Potholes: sometimes you can drive around them, and other times, they jolt you unexpectedly and you just hope you haven’t caused any damage. That’s pretty much been a summary of this past week.

Last Friday, when I wrote my last blog, I was going strong and doing everything right, and looking forward to the weekend, when I knew I’d hit my biggest challenge. And I did — but it wasn’t the challenge of drinking enough water; it was sickness. I’ve had something like a mild flu since then, and am recovering, but being sick was definitely a pothole I didn’t see coming, and it derailed my good intentions for continuing the streak I had going.

These things happen. The good news is that I didn’t use it as an excuse to load up on comfort foods and just go off plan for the week; if anything, I ate less than normal, since I had very little appetite. But I also drank a lot less water than normal, and didn’t follow through with taking supplements; my main focus was just functioning.

Today, I’m close to being back to normal, and I’m glad I didn’t stray far from my plan while sick. I made sure that cough syrup was sugar free, as well as cough drops, so I didn’t deviate, even in medication, and while some of you may be thinking “oh, that’s just carrying things too far!”, I thought it was a great idea.

When I’m sick, I’m at my most vulnerable; everything is an effort, so if I finally want food, I’ll eat what’s easily available, regardless of whether it’s on plan. Crackers, for instance. A couple of mornings, I didn’t want to go through the effort of making breakfast and was just mildly hungry, anyway, but if crackers had been available, I probably would have just grabbed a few — but crackers aren’t on my plan. I love them. I have a hard time not eating ALL of them.

Now that I’m feeling better, I’m thankful to not have to also be facing food control issues, often easily triggered by eating off plan while sick. While I didn’t lose weight this week, I’m currently at my low weight, and might break through that in the next few days, now that my body is recovering from the shock of being sick.

While I still have to get back to a regimen of doing everything right, I’m facing a lot less than I could have been. Getting in the habit of eating the right things is a lot tougher than things like drinking enough water. I’ll take it!