weight loss

The Challenge: Week #4

Diana James
Week 1: 0.5% 1.5%
Week 2: 1.6% 2.3%
Week 3: 3.8% 2.3%
Week 4: 3.8% 3.5%

Over the course of the week, I gained and lost three pounds, ending up today where I was at the last weigh-in: 204.5. Considering that I’ve been sick with bronchitis since Saturday evening, I’m OK with that result.

I focused my sights this week on Saturday’s Aikido test (which I still need to document), attending class on Monday and Wednesday, and the Basic Seminar on Saturday morning. I was surprised when that didn’t bolster my weight loss, and I gained weight instead. It’s possible my muscles were retaining fluid while they were trying to heal (isn’t that how it works?).

Another thing that may have hampered my weight loss was a lack of meal planning. In weeks past, I’ve had brown rice pre-made for every lunch, just waiting for some ground turkey or canned chicken or tuna and whatever healthy goodness goes with my protein of choice. This week, though, it’s been mainly fruit and ready-to-eat foods like low-sugar yogurt, or a pita with hummus. Still not bad for me, but not as protein-rich and fiber-full as my lunches should have been.

Last week’s goal of “Early To Bed, Early To Rise” didn’t work out so well. Actually, it didn’t work at all. I’m hoping that this week, in trying to get myself healthy again, I end up getting to bed earlier and sleeping more. I don’t think I’m going to set any other goal for myself this week, honestly. Get the rattle out of my chest. Maintain my weight as well as I can. Take care of myself. Pamper myself. Be gentle, and not go for walks out in the sub-freezing temperatures (probably not so good for bronchitis). Stretch out my still-stiff muscles. Pass on Aikido until I feel truly healthy again.

James has almost caught up to me this week, after having his own sick time during Week 3. It’s still anyone’s game.

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Yay For Bronchitis!

Aaron wasn’t feeling so well on Thursday night. When he got up on Friday, he was feeling downright shitty. He stayed home from work on Friday night, sick and feverish and hacking up a lung.

Saturday was my Aikido seminar and testing. I left Aaron sleeping when I went to the morning seminar, and returned after noon to find him still sleeping (which is pretty normal, considering his schedule). He’d had a hard time sleeping; once he got up and around, he started feeling better. He came with me to the testing on Saturday afternoon, to watch me earn my rank in Aikido (more on that later), and we stuck around for the potluck dinner afterward. He didn’t seem so bad — his cough had died down considerably, and he wasn’t feeling as warm.

I, on the other hand, started getting a tickle of a cough while watching the tests that came after mine. By Saturday night, I was hacking almost as much as Aaron had been.

On Sunday, both of us were completely miserable, although he seemed to be doing better than I was. I was feverish, dizzy, nauseated, not hungry in the least; I basically just beached myself on the couch with water and tea and books all day. I took my temperature while Aaron was out doing grocery shopping: 101°F. That made me feel even worse.

Knowing how Aaron had felt, I e-mailed my supervisor in advance and told him I wouldn’t be in on Monday. I went to bed with the intention of sleeping it off, sweating it out, and being well enough to go to work by Tuesday. Aaron was feeling fine by the time he went to bed a few hours after me.

Last night sucked.

I couldn’t get to sleep, thanks to my Aikido soreness and my periodic hacking, rattling cough. I dozed in and out, and kept waking up either in pools of my own sweat or shivering like a mofo. I finally managed to get to sleep around 6:30am, and slept until around 10:30 or 11am. Aaron didn’t fare as well, as he barely slept all night.

When we both dozed awake, he informed me that we were going to get up, shower, eat something, and go to Urgent Care. Both of us. Turns out, he’d woken up in the middle of the night to hack and cough and get a drink of water, and had looked up the closest Urgent Care place in the phone book because he was so freaking miserable.

So, that’s what we did. We got to Maumee Urgent Care at 12:15pm, and Aaron got called in to see the doctor at 1:30pm. I got called in shortly thereafter. Long story short, I was diagnosed with bronchitis and pharyngitis, and Aaron was diagnosed with much worse bronchitis than mine. I didn’t have any immediate treatments at Urgent Care; just a prescription for antibiotics and a decongestant. Aaron, on the other hand, got a breathing treatment and a shot in the ass at the clinic, plus three prescriptions, including an inhaler and an antibiotic.

Per doctor’s orders, I’m off work tomorrow, and Aaron’s off work until Thursday.

Aren’t we the pair?

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