I am doing 2 a days this round. Before work on work days I stretch, walk or run and after work I lift or stretch. I am taking time to rest as well, I need balance. Yesterday I got my first massage in months. It was amazing. I needed the massage and full rest day. Today and for the next 2 days I go pretty hard in the gym. Tuesday I will run in the morning and rest in the afternoon.
My body puffed up during the last week or two that I was off Whole30. I was making poor nutrition choices, drinking wine and beer daily, enjoying cheese every day, and my veggie consumption was way down. I also wasn't in the gym much for that whole month. A couple times a week vice a couple rest days a week.
For me, bread and cheese makes me lethargic. I don't know how it affects you, but I have to listen to my body. I cannot say that I won't make a deliberate choice to have dairy and bread in my life. I mean come on, really. But it'll be a treat I will deliberately make in order to enjoy the taste not like the last week or two before I went Whole30 this time, I was out to binge on baked goods, chocolate, dairy, bread, and wine or beer. I don't understand why I wanted to do that. It was a week and a half or two weeks of poor choices.
The aftermath was terrible I did not like looking in the mirror. I put on 3-5 pounds but that doesn't really give the complete picture. I went from lean and pretty smooth in my clothes and without them to very puffy and fleshy. I had rolls where they hadn't been before my binge. It is shocking how fast my body swells when I make those choices. It is back to normal after about an equal amount of time making choices that fuel instead of fill. I want to see where I can take my body before my next Birthday.
I want to continue 2 a days and primarily feed myself paleo until then. But I won't do another challenge for a while. I just want to maintain a consistent clean diet and exercise routine. I have my first half marathon of the running season on March 1st.
Another 17 days of my January Whole30 challenge and I am stoked. I love broccolini, just tried it yesterday for the first time. I also incorporated smoked oysters for a light meal in a pinch. I re-discovered sauerkraut. I am very excited about how this challenge wakes up my tastebuds introduces me to new foods and challenges my imagination and helps me to open up to options I hadn't considered for my diet. There is so much you can do with your foods interesting flavor and color combinations, it's divine.
I also feel so liberated from counting calories. It's exhausting to always worry about calories in versus calories out. How many calories are in the pizza and beer I just consumed and what do I have to do to work it off. Booh! I don't want to think of my food that way and I don't want my exercise to be punishment for eating. Exercise is fun. It makes me feel good. It wakes me up in the morning better than coffee and transitions my day from MAJ Dufour to Bettye. Exercise is its own pleasure, reward, therapy not a punishment. Food is not something to feel guilty about. Even *GASP* a cupcake or cookie with no redeeming qualities is not something to regret or feel guilty about. It kind of ruins your enjoyment of the treat if afterward if you are going to feel guilty and bad about yourself.
I don't mean to come off preachy. I am just learning about food and exercise using my body, hormones, emotions, feelings, sleep cycle, and energy level as my new scale for what to put in my body and how to exercise to get the best I can out of me.
I am incredibly blessed to have the time, financial resouces, energy, and health to be able to conduct this science experiment on myself.
