What a week this has been - talk about getting stressed (not good - cortisol - bad news)
So what happened?
I took some time to reflect on Thursday about what had made this week so different to the others. Things had been going great until Monday then everyday seemed to get a little bit harder until I finally broke on Thursday.
It wasn't exactly bad - although training on Wednesday was one of the hardest sessions I have ever had to get through (I was drained and my head was all over the place trying to figure out what was wrong) I still managed to increase the weights and was lifting more than when I was gaining! But something wasn't right and I felt rough.
After getting great results from Carb Cycling - getting leaner, maintaining muscle mass and seeing my abs come through; I got a bit over excited and decided to drop my carbs lower and was just going to have one carb re-feed at the end of the week - Never again!!!
This did not work for me at all - my training frequency and intensity needs to be fuelled with adequate carbs, as does my body, and i dropped to a silly level. It had the opposite effect to what I was getting with Carb Cycling, I was totally fried physically, lost the filled muscles and looked 'puffy'. This sent my mind into overdrive, worrying what was happening - I'd just ruined everything I had worked hard to get from one daft idea. As each day went by the worrying got worse, the fuel reduced and I was in a vicious little cycle - by Thursday everything was fried, physically and mentally I was drained.
So much so I was crazy emotional on Thursday so took the afternoon to relax and switch off from everything - I knew my body was shouting out for a break and some fuel, so I increased my carbs again and came up with a plan of action; to train once on Friday at a lower intensity, get to bed extra early and carb up on Saturday and train my circuit as usual.
It worked a treat :)
By Saturday afternoon I was back to normal - not stressed out, well fuelled and much happier in the gym again. I woke up today lean again with full muscles!!! Happy Days!!
So...this week has really been a massive learning curve for me - it's reiterated how important it is to:
- Listen to my body
- Stick to what is working
- Remember that because something works for one person doesn't mean it will work for me
- To eat according to my goals and training etc
- To never again cut most carbs out of my diet again!! The body doesn't like extremes
- Don't try and fix what isn't broken
Body fat down, and girth measurements showing that I've maintained muscle!!!
Hope you've all had a great weekend - I am now off work for a whole week - the longest break I've had all year, so I can focus everything on the FINAL week of the challenge!!
"Never a failure - Always a lesson"
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