No pain, no gain... How far from that do we put ourselves through before its too far from the truth?

I, like the rest of the women in my mum's side of the family, have unfortunately been given the gene that makes you put on weight instantly, my sister some how missed out on this gene. I absolutely love my mother dearly, I don't know where I would be without her but I am terrified I am going to turn into her. I consider myself very food conscious and very active by maintaining my fitness by going to yoga twice a week, walk my dog at least 5km every second day, spin class once a week and this week on Wednesday I decided to attempt a "Body Attack class" (which now I call Body Torture) and I think I have gone too far.

The class was full on, with hopping on one leg which included jumping side to side, jumping in one spot with both legs (which I didn't do as I have dodgy knees I remained stationary just bending my knees), burpies, lunges and also some running around the room and other highly intense exercises. I really enjoyed the high energy and nonstop workout it provided. Though when I got home my calves were felt tight, so I stretched, after dinner had a hot shower let the warm water run on the back of them, put myself into bed and thought I would be fine the next morning but alas I was not okay. I woke up sore, not too bad, so I took some ibuprofen and carried on with my day, one of the guys I work with advised I go for a walk after work. So when I got home I grabbed my dog Molly and we set off...

Apparently my GPS walking app on my iPhone said we ended up doing 10 km in total.  After cooking dinner, I sat on the couch and that attempted to get up and I couldn't. I couldn't get up from the couch, it was like my legs has decided they weren't going to get me up. I could just imagine the look of concern on my face. After a period of time I did manage to get up I was terrified to sit back down again. That's when I put myself to bed, praying that in the morning I would be better so I could catch the train and be able to walk to work. 

I woke up this morning, feeling quite refreshed, as soon as I put my legs out of bed the affliction of pain coming up my legs from my calves was worse now than yesterday. I wanted to work from home today but remembered my laptop was in the office, and there was no way I could walk from the train station especially looking like a fool who couldn't walk properly (it honestly looked like I had had a big night the night before if you know what I mean ;)) through the Melbourne CBD so I decided I was going to drive my car in and pay for the early bird parking right next to the office. 

All day I have been given grief by my work colleagues, and then having them laugh at me. I do have to admit this sort of thing could only happen to me but it was total agony to the point where I was nearly in tears. I had to hold the hand rails whilst walking down the stairs, when I had to go out for lunch I was envious of the people who passed me walking normally as my pace has been reverted to twice as slow as normal. When I had to get up from my chair I had to think of everything I had to do while up so I don't have to get up again for a while. 

This has come to make me think, how far we go to get our dream bodies or just stay fit in light of our fears? Why do we do this to ourselves? When will we accept our bodies for the way they are meant to be? Is it the point of making ourselves so ill that we can't go any further or do we just let it get to the point of no return?