Part of me wants to say hooray, no more of this weighing in and accountability shit first thing in the morning! But the type 'A' control freak in me was starting to like it. And, it certainly kept me on top of my game. Maybe I'll make it a twice-weekly ritual or something...but moving on, 'cause there's important stuff to say today.
Remember how yesterday I was looking forward to a good hard workout today? Daughter #1 and I joined the sparring class at taekwondo this morning - this is something I've been looking forward to for MONTHS. All week I've been counting down the days to today, and you know what happened?
An hour into the class I started to see spots. Didn't think it was a big deal; if I'm honest this has been happening to me for the last week; a) because of fasting, and b) very few calories on non-fasting days. But I had eaten a good breakfast this morning and figured I was done with that nastiness...
Anyway, when we took a quick break to get water, I started to feel very, very bad - like, gonna either vomit or pass out or both, kind of bad. So I went and sat down in the locker room and put my head between my knees, and wondered what in hell my problem was. Seriously - I usually think I'm in pretty good shape, although clearly I need to do more high-intensity cardio. But this? This is what happens to other people, not me. "Come on, Gray," I thought to myself. "Man up and get back out there." I stood up to go back out to class - bad idea - and everything went black.
So lessons learned this week?
1. Fasting for weight loss is effective but does not translate to improved athletic performance. If you want your body to perform optimally, slow and steady is a better strategy. There's a shocker!
2. (really just an extension of #1) If you don't fuel your body properly, don't be surprised if it says "nope - screw you" right when you need it to step up its game.
3. Stress is bad. A diet that causes you a lot of extra mental stress, especially if you have some extra stuff going on, is not going to be that effective. Not if you're me, anyway.
4. For the love of goats, stay hydrated! In fact, stop reading right now and go drink some water.
I am finishing this week humbled and depleted and not too happy about week 2. I certainly don't recommend that anyone do this plan for more than 7 days. The second round gets a big, fat, fail. Even the first round is iffy; although I'm happy to have dropped a few and I have welcomed the appearance of my abdominal muscles, I'm not sure I lost much actual FAT the first week either. Still, it was a good kick in the ass and I was in a place where I really needed one to get back on track.
Grade for this project: B-
Tomorrow I am testing my maximum pushups in one set, and that will mark the beginning of 6 weeks to 100 pushups!
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