Coming off Cortisone

Greetings from upholstered belly central!
I finished my last round of antibiotics and my week of prednisone last week on Tuesday.
Now I just have to be patient and continue to exercise off the 4 pounds of fat and 5 pounds of water I gained while taking the steroids. I have to admit that I wasn't going to take the prednisone, but my asthma got so bad that I was having trouble breathing through the night, and kept waking up coughing and wheezing. The cortisone really helped my reactive airways and allowed the antibiotics to rout the rest of the pneumonia from the bottom of my lungs.

My PCP wasn't happy to hear, during my third visit, that I'd been exercising all month while battling the pneumonia. She felt I should have spent at least two weeks on bed rest. I didn't really feel the need for bed rest while I was sick, though, and I felt able to continue my regime of light/low impact workouts at least three times a week. I doubt that these workouts had any deleterious effects on my healing ability. In fact, I think they helped my immune system in dealing with the bacteria in my lungs.

I also think I would have gained three times more weight had I not continued with my work out routine. Especially considering the Thanksgiving holiday, my husband and sons birthdays were all food fests that I fully participated in, though I did try to limit my portions on Thanksgiving. Still, the soy chocolate/vanilla pudding and the Rice Dream peach non-dairy ice cream I've consumed in the past couple of weeks can't be blamed on the holidays...I just gave in to my cortisone-cravings for sugar.

Meanwhile, I've been assigned an article on three local gyms and their programs to help people lose weight and get in shape for the coming year. I'm really looking forward to talking to Janice Zander and Carol Kayler of Work It Out Women's Fitness, as I believe that WIO's boot camp and other new classes will be a good fit for many local women seeking a way to get in shape for 2008. I'll probably end up writing the story on Wednesday, Dec 12, which is my 47th birthday, but I am okay with that, as I really want to be paid as soon as possible so I can go Christmas shopping for my son, husband and parents. I am trying not to stress about the state of our finances, but I find myself wanting to do some serious emotional eating when I think about how tough Christmas is going to be this year.

Thank heaven for the endorphins and friends I have at Work It Out, because without them, I'd be an anxious mess.