Rest…reeest…rest…

Food Log.

I woke up this morning feeling even more tired than the day before.  Just an overall state of exhaustion, it’s almost as if my body has been go hard for so long that slowing down is actually pulling an internal emergency brake, and a parachute is going to fly out of my ass, haha I know it’s going to be a big parachute. 

Most of my day was spent caring for my mother.  She’s starting to go stir crazy from being trap in her house all day long, and she’s not happy I don’t come by until after 9 AM, obviously a woman who has been getting up at 4 AM for 30 years is getting bored at home in between waking up and my regal arrival.

She is making rapid improvement in her flexibility, and strength.  If I could just get her to rest, I think the swelling would subside even more.  Gee, that sounds familiar I wonder where I get my work ethic from?

My eating was ok.  I am trying to stay on my meal plan more stringently this week because of my lack of physical exertion, but after day 1 I failed that test.   My breakfast, and snacks worked out well, yet I still had two meals which weren’t prepared by me.  Lunch was had at another Korean restaurant, but I only ate meat and vegetables, in my estimation somewhere between 800-900 calories.  This solely based on how full I felt. 

Dinner I had with my mother at Legal Seafood where I ordered a tuna fillet which was only seared on the outside, with the inside left raw.  I asked them not to finish the fish with anything, and for my side I had steamed uncorrupted broccoli.  The tuna was about 6 oz.  As a whole for the day I ate probably less than 2000 calories.  Still a success in terms of intake but I know I consumed more sodium then I normally do, because I have been drinking lots of water all day, and just not feeling hydrated.

By the time I finished my mother’s evening Physical Therapy Session, and got home it was 8:30 PM.   I had no desire to do any physical activity so I didn’t do any cardio, in fact I didn’t even take my dog out for a walk.  I just let him poop, and piss off my back patio.  The days I don’t walk my dog, are the days I know I am truly worn out. 

In only my second day of “rest” I am not feeling any better, and with three workouts scheduled for tomorrow, I don’t know where I am going to find the juice to do them.  Is this normal, in trying to recover, does everyone get more tired before they start to feel better?  I am very concerned that I have reached some obese limbo. 

It has caused me to reevaluate my environment, my activities, and my outlook on this whole quest.  I read an interesting post on Tom Venuto’s website.  This was suggested to me by Leslie who posted on my blog two days ago.  It can be read here.  I was directed to read his 5 factors for effective fat loss, the item which I found most interesting was point 4, cycling of calories.  Essentially he says that you have to zigzag your caloric intake, meaning to cycle the overall consumption of calories from deficit periods to lose fat, up to maintenance level calories, and sometimes over your maintenance consumption level.   I have to assume this helps to trick your body, and that this change in calories is coupled with cycling your workouts. 

Change is an important factor in developing your body whether it is weight loss, or muscle gain.  Our bodies are highly effective at adapting to stress, that if we continue to stress it in the same way we lose all progress.

 Maybe I’ve answered my own question, perhaps I am at a point where my body is ready just to be beaten up, and by not working out it is releasing the tension of preparing to be beaten.  I am completely pulling that out of my ass but it makes sense to me somehow.  I am perhaps using this thought as a way of not becoming depressed, but maybe it’s the truth.

Going to try to get to bed early, hopefully I will feel better in the morning.