Shannon’s Slimdown with Dragon Gym: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

You may have noticed that I didn’t post a “Shannon’s Slimdown” update last week. Unfortunately, it was because there wasn’t much to say from 2 weeks ago. During that week, I was only able to get to Dragon Gym to meet with Steve ONCE due to some scheduling issues (both my husband and I had work travel that week) and the start of a series of debilitating migraines.

Although Steve was on vacation this past week, I vowed to turn things around. I was all set to get to the gym 3 times last week and complete the O.T.A.’s (Outside of Training Assignments) that Steve had left for me. At least that was the plan until I was further sidelined by migraines. I made it to the gym only ONCE last week as well. I had a migraine last week 5 out of 7 days, including Mother’s Day (doesn’t seem fair, does it?). If you are a fellow migraine sufferer, you can attest that there is NO working out with a migraine…. there is BARELY any getting out of bed, let alone getting to the gym.

There are some reasons for this “flare-up” in my migraines. First, they’ve just been getting worse in general lately. I’m not sure if that has to do with weather, stress, or a possible plateau of the preventative medicine I take for them. Second, I had to come off of another medicine that I was taking last week, and I think that may be impacting my migraines as well. I am really hoping that this is just an adjustment period that will soon be over versus a “new normal”. I am working with my neurologist now to talk about more options for managing the migraine pain.

If you can’t tell… I’m a little frustrated. I feel like I was making really great progress, and then I’ve been sort of stuck for about 3 weeks now in regards to my exercise routine. But, this is life, right? I guess I couldn’t expect it to be all smooth-sailing.

So, I’m just going to pick myself up and try to address the migraines as best as I can and get back in the game. I have my first training session of this week set with Steve for this afternoon and I’m looking forward to it.

I have also been getting alot of headaches and sometimes migraines after my workouts. Does that happen to any of you? How do you handle it? Have you tried anything that makes it better or helps ward off the headaches? I am trying VERY hard to not let that start decreasing my motivation to go to the gym, but I have to be really honest…. when I already have as much head pain as I do, it’s hard to happily go to the gym and know that I will likely come out with yet another headache. Give me some tips, readers!

Until the next Shannon’s Slimdown, have a healthful week!

*Disclosure: Dragon Gym has provided personal training services and gym membership to me in order to do this project. No compensation was received for this post, and as always, all opinions are strictly my own.

~Shannon