"Iceberg Ahead!!"

Oct 21, 2012

THE ICEBERG

This week i was heading for disaster! My body was sending me signals  of impending doom and i just wasn't understanding what was going on. I woke up every day this week feeling exhausted, nauseated,  irritable, and so sluggish...similar to a hangover without the fun of partying to get that way.  I really thought it was just the stress of the last couple of weeks getting to me ...moving, my dads visit, being sleep deprived because of no curtains and blinds, the lurong living paleo challenge, and the rainy gloomy weather. I have really learned alot about and i am more in tune with my body  over these few months of Crossfitting, and i knew these symptoms were just something more than stress. I began to notice that when i ate the symptoms would go away but within one to two hours were back again....the nurse in me had an A-HAH moment. My diet needed to be readjusted. 

JON NORTH

Three weeks ago when i was taking the Jon North Attitude Nation Certification which PortCrossfit hosted...we were all out to lunch together, of course complaining about the diet adjustments we had to make and i mention how famished i was ALL THE TIME! My Coach started asking me how i was eating, i told him "i am eating just like i did when we did the in-house paleo challenge EAT CLEAN TRAIN DIRTY but my meats are now leaner." My Coach looked at me and said  "you may need to add alittle more fat, fruit and some sweet potatoes to your diet". I have been ravenous before but after a couple of days those feelings went away and i was fine, so i really didn't think anything of it. Even Jon North remarked how we were all eating, and how surprised  he was that any of us could lift the weights we were lifting. We all were drooling and our stomachs grumbling as we watched him eat a giant burrito, and chuckling he was glad he wasn't doing the challenge with us. After lunch i felt much better and went on to PR my squat snatch and my squat clean, i figured no problem, i am ok.  Jon North was so funny, a patient coach, a great educator in the sport of weight lifting, i learned so much, and it was really great day!

MY COACHES

This past Friday morning i emailed my coaches before i left work,  about how i was feeling (symptoms were getting worse) and to get their advice on how to remedy the situation with my diet. I am a Registered Nurse for a long time so i knew what my Coaches answer would be but i guess i just wanted their reassurance.  So one of my coaches emailed me back "Uh oh your pregnant again! this definitely preggers sickness"  I laughed so hard i started choking on my coffee. When i told my oldest daughter what my Coach said she replied laughing "what does he think your name is MARY?" I really love how my oldest daughter thinks i am "too old " to get pregnant or have sex.  I wont burst her "mommy" bubble. Anyway my Coaches did gave me their recommendations for making changes in my diet. On the way home from picking my son up from school we made a pit stop at whole foods. 

When i thanked my coach for answering my email ...he looked at me and said "so did you do what i suggested

 you needed to do?" i started giggling because i was thinking of the preggers comment. He said "you didn't do it did you?" I stopped laughing, very seriously "no coach i listened, i HAD to because i felt so terrible" He looks at me and says "I told you that you may need to change your diet, when you mentioned it at the Jon North Seminar" i started laughing again, i couldn't believe he remembered that brief conversation we had and  i sheepishly admitted "yes, you did tell me and i didn't pay attention." 

TROUBLED

I struggled during Friday nights wod, not because i couldn't do it but because i felt so weak.  When the wod was finished I walked over to get my stuff and felt lightheaded and dizzy. I went to buy a post recovery drink and i was struggling to choose one that had carbs in it...in my mind that was "bad" that would make me gain weight. My son (he crossfits with me) actually yelled at me "mom what the hell! your dizzy the one with the carbs in it is not bad for you, your body needs it!" If i didn't get over my fear of going back to where i was when i first started crossfit, immediately, i was going to go down like the titanic.  Not only could my fear of certain foods sink all of my strength gains i have made,  decrease my muscle mass that i built up,  but could seriously jeopardize my health. I sat down and drank the recovery drink.  i was saddened, and so completely shocked at myself, my fears. 

TURNING THE TITANIC AROUND

Your thoughts can be very difficult to change. I have to remember that my body needs these complex carbohydrates as fuel to function. I can no longer think these certain foods are "bad" or will make me gain weight.  I have to remember i have changed in the last 10 months, i need to adapt to my "new " body. One of my fellow crossfitters explained this new body adaptation so well to me,  "when we both started we had stores that our body could pull from to convert to energy. now we both are lighter, have changed our body fat  composition, can move faster, lift heavier and do more volume in a wod, we need to eat to give our body energy cause there isn't much storage left for our bodies to pull from." So i made sure i incorporated these simple changes into my diet this weekend, and i am happy to say...iceberg averted! I feel  so much better!! Thanks Coaches for your advice and support, oh and for the laughter too! Hugs!