Better sore, than injured.

Today is my 4th day taking on the Leangains nutrition schedule. I must say that this morning was difficult. I knew it was coming, though. For.the last three days, I have followed an 16 hour fasted state, along with an 8 hour feeding window. This was going pretty alright the first two days, but yesterday I was beginning to feel a little bloated during my feeding, and counting the minutes until the end of my daily fast.

Today I woke up with full intention to continue going about it this way, but around 9am, hunger hit. It hit hard. So hard I felt like I was depriving myself of nurishment.  It’s not like I was craving fries and a latte. I wanted clean, nutritious food. And water.

After debating if changing my course was a cop out or not, I strongly decided to open my feeding window, instead of giving up. I’m going to try a 14 hour fast with a 10 hour feeding window. This is sometimes recommended for Leangains or intermittent fasting females, anyway, so why not try it. I enjoyed a healthy early lunch at 10:15 a.m. and was satisfied until about 2p.m. I continued to follow the rest of the guidelines, and even stick with my recommended dose of additional fiber. Opening the feeding window took some stress off the timeframe, and gave me more time to actually enjoy and eat intuitively. I like 14:10 ALOT MORE.

Things are getting easier to plan, ahead of time. I am even getting better at identifying fats, carbs, protiens, and my micronutrients, to better reach my daily goal. Macros are getting pretty easy. Even if I don’t stick with intermittent fasting for the long haul, and give it up one day, I really want to keep a macro goal style of diet. I’ve heard alot about IIFYM, but hey, one thing at a time!

Today was a scheduled strength training day. My body is sore. I was sore hours after Mondays workout. I was sore alllllll day yesterday. And I’m sore now. I’m not crazy enough to force a workout with a body that just is not ready to give it’s all. Training for weightloss, or anything for that matter, is a very tricky thing. You want to continue with the momentum, but sometimes it’s smart to hold back until you can really provide the right intensity, stamina, or endurance. With my legs feeling like ice picks, there was no way I would have been able to properly deadlift, or power squat. No way! Injuries can happen. Sure, I could have put up and half ass it, but that’s not what I’m here for. It’s all or nothing! That attitude has propelled me into shedding 33 pounds, and finally with a mindset to keep it off.

My arms weren’t nearly as sore as my legs, back, and midsection, but it’s just smart to keep the workout intact, and not chop it up too much.

So I skipped a workout.

Tomorrow will be the day. I’ll bring my A game. I’m actually excited because I truly look forward to strength training days.

Here’s a look at today’s nutrition stats:

I was golden for calorie consumption, fiber, and water intake. I came up short on carbs… which is not a bad thing, especially since I was invited to dinner at Olive Garden tonight with my family. Protein could have been better

Overall, since I altered my feeding window, went out to dinner( during the feeding window), and didn’t work out, I’d say it equals out just fine.