Cold & Flu Season

Frequent visitors to this blog will know that I have really been struggling with illness since Halloween or so. I wanted to share this link from CNN.com about "The new do's and don'ts of cold and flu season". In particular I liked the bit about exercise:

Do: Take it easy on the treadmill
Contrary to rumors, you cannot sweat out a cold, experts say.

In fact, too much sweating can dehydrate you at a time when you need extra fluids anyway, warns Dr. Richard Deichmann, an internist at the Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Still, you don't need to eliminate all physical activity. "Pay attention to what your body is telling you," Sampathkumar says. "You don't want to run the 10 miles you do every day if you're not feeling up to it, but you don't necessarily have to stay in bed if you feel up to taking a walk or doing some moderate exercise."

It made me feel better about my own choices when sick. Sometimes when I'm sick I work out, and sometimes I don't. I really have tried to listen to my body to see if I could handle it or not. There are times I have started to work out, but felt terrible, so I've had to quit and rest. I have to forgive myself for that. Sometimes fitness fanatics get so obsessed that we don't allow ourselves to take actual rest, even when sick, which is a bad idea.