To Rest or Not

I think there are two responses to minor illness or just not feeling well in general. Some people get a sniffle and are off to bed to sleep it out (slight exaggeration I know). Others of us somehow got the “tough it out” gene. Just keep pushing through. Like taking a day to ease up on things feels like you are being lazy unless you’ve got some kind of serious illness.

It doesn’t help when you’ve got these activity trackers. I mean my tries to be polite and put a positive spin on things “Hey you were active for 20 minutes today – that’s great”. Or something like that. I don’t care how it phrases it, I still feel like I’m being judged. Like I pay money to have something taunt me about not doing more during the day. Wish I could program something in like “I didn’t feel well, cut me some slack”.

And then there’s the dancing thing. If I take a night off, then the instructor loses. But if I come in and get them infected and they have to take a couple of days off, then they lose more. Last thing I want to do is be some kind of super spreader. Which is why I cancelled my lesson on Tuesday.

And it is why I took a break from exercise yesterday and dealt with the passive aggressive taunting from my fit bit. Drank a lot of fluids and stuff to help my throat which does feel better. That’s a good thing. Still can’t really tell if this is just allergy drainage or some kind of cold. I’ve heard people refer to this as the crud – the vague generic upper respiratory thing you just get from living where seasons change. Seems like a good description.

I’ve read a whole bunch on exercising with a cold. It seems to be OK but they more often than not leave you with the “listen to your body” thing. Something that can be difficult to do. Especially when the fit bit keeps prodding me to get up and move.

But I was back to it today. I’m a bit on the fence about my lesson tonight. Certainly, I need the time to practice and, if this is really just an allergy thing, then there is no issue. And the fact that things have gotten better since Tuesday leads me to believe this is just allergies. The downside is the runny nose with a mask and I’ll spare you any more thoughts about that.

I will say that one of the best things about being retired is I don’t have to do that whole “do I feel well enough to work” things. Probably wouldn’t have mattered right now since my old work place is still doing most stuff virtually. But it is nice to not have to think about that.

Guess the lesson is that taking a day off isn’t being lazy if that’s what your body needs. Even if your fitbit doesn’t agree.