Week Twenty - Day Five: The Un-Sick Day

At 3 a.m., I awoke from my deep slumber. I heard the rustling of my daughter's sheets in the next room, signalling her concurrent wakefulness. She wasn't crying, so I closed my eyes again and willed myself back to sleep. Just before I started drifting off, however, I heard an unmistakable, horrible, disgusting sound - the sound of someone vomiting - and I knew at that moment that I was not going to be able to go to work in the morning.

"Sophia?" I called out to her in the dark as I lumbered out of bed and towards her room, trying to rub the sleep out of my eyes so I'd be able to deal with whatever mess might confront me.

"Dirties," I heard her say in a calm voice, as though making some nonchalant observation. She's more excited about pointing out the moon every day, or picking out a book to read before bed. How can this girl be so calm after puking all over her crib??

The mess wasn't as huge and horrific as it was the last time she had a stomach bug, but it was still enough to warrant a full linens laundry with her pajamas thrown in for good measure. I changed her sheets, made a pile of the laundry that I would start in the morning, and gave her a warm bath. She was in high spirits, helpfully pointing out the patches of "dirties" she had left on her sheets and chasing the cat around as I cleaned up.

I stayed home with her today, even though she had no other symptoms of illness aside from that one overnight puke. I think it was enough to pull myself off work just based on the fact that I spent two hours of the night dealing with the aftermath of her sickness! Really, though, it was mostly to make sure that if she was sick again that she'd be in the comfort of her own home with her loving mom and not spreading it to other kids at daycare. So we stayed home and had a lazy Friday here.

However, I can't say I didn't lament the loss of a commuting day. That's an hour of exercise I'm not going to get! That's somewhere in the range of 700-800 calories that I won't burn! And worst of all, the more time I spend at home the more I tend to eat . . . it's a grazing thing, or a boredom thing, or some combination thereof. Whatever it is, it's not ideal, so every day of work that I miss feels like a huge set-back in my weight loss efforts.

To try to combat that, today I set up my stationary bike while Sophia was having her afternoon nap. Fighting off the urge to take a nap myself, I managed to get in at least a 20-minute, 6 mile ride on the stationary bike (if you recall, that consists of Eastwood the mountain bike hooked up to the bike trainer I bought from MEC). Twenty minutes isn't massive, but it's better than nothing! I've also maintained my habit of tracking what I'm eating through the DailyBurn website, and I've managed to keep to the lower end of my allotted calorie range, which is somewhat of a triumph for a day spent at home.

All in all, for a non-commuting day, I did what I could to be fitness- and nutrition-conscious, and for that I'm pretty happy with myself. Best of all, my daughter has been completely well all day, so I haven't had to clean up any more puke or spend all day with a miserable sick toddler. SCORE! Everything's looking up.