Kate

Lately, I’ve gone through cycles of high energy and low energy. Today, I’m tired and have no desire to stop at the gym on the way home from work. I go through periods of eating well, following my plan and exercising. Then I go through a few days (usually after not eating so well) of feeling tired, worn out and down in the dumps a bit. It’s such a strange thing…

My guess is that it has something to do with the food I’m eating. I understand I am putting my body under more stress than I have in a while. This is obvious in the intensity of my workouts and the mental exhaustion from keeping on track. I understand the feeling of fatigue from working out and know when to curb my enthusiasm. These other feelings though are not so much a product of intense exercise, but they seem to effect me after I have an off day eating small amounts of the less healthier fare.

Every few days, I eat off my plan because of being out and not having control over the meal. I try to stick with the best choices, but sometimes a few tortilla chips or a hot dog slips in. Believe me, I’m not getting on my own case because I know how careful I’ve been these past 4-5 weeks in choosing foods even when I have few options. I don’t want to be strict about how I eat, I worry about eating disorders and becoming obsessive about it. So, I try to cut myself some slack while doing the best I can.

What happens is that I have a few small things and feel fine at the time. The next day though I start to feel exhausted and tired. I begin to lack motivation and start to believe I cannot achieve my goals because of feeling so tired. I don’t feel bad about the food I ate, I just get right back on the horse when I leap off of it. So, it’s not guilt or feeling like I can’t do it because I slipped up. It’s more than that… Some days, I even crave more carbs/sugars/breads in order to serve some need in my body. I was reading in our forums here that others have had similar experiences and found that it may be a lack of protein that caused these cravings.

I have been keeping a detailed log of my eating habits for weeks now. I have found I have done well sticking with a 20% fat, 40% protein, 40% carb mix. I sometimes think I’m eating a lot, but probably ate the same amount before and have no clue what the mix was. There are days in there where I stopped logging or had no clue what to log from eating away from home or packaged meals I’ve made. Usually, after these types of days… I feel like this today. Yesterday was one of those days.

I also went grocery food shopping yesterday with my mom. I find the store prices are making me stressed. We can afford the food we buy, but I feel guilty eating so much or buying the more expensive foods because they are better for me. My husband doesn’t care what he eats, as long as it tastes good. I on the other hand have been stressed planning out 6 meals a day, making sure the ratios are good and keeping a steady stream of protein in my plan. I’m considering cutting back my meals to half-sizes or cutting calories a bit. This would do me well anyway because I’m not really losing weight but maintaining on about a 2,000kcal a day.

So, I’m just up and down lately. I feel great motivation some days and like I’m on fire! Other days, like today (clouds & rain don’t help!) I feel like going home, lying down and thinking over things a little more. I hope to some day escape my food journal and be able to just figure it out mentally without such stress. Taking on bodybuilding has been scary, exciting, nervewrecking and interesting to say the least! I have enjoyed everything I’ve learned and worry if I’ll ever make my goals, change my body size/shape and be able to maintain this for life. I wish I would be able to just hire people to figure all these things out for me, but I’ll just stick with spending my money on the right foods!

Do you ever feel up and down with your workouts?
Do you notice foods trigger moods or feelings of tiredness?

I’m going to research these things online to find out more. I’m sure the hot dog and macaroni & cheese I had at lunch (we had a weenie roast here for fun!) is contributing to my mood today. The food was great, but I’ve got to really either give 100% to a major change or just stay average… I’m torn.

P.S. just writing this, I’m starting to feel more motivation…