Weekend the First

First, a happy update.  One week into this little experiment in changing my life (you can just TASTE my understatement in that phrase.  Also, eating metaphors are impossible to avoid), and I am down to 293 pounds.  That's  down 10 for those counting at home.  Good news!  Also, except for one evening I am going to talk about below, I stayed pretty true to the plan.  Lots of fruits and veggies consumed, including some of the best stir fry I've ever made! (The secret, I think, is ginger.)

The real struggle came Saturday night when I wanted to be social.  As with many, most of my friends like to eat and drink, particularly when we're hanging out together.  I tried the abstinence route at first, thinking I would just forge through, but ultimately my personality and need to be jovial and fun-loving battered my defenses.  I decided to blur the lines.

I did pick the path of lesser harm, and avoided items with sugar and lots of salt, so there was that.  But I could tell immediately that my body wasn't ready or willing to handle the change.  I also stayed up WAY too late (a quick nap, like 5-10 minutes, does wonders for my ability to keeping going...) and by the next mid-morning, I felt sick.  Sorta like a slight hangover, just with less headache and more general queasiness.  Which, honestly, wasn't so bad.

HOWEVER.  Sunday afternoon, I went to play ultimate.  I plan a future post on why ultimate frisbee is a driving force in my desire to change, but if you don't know what it is. here's a quick link.  There's a group that plays every Sunday.  It's a variety of the sport that I like a little less, but it's pretty low-key and my lack of stamina doesn't stand out as much.  On the other hand, there's no subs, and you can pretty much keep moving the entire time if you're up to it.  I'm generally not, but hang out on defense when I'm tired.  At any rate, about 50 minutes in, I crashed.  I had nothing left.  I could manage a weak jog up and down the field, but I had no spring and my usually soft hands turned into hardwood.  I stayed for the last while, but felt worse and worse each minute.  Most disturbing, my knees, which had NOT been painful for the previous 3-4 days started to ache like the pre-change days.

Now. I don't know the medical reasons for any of this.  I could have been dehydrated, or fatigued from the less-than-stellar sleep of the night before.  It could just be that my new eating pattern hasn't completely kicked in and it's harder for my body to burn energy.  But either way, it felt a lot like failure, and with the summer league ultimate tourney coming up in a few weeks, pretty concerning.  Afterward, I went home and pretty well crashed.  I slept off and on all evening and barely moved.  Then, I went to bed.

That day officially starts my exercise goal, too.  We'll see about Monday.  The only goal is a mile brisk walk, but I also have summer league on Tuesday and I don't want my knees to feel like they did Sunday...  On the other hand, that's the reason I often find for not continuing regular exercise (the "I gotta heal" routine!)  Maybe I should push through?  I guess we'll find out.