I felt it coming on. That dreaded achiness that means your body has hit a wall and it's telling you to stop for awhile.

At first my head hurt, then my nose clogged up and loads of thick muck was making its way down my throat. Everyone at work was suffering from the same symptoms and we almost took a survey to see who wasn't afflicted by the upper respiratory villain.

Struggling through work, I knew that if I made it past 5:30 I'd have the weekend to mend. Only problem is, the weekends are packed with all the activities I can't get done during the week. There is grocery and daily needs shopping, banking, cleaning and laundry to get done. Then there are the fun things like going out to lunch or spending time with family and friends.

Friday night, I picked up a pizza on the way home from work after debating if I should eat something healthy like a big lettuce salad. Fresh vegetables are supposed to be good for you and are purported to speed recovery, but I just didn't feel like it. If I was going to be sick, I'd eat what I wanted.

Sitting in front of the TV, I munched on the pizza with garlic sauce. It tasted great and helped ease the solitude of the night. Being home on a Friday night can wreck havoc with your psyche. You know you've done the right thing by not transmitting germs to loved ones, but often you feel left out of the regular festivities.

The following day I went to the doctor and he told me to give it a couple of days regarding the contamination factor. The whole weekend felt shot, but I came home and tried to relax.

I read, napped, snacked, wrote out some bills, watched the dog and cat sleep in the living room sun spots and basically just did nothing. The hours ticked by and I discovered that the weekend seemed longer than usual. It felt as if I was getting more time.

Then a new thought occurred. Maybe I should do this more weekends; stay home, listen to music, read more books, let my imagination blossom and just hang out.

By the end of Sunday I felt better, but the nagging, unwritten law that says go out and get things done quickly returned.

When we're sick we need to stop our usual activities. Bodies work hard when they fight illness and most of us don't give ourselves the proper time to heal. Perhaps if we all took more time to do nothing when we're well we wouldn't get sick as often, our stress levels would drop and our happiness might escalate.

It's no fun being sick, but sometimes it's the kick we need to slow down and let our bodies rejuvenate and restore their ability to handle all life throws at us. Giving yourself time to recover isn't all bad. For one thing you can eat pizza with no regrets.

Cindy Letchworth is a freelance writer, who enjoys debates on current issues, photography, nature and animals.