For the past month, I've been trying to stick to a low carb, high protein diet. This was in response to two things. After hitting my goal weight last fall, I've pretty much been in maintenance mode. I tried a little bit during the winter and early spring months to lose a little more weight but didn't really get anywhere since I was also eating for my Blue Ridge Marathon training. With the marathon out of the way, I felt I could be a little more aggressive with dieting. I also noticed, especially during April, that even though I was staying within an acceptable range of my goal weight (basically goal +5 lbs), my weight was always at or above that goal and I'd rather be bouncing both above and below the goal. The other goal though is to get my body fat percentage down a little bit lower than where it is. Which means trying to get my body to burn more fat.
With the build-up phase of my current marathon training plan coming to a conclusion this weekend and my next marathon only two weeks away, I'm thinking it is time to get some more carbs back into my diet in preparation for the marathon. Of course, I started this off by going full-bore cheat mode and enjoying some "empty" carbs last night in the form of some cookies and popcorn (popcorn probably being my favorite food, which I have not enjoyed since starting this diet) - treats for me for making it through a whole month of this diet. Over the next couple weeks, I'll work on including more appropriate and healthy carbs, but last night was just some fun.
One thing I will say is that I think I may have been right on the edge of overdoing it, at least last weekend when I did my long run. Afterward, I was experiencing some hypoglycemic symptoms for about a day. So... good for weight loss, maybe not so good for exercising. Which is why I do need to be sure this low carb diet is temporary and I return to something more balanced once I reach my goals.
A couple interesting things happened in response to last night's carb binging. Of course, my weight spiked up a bit this morning. That was not unexpected. The good news is even with the spike, my weight is still below my old goal weight. Pretty much for the past three weeks, I've been at or below goal +2 the whole time and much of it has been below goal, so the diet is definitely working. (Note that besides the mix of macronutrients I have been restricting calories as well).
The other thing that happened though is starting in the middle of the night and into this morning, I feel absolutely yucky. Part of it is a bit of a stomach ache and the rest is just an overall feeling of yuckiness in my body. I'm guessing this is because my blood sugar has gone all wonky on me with the big spike in carbs last night. So I'll have to work through that over the next couple days.
The positive I'm taking away from it though is that I've managed to reach a point with my diet where the low carb/high protein (which in reality was more like a balanced plan with the fat) had become somewhat normal for me. That seems to always be the challenge with diets - sticking with them long enough for them to become a new "regular" way of eating. As I mentioned earlier though, I'm not sure how healthy it is long term or in connection with strenuous activity. The plan will be to slowly and slightly move carbs back into the diet.
The other positive I'm taking away from it is that I'm glad I did this now rather than closer to the marathon. Having my body react like this is a learning experience and it will give me time over the next couple weeks to hopefully transition a little more smoothly so I can be ready for the marathon without dealing with extra health issues.
That kind of brings me to the point of this entry - other than just sharing. It is to always be sure to test things out during your training plan rather than trying something new during a race or event. Had I stuck with the diet all the way up to the marathon and then tried to carbo load the night before, I'd be in some big trouble for the marathon.
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