The Journey Back to Fitness: Overcoming Sickness and Embracing Exercise
Getting back into exercise after illness can be challenging, but it’s often the very thing our bodies need most. After several days of feeling sick and avoiding physical activity, one fitness enthusiast shares their personal journey of returning to exercise despite lingering symptoms.
“I have been feeling sick for some days, I have not really exercised and I did not do any good for my system,” they explain. “Not exercising did not help me at all, but made my body to be stiff. I tried to stretch, even the back of my legs, my nails, my toes, everything pained me because of lack of exercise.”
This experience highlights an important truth about our bodies: sometimes the hardest step is simply getting started again. Despite a headache, runny nose, and general discomfort, the decision to move again proved transformative. “I feel much more nervous because of that. My thighs are crying,” they admit, acknowledging the discomfort that comes with restarting a fitness routine.
The Mental Battle of Exercise
The mental aspect of exercise often presents the greatest challenge. As our fitness enthusiast points out, “It is very hard to lose weight. Very easy to get weight. The only thing I need to do is to push my body. You force it. Not letting your body control you—you control your body.”
This mindset extends beyond just exercise to overall health habits: “Control your mouth. When you feel like eating a snack, you say, no. I will not eat today. I will exercise. Control your cravings. Control your belly. Control everything. And then force your body to move. Force it. It’s not easy. But you are going to force it.”
Signs of Improvement
Despite the difficulty, there were clear signs of improvement compared to previous days. “I’m doing fine today, not like yesterday! The energy is coming back!” they share enthusiastically. “No more lying down! I got up! I shake my body! No more sickness! No more headache!”
The progress becomes evident in their endurance: “If it was yesterday, I could not sustain this jogging for five minutes! No stop, five minutes jogging! If it was two days ago, that was the worst!”
The Importance of Health
This experience reinforces the fundamental value of health in achieving our goals. “Your health is everything. When you are in good health, you can achieve all! It’s only when you cannot do certain things that you cannot achieve your goals! That is why we need to run! We need to exercise!”
For those intimidated by fitness, there’s an encouraging reminder that we don’t need to start with extreme measures: “We must not be professional as well! We must not lift 100 pounds! Just start by lifting 10 pounds, 5 pounds! Just little by little, we are going to be fine!”
Adapting to Your Fitness Level
The importance of adjusting exercise intensity to your current fitness level is another valuable insight shared. When discussing treadmill settings, they note: “Five is speed learning, and seven has auto incline. When I lose weight, I will start running at 10, because now it would be too much. If I put it now, I will fall. Because of my weight. But I used to put seven, I used to put up to seven. Before, I used to put up to nine.”
By the end of the workout, despite getting tired, there was satisfaction in seeing progress: “My energy level is coming back. I am getting tired, but I still want to see how long I can go with the jogging. We are almost at 200 calories. Good.”
This journey reminds us that fitness is not about perfection but persistence. Even when our bodies resist, sometimes the best medicine is gentle movement, gradually rebuilding our strength and stamina day by day.