I've wanted to sit down to write so many times during the last few days but I just haven't had the time.
My body has felt... a little rough this week. Part of it is that I'm working out so often, and I think the other part has to do with supplementation. After my first couple runs I began to notice what I thought were some indications of rising cortisol levels. My husband has been taking l-glutamine for a couple weeks and it's supposed to be good for a lot of things like healing the gut, muscle building, workout recovery, and managing cortisol levels, so I started taking it.
The last couple days, however, I've been feeling 'off'. A few dizzy spells, quite tired, having a hard time getting motivated to work out, feeling especially sore, not recovering as well as I was, etc. Earlier this week I happened to listen to a podcast where the person being interviewed mentioned that even though glutamine is good for healing the gut, some people have to be careful because it's a GABA precursor. I probably can't do a very good job explaining the neuro-endocrine side of how it all fits together, but the way I've been feeling leads me to believe that it's the l-glutamine that's making me feel weird. I've stopped taking it for now and I'll see if my situation improves.
In light of how I've been feeling this week, yesterday's run was a slog. I didn't want to go, had no motivation to do it, barely dragged my behind out of the house, and did the bare minimum required to get it done. I knew going into training that I'd have some days like that so I'm just glad that I got the miles in. I also took Monday as a rest day and cut back on my assistance work after my weights session tonight. Tomorrow's another day, though, and hopefully my brain chemistry will return to normal soon so I can start feeling a little better!
There must be something going on around the paleo blogging community lately because I've seen two blog posts about this recently... the need to adjust one's thinking and behaviors surrounding food. One is from Primal Kitchen and the other from AndreAnna. It seems I've started taking the attitude that since I've worked out I should be eating larger portions because "of course I need to have plenty of food to recover properly"!
I've been tracking my intake for months now, and what I've realized lately is that I'll eat to fulfill my calorie allotment even when I'm not hungry. Even when I'm stuffed, I'll finish my portion because I've already counted it into my allowance. I really want to shift towards a more intuitive based style of eating. I'm not sure how this will end up looking when all is said and done, but expect to see a few more posts about working towards that goal. I started this morning. When I woke up I wasn't hungry, so I had some broth and didn't eat until lunch. At lunch I had a snack sized portion of food, and then ate my lunch when I came home because my stomach was growling. After years of not being able to trust my body's hunger signals, it's going to take awhile to learn how to respond to them.
Luckily I've got plenty of opportunity to figure it out!
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