Over the last two months, the kids and I have been passing the plague back and forth so often that I don’t think we’ve all been healthy at the same time since before Christmas. Despite that, I decided to start a fitness challenge at the beginning of January. I figured I could beat the odds and stay healthy in the midst of the cloud of disease hovering inside my house…

But as Murphy’s Law would have it, that didn’t happen. Not even close. I’ve managed to have strep throat, a sinus infection, and bronchitis all in a two month period. The bronchitis has been the worst, because even the slightest bit of physical exertion was enough to send me into these terrible, never-ending coughing fits. So my attempt at jump starting the new year with a challenge to make sure my habits were conducive to getting/staying healthy and continuing to lose the baby weight definitely didn’t turn out the way I’d hoped and planned, but I decided to do everything I could to stay active and healthy (within reason) even though I was sick.

So how do you stay on track to lose weight when you’re really sick? (Please remember I’m not a doctor, and that you should speak with your own doctor before attempting to workout while sick). For me, I think the biggest lifesaver was walking with the boys every day.

I walked almost every day pushing the boys, sometimes as much as 6 miles. The boys would either snack or nap, which left me free to walk as slowly as I needed to — and some days that was slower than the average octogenarian. I loaded up the stroller with drinks, tissues, and cough drops and walked around the block a few dozen times, or even to Walmart if we needed to grab a few things. As long as I kept it slow, the walking didn’t irritate my lungs or my cough at all and I’m pretty sure the fresh air helped.

Keeping my diet mostly in check also helped a lot in my opinion. When I’m sick my body craves carbs which isn’t great because I generally feel best eating moderately low carb, but I adjusted without eating grains. I drank a lot more water than usual and loaded up on vitamins and as many fruits and veggies as my body would tolerate. I was also running on very little sleep and basically surviving on energy drinks, which is obviously not ideal. However, despite very little sleep and minimal exercise, I’m really happy that I still managed to lose inches almost everywhere as well as a few pounds.

So without further ado, my “post-challenge” weight in!

Weigh-in	1/9/2017	2/20/2017
Chest	42″	41 3/4″
L. arm	13″	12 3/4″
R. arm	13″	13″
Waist	38″	37″
Hips	44 1/2″	44″
L. thigh	22 1/2″	22 1/2″
R. thigh	22 1/2″	22 1/2″
Weight	178.2 lbs	175.6 lbs

 It doesn’t seem overly impressive, but I’m really surprised I lost anything considered how much time I spent in bed and how comparatively little I spent being active. Now that I’m feeling human again, I’ll be posting bi-weekly weigh-ins until I reach my goal and giving you a rundown of the workouts I’m doing every week.

Do you workout when you’re sick?

Do you have a favorite workout right now?