The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The six week initiation at Curves has ended!

Unfortunately, these six weeks have not been great for me, healthwise (this is the ugly). The week before I went to England I did something to my back when I was bending over gathering up laundry. I self-diagnosed myself as having sciatica pain and it was excruciating. It hurt to sit. It hurt to lay down. It hurt to stand up. I couldn't really bend over. The only time it didn't really hurt was when I was walking. I found some stretches online and I've been doing those which has been really great. I still have some pain leftover, but it's totally manageable. It's amazing how beneficial some simple stretches can be. That whole experience had me out of the gym for over a week.

Then, last Monday we had finished dinner and watched some TV. My tummy was feeling a little dodgy, so I decided to go read my book (which is awesome, by the way) in bed. Cue the start of one week of not venturing further than 10 feet from the loo. This was not awesome at all. I knew something was seriously wrong when I craved an apple soooo much that I actually left the house (in my inside-only pants) and went to buy some apples. I didn't think it was physically possible to crave something as strong as I craved that freaking apple. Yesterday, I managed to make it out to a friend's house for a couple of hours and I felt really accomplished. That was one more week out of the gym.   

Today, I made it to the gym! Woohoo! I'm still not 100%, but I'm feeling a lot better now and hopefully I'll be okay for the rest of the month. I'm not a sickly type of person, so this is all really frustrating to me. So, that's TWO weeks out of six that I missed due to illness and I also missed another week because I was in England. I only got three good weeks of workout in the six week period and that's the 'bad'.  Today was the last day of the six weeks, so I asked to be measured.

The 'good' is I haven't gained any weight (but didn't lose any either), but I managed to lose inches off my thighs, waist, and chest. My % fat also went down slightly. My arms and hips stayed the same. They weren't huge numbers by any stretch, but for only getting three weeks of real workout, with those other three weeks spent either sitting on the couch nursing myself back to health or drinking wine with friends in England, I was really pleased! I've decided to continue going month to month. When I first joined she asked if I had anything coming up that I could work towards as an incentive. My life is so lame I was all, nope. Not a thing! Well, I've decided that thing I'm going to work towards is looking great for my friend's wedding in Pittsburgh this December! Hopefully I can make it through Thanksgiving in the US without doing too much damage!