Saturday was my first day of Week 5 of Couch to 5k. It was rough. Not gonna lie. I did it… but I thought I was gonna die. My positive thinking mantras were only carrying me so far. After I got done with that I got on the steps. I usually do 25-30 minutes on steps on Saturdays. I made it 10 minutes. I was dizzy. I had a headache. I was miserable. And I was done. My determination had reached it's end. I was done. I went home and immediately my sister could tell something was wrong. I told her how I was feeling and she asked if I needed some food. I wasn't particularly hungry, but the dizziness and overall lack of energy was telling me I probably did. So, I had made myself a couple of pieces of toast with peanut butter and honey on it. I wanted something that would be easy on my stomach. But I was thinking I needed something besides just pure carbs. So the peanut butter fit the bill. And then I crashed. I took some ibuprofen and some melatonin and slept for the next 4 hours. Got up, took a shower, and ate again. I was feeling functional by that time. Not quite 100%, but functional. Spent the afternoon running errands. Came home, ate again, kept myself occupied for a few hours and went back to bed (you may want to remember that I work a graveyard shift and had gone straight to the gym after work on Saturday morning). I ate into my exercise calories on Saturday. Which rarely happens, but I think I needed it that day. I personally took the lack of energy and dizziness as a sign I wasn't eating enough.
Sunday is my rest day. I still take a 30 minute walk around the neighborhood, but that's it. And I did okay. Not quite my fastest pace… but certainly nothing slow about it. But, my TOM hit that day and it hit with a vengeance. Killer cramps and by that afternoon, absolute exhaustion. I started to wonder if my dizziness and such from the day before were nothing more than PMS symptoms. Because of the way my schedule works out on Sunday with church meetings and such… I usually have a hard time getting my calories in on Sundays. I really only have one formal meal that day. This was no exception. I finally made myself some bread with peanut butter and honey on it again just before I went to bed just to get myself up to 1200 calories.
I was expecting to hit the gym Monday morning and be back to normal after two days of rest. I had a little bit more to eat pre-workout than I normally do, just in case. I did okay through the warm-up and the weights. I started off at a lower intensity on the steps. I wanted to work myself up to it rather than going all out the first round. That was doing pretty well for me, but near the end I was starting to feel tired and a little icky again. So, I cut off the last two rounds of steps and headed for the treadmill to finish off. Yeah… mistake. Started getting dizzy again. I don't think I even made it 10 minutes on the treadmill before I was done. It's frustrating to me. I kind of pride myself on the fact that I "kill it" at the gym. I may not be the fastest or the strongest… but I give it everything I have. And two days in a row of having to cut my workout short is really frustrating to me. But I keep telling myself that this is important to me that I be able to keep working out. And therefore I don't want to do anything stupid that could hurt me. So I tried to tell myself that if was really struggling… it's better to take it easy for a few days now than to push myself too hard that I make myself sick or hurt myself.
I don't know yet what is going on. Is it PMS symptoms and if I just give it a few days it'll go away? Am I really not eating enough? Am I going too hard and I need to take more than my usual rest day?
The symptoms are all consistent with not eating enough. But the symptoms are all consistent with PMS too. In interest of figuring this out… I have changed my MFP goal from losing 2 pounds a week to losing 1.5 pounds a week. That gives me a few extra calories to play with… although I didn't use them on Monday. I figure I'll try upping the calories just a little and see how it does for me. By the end of the week… I'll be past that TOM and should have a better idea of what's going on.
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