Been sick for the past ten days...

Hey everybody... I'm in a bit of a health rut at the moment...

So first off, I'm normally a very active induvidual. I'm a Varsity Distance Runner on my school's Cross Country team during the fall, and Track team during the winter and spring. Aditionally, I'm a competitive Irish Dancer. All toll, my daily activity was probably around 90 minutes a day from these sports. One day a week, however, I would take a complete rest day (allowing my body/muscles to recover and heal). To be more specific, I was running about 30 miles per week and dancing about 5 hours weekly, also. My caloric at this time was 2800-3000, which allowed me to maintain my body weight.

I've been sick with a sinus infection though and my doctor/parents don't want me doing any physical activity. This is so depressing... I've been out of school all this time, too, and all I'm allowed to do is lay around/sit around the house. My parents are convinced that I need to keep my caloric intake the same as it was prior to the sinus infection, because they don't want me to lose weight. I haven't been hungry that much but am forcing myself to consume this amount. I feel fat and lazy though and am SO scared I'll get out of shape.

Prior to the illness, I was in REALLY good shape. I could run a 5:30 mile and ran a 20 minute 5K, placing in the top 20 at a huge invitational meet. My dancing was going great, too. Now I feel like my body's just turning to must (which I know is irrational), but I'm so scared. I still have a four pack, but am afraid it's gonna go away. And that my running times will suck. I'm allowed to start working out again Monday, but that'll have been TWO FULL WEEKS off from exercise.

How much do you guys think my fitness will decrease? It feels like my running seasons over with all this time off. I don't want to lose everything I worked so hard for, heck, I don't even want to gain weight from being sick! I just want to resume my former lifestyle and be the same fit person I was before the sinus infeciton. Ugh I know this was a HUGE long rant, so thank you for listening.

*I posted this in fitness too, but felt that health and support may have some input, also, so I posted it here. So mods, if you need to delete a post, whichever of the two you feel nessercary is fine!

The body will bounce back if you nurish it and let it heal. The time that you are sick even a few weeks will not make that huge of a difference. It may take a few days once you get back into the routine. The bigger concern to me is your mindset because most healthy mindset people just are concerned with getting well and then will get back to their normal activity when well. Since you are an athlete there is more to it but also why I think many athletes/dancers develop eds. I agree with your parenst to heal you need to keep up with your calories. Are you at a healthy weight? Have you ever thought of getting therapy? I don't mean that as mean but just that you seem so fearful of a short time off causing such impact. Feel better

Thank you for the response. Yes, I am at a healthy weight for my body type that complies with my growth chart percentile (I've always been thin, and naturally fell within the 10-15th percentile for weight, so atm, I'm about 5'4" and 100 lbs.) My doctor is satisfied with my weight, I get regular periods, and have a healthy heart. This episode of physical illness is very triggering though, and I am discussing it with my therapist. I just wanted a little extra input/support, you know? I have struggled with Anorexia in the past and continue to recieve therapy in order to maintain a recovered state. Thus, I was just seeking reassurance and some positive feedback regaurding my current situation. You don't sound mean at all, just concerned, which is natural!

My therapist suggested writing down my irrational fears (ie: unnessecary weight gain, loss of fitness, ect.) in a notebook, then write down the reality to combat them. So I've been trying to do that and reassure myself that I will eventually come back stronger from having given myself some rest time. It's just hard, since I worked so diligently to achieve an active lifestyle again. Now, even though I'm forced to rest unrelated to ED reasons, I feel like I did during ED recovery, when I was on exercise restriction. Logistically, those feelings are bringing back alot of bad memories from my ED. So it just helps to vent/write I guess.

If anyone has any inspiring/uplifting stories of how much better you felt after resting because of an illness, feel free to share them. I just feel so sad and bored, and could really use the encouragement. Thank you again.