Workout Exhaustion: What am I doing wrong?!

OK, time for full disclose: I’m not feeling too great.

Today I did my 30 minute run on the treadmill at 5.6 mph.  And then my face was all red and I felt exhausted.  And I mean: exhausted.  Like I could barely walk around and lift my arms to fix my lunch.  I thought that exercise is supposed to help a person feel more “energized” after working out.  Instead, I feel physically exhausted, and then I feel mentally bad about feeling so exhausted.  I mean, I’m glad I “put in” my time (for exercise), but if I keep feeling this way, I think I probably will want to give up on working out!

So, what could my problem be?  I figure it’s one of these following problems (or a combination).  And I’m going to list my intended “solutions” right after each, so I can hopefully get to the bottom of this…

1. Improper pre- and re-fueling before and after my work out session.  Yes, I need to do research on what the proper workout “fueling” food/amount/timing is.  I don’t like to do a long (30 minute) run first thing in the morning, when I’m still fasting before breakfast, so that’s probably already a good approach.  Instead, I usually run in the mid-morning or afternoon.  But I also don’t usually eat right after my run (I need a shower!).  I bet I could improve on this, and feel better—I need to do some research.

2. Too intense / improper exercise.  Hmm, maybe; I’ll start wearing my heart rate monitor again.  Historically, when I’m over 140-150 beats per minute for duration, I would feel like crap and get a red face.  Maybe I’m exercising with too much intensity or for too long of a duration at my current level of fitness.

3. Not enough recovery time.  Nah, I don’t think so.  I usually have at least a day of rest between runs.  If not, my second day is an “easier” run: shorter or slower.

4. Not sleeping enough.  Yup, I definitely need to get more zzz’s, and put a higher focus/importance on sleep.  I wake up to an alarm every morning, and I rarely feel rested enough.  I know this is bad, and yet I continue to stay up too late.  It’s easier to stay up than to put myself to bed.  It’s widely accepted that you would be doing harm to a child’s overall health if you kept them up late night after night—and that’s frowned on by society too, I think.  And yet it’s prevalent in our society that many adults brag about their sleep deprivation like it’s a badge of honor.  I believe that mentality is very harmful, both to our society and to the individual!  Perhaps it’s silly, but I need to act like I’m putting a little kid to bed (the little kid in me!), and put myself to bed earlier.  Of course, now I need to get my spouse on board too, and yet NOT treat him like a little kid (wish me luck!).

5. Lacking energy from environment (dreary, cold days, and lack of sunshine).  Sure, this could definitely be affecting me.  I’ll double check that I’m taking enough of D vitamin, and get out in the sun when I can.  I’ll drink a cup of green tea when I feel like it, but not more than a cup a day, and probably not past 3PM (so the caffeine doesn't interfere with my sleep)!

6. Seasonal depression.  Who knows, maybe this is affecting me!  I definitely could add in more time for myself: meditations and visualizations, positive self-talk, and making sure not to focus on negative things or self-talk.

7. Low self-esteem.  Yes, I do actually struggle with low self-esteem currently.  In addition to doing the items above for seasonal depression, I also need to work more directly on my career goals.  I need to more clearly define my goals, write steps to achieve them so that I can make positive steps forward, and not feel down on myself or depressed about where I am at in life right now.

8. Improper fuel (food/drink) for my body.  Sure, to some degree this could be a contributor, since I do still eat some sugar and “bad” carbs, after all!  But I am improving and working to eat healthier and healthier: lots of good veggies and fruits and fewer carbs.  Even though I’m craving sugar/carbs like a bear getting ready for hibernation, I have to continue to try to limit them, since I know they bring me down in the long run.

I hope this was interesting.  Any ideas, please share!

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Week 5 in Review, A Big Drop

Week 1, Monday, 10/5/15, Weight: 148.8 lbs.

Week 2, Monday, 10/12/15, Weight: 145.2 lbs.

Week 3, Tuesday, 10/20/15, Weight: 147.0 lbs.

Week 4, Monday, 10/26/15, Weight: 146.2 lbs.

Week 5, Monday, 11/2/15, Weight: 145.2 lbs.

Week 6, Monday, 11/9/15, Weight: 142.4 lbs.  Down 2.8 lbs from last week (?!), and down 6.4 lbs overall in 5 weeks.

Huh, that’s a lot of weight loss in one week, and I’m not sure why.  I have been doing pretty well this past week with keeping up with my goals, but I can’t say that I did amazingly well.  I still ate all kinds of delicious things (including a Blueberry Cream Cheese Danish from the farmer’s market, mmm).  Weird. 

So, I’ve met my short-term goal of losing 5 lbs by my birthday, since I’ve exceeded that already.  I just have to keep it off from now through my pre-birthday weekend (ahem, cake!) and maintain 143.8 lbs or less by Monday, 11/23.  Then I’ll hopefully keep it off and even lose more through Thanksgiving and the Christmas/New Year holiday season.  Oh boy, this is going to be a challenge.  One day (or holiday) at a time…

My new additional short-term goal is 2 times a week to eat a “whole-foods, plant-based” meal (healthy vegan).  I’ve noticed that I’ve (unintentionally) shied away from eating beans and legumes lately, and they are SO GOOD this time of year when it’s getting cold outside.  A big pot o’ steamy beans and a side of sautéed greens?   Mmm!  And of course, I have lots of ethnic recipes to choose from that taste delicious without meat, dairy, or eggs.

I also have been watching some “foodie” movies lately, and I was introduced to the idea that I may need to do some kind of fresh veggie juicing “detox cleanse”, to rid my body of toxins from losing weight.  The claim is that many toxins are stored in fat cells, and since these cells are now (hopefully) being burnt off, they are thus releasing the toxins back into my bloodstream and liver.  Yikes!  Seems a little fishy though—shouldn’t my body know what to do with the toxins naturally?  It turns out that, yes, no need to do a special detox or cleanse, according to these two sources that I trust:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/18/detox-health-nutrition-diet_n_5173783.html

http://www.webmd.com/diet/a-z/detox-diets

My successes with my goals from last week:

1. I jogged three times this past week, and bumped up my times on the treadmill for 2 of my runs: 29 and 30 minutes at 5.6 mph.  I hope I can keep that up this week and get more used to it, since I currently finish with a red face (which to me means that I’m running too fast and/or too long).

2. I ate lots of green veggies this past week (though always room for improvement).  The good news is that I went to the final outdoor farmer’s market in Madison on Saturday, and then the local food co-op on Sunday, so my fridge is literally stuffed with fresh, delicious, local and/or organic veggies.  And it really forces me to cook and use them up!  Yay!

3. I’m still keeping my food diary up-to-date.  I should do a better job of updating it after every meal though, so I’ll have to work on that.  It’s hard to remember what I ate yesterday, and 2 days prior is almost impossible to remember.

4. I think I improved on reducing the quantity of my food eaten.  I’m feeling a bit more hungry, in a good way.  J  What a strange feeling that is!

5. So, I had dessert every day this past week, minus one.  Oh well.  The good news is that I’m eating less when I do have it, and I’m not having it after every meal on a given day.  These are improvements for me.  But I am definitely still a sugar-aholic.  No joke, I am majorly addicted to sugar and flour (mmm, cake).  I wonder if I’d really have to go “cold turkey” to kick the bad carb habit.  I’ll have to do more research on this in the future.

6. I didn't eat out at all this week, yay!  (OK, except for that aforementioned Danish.)  Pretty cool, and probably helped with the weight loss, now that I think about it.

7. I baked just twice: one time it was to make partial whole wheat yeast rolls for dinner with bratwurst (yes, I’m still eating bratwurst), and the other time was to make ginger pear coffee cake that I shared with friends who were stopping through.  All the other baked goods (homemade sourdough bread, English muffins, a S’mores cupcake) were all previously made and frozen, and then reheated as needed.  I totally recommend freezing baked goods.  They stay fresher that way, and then you have automatic portion control (who wants to eat a frozen roll?).  I can pull out what I need for a given meal instead of eating a whole loaf of fresh homemade bread in two days (yup, I’ve done that—with my husband too, of course).

8. The only thing I did different this week was my doctor started me on an antibiotic (for nothing serious, don’t worry).  So, I’ve been eating yogurt daily (whole milk, full-fat, though!), because I am worried about losing my “good gut bacteria” and hope probiotics in food will help restore/maintain them.  Could those two things be helping me lose weight somehow…?  I did a quick Google search, but found conflicting evidence.  Perhaps good gut microbes can help maintain a lower weight, but even if they don’t, they are good for overall health.  So in addition to stocking up on yogurt, I bought naturally fermented (and unpasteurized) dill pickles at the farmer’s market, and an unpasteurized sauerkraut-like product from the food co-op.  I’ll have to ease into them, though, since I had both for lunch today, and had major icky stomach (maybe unrelated, but I better take it easy initially).  I even bought some probiotic pills, but I think I’ll wait to take those until after the antibiotic series is finished.  Hopefully it will help my good gut flora in the long run.

I haven’t eliminated any delicious foods from my life, and I’m still losing weight.  Hurrah!  Comments, thoughts?  Is anyone reading this?  I hope so!  ;)

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Fresh Produce Inspiration

I feel like I'm in a rut when it comes to eating fruits and veggies right now.  The days are getting colder and shorter (oh, sunlight, I miss you already!), my home garden is "over", and my CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) shares are finished for the year.  Since I try to buy local produce when I can, and organic produce instead of conventional, my produce choices seem to be dwindling and completely uninspired.  But what the heck, isn't this Harvest Season?  Thanksgiving Season?  A Time of Plenty?!  My local grocery store's organic produce section is better than many stores, but it's not great, and I still feel like I need a little Fresh Produce Inspiration.

So, I've decided I need to do two things:

1. I need to go out of my way to buy good, fresh, and tasty produce (local and organic, if possible).  This means:

     a. I need to "get off my duff" on Saturday morning and go to the Farmer's Market (outdoor in Madison for one last week, then indoor--but better than nothing!).

     b. I need to make a (weekly/bi-weekly?) trip down to the food co-op where they have better produce choices.  I finally became a member this summer, and their produce always looks good, so I have nothing to lose!

2. I need to get over it, and buy produce that isn't necessarily local or organic.  What this means, though, is that I'm taking more of a risk with the pesticides that I'm potentially ingesting.  I know, it's scary, but true.  In order to deal with this, I've decided to "manage" my risks by using the data and lists that the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has put together: the "Dirty Dozen Plus" and "Clean Fifteen" lists.

     a. The Dirty Dozen Plus lists the top 12 (plus 2 additional) produce items that are the "dirtiest" in terms of number and quantity of pesticides and other chemical residues found in them during testing.

     a. The Clean Fifteen are the 15 produce items that have the least chemicals in them.

     c. Here's a link to the EWG website (http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/list.php), and my easy compilation below.  I'm going to print this list off for myself, and put it in my purse to use during grocery shopping.  For instance, if I can't find local/organic apples, I'm probably going to skip buying conventional "dirty" apples (the #1 dirtiest item!).  But if I feel like getting a pineapple, I'm not going to sweat it if I buy a conventional pineapple (#48), because it's the 3rd "least dirty" item they tested.  Yay!

I hope this helps everyone be inspired to incorporate more fresh, tasty, healthy produce into your meals.

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EWG’s 2015 Dirty Dozen &

Clean 15 (1=worst to 50=least bad)

1. Apples

2. Peaches

3. Nectarines

4. Strawberries

5. Grapes

6. Celery

7. Spinach

8. Sweet Bell Peppers

9. Cucumbers

10. Cherry Tomatoes

11. Snap Peas-Imported

12. Potatoes

13. +Hot Peppers

14. Blueberries-Domestic

15. Lettuce

16. +Kale/Collard Greens

17. Cherries

18. Plums

19. Pears

20. Green Beans

21. Raspberries

22. Winter Squash

23. Tangerines

24. Blueberries-Imported

25. Carrots

26. Summer Squash/Zucchini*likely GMO

27. Broccoli

28. Snap Peas-Domestic

29. Green Onions

30. Bananas

31. Oranges

32. Tomatoes

33. Watermelon

34. Honeydew Melon

35. Mushrooms

36/15. Sweet Potatoes

37/14. Cauliflower

38/13. Cantaloupe

39/12. Grapefruit

40/11. Eggplant

41/10. Kiwi

42/9. Papayas*likely GMO

43/8. Mangoes

44/7. Asparagus

45/6. Onions

46/5. Sweet Peas-Frozen

47/4. Cabbage

48/3. Pineapples

49/2. Sweet Corn*likely GMO

50/1. Avocados

Week 4 in Review, Slow but Steady

Week 1, Monday, 10/5/15, Weight: 148.8 lbs.

Week 2, Monday, 10/12/15, Weight: 145.2 lbs.

Week 3, Tuesday, 10/20/15, Weight: 147.0 lbs.

Week 4, Monday, 10/26/15, Weight: 146.2 lbs.

Week 5, Monday, 11/2/15, Weight: 145.2 lbs.  Down 1 lb from last week, and down 3.6 lbs overall in 4 weeks.

Slow but steady, still moving in the right direction.  Considering I just navigated through Halloween and a (perilously yummy) visit to my in-laws, I’m pretty psyched!  I’m averaging a loss of just under a pound a week still, and I’ve got about 1 ½ more pounds to lose in 3 more weeks (for my short-term goal).  I can do it!

My successes with my goals from last week:

1. I’m still working out 3x/week, increasing my time and speed on the treadmill.  I signed my husband JK and I up to run a 5K race on Thanksgiving Day in the early morning (crazy, I know!), so that’s additional motivation to keep jogging.  I’ve never done a late-fall race before, so that’s progress—I’m proud of myself for signing us up.  We’re running it with JK’s sister and husband.  It should feel really good to burn off a few calories before the big Thanksgiving binge meal.

2. I’m still eating green veggies, though I think I still have room to bump that up (not in 2 meals/day this week).

3. I’m still keeping my food diary up-to-date.  And I think it really helps to hold me accountable, and it’s nice to flip back and see what I ate.  If I were trying to figure out calories though, I would be in some serious trouble.  It’s hard to know exactly what you’re eating unless you measure/weigh everything (too much work), and then spend lots of time looking it up.  Homemade food is hard to estimate calorie counts too, so I’m glad I’m not trying to do all that.  I’d give up for sure, like I have in the past!

4. I could still reduce the quantity of my food eaten.  I’m doing better (since I remember finally feeling a bit of healthy hunger this week), but still need to work on this.

5. As far as sweets go, I skipped dessert completely on 2 days.  Not meeting my goal (dessert only 2x/week) yet, but better than last week!  Halloween definitely was a trick (ha!) because there are so many temptations lying around.  The good thing is that we didn’t open any bags of candy until literally right before the trick-or-treaters arrived, and then I just set aside a few pieces of candy.  We ran almost completely out of the candy from the kiddies, so that’s good.  Eating at my in-laws on Sunday was actually more difficult, because we were celebrating birthdays with cake and they had lots of leftover Halloween candy lying around.  Also, I decided to make my annual homemade caramel sauce (to put on apples) to share with everyone.  I ate WAY too many sweets on Sunday, but the good news is that we only had a teeny bit of caramel sauce left to bring home, so I can't continue to eat that all week and feel bad.  Yum, it was good, and now it’s gone.  Whew!

6. I met my goal of eating out only once this week, and I had a green entrée salad and side of soup, instead of a burger and fries.  Yay me!  Also, we decided to make homemade fish fry (beer battered!) instead of eating out.  It was awesome tasting, and I ate so much less than if we had eaten out.  It was a little messy (greasy drippings!), but worth it.  I’ve been thinking about eating out, though, and I don’t want to limit my number of eat-outs a week if that’s going to limit my time spent with friends.  If a friend wants to get together and eat out, then I’m not going to worry about it; I’m going to do it!  (Within reason—I won’t be eating out every day.)

7. This also goes for baking.  Baking has always been my relaxation time, my feel-good time.  This past week, I got together with a good baking buddy, and she and I made some new experiments (homemade English muffins), and yummy naughty goodies (S'mores cupcakes).  They were tasty, and I could freeze most of them to eat in the future for slow enjoyment.  It was good to see her, and I’m not going to say no to baking if it means turning down a good time together.  Incidentally, this week I did turn down a request to make cake (and made caramel instead) because I know cake is my weakness (I LOVE cake!) and I would have eaten way too much.  And I did not make apple pie (yet).  I’m definitely going through less flour, sugar, and butter these days.  Good thing for my waistline!

How did everyone do wading through the Halloween candy?  What’s your favorite?  (Mine used to be Snickers, but this year it’s Reese’s PB Cups, for sure!)  If you’re reading this, I’d love to hear your comments!

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Week 3 in Review, Back in the Right Direction!

Week 1, Monday, 10/5/15, Weight: 148.8 lbs.

Week 2, Monday, 10/12/15, Weight: 145.2 lbs.

Week 3, Tuesday, 10/20/15, Weight: 147.0 lbs.

Week 4, Monday, 10/26/15, Weight: 146.2 lbs.  Down 0.8 lbs from last week, and down 2.6 lbs overall in 3 weeks.

I’m glad that number’s going in the right direction!  But it’s pretty slow going, since I’m losing a little less than a pound per week.  In order to meet my short-term goal (5 lbs by my birthday), I have about half to go (2.5 more lbs) in 4 more weeks.  I should be able to do it, right?  Right!

From my food journal (yay, I’m still doing it!), I think I know what’s going on.  I can see that I’m doing really well with making sure I’m eating green vegetables: I ate them 2x/day every day this past week!  But, I hate to admit it: I had some form of “dessert” every single day too.  Also, I’m back to eating too much, quantity-wise.  In my journal, as I flip back, my daily entry lists are too long—too many items, and too much of them.  Now that I think of it, I don’t really remember feeling hungry very often this past week.  That first week, I felt slightly hungry, and I ate way fewer sweets too.  I have to remember that feeling a little hungry isn’t the enemy; sugar is (because I am still so addicted to it!).  If I’m not feeling hungry, it either means that I’m eating too often (by the clock instead of by hunger), I’m eating too much at meals, and/or I’m eating empty calories (dessert).  It’s so easy to slip back into my over-eating and sugar-eating habits, yikes!

Also probably a culprit: I ate out three times this past week, which is too often for me!  The first time I ate out (with a friend), I wanted French fries with my entrée, but opted for a side salad instead.  The second time I ate out, I really felt in the mood for waffle fries, and I decided that I didn’t want to deprive myself of them that second time.  So, I got the Friday fish fry (I did peel off the coating, though!), and I paired it with waffle fries and a side salad.  Unfortunately, I ate all the fries, so I need to work on that.  I have read that if you feel deprived, when you finally eat the item you’re craving, you tend to eat more of it than if you hadn’t felt deprived of it in the first place.  Still, I don’t want to give in to the urge of eating fries every time I eat out.  I’m not sure why I’m craving fries (weird), but I’ll have to monitor that, and shoot for eating them only every couple of weeks or less.  The third time eating out, my husband (JK) and I attended his work dinner party, so I definitely ate more that night than I should have: appetizers, steak dinner, dessert, and a cocktail—gulp! 

Looking back, I slipped back into baking a bit more this week too.  I decided to make a cake on Thursday for our “date night”, and it was so good that we each ate a big piece, and then JK didn’t have the heart to bring the leftovers to share with his co-workers.  Ha!  So, we had cake as dessert for two nights, and the rest is lurking in our freezer.  Sigh.  I also made homemade Sourdough Bread.  Since I haven’t made homemade bread in awhile, I’m sure we’re eating more of it (than we “should”) because we finally have it, and it’s so fresh and good.  Argh, what happened to my dedication?!

In good news, I got a decent amount of exercise this week: lots of dog-walks, 3 jogs, and a heavy-duty session of raking/mowing.  I’m even starting to slowly bump up my speed and time on the treadmill.  My jogging goal is to run 30 minutes straight on the treadmill at 6 mph – that’s 3 miles.  Right now I’m gaining confidence running 24 minutes at 5.4 mph (2.1 miles).  I'm thinking about doing a 5K Turkey Trot run on Thanksgiving (brrr, cold!); we’ll see if JK is up for doing it with me…

The season’s first food challenge is upon us: Halloween is just around the corner—this Saturday!  My original thought was that I should buy only healthy snacks to hand out, so I bought some mini boxes of raisins and cute stickers to hand out (yay me!).  However, instead of stopping there, or buying additional candy that I dislike, I did also buy my favorite kinds of mass-marketed mini candy bars: Snickers, Twix, Reese’s PB cups, etc.  So, it will definitely be a battle for my willpower.  My plan is to not open any of the bags until the trick-or-treaters come, and just set aside a few pieces of candy for myself to eat afterwards, and then hope that most/all of it is gone when it’s over.  If we do have leftovers, I plan to freeze the rest, and/or have JK bring it to work.  Now I just have to hold myself to that!

My goals this week:

1. Keep up with the good things: working out, eating green veggies, and keeping a food diary.

2. Reduce my quantity of food consumed.

3. Eat fewer sweets.  Especially beware of the Halloween candy!

4. Shoot for eating out only 1 time this week.

5. Don’t bake any dessert during the week (eat leftovers from freezer if craving strikes).  The only exception: I may make homemade apple pie (a Halloween tradition).  We’ll see.

6. Stay strong on Sunday when we visit my in-laws: eat small portions, avoid eating too many sweets, and get some exercise!

Is anyone else on a new track for your happy weight?  Any comments, tips, or problems?  I’d love to hear them!

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