How A Fit Girl Faces Surgery: Week

Over a series of posts, I’ll be walking through the healthy steps I took to prepare my body for the trauma that is surgery, highlighting the steps I took to shorten the healing process, prevent muscle loss and weight gain, keep my digestive system functioning and maintain high levels of energy and immunity.

Sunday Start-Day

The week begins. Sundays are always an opportunity for a clean “reboot,” but prepping for surgery later in the week, this Sunday’s reboot was even more important. Priorities for the week include starting to simplify the load I put on my digestive system by eating easily digestible, anti-inflammatory foods, increasing my water intake, getting a solid sweat session in at Bodybar every day leading up to my operation, carving out time for more sleep than usual to keep my immune system and energy levels high, strategically integrating applicable wellness therapies into my week on the proper days and taking time to relax.

My workouts

The effectiveness of a Bodybar routine pre-surgery: the short twitch muscle fibers, which lengthen and tear during a reformer class, burn mega calories as my body works to repair them while I eat and sleep in the days to follow. Translated: this means I’m burning calories from my Tuesday workout as I lie in recovery on Thursday. The catch: finding balance. I had to be careful not to overwork my body, as I didn’t want it fatigued going into the trauma of surgery.

My exercise schedule ended up looking like this:

• Sunday: Kimberly’s 1:00 Reformer class; ended the day with a 40-minute walk on the Katy Trail
• Monday: Michele’s 12:15 Express; Yoga Sculpt at 7:00 pm
• Tuesday: my own Chair/Jump, sandwiched in a break in between teaching morning classes in Plano
• Wednesday: a day I had to take a breath in and realize the world wasn’t going to end if I missed a workout; I tried my best to be active throughout the day instead, getting up frequently from my desk at work and jumping in frequently to demo during the four Bodybar classes I taught that evening

In an ideal world, I would have taken a few more Bodybar classes. I would have added the detoxification of a hot yoga session or two, and would have gone on a few more walks. However, the success of an exercise plan is really a reflection of how it can be integrated into life in the real world. It’s true for me, and I know it’s true for each of you.

Balanced. Athletic. Real.

Next up: What I ate. Look for it in next week’s #raisingthebar updates.