Monday February 18, 2013

Workout: P90x chest/back
Weight: 129.4

I'm back to weighing myself everyday because the amount of water I'm retaining is driving me crazy.  My weight fluctuates sometimes 4lbs over night.  So I'm weighing and actually graphing it this time to watch for an overall trend.

I've been keeping up with my swimming 2-3x/week and some sort of resistance training 3x/week.  Since being entirely gluten free, I've gone back to p90x and have done well with it - in terms of the pain issues I was having in my shoulder and elbow.  My swimming has improved a lot.  I feel much more comfortable with the front crawl and I'm more fluid and faster with it.  Previous to last week, I was good if I did 1000yds in 35 minutes.  I'm now doing 1000yds alternating breast 100yds & crawl 100yds in 30 minutes.

I've been almost completely gluten free now for a couple of weeks and I can tell.  I have been sleeping much better and deeper at night, my aches are minimal and usually associated with the difficulty of my resistance workouts... therefore they are more muscle aches than joint aches.  Last Monday was the first time I did p90x chest/back after a few weeks off from doing any kind of pushups, and I was SORE until at least Thursday.  But my shoulder and elbow have calmed down a lot - my shoulder is still weak and still hurts a lot while doing pushups, but its not as debilitating.

However.

Last night we took the girls to Dairy Queen and had ice cream.  I was not thinking.  I have been so good with being gluten free - I've had GF pizza from aurelios, I've had GF pizza from Trader Joe's (better and cheaper than aurelios), I've been very careful and I've felt the difference.  But I didn't think about it and the cone of my ice cream cone has resulted in a horrible night and day.  Last night I woke up at 2:30 and if I slept at all between then and 6:00 when I finally got out of bed, it was very minimal or very restless because I felt like I was awake the entire time.  Today, my shoulder and elbow are on fire again after my workout, my hips are terrible and my fingers are terrible.  It is amazing to me how that little bit makes such a huge difference.

I am glad that it happened, though, because we are going on vacation next week and I've already been contemplating just giving in and dealing with the consequences of eating gluten while we're there.  But this reminder is setting my mind straight.  I will continue to be as careful as possible while there, because this is not worth it.

Thursday February 7, 2013

Workout: 1100 yds swim
weight: ?

Went to the gym this morning and swam.  Alternated 100yds breast / 100yds crawl.  It was enjoyable - I'm definitely getting faster and more fluid with my crawl stroke.  I did 100yds backstroke (frog style) as a cool down, which is so relaxing.

I had a small square of ghiradelli dark chocolate yesterday.  Before I bought it I looked at the ingredients and soy was bolded.  I figured it wouldn't be an issue.  But I did not sleep well again last night.  And when I say that, I mean I sleep most of the night, but I can tell when I wake up (at 4:45 for no reason) that it was a restful sleep.  Hard to describe, but I feel it in my eyes.  Other than chocolate the only other thing that I ate that could perhaps be questioned was a corn tortilla.  But I don't think that should be an issue.  

My neck is also achier than it has been in the last couple of days.

Today I had half of a Corner Bakery salad with minimal dressing.  The salad itself is fine - chopped salad: greens, bacon, bleu cheese, avocado, tomato.  From what I read online, all of their salad dressings are GF, so hopefully (fingers crossed) i won't have a sleeping issue tonight.  Hoping that whatever I had yesterday was not enough to have to work out of my system over several days.

Wednesday February 6, 2013

Catch up

Last week, I swam on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.  I did not workout on the other days as I was really trying to focus on eliminating gluten from my diet and sleeping.  The last time I had gluten was Sunday January 27th and it has taken me this long to start sleeping better and feeling better.  I could tell I was beginning to sleep better by the weekend, but last week I was still very achy in my neck, hands, fingers and hips.  

Last night I slept really, really well - deep, restfully, only woken up briefly by the dog.  Prior to the last 2 nights, my sleep was not that way - I felt like most of the night I was in that half sleep/half awake feeling.  I didn't feel rested at all.  I was waking up randomly every night once or twice and having a hard time getting back to sleep.

Over the last 2-3 days I've noticed my neck pain (arthritis) is gone.  My fingers do not hurt, my hips do not hurt, my wrists do not hurt.  My elbow and shoulder pain are less.

If this blood test does not show a sensitivity to gluten, I will be shocked.  Shocked, I tell you.  My food journal and observations seem pretty clear.

At the end of last week I pretty much felt sorry for myself and mourned the loss of gluten. No more pizza.  No more granola (actually, Jan 27th wasn't my last gluten... I mistakenly had some in granola on Wed and then there must have been some in the salad dressing I had at the Karners on Saturday).  Its going to be hard to eat out at a restaurant, etc.  But based on the difference I feel in my body, I'm willing to give it up.

Over the weekend I decided I needed to get serious about actually TRYING to lose these 5-7 pounds that I gained over the summer (my beer weight).  So I started counting calories again on Monday and have hit the workouts hard.  I'm staying below 1500 cal/day and working out everyday.

Monday - deck of cards + 2 miles on the treadmill

tricep dips, burpees, weighted squats, super skaters (ran a mile before & after)

Tuesday - 1050 yds swimming (35:00): 500 breast, 500 crawl, 50 back

Today - deck of cards + 2 miles

tricep dips, weighted sumo squats, lunges and twisted mountain climbers

I've gotten better at the swimming.  Prior to saturday I was consistently swimming 1000 yds in 35ish minutes.  Saturday I swam 1000yds in 30 minutes so I did an extra 200 yds.  I love it now and really look forward to it.  Its great to see progress, too.

Starting weight (Monday February 4th): 131.2

Going to the Dominican Republic on February 23rd - hoping to be a lot closer to 125 by then!