Wednesday Workouts + #WhatIAteWednesday: Week 4
In which I blow past my macros but tell all anyway
Welcome to the fourth and probably final installment of Wednesday Workouts and #WhatIAteWednesday…at least for now. I might come back to it at some point but these posts are actually a lot of work and I’m kind of ready for a break! 😂
So far in this series:
- Week 1: I shared an overview of my fitness and nutrition routine at the moment, including links to my ketogenic macro tapering protocol, DSK, and my strength training workouts from Bret Contreras, and an example of what I ate at a restaurant for a special occasion, New Year’s Eve!
- Week 2: I shared my workouts for the week plus an overview of a typical day of eating for me, including what I ate in the morning, midday, and evening. I also included some bonus info on the supplements I use on a ketogenic way of eating (electrolytes, fish oil, etc)
- Week 3: I shared a day of weekend eating, including movie snacks! I also played around with my rest day timing, doubled up on hot yoga, and got my first unassisted chin-up!!! I never thought that would happen and was so excited when it happened. I’m thinking about writing a post about how to work up to getting your first chin-up, so let me know if you’d like that!
What I ate in a Day
This week, I thought I’d get real with you and share a day in which I blew completely past my macros! 😂 Here’s the thing: I had a pretty great month, all things considered — I hit a lot of PR’s (personal records) on my lifts and mostly stuck to my macros and felt pretty good overall! But, lest you think I am a robot without cravings, I thought I’d share a not-so-perfect day of eating with you this week to show that I’m only human, just like you, and I mess up sometimes, too. But that’s okay. A “secret of adulthood” I’ve learned is:
Yesterday, I was a bottomless pit. Ever have one of those days where you can’t seem to get full? Well, that was me. I was so hungry that I decided I needed to make it a refeed day (which bumps my calories up signficantly, by about 500) and even then I went over by more than 300 calories! I didn’t feel badly about it or myself, though. I kept eating a bit, and then waiting an hour or so to see if I was full before I continued. I listened to my body and I kept feeding it as long as it was truly still hungry (which was pretty much all day long 😂).
Not only did I blow past my calories, my macros were WAY off. I went over my allotted fat by 44g and left 41g of protein on the table. 🤷♀️ Carbs were also way up for me (my usual is 10 total carbs/day).
So…why did this happen?
The ratio being off was probably because I made this delicious Keto Connect Golden Gate Granola (from their Keto Made Easy cookbook, but here’s a similar granola recipe available on their blog) and it was just too damn delicious to stop myself from eating 3 servings. 😋 But up until that point, I just ate what felt right, including two delicious taco bowls with red, yellow, and orange bell peppers, which also helped put me over on my carbs by 31g!
Side-note: as I wrap up DSK and reverse-diet out of my cut, one of my goals is to add more whole foods that I believe to be objectively good for me back into my diet, even if they do contain carbs. Yellow, red, and orange bell peppers are great example — even if they do have ~10 carbs per half cup, I think they’re absolutely delicious and make me feel great, so I’m going to be eating them!
So…what did I learn from this experience? Well, if what I do every day matters more than what I do once in a while, yesterday in and of itself isn’t a big deal. What is potentially a big deal is understanding the root cause of my behavior and whether or not it is something I need to address or just understand it for what it was before moving on.
Upon reflecting, I’d say that this day of overeating was a long time coming. I’ve been in a caloric deficit for months, and I’ve been lifting heavier and heavier week over week. While I’ve been careful to incorporate rest days, on the days I work out, I’ve been adding in warm-up and cool-downs that arguably could be workouts of their own (15 min. of treadmill sprint intervals or peloton rides, for example), and I’ve been working on my chin-ups too. Plus, a high fat, low carb, ketogenic diet is restrictive in nature and psychologically that starts to add up.
So, my calories have been low, I haven’t really had many “treats” or given in to cravings, and my workouts have been tough. Additionally, my sleep, while routine, has not as deep or restorative as usual. I have a tendency to start experiencing tightening with my routines, and while I love getting up early to follow my morning routine of coffee and reading before my workout, I have noticed in the last week or so that my usual 5:30 AM wakeup had inched up to 5:15. Then it was 5:00, and soon I was waking up at 4:45, 4:30, and even 4:15 once! Then, I’m counterbalancing rising early with more and more coffee, so it’s probably also time to start cutting back on caffeine again too.
I was also waking up in the middle of the night around 2 AM most nights. While some of that could be explained from reaching the lowest calorie point in my DSK program / cut, it also suggested I was stressed out and overdoing it somewhere. Sleeping poorly was not allowing for enough recovery, and that combined with failing to address other sources of stress definitely probably contributed to my hunger during the day. So, altogether, it’s not really surprising to me that I went off the rails a little yesterday.
Since I understand the contributing factors, and I’m right back on plan today, I feel fine with what happened. I also am proud that (at least up til the granola got out of hand 😂) I really did listen to my body over my macro app or spreadhseet. This is one of the first times I’ve been able to be a little bit more natural with my food intake and not feel guilt about it, which is a big step forward for me!
As I continue to off-board/reverse-diet out of my cut, I will be giving more thought and energy to how I want to transition from tracking everything I put in my mouth to eating more “inutively” (though I kind of hate that word in relationship to food for some reason). Yesterday was a good experience to start processing that some more. I found a great post by another blogger about her experience transitioning from counting macros to eating intuitively and I’m eager to learn more from others who have managed the transition well!
Okay, anywho, what all DID I eat yesterday?? Here you go, in all of its 2,000+ calorie glory:
AM:
- 5:30-ish: 2 cups black coffee
- 10 AMish? — 2 oz kielbasa sausage & 1 hardboiled egg with 1 tsp mayo
- 1 hour-ish later: 2 oz jarlsberg cheese, Oatmeal cookie fat bomb, 1 duke’s shorty sausage (these were maybe spread out over an hour or two, kept going back for more when I was still hungry…upon reflection, it would have probably been more filling to just make a big plate of bacon and eggs than to do these little snacks).
Mid-day
- ~ 1 PM: Homemade Bone Broth (didn’t even track this so I’m sure my macros are higher than I showed above). I make my bone broth in my instant pot using the recipe from nomnompaleo!
- ~1 hour later: 1 oz pepperoni jerky (bought at Kroger)
- Golden Gate Granola from Keto Connect — 3 1/4-cup servings spread over 1–2 hours late afternoon. 🤦♀️ Probably also snuck a few more mini handfuls later. (Note to self / all who track food: WTF with lying to yourself? There is literally no one to hurt but yourself and your own progress. Duh.)
PM:
- Dinner ~ 7:30 PM: Made chipotle-at-home more or less. Had two taco bowls and enjoyed every bite — included: lettuce, 73–23 ground beef with primal palate taco seasoning, sharp cheddar cheese, pico de gallo, sauteed bell peppers, green onion, a little avocado, and sour cream. 😋 This was my first time having higher carb veggies like peppers and avocado in months and they were amazing!
- ~ 9 PM: Finally stopped eating and had a cup of tea!
So…not my best day of eating… but certainly not my worst either (thinks back to days of binge-eating pre-macro tracking 🤔 …) but this morning I tested my blood glucose and it was 78 and my ketones and they were 1.2 so I was still in ketosis and I slept through the night without waking and slept til 6:15!
Then, I had a fantastic workout and hit PRs in every single move. So, I was happy to take those extra calories and put them into sleeping really well, feeling great, and improving my lifts! 💪 Also, I think overeating from time to time can provide a good psychological release and a subsequent recommitment to your goals. Obviously it’s better if that’s a planned break and a carefully executed re-feed like DSK prescribes, but, I’m not going to beat myself up about it. 🤷♀️
Workouts this week
Moving on to workouts!! As usual for me at the moment, I worked out 5 days and took 2 rest days. Here’s what I did this week:
Thursday January 17 — rest day
Friday, January 18 —
- Warmup: 15 min on treadmill: 5 min. incline walk, then 10 min. interval jog/sprints.
- Booty by Bret (BBB) Month 5, Week 3, Day 3 Workout — deadlift specialization month — week 3 is when I really start to love my programming because I know all of the moves well and can focus on trying to set PRs with weight or improved form!
- Cool-down: Day 3 of my pull-up routine from Bret:
Saturday, January 19 — Advanced Power Vinyasa Flow at Harbor Yoga
- Not sure why, but this class was a total sweat fest this week, even more than usual. Literally dropped 4.5 lb of water weight. Had to supplement electrolytes big time afterwards! (Don’t worry with my weird eating this week, my weight is right back to normal 😂)
Sunday, January 20 —
I wanted to do another double yoga weekend like last week, but, we got hit with a blizzard and black ice so I decided to stay home and workout on my own instead. Here’s what I did:
- Warmup: 15 min on treadmill: 5 min. incline walk, then 10 min. interval jog/sprints.
- Booty by Bret (BBB) Month 5, Week 4, Day 1Workout — deadlift specialization month — This is final week of the month so it’s all about setting PRs — I was able to PR in my stiff leg deadlift and my back squat!
- Cool-down: Day 1of the pull-up routine from Bret above.
Monday, January 21 — rest day?
Tuesday, January 22 —
- Warmup: 15 min. peloton ride — cycling
- Booty by Bret (BBB) Month 5, Week 4, Day 2 Workout — deadlift specialization month — set PR’s in every single move today including a lifetime PR on my hipthrust: 1x10 at 163lb! (probably because I had a lot of extra energy from my off-plan eating the day before! ha!)
Wednesday, January 23 —
I went into today planning on a rest day because I’ve been liking doing a lift day, rest day, lift day, rest day, lift day, followed by yoga on weekends…but then I had so much energy and decided that since I’d had my big day of eating 2 days ago and we went out with friends last night, so I’m sure I also had some extra energy from that, to just go for it and rest tomorrow instead.
- Warmup: 10 minutes on treadmill: 4 min. incline walk, then 6 min progressive endurance jog on treadmill (inched up from 5.0 to 6.0 by .2 every 30 seconds or so).
- Booty by Bret (BBB) Month 5, Week 4, Day 2 Workout — wrapped up the deadlift specialization month today with deadlift and B-stance hipthrust PRs!
- Cool-down: 10 min. incline walk on treadmill + 10 min. of foam rolling and static stretching (think I need to rest the pull-up muscles a bit).
This month has been a great chance to focus on my routine with fitness and food and practice consistency. I’ve not been perfect, but I’ve definitely made progress. I feel strong physically and mentally and to me, that’s the goal at the end of the day! What are you doing to feel healthy and strong in 2019? 💪
If you liked this month-long series of #WorkoutWednesdays / #WhatIateWednesday le tme know by “clapping” below or at the side. I am happy to do more posts like this in the future!
