A couple of weeks ago, I got a stomach bug.
Some people like to use fancy words for this, like norovirus? Or whatever. For me? I just wanted to die.
I know, you are thinking I am being dramatic, but I am telling you I was NOT playing.
A little background. I never get stomach bugs. On very, very occasions I will get one. I will only know I have one because I get a teensy bit nauseous or something feels not quite right for a day or two.
Then maybe, just maybe, I might throw up once. I think this has happened only a handful of times in my life! Or, a couple times I had a little bit of diarrhea, you know the drill. If you are human you have been there in some way shape or form.
This stomach bug? It was a level of hell I have NEVER experienced before. I had a lovely dinner with my family, sat down to relax on the couch and found myself feeling a little off and laying down.
I am going to spare you all of the gory details, but let’s just say I spent the whole night in the bathroom and only came out to grab cleaning supplies. It was…not pretty.
10/10 do NOT recommend.
Now that I have a little bit of distance from “the event”, I realize that it actually taught me quite a bit about my body and weight loss.
#1: Weight loss from temporary sickness is just that. Temporary. And this is a GOOD thing.
I cannot tell you how many times over the years I have talked to a friend or family member after they have been sick and they have said something to the effect of “well at least I lost some weight!” or “I lost ‘x’ pounds while I was sick!”
I mean be honest here, have you ever gotten on the scale after a stomach bug and thought “Woah! Look at that!”
Friends, I lost 5 POUNDS over two days.
You know what that was four pounds of? Water.
In no way did I actually lose 5 pounds over two days. And in no way was this good.
My body lost so much water that I was in danger of becoming dehydrated to the point of needing to go to the hospital for IV fluids.
Not sure about you, but going to the hospital is NEVER on my “to-do” list so you can bet I was doing literally everything I could to get that water BACK into my body.
I was drinking a hydration mix and water whenever I could tolerate it without throwing up some more.
Any time anything happens temporarily to your body you will get temporary results. Once you’re back to your normal routine of eating your weight will go back to normal too.
It took a couple of weeks, but I am happy to say that I am back up to the weight I was at before I got sick, and this is a good thing.
#2: It is so important to give your body what it needs.
Being so sick helped me really hyperfocus on exactly what my body needed at that time, and it was such an eye-opening experience.
It is very rare that we are actually SO incapacitated that we have no choice other than to 100% listen to our body, but this is what happened to me.
I had to focus every single little bit of effort and thought on exactly what my body needed physically in order to get through the day.
Initially this was just water and hydration mix. As my body slowly started to improve I incorporated those stupid easy to digest things like saltine crackers and when I started feeling SUPER fancy, plain toast or rice.
It made me realize that as humans there are so many times when we are eating either what is easy, or what we feel like other than what our body actually needs.
It’s totally fine to do this from time to time. Food does a LOT more than fuel our bodies. It can be a source of connection with family and friends, and a source of pleasure, and that’s great!
The important thing to remember, though, especially for those of us who are losing or maintaining our weight, is that fueling our body for what it physically needs has to be our overall priority.
#3: All of the energy you normally put into bike rides (and or anything else) needs to go into recovery.
OK so this wasn’t a brand new one for me. I had a pretty major surgery last year around this same time (you can read all about it in this article here). I knew then, as I know now, that shifting your “ride your bike” energy to “let’s recover so you can ride again” energy is so important.
This experience REALLY drove all of this home for me, though.
It was very much a situation where I literally COULDN’T do anything but focus on making myself better. I was way too dehydrated and weak to do anything else.
I had to be really in tune with what my body needed, which means I couldn’t overdo it the day after I lost so much water, and I had to take frequent breaks from my tiny little activities around the house and rest.
Honestly, even with my surgery I was able to do a little bit more the second day than I was after this stomach bug, probably because I wasn’t so dehydrated.
Or at least, this stomach bug situation is just so much more recent and therefore the weakness and helplessness so much more fresh in my mind.
Again, I know this sounds really dramatic, but think about just how much weight in water I lost over those two days. That’s a LOT.
#4: I had to be VERY careful about what I was letting myself think about my body and how to treat it.
When it comes to weight loss I have found that the internet, friends, family, etc. has some really craptastic advice out there.
After a quick google search I actually found an article from a mainstream publication that was all about how to keep the weight off that you lost while you were sick.
I have also heard multiple people say that they weigh themselves every day, and if the scale is down a bit then they just repeat what they did the day before.
I actually weigh myself every day too, but otherwise this is literally some of the crappiest advice I have ever heard.
It absolutely encourages behavior that at the very least is unhealthy and at the worst could lead down a slippery slope of disordered eating.
It’s actually enraging me at the moment but let me take a minute (and a deep breath) to explain.
If you are puking your brains out one day and are down five pounds the next, is that behavior you really should be repeating? Of course not.
Additionally, when we lose weight in a sustainable way, it can take weeks to see the results. So it’s quite possible what you did yesterday has very little to do with what is showing up on the scale today.
Honestly a lot of the times I have a hard workout or bike ride the scale is UP the next day. I can promise you that it again is related to water retention, and not that I am gaining weight because I worked out one day.
All of this is to say that I had to be very careful with my thoughts surrounding that 5 pound dip. I had to remind myself that it’s temporary and that it’s just the water that I lost.
That I actually have to work to get that water back into my body, and that if I don’t I could become very dehydrated.
Trying to keep the weight off that you lose when you are sick is NOT the way to go about recovering your body properly.
Sure, you will likely be eating a lot less for a couple days too, and that’s fine, and maybe as a result you might lose a little weight from eating less too, but in my mind it’s very dangerous to try to “keep the weight off” that you lost.
It is also important to reiterate to yourself that the number is just a number. You are not somehow “better” because you weigh a little less right now, and you won’t be “bad” in a week or two when the weight comes back.
I know this seems like common sense but even after all of the work I have done surrounding weight loss mindset over the past four or five years, I had to constantly remind myself of this over the past couple weeks.
Those little thoughts that sneak in can really undermine your efforts in the long term, so it’s important to be aware of them and have a plan to talk to yourself a little differently when they come up.
#5: I have a renewed appreciation of how lucky I am to overall be healthy and able to do the things I want to do.
There were times when it was just me, myself, and I (and the toilet, haha) that I was wondering if I was ever going to feel any better.
Common sense told me that I would, and that this would pass, but in the moment that was hard to hold on to!
Every time I am NOT able to ride my bike due to temporary sickness or injury I am reminded of just how lucky I am to be able to ride it most of the time.
This helps me keep everything into perspective, especially when I am feeling kind of lazy about doing the ride that I planned that day.
When I give myself and my body a fair assessment I realize that just not feeling like riding isn’t a good reason. That it’s fine to not feel like riding, but to go out and do the ride anyway.
When I am sick like this I am reminded of how it’s a luxury to just not feel like it when it comes to actually moving my body.
That day after the toilet incident, when I was sitting at home on the couch, I would have given just about anything to feel well enough to ride my bike.
I made a note to remind myself of this the next time I was making excuses to myself about not getting on the bike.
A Final Note
Any time that you find yourself in a situation where your body is not 100%, it is so important to shift gears.
Shift your expectations, shift your mindset.
Ask yourself what it is that your body needs from you in order to get better.
Remind yourself that this too shall pass. You aren’t always going to be on the bathroom floor wondering if you will ever get off it again, I promise. 
And, as you take care of your body and start to get stronger, be very careful of letting your thoughts bring you to a place where you end up undermining your body and your health.
Temporary sickness, temporary illness…it’s exactly that. It’s temporary.
You will get back on the bike, you will get back on track. In the meantime take care of your body and give it what it needs.
I am here, cheering you on in your recovery, every step of the way.
Ride on!
xoxo
Stacy
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