Defiant Athlete: Week 16

This week has been an exercise in figuring out how my body works when I’m emotionally and physically exhausted.

I could have blown all of this off this week. Easily. Without looking back. Instead, I found myself wanting the gym. Craving it. The activity made me feel better. Like, really better. It helped me think, when I really needed to, which was pretty awesome.

On the other hand, I’m not sick. Flu sick. I have no idea if exercising when you’re exhausted inside and out can make you sick. I don’t feel like I pushed hard enough to compromise my immune system or something. I think it’s a coincidence.

I ordered some exercise gloves, because pull-ups hurt my hands. I really like them.

They run big, so make sure if you buy them that you use the measuring advice on the Amazon page. I have really big hands and would have automatically ordered an extra large, but went by the measurements and got a large. They’re almost too big.

I’ll finish week two of the DAC2S program today, if I feel up to it. I feel pretty good about the walking. I still (still!) can’t walk for any amount of time at 3 mph without getting a cramp in my right calf, which throws off my gait and makes my left hip hurt, too. On Thursday I stayed at 2.8 mph and did four 1 minute intervals at 3.2 mph and didn’t have any pain. Maybe I need to ease into walking faster.

I think that my inability to adhere to a gluten-free diet is part of the problem. Gluten can cause muscle cramps in people who are intolerant. It also causes people who shouldn’t eat gluten to not absorb all of the vitamins and nutrients from their food, which can cause all kinds of problems.

I’m two full days gluten-free this morning. This may be contributing to my feeling like something crawled into my body and died, as my body detoxes. Trying to get back to normal may also be contributing to other things that have made this week just really, really suck. I’m not blaming it  all on gluten, but not feeling 100 percent makes it more difficult to handle it when things go all off the rails.

This week was one of the worst I’ve ever had. Training helped. It gave me a schedule, which was sorely needed. It gave me endorphins and other feel good brain chemistry that were totally essential. Not feeding myself in a way that supports my health over the last few weeks made this week worse than it needed to be. Detoxing sucks, but I know I’ll feel better soon.