments and schools where I really wanted to put my best foot forward. No one could blame me for feeling stressed out, right? About two days into the experience, as I was in the waiting room for my fifth or sixth interview, I suddenly realized, I'm not stressed out. I didn't have one iota of stress in my body. I was just doin' my thang! It really was an amazing feeling because I know myself, and I know how this kind of situation would normally turn my brain into nothing more than a vat of cortisol stew. (Cortisol is the stress hormone, by the way.) I know without a doubt that my commitment to clean eating and exercise over the past several months made that situation possible, made it possible for me to participate in such a stressful process without feeling any nervousness or stress whatsoever. One of my new favorite books, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain by Dr. John Ratey, explains why this makes sense. Essentially, exercise itself creates stress on the body, stress in the literal sense. When you exercise regularly, your body learns to interpret those stressful feelings differently...it learns to interpret it as "everything is okay" rather than "freak out time!!!" Although I did have some butterflies in my tummy and I'm sure my body temperature was slightly elevated as I sat in the waiting room for each interview, my body did not interpret that as stress like it normally would. My brain said, "Hey, no big deal! I'm used to this!"
I'm certain that I'm not describing this nearly as convincingly as Dr. Ratey does in his book. It's quite a fascinating and easy read, so I would suggest it if you're into fitness, science, or psychology at all.
Now on to my current illness. I'm sure the reason my immune system was a little under the weather had much to do with being surrounded my thousands of strangers for 5 days in a big city (Chicago), staying in two different hotels, and eating out for almost every meal. I also didn't get much exercise other than constant walking. (On a random note, my BodyBugg registered my highest calorie burn EVER on the day that I had 7 interviews. I didn't even workout that day, but the constant walking around in high heels from 9am to 7pm burned more calories than the day I took the 7-hour Turbo Kick training class!) All that combined made it easy for me to catch my husband's cold when I returned home. However, the same situation is playing out as when I realized I wasn't stressed last week. Although my throat was sore for a day, and today I'm sneezing all over the place, I've progressed through the process of sickness incredibly rapidly compared to normal. The last time I was sick like this, it took me 7-8 days to get well. This time it's only been 3, and I'm almost healed! Most importantly, I don't feel sick in my brain. That may not make any sense, but normally when I'm ill, I feel a sense of heaviness and exhaustion in my brain. But now, it's almost like my little brain is peering down on the rest of my body saying, "All right, come on all ready...I'm just hanging out waiting for you to sort things out!" I can almost feel my body repairing itself.
That brings me to the whole point of this rambling post. (And by the way, I am sick, so if none of this makes sense, I apologize.) The real message I want to communicate is this incredible ability I've gained to be able to listen to my body. I'm more in tune with my body and what it needs than I ever have been. Right now, even though I don't feel that bad, I just know that what I need is rest and lots of liquids. Sure, any one who's ever been sick can tell you that, but it's just an uncanny sense of feeling that's what my body needs. In general, I've learned to interpret when my body needs carbs, fats, and/or protein. I can tell exactly when I'm truly hungry and what my body needs for me to eat at that time. I can feel when there are certain times that my body really needs to just rest more than it needs for me to exercise. I can also feel when exercise is exactly what I need, even though I feel sluggish and it's the last thing I want to do. (And once I've done it, I feel like a million bucks!) When I first got into this whole fitness thing, I read about how I would learn to "listen to my body," but I couldn't really imagine what that would be like. Now, just a few months later, I find that it's true, although explaining it is almost impossible. It's like learning to understand an entirely new language.
All I really want to say is how excited I am to be able to see a noticeable difference in my life due to the choices I've been making with my food and physical activity. I feel so in tune with my body, and in turn, I feel even more in tune with the Creator of my body. It's a wonderful feeling.
