how do you keep on track when sick?

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northernbeaver
northernbeaver Posts: 29
in Motivation and Support
My wife and I joined MFP in mid January and have been enjoying some really good progress so far. My wife has been doing the monthly challenges posted in a group, and we have been watching our calories and becoming generally more active people. we both woke up this morning with what feels like the start of a cold. a general run down feeling mixed with a very sore throat which makes breathing a challenge. in the past when we have done diets/exercise plans, one of us always ends up getting sick. (we live in Ontario Canada after all where we can have all 4 seasons in one day) and when we get sick, our motivation and our ability to keep working out goes right out the window, we tend to turn to comfort foods and by the time we feel better we have erased all the progress we have had. does anyone have any tips or advice on how to stay on course while sick? as well any advice on how to re-motivate once your feeling better would be great too. thanks.

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  • marbit
    marbit Posts: 108
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    Everyone's body is different, but for me if I am sick, I just stop. Some people have rules like, if its in the head work out, in the chest take time off, but really, I think when your body is sick its telling you something. Its saying "Dude, you keep this **** up, and I am going to hurt you". Since I know I wont get to the gym, I keep to calorie limits without exercise calories thrown in. Usually I eat about 1600 or so a day, with 200 of those being me eating back exercise calories. For those days that I am not well, I just eat 1450 or so, and let it go. I want to be a healthy, happy, fit person, and part of that is taking care of myself when I'm unwell. Also, you get better faster if you take it easy!
  • northernbeaver
    northernbeaver Posts: 29
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    do you have any food you tend to eat to try to keep your calories down while your sick?
  • marbit
    marbit Posts: 108
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    Actually yes, I make a lentil soup. Its super filling, really really good for you, and is very high in fiber. I usually double the recipe below, which serves 7, and has 199 calories per serving (each serving is about a cup and a quarter). The good thing is, you can make this as you feel an illness coming on, and then basically put it in individual serving cups and freeze it. That way when you are in the throes of the illness you just need to microwave for 5 minutes, and you are good. Also, the taste is strong enough that if you have ground flax you can put about a tablespoon in each serving and voila, extra fiber!

    Mulligatawny Soup

    1 cup orange daal (orange round lentils)
    5 cups of chicken broth
    ½ tsp tumeric (haldi)
    1 medium potato peeled and cut into quarters
    10 cloves of garlic
    1 ¼ in cub of ginger peeled
    1 ¼ tsp salt
    pepper
    4 tbsp oil
    1 ½ tsp ground cumin seed (make sure they are ground, not whole!!)
    1 ½ tsp ground coriander seeds (make sure they are ground, not whole!!)
    ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
    lemon juice

    Combine daal, broth and tumeric in pan. Cook for 30 minutes. Add potato and cook 30 minutes. At this time put garlic and ginger into a food processor or chopper with ½ tbs of water and blend until you have paste. You may need to add more water to get a paste). Once soup base is finished put into a blender and puree. Add salt. Take the soup pot and add oil. Add ginger and garlic paste, cumin, coriander, cumin and cayenne pepper. Fry and stir constantly till the mixture is browned and separating from the oil. Add soup puree and stir. Add lemon juice 1 tablespoon at a time and taste till desired tartness is achieved. Serve with buttered toast or bread rolls.

    Tip 1: With this recipe it is best to use exact measurements.

    Tip 2: Instead of making the ginger garlic paste you can use a ready-made paste, use about 2 tsps.

    Tip 3: If the soup seems too thick add water slowly till you get the desired thickness, the soup is supposed to be somewhat thick so don’t let it get too watery. Just FYI, the potato is what causes the soup to be thick, so the less potato used the less thick the soup.
  • Punkicoleman
    Punkicoleman Posts: 78 Member
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    Being sick is the pits. I have had two extended illnesses in the past two years and in both instances I got fat and sloppy. It is so sad.

    Despite over 50 years of working at losing/maintaining weight and staying in shape, I have found no solution for dealing effectively with extended illness.

    IMHO, the best thing to do is get better as fast as you can and get yourself back to the gym or out walking, or whatever it is you do for exercise ASAP.

    These 15 pounds I have just lost were gained during a long bout of pneumonia followed by a slow recovery. Just makes me furious to lose so much ground so fast.
  • commonly_unique
    commonly_unique Posts: 27
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    Getting sick sucks!

    I just stop tracking. I still try to keep the calories low, but it takes that extra stress off when I stop tracking and just focus on getting myself better. I usually end up losing weight anyway, because I'm too miserable to eat mush anyway. It's all about the orange juice though!

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