Challenging the Plan

You plan. You plan your meals and your workouts and you try to make your body predictable. Anticipate that little up and down you'll have during the week. Plan your splurge day. Plan dessert. And most days, your plan works out well. You might sneak a couple pieces of candy that you choose to leave off of your tracker. It won't kill you. Tomorrow's a new day.

But then there's times when your plan goes completely out the window. This was my week.

It's still a challenge for those of us that seem to have it all together. Coming down off of that bought of strep throat has been a challenge. I've finished my antibiotics but still have a little cough. I had zero, I mean absolutely no, energy this week. Not a great thing when you're trying to get pumped for a new workout. And then there's this school thing I'm doing. My brain has had to work harder than it's worked in a long time. Which is great! Don't get me wrong... I'm just not used to being so tired.

Monday I came home and did my first Chalean Extreme workout before getting into school work. It was great. I have a hard time focusing when weight lifting, so having someone telling me exactly what to do helps me focus. It's not that I don't know how to do a deadlift... but I'll start thinking about something else while I'm doing it, lose focus, and it's as if I'm not doing it at all, losing count of my reps and not paying attention to the muscle I should be working. Squats have become super easy for me with my strong legs... but squats with 24 pounds were a challenge. And I needed it. I was sore for two days after and I couldn't have been happier.

Tuesday should have been cardio day. I was exhausted. I have a busy mind anyway, constantly thinking and talking to myself and moving, so add school work into it and it gives me another subject to constantly think about and worry and think... so my day at work trying to focus on the task at hand and fight my own brain into submission was tiring. I got home and thought if I laid down for a half hour, I'd get up and do my workout. I put the DVD in... it said it was 45 minutes... I turned it off. I couldn't do 45 minutes of cardio.

But I think that was because I was still technically sick. It was really okay that I didn't do it because I needed to get well and pushing too hard would be a painful setback. I have a race in 3 weeks and I should really get better. On Tuesday, I ended up doing my school work and then making myself go to bed at 8:50.

Wednesday I went to dance class and found myself coughing a lot. Thursday I did the second lifting workout which yielded sore triceps, back, and hamstrings. Deliciously sore. 

Which is great except when you spend the evening cheering on the Bruins at TD Garden and it hurts to curl your beer to drink it (and the next three too, which were all worth every calorie). And you try to sleep but your arms won't let you lay a certain way. I just felt like everything was out to make me tired.

This morning broke the cycle. I woke up at 6 on my own. I laid there... and thought, You could run right now... nothing's stopping you. And rather than make an excuse I got up, put my hair up, strapped on the sports bra and went for it. I haven't ran for two weeks because of the strep throat, so I gave myself two miles. I got the first mile done in 8:49 which reminds me that my muscles are fine. My endurance is just a little off because I can still feel a twinge in my lungs. The second mile was a little over 10 minutes, but that's collectively under 20 minutes and that makes me feel good. Getting out there before the cars woke up made it easier. Just moving forward and enjoying the music.

My biggest thought as my chest started to hurt was, “They don't make sports bras small enough...”

I haven't talked about food yet. My solid eating foundation got me through this week. Not going to lie, last Sunday I went to Domino's for a medium pineapple and jalapeno pizza with a side of cinnamon sticks. Working all day on school work brought back those boredom hunger pains. I found myself snacking more when I was working on papers and reading. The difference now is I drink a seltzer water with it instead of a coke. And my portions are measured and under control.

Teaching yourself to eat can really help get you through the times when you can't exercise or you really are too busy or too tired. Don't use exercise to eat. Let it be the extra push that helps you burn fat and transform you.

It's funny what happens when you break away from your plan and try something new. A couple weeks ago I had altered my calories on MFP to “lose .5 lbs a week.” I get to eat 1390 now. Not that I wasn't eating that before, but now I get to eat it without working out for it. And I lost weight. I'm super close to seeing that 129 on the scale that I'm looking for :) I don't know what I'm going to do when I get there. It was never part of the plan. Just a happy accident.

 This week in food, I spent most of my time enjoy different ways of eating the things I've been eating all along. Yesterday, I bought bread for the first time in FOREVER at the grocery so that I could eat my veggie burger on a bun. I had some chili still in the fridge, so I topped my veggie burger with chili (which was also vegetarian). I could only eat half of it, which was sort of funny because you put a big ol' cow burger in my hands and I devour it pretty quickly. To quote my friend that went to TGI Friday's with me: “Did you taste it?”

Instead of going to my favorite cafe for breakfast this morning, I decided to make my own pancakes and save on the carbs and calories. Finally tried putting chocolate chips in my banana pancakes. For those of you who forgot how to make these or haven't made them before, all you need is:

 2 eggs

1 banana, sliced

1 serving of mini chocolate chips

½ Tbsp powdered sugar

Blend the eggs and banana together until smooth. Use this as your pancake batter. The only difference with these pancakes is they don't act like pancakes on the griddle, so you need to watch them. A good hot griddle can really help. Pour the batter out and then plop some chocolate chips on top. Sprinkle the whole lot with powdered sugar. A plate full of 6 pancakes costs you only 315 calories and you get 14 grams of protein. To give you some perspective, 4 chocolate chip pancakes at IHOP are 720 calories, twice the fat (at 24g) and almost 15 TIMES THE SODIUM... there's over 2000 mg of sodium in those IHOP pancakes. You don't have to sacrifice the thing you want for a good decision.

I had some more quinoa with salmon and baby bella mushrooms. I finished off the baby bellas Friday night with my handsome gentleman. I made a stir fry with potatoes, zucchini and mushrooms to go with our pork tenderloin. I really love cooking for him. He always shows appreciation.

I'm hoping the week ahead will be a little easier than last week. Probably won't be, since I got two days off this week, so I had most of the afternoon Friday to work on school stuff.

Going to go change my clothes and lift some weights now.