Both days two and three are wrapped up, and even though I started writing this post yesterday, day four is going by SO FAR with nary a hitch. I’ll update later about temptations that arise when around my CrossFit people this evening.
While I haven’t been terribly tempted to veer off plan, Wednesday was a little challenging because I doubled my activity and had a hard time maintaining a consistent energy level. I’m sure it had to do with fat intake, etc., and not having enough to sustain long-term activities while adapting to this new lifestyle (see also: no Diet Coke), so I’m not chalking it up to carb flu or thinking that I’m DYING because I couldn’t have a fun-sized Milky Way from the office candy jar. Or four of them. Judge ye not until you’ve had to walk past the communal candy jar, with its FREE and readily available offerings. Haven’t you ever had those moments where suddenly you’re two candy bars in and you can’t even remember opening the candy jar to retrieve them? Some call it a breakdown in will-power, but I call it osmosis.
I went to CrossFit Wednesday at 6 a.m. and then had double-header volleyball matches for playoffs that night. To say that I died in the first game of the second match would be an understatement. All of the energy I had during the first match suddenly gave way to crankiness and poor performance. I felt like Betty White in the Snicker’s commercial…except I couldn’t eat a Snickers bar to improve my performance or my mood. Toward the end of the second game, I landed wrong off the block and tweaked the back of my knee/calf, which made it almost impossible to move. Three of the four of us on the team suffered injuries, which resulted in an “L” on the books. More importantly, we lost the championship match. Which meant we didn’t go home with the coveted cheap, blue “Carmichael Parks & Recreation” T-shirts? Seriously. I throw myself on the ground, put my ankles at risk of being taken out from a wayward hitter, and subject myself to being ‘six-packed’ while trying to block one of the guys -- all for an ugly T-shirt!
What I did go home with was cranky-pants, a left-leg limp, a headache, butt sweat (sorry, my blog, get over it) and a floor burn on my right knee. Normally, the first thing I would do would be to grab a Diet Coke, but since that wasn’t an option, I grabbed a water bottle, poured myself a small glass of iced tea and made myself a snack: an apple and some almond butter. Almost immediately, all was right with the world. It’s amazing how quickly you can get necessary calories to start working if you’re eating the right food. In the past, I would still have been crabby even with my Diet Coke, and then I would have added some cheese and whatever else would “take the edge off,” and then I’d go to bed feeling like crap.
Even after my snack and THE BEST SHOWER EVER ®, the knee/calf (hereafter referred to ask the “knalf,” until my trainer, Sean, can finish working all of his research magic to diagnose) still hurt like a MO-FO! I grabbed some ice bags, 800 mgs of Motrin and ignored the urge to search the husband’s stash for a long-forgotten Vicodin. I didn’t get the best night’s sleep, but it also wasn’t the worst. We’ll call that a small victory!
I took the morning off from CrossFit yesterday because of my two-a-day on Wednesday and the fact that my “knalf” was still throbbing. I still got up at 5:30 a.m., but spent the time sipping a cup of green tea (sans sweetener) and reestablishing my friendship with my Kindle.
Yesterday also marked the first time since they were established that I haven’t imbibed during Thirsty Thursday at work. As evidenced by my post yesterday, I drank some coconut water and I didn’t turn into the least fun person in the room. Matter of fact, I was still ridiculously funny and entertaining. Just ask me.
Last night Greg and I were both exhausted, so we opted to grab something to go. Since I’m obviously fairly limited on what I can eat out, and I want to be sure I’m aware of how everything is prepared, to-go food meant a trip to Whole Foods, which has the potential to cost more than a black market liver if you so much as add a cherry tomato to your priced-by-the-ounce salad. (Side note: Greg thinks he has found a way to stick it to Whole Foods by buying bacon by the box. It weighs much less than an egg, so where he might pay $2 for one egg, he only pays $1.50 for an entire. Box. Of. Bacon. I think he feels like he’s giving the man the middle finger. He’s so pretty.)
I chose sliced turkey and sweet potato salad from the deli bar and a small raw kale salad. I wasn’t even jealous when Greg grabbed a slice of pizza to go with his salad…but for a brief second, I did consider licking the top of it when he wasn’t looking.
We were in bed by 9:00 p.m. Nine. Pee. Emm. 9. It was another of those moments where both of us are reading, pausing occasionally to read an interesting sentence out loud to the other person, while intermittingly sipping from bottled water on our respective nightstands, when one of us will say: “Do you remember when we were FUN on a Thursday night?”
Nonetheless, I felt great when I got up at 5:15 a.m. this morning . And although my knalf wasn’t throbbing, I was still aware of its tenderness, so I opted for one more day off CrossFit. One thing that I’m getting better about, but still occasionally need to improve upon, is taking the day off when I know my body needs it. I don’t think anyone who hasn’t weighed more than 250lbs in their life can truly understand the obsession with working out to ensure that I’ll never be that heavy ever again, but it’s all relative and that’s a story for another day.
I’m still adjusting, but so far, I’m not struggling so much that I can’t manage this for the next 26 days. OK, the mere fact that I just quantified how many days I have left may mean I’m still looking for a means to the end, but it’s not (yet) as rough as I thought it would be this early in the game. I still have a long way to go and have no misconceptions that this entire process will be easy, but I promised myself when I started this program that I would record everything…be it success or failure
No comments:
Post a Comment