your sickness

Sun Valley didn't win, the cold won. I am on day four of
staying.
in.
bed.

I think I've been asleep more than I've been awake the past few days. And the funny thing is, if someone I knew was sick, I would be the first one to say "You have to rest, your body will only recover if you sleep and hydrate and let it heal."

But between work and school pressure and thinking I'm a little bit smarter than a head cold (I'm not), it took a week of feeling crappy and then a weekend of it making sure I knew who was boss to really get it through my head.

When I was younger I used to come down with stuff pretty easily, it seems at the beginning and end of each cold season I always spent a few days out of school. In my years since high school I have focused much more on health and attempting (sometimes more successfully than other times) to keep my body strong. I have discovered that I love to run long distances, albeit slowly, and that I love to feel the stretch of strength through yoga positions. I've experimented with eating habits and felt the difference between making wise choices and making candy choices. There have been sick days here and there, but thinking about it (I've had a lot of time to think about it), it's been at least a few years since I was laid out like this.

And in all that time when my body generally functions how I expect it to and together we run around life without much thought of ailments, I completely forget that it might slow me down or stop me up at some point while it needs to fight off danger on a biological level. And when my body does speak, it's amazing really. I am fascinated by the amount of sleep I suddenly need. No soda or treats sound appealing but protein and grains and vegetables are what I've been craving. A weekend away I'd been looking forward to suddenly sounded miserable and the social events of Salt Lake weren't more tempting than my bed and Friday Night Lights (although FNL will always win anyway). My muscles ache and I've been sad to feel the hard work of The Shred deteriorate, but I'll get it back.

Listen to your bodies people. They know whats best.