As always, I want to remind you that this is not medical advice. We only share things that are helping us make progress on a fitness journey while disabled/chronically ill. Please seek guidance from your medical professional before starting any health or fitness routines.

How did you do with your goals this week? Are you making progress?

This week was full of doctor’s appointments and then a “cold” for lack of knowing what respiratory virus it is. (I won’t torture you with a video this week because of said virus!) It was not my best week, but it did get me to thinking. What are my biggest challenges on my fitness journey?

I think that as those with chronic illness, the challenges fall into two different categories which we will call acute and chronic.

By acute, I mean acute illnesses like my “cold,” schedule issues due to those weeks when we have more than normal medical appointments, or even our chronic illness flares. Anything that is out of our norm. By chronic, I mean our “norm.” I don’t mean anyone else’s norm, but our norm.

This had me thinking. How am I prepared to be successful in the midst of each of these categories? There does seem to be some sort of rhythm to our illnesses, even the acute ones, for a season. (Then, of course, we can get hit out of the blue by things.) While we can’t prepare for everything, how can we work to be successful?

Acute Challenges: These are the areas I struggle with during an acute illness/flare. I am still learning in these areas, but want to share what I have found helpful.

• Nutrition: When we are sick, we need more nutrition, not less.
  • Keeping in mind that my food allergies mean making everything from scratch, my freezer is typically stocked with a week’s worth of nutrient dense lunch and dinner meals. Cooking is not part of my ability when ill.
  • My freezer is also stocked with frozen produce from when it is in season as well as cooked meats to make a variety of meals. This helps give variety as I recover and restock.
  • In the above, I continuously rotate these meals out for freshness. It helps on busy days.
  • I like to have canned or fresh fruits and vegetables readily available for these times of illness. This means that as tolerated, I can make nutritious smoothies.
  • Drinking enough fluids is vital. Water is great. Sometimes a bit of flavor in that water helps. It is also easy to misjudge how much fluid we are getting in. I fill my water bottle in the morning and know how many times it needs to be refilled throughout the day to meet my goal. Find what works for you to make sure you are getting the fluids recommended by your doctor.
• Rest: If you know me, getting rest is difficult. I want to keep going no matter what. We fight more struggles than most people on a daily basis. When we are in an acute situation, we must realize that our body needs rest to have the strength to recover. Rest is fitness.
• Protocols: What do I mean by “protocols?” I mean those things the doctors have told us to do in illness or flares. For me, respiratory illnesses hit hard. I know that I immediately need to start the treatments to avoid a full-blown mess. Sadly, ignoring symptoms does not mean that they go away. Each of my conditions has these protocols for chronic and acute situations. It helped me to type them out to refer back to as it can get confusing. The important things is doing them. Another struggle with protocols during times of stress or acute illness is keeping up with medicine routines. Because I struggle in this area, a couple dear friends will check in at various points throughout the day when I am going through an “acute” time. This keeps me healthier and is very, very appreciated!
• Exercise: This one is a tough one. I need to move as much as I can to avoid flares during illness, but rest is needed. It is a balancing act for sure. The best advice I have is to check with your doctors!

Chronic Challenges: These areas area things that I struggle with in the daily grind of fitness while both disabled and chronically ill.

• Nutrition: All of my food has to be made from scratch. The things I mentioned above are things that I still have to do in the normal times. However, they are not easy. They ALL take time. This means that I must do the following:
  • Concentrate on simple, whole-food nutrition.
  • Use pre-cut items when possible, balancing the resources of time and money.
  • Find different recipes or combinations to have some variety. Food boredom is real. (Then, I think of the Israelites having manna all those years and praise God for food!)
  • Have fruits and vegetables in easy reach.
  • Portion control is a tough thing for me, being completely honest. I swing from one side of the pendulum to the other. What helps me is (ugh) tracking my food. This can become tedious. A calorie tracking app helps. Pre-portioning meals/snacks helps. I don’t like it, but it is necessary.
• Time: Time is a huge factor for me with fitness in the good times, the normal times. My combination of conditions means that I am always working to manage them – or so it seems. It means that an outing with the family requires much pre-planning not just for the time out, but for keeping up with everything that has to be done at home. I move slowly because of my condition which means that all of this takes me longer than the average person. This area of time is something on which I am constantly working.
• Strength: Many, if not most, with chronic illness know that strength is variable. What I am learning is that listening to my body is important. One medical doctor encouraged me to try to even out the strength a bit by not overdoing on the “good” days. You know what I  mean, right? When we have a good day, we try to conquer all the things we can’t do on a regular basis, overdoing, and setting ourselves back. Instead, he encouraged me to work toward 30 minutes (or whatever time) of exercise each day. Some days, that exercise may be all at once. Other days, I have to break it up. The important thing is to not overdo, but to even things out a bit.
• Consistency: Because of the above, I think consistency is one of the biggest challenges. The weaker days and the pain days are hard to make oneself move even a little, but it is very important to do so. Consistent nutrition is also important. It is so easy to let things slip, especially when we are going through hard seasons or busy seasons.
• Fighting the Tedium: Being perfectly forthright, all of this can get BORING when you are doing it daily. For me, each condition has daily protocols that must be done every single day. UGHHH… Yet, they are very important. I have been working on ways to break up that monotony recently, seeking God’s wisdom in it. It cannot be an excuse for not doing what is right. We will likely come back to this on a future Friday Fitness.

So, these are a few of the challenges that I face in the fitness journey. How about you? What are your biggest acute and chronic challenges? How do you overcome them? We would love to hear from you!