Day 402: Coughing, Motivators, and Documentaries

Hello, All!!

So all the running around and not taking care of myself over the past couple of months finally caught up to me. I spent the last week coughing my brains out with some kind of upper respiratory mess. I didn't have a voice for about a week, and I'm just now feeling like myself again.

All that coughing made sleeping extremely difficult. It took me 3 hours to fall asleep (despite taking cough medicine that contained codeine) almost every night last week.

Not being able to speak, being extremely sleep deprived, and just feeling crappy in general really made me feel depressed. I haven't felt this down in a really long time, and I spent a lot of time beating myself up for letting myself slip so much with so many things in my life lately. I haven't been blogging, exercising, practicing lettering, eating right, or doing much of the things I enjoy because I've been so busy going here and there over the past several weeks.

Granted, not all the stuff I've been doing has been bad. I AM happy that I've gotten to spend time with some of my favorite people over the past few weeks, but I'm also ready to have some me time this month so that I can really work on getting back on track with some kind of routine again.

I used all my traveling and working as excuses to eat crap and sit on my ass too much, though. I know that my laziness contributed to my immune system being compromised. When I was feeling at my lowest last week, I happened to read this during one of my many mindless checks of the Facebook feed:

It was kind of like a slap in the face to wake me up. WHAT have I been doing for the past few months!? There is a reason why I've been gaining weight. I'M EATING CRAP AND I'M NOT MOVING. This Facebook thread was just the beginning of the wake up call that I needed. 

After that, I saw THIS posted by my former trainer Will:

I refuse to return to where I started. Seeing those words couldn't have happened at a better time.

I feel like I need to confess how terrible I've been eating lately. Oreos, Whataburger, and macaroni & cheese just to name a few... There's something about being sick that makes me want to eat comfort food. 

Since moving too much made me cough way more than I liked this week, I tried to do what I could by eating a little better over the past 2 days. I also I forced myself to watch two food documentaries on Netflix today that would help me get motivated into remembering WHY eating junk is bad. 

I watched Hungry for Change and Forks over Knives... I HIGHLY recommend these documentaries! After watching them, I feel extremely motivated to really consider what I put into my body so that I can feel better and stay as healthy as I can. I'm also realizing just how addicted to high calorie, low nutrition food that we are, and it's quite terrifying! I want to eat clean and reap the benefits of doing so! 

Hungry for Change Trailer 

Forks Over Knives Trailer

Last night (Friday night), I was able to sleep for a good cough-free 14 hours!! My body needed it so desperately. I feel like a whole new person, and I believe that I'm on my way to feeling like myself again now that I'm coughing much less and I was able to catch up on my sleep. I intend to bike a lot this week in the marvelous warm weather, and if it rains, I intend to see the inside of my gym! I was able to do this before, and I will do it again. 

I want to be able to make a Facebook post like this one:

Chelsea, if you're reading this, you *truly* inspired me to get up, dust myself off, and get back at it to try again. THANK YOU!!! 

My fitness discipline been on the decline since my mom was hospitalized in November, but now it's time to stop making excuses and get back to it. Thanks to everyone who still believes in me! Your encouragement truly makes me want to keep going. I truly do not want to let any of you or myself down anymore. 

Let's do this.  Here's to our health.