I’m so sick. I’ve been caring for kids with a stomach bug since Tuesday, and it finally got me. I have serious tummy cramps, back pain, a headache, and no energy at all. I can’t even sit up unsupported.

I want to die.

BUT, I’ve been looking forward to posting Health Group, so here I am.

I’m kind of stuck between two philosophies. My sister says to eat as little as possible and exercise as much as possible. It’s worked great for her, she feels good and has dropped a lot of weight. Calorie King says to eat 1550 calories per day plus whatever I burn exercising. My nurse practitioner sister-in-law that works in a medical weight loss clinic says to make sure I’m netting at least 1200-1500 calories per day. I’m glad Nate read the email too, because I didn’t pick up on the “netting” part. He brought it up.

An hour of elliptical according to both my elliptical and Calorie King burns 600 calories. I’ve been netting around 1000-1100 calories all week. I did an hour of elliptical on Tuesday, 2 hours on Wednesday (one in the morning, one in the evening), an hour each on Thursday and Friday.

So I’ve burned 3000 calories in exercise this week! Woo-hoo. I WOULD be on it again today, but with this flu, there’s no way. I’m lucky I got yesterday in.

Let me sing the praises of the elliptical for a bit. I’ve probably already done that here, but I’m not over it yet. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! It’s no impact, so my ankle, knee, and hip are fine, unlike on the treadmill. It burns twice as many calories as I’m able to on the treadmill. I have to be careful not to overdo it on the elliptical. It’s easy to. I’m getting into a rhythm finally, but at first I really had to keep track of my heartrate because I was working too hard without feeling it ’til I’d suddenly get really dizzy.

On my Octane, I’m working on Level 4 at a speed of 35-40. It claims I’m traveling 7 miles in an hour (I have a hard time believing that). I tried to bump it up to Level 5 (there are 20 levels of resistance) but that bothered my knee a little bit, and I really don’t want to injure myself.

So, I’ve lost 4 pounds since Wednesday. It’s possible that being sick has contributed, but really, I just got sick late last night, I haven’t lost any fluids, and I haven’t missed a meal yet, so I really don’t think that’s it.

I’m making sure to get my vitamins, fish oil, and glucosamine daily, and I’m trying to make sure I get enough protein (that’s really hard if you don’t like eating meat every meal. Even WITH the protein powder). I’m drinking a ton of water to flush stuff out. So I’m trying to be healthy and not stupid.

Still 4 pounds in 3 days is a LOT. We’ll see how it goes. I feel optimistic.