[Cassie Adams]

Hey, don't put too much pressure on yourself. Make sure you are well enough to start again with your exercises.

Fitness can wait, but who gonna take care of your own body other than yourself. Pretty and proud girls!

[crispin]

Originally Posted by gymrat05

But here's the good part - even if you were to undo all the work you had done getting back into shape would take about 1/3rd of the time it did originally because you've pre-conditioned your body.

I experienced this. Last semester was so busy, I often only had time to sleep 4 hours a night. So there definitely wasn't time for exercise. (I'm pretty miffed about this. I think it's ridiculous for academic programs to have a workload so heavy that people can't live a healthy lifestyle, but maybe that's just my crazy values. ) I ended up taking two whole months off from exercise. I started back up again with a fairly intense exercise dvd I have. I only got half way and then felt like I was gonna pass out! But it only took me 4 tries for that workout to feel doable to me again, whereas the first time around it took me probably 3 weeks to reach the same stamina level.

[Randolph]

As more (anecdotal) evidence of this, a lot of those before/after weight loss (or exercise) photos in cheesy web ads are actually pictures of injured athletes - who puff up like, well, like a retired NFL player once they stop exercising. Take a fat photo, recover from injury, start working out again, spring back into shape, take another photo, profit(?). Being fit changes your body in many good ways.

(Okay, that's not really an anecdote. But whatever.)