Reset Your Return With Phase 4:
A slower than normal morning out of bed, a slight tickle of the throat, a noticeable pallor over ones usually balanced mental state, followed by an unseasonable sneeze confirms what all subtle hints are pointing at: you’re infected. And if you’re anything like me, Phase 1 is always anger. Looking to assign rightful blame on the usual suspect free ranging this “infucktion”. Phase 2 is desperation; characterized by the thoughts of “I can beat this” followed with mass quantities of expensive supplements that don’t work, tea tree oil smoke-stacking from all essential oil diffusers, and loads of garlic and oranges with confusing aromas sure to let anyone know there is a outbreak. As the rhythm of sneezes, sniffles, and fatigue increases in virulent cacophony, Phase 3 is acceptance. In vital correlation with a rising temperature, you mentally inventory the workouts you will be missing. Understanding that each day will bring increased atrophy and weakness as you know your training partners sense this opportunity, and are feverishly ripping extra reps with the bar and training the secret submissions only brought to the mats in your absence.
As tragic as this annual cycle is, I’ve likened to a different strategy this time around. Enter Phase 4: Reset your Return
Phase 4 is a time to reevaluate your overall health outside of the gym. A time to reflect on the more subsidiary aspects of fitness and arguably conditions you are exposing one self to that could be a limiting factor in body composition, performance, and perhaps even a contributor to this infuckted state of affairs Let’s take this somewhat unavoidable time to honestly launch inquiry into the quality of our diet, sleep, and substance consumption and challenge the self to creating new habits or resets on consumption facilitating a stronger return to training and life.
Sleep:
So you’re sick. And under perfect circumstances, this is a time where rest is unavoidable. You’ve taken the sick days, shut down the work computer, or at the very least only addressing urgent emails. Any sorts of nighttime go-out events have been cancelled, and there really isn’t much else to do outside of read and watch brain dead programming. Given less obstacles to delay a reasonable bed time, this represents an excellent opportunity to reset the time we allocate for sleep and the healthful rituals around it. Getting plenty of rest being arguably the best medicine will help recovery for the infected, and a new habit of consistent bed time and wake time (once no longer virulent). It’s easy to facilitate the habit of delaying rest for productivity or fun. Optimizing rest and the right before bed rituals can break down barriers in performance and perhaps keep you from getting sick next time.
Nutrition:
Given that during a infection of sorts, the body focuses resources on rest and repair, and often a side effect of this is suppressed appetite. Cravings for sweets, alcohol, and other unhealthies aren’t quite driving as broths, soups, and savory small meals take center plate soothing the throat and stilling the chills. Taking advantage of natural cessation of poor dietary habits that may have accumulated, strategically this is a great time to cut out the problem nutritions and run experiment. Perhaps this is the time to cut gluten, processed foods, added sugar etc.
Substance Consumption:
Outside of light caffeine and OTC symptom controlling medicine, most abstain from their usual poisons of leisure when sick: alcohol & drugs. Being isolated from friends and social situations where these items are often consumed is a helpful removal of situational cues. Caffeine is also a silently hard substance to reduce, and considering a time spent with more rest and less intellectual or work related demands, one can titrate down caffeine consumption to preferred levels. Breaking addiction through reduction or complete cessation is a simpler task when cues and stressors are absent, and activating energy is low.
Summary: Being sick generally doesn’t allow for much productivity. However, it presents a unique opportunity to synergize with this down regulation of inherent cravings to reset the addiction or bad habit cycle creating better habits. Get better and start training soon with the added advantage of momentum from careful adjustments made to areas of struggle: RESET YOUR RETURN and get back to being unstoppable.
