Thursday, August 18, 2011

The Perfect Storm

Yikes! Mark and I came down with a touch of the flu yesterday and I spent the whole day in bed...the whole day! Fever, bodyaches, chills, sweat, I still don't feel right. I can't remember the last time I was sick, and in fact I pride myself on never getting sick! Looking back on the past couple of days I could blame a number of things but I think it was a combination of everything.

To be honest I blame my nutrition first. I ate more sugar than normal especially on the day coming home. On trips in the past coming home seems the most challenging. I'm rarely tempted to eat the crap they serve on planes or the crap they sell in airports leaving on a trip. Knowing I'm more vulnerable and tempted to eat airline/airport crap on trips coming home, I decided to buy and pack my own "crap" for our return. Yes, the morning we left for home I did pack some really good foods like egg sandwiches, farmers cheese with fresh bluberries and bacon, tomato, cucumber and olive salad with fresh herbs, etc. but I ran over to the market in Budapest to buy some chocolate cookies, marzipan candies and poppy seed pastry. I didn't have to eat any airline food on the way home....but I did eat all of the food I brought with me, especially the sweets!

That was just the day we came home! To be honest I don't think I let my sweet tooth "run riot" the whole trip, but I did indulge much more than I would have if I was at home. My plan turned out to be an "every other day" free license, whereas at home it may be twice a week, if that. More about this subject of eating and travel another time.....

Of course I'm not blaming the whole thing on sugary foods, we were on a plane for 14+ hours with 300 people. Coming home it seemed as if the flight had twice as many children as the flight going....that had to have it's part.

Jet lag.... Coming home from Europe you never see night because you are flying backwards into the same day. We arrived home at 2:30am Hungary time, 4:00pm California time, without sleep. I make it no secret that Mark and I take a nap everyday and we are in bed by 8:00pm! We are very delicate people!

Although I felt fine teaching first thing Tuesday morning it all caught up with me....the perfect strom.

The worst is over and I'm ready to get back to my life. A slightly different life than the one I left, and I'm even more excited about my future. Lucky me! Slowing my life down and focusing on quality is the biggest thing I came away with on this trip and maybe I needed a little more down time to really drive that point home.....

Exciting times.

4 comments:

Maribel said...

you're a trooper coming in on Tuesday...you don't mention that it's at 6am!

Hope you and Mark feel better soon.

Beth said...

Hope you and hubby are feeling better, Tracy!

Tracy Reifkind said...

Maribel,

I slept all night from 5:00-4:00! So it wasn't too much of a hardship!

Tracy Reifkind said...

Beth,

Thanks...one of Mark's clients told him that something called "the vomit flu" is going around.

To be honest, I was on such a healthy streak that just getting sick, any kind of sick, was the biggest bummer!