Day 4: I feel great! This is weird.

this is what the sleds look like being done at another Crossfit.

I keep waiting to hit some kind of low-carb wall. It's been years since I have eaten low carbs, having had grain is good overload of my master's degree years preceded by a disastrous attempt at veganism. Since I am purposely not tracking calories or carbs or anything I don't know how many I'm eating, but I do know they are almost all from vegetables (I eat fruit at dinner after Crossfit-- I'll eventually increase the fruit but I'm trying to really control all sugar for a bit first). I remember when I was in college and I tried Atkins. I don't think I really ate any vegetables and I remember going to the track and trying to run and literally feeling like I couldn't move my legs-- I had ZERO energy. I have read things that say that when your body switches from burning carbs to burning fat it can be a rough transition. I know your body can't store more than a couple days of glycogen (I am almost tempted to go look this up in my biochem book but I'll spare you for now) so I should be out by now and I. feel. AWESOME. My period is even about to start (sorry if that's TMI!) and other than some finding myself more easily irritated at things that are frustrating, I really feel good. Weird! Maybe the wall is yet to come. EXCEPT: from about 3-4:30pm I hit a low point in energy. It's not horrible, but I definitely get tired then but it goes away around 5 o'clock. I'm pretty sure that's an adrenal problem. Maybe I should trying giving into it and laying down for an hour at 3.

I have also been trying really hard to sleep as much as possible. This does not work very well on days I go to work (which lucky for me, was only once this week but usually twice). The other days since I work from home I can start whenever. M wakes up around 6 most days so instead of getting up with him, I go back to sleep, usually until 8:30 or 9. This morning I woke up at 5:45 and had to pee really bad so it took me longer to go back to sleep, but I did. I feel really good when I get 9 hours of sleep and like I got hit by a truck when I get less than 7. Between 7-9 is kind of variable depending on my overall sleep deficit. Since this schedule won't last forever, I feel lucky to cash in on it while I can. I do wish I was one of those people that feels amazing on 6 hours of sleep. Maybe once I get a little less inflammation going on I will need less.

Food today:

Breakfast: same as lunch yesterday only with broccoli, but less because it was the end of the chicken-- I didn't quite finish and then ate the last few bites a couple hours later

Lunch: Ravenous because at lunch time I went to the store before making lunch, so I didn't eat until 2. What I made was a variation on the tuna sandwiches I had been eating a lot before I changed my diet.

I mixed 1 can of wild salmon (the kind with the skins and bones-- the bones freak me out a little, but the skin is where all the good fat is, AND it's cheaper), with 2 tsp mustard, 1/2 a mashed avocado, and a couple big handfuls of crushed kale chips, which I made from purple kale.

I did not invent kale chips-- I learned to make them from a classmate at Bastyr, but they are one of my favorite ways to eat kale and I discovered they are especially delicious crushed up on tuna sandwiches-- thus my variation on that today.

Kale chips:

Wash and de-stem one head of kale (any kind of Kale works-- I used the purple kind today), cut or tear into small (1-2") pieces. Toss in olive oil and a pinch of sea salt. Bake at 400 degrees in the oven, stirring occasionally, until crisp.

I discovered the purple kale turns a sort of weird light brown which isn't that appetizing but it was still yummy. I took pictures of this but they all turned out weird.

Pre-crossfit snack: 1 oz (ish) nitrate free-ham with mustard, two olives and a few raw carrots** RAW CARROTS pre running are a BAD IDEA. More on this in a minute.

Dinner: I roasted a whole chicken (pros: economical, can make chicken stock! cons: messy, you have to like dark meat, lots of carving) and added asparagus on the side. I was pleased to see the asparagus now is at least from California-- I prefer locally grown stuff, but by this time of winter I'm so desperate for a new vegetable and I love asparagus SO much, that I extend the short season by buying it before it's ready in Washington-- which is still probably a month away.

Crossfit: running was bound to happen eventually. It was clear and crisp outside so I knew when our trainer mentioned the weather we were doomed to run. Our warm up was actually pretty fun: we put weight plates (70 pounds for girls, 90 for boys) on these flat metal squares that had a post in the middle to hold the weight called sleds. The sleds had long straps on them and you put the strap around your waist and then drag the weight behind you. We walked up and down the parking lot forwards, backwards and side-ways down and back twice for each direction. I liked it a lot.

The real workout was a version of Helen:

3x
400 m run
21 kettlebell swings
12 jumping pull-ups.

The real version involves doing that for time as fast as you can with no rest (I seem to remember doing that once and it sucked). This time, the class had 4 women and 3 men, so we did "men vs. women" which wasn't very effective since we weren't really trying to beat the guys so much as just not die while doing it. The girls did the whole thing, and then got to rest while the guys did a circuit, repeat. So I am not a good runner at all, and since I haven't attempted running or any cardio beyond walking for months, I have zero endurance. So even those 1/4 mile runs sucked. Fortunately, another girl who also started the same day as I hates running too and so we kind of stuck together and walked a little in the middle as needed-- it helped not coming in dead last. After the first round of running when we stupidly tried to keep up with the one girl who clearly IS a runner, I felt those raw carrots threatening to make a come back on me. I don't digest raw stuff all that well anyway and clearly eating those an hour before crossfit was a bad move. I did not throw up, but I also held back slightly in order not to do so, which I was bummed about.

I kind of think I might need to make a point to work on running a couple days a week, whether it's part of our WOD (workout of the day) or not so that when it is, it sucks less. Glad at least Spring is almost here-- although it was a little cold, it was nice to be outside.