Kickboxing Chic’s BodyBlog

While I’m fully aware of the importance the role nutrition plans in one’s training program, it has really smacked me in the face lately. My extreme levels of fatigue and exhaustion the past couple months are not so much due to lack of restful sleep as they are my nutrition. I’ve come to realize that I’ve literally been living off fumes since I started training again after my daughter was born. While I’m eating very healthy, my caloric intake has not been enough to fuel my current lifestyle. For starters, breastfeeding burns about 500 calories a day. My second baby is a good eater (better than my first), so I can’t assume the same calorie needs as my first baby. Secondly, the way I train results in high metabolic rates both during and after exercise. So my caloric burn from training is probably pretty high when you look at it throughout the day. Lastly, my daily activities are far from sedentary. Since I have been off work (not sitting at a computer for a good part of the day) and spend most of my day keeping up with family needs, my caloric burn from daily activities is higher than normal. My daily caloric intake has been what I consider “normal” for me. But what I’ve come to realize is with my current lifestyle, I have a new “normal”.

So if I want to keep up the same training regimen and be able to breastfeed my baby until 6 months or so, then I need to increase my caloric intake.  Here’s my plan to do that:

·         I’ll increase it slowly, little by little until I find the right balance to fuel my daily activities and still maintain my lean, fit self. Today I’ll shoot for 1750. When I start feeling less fatigued/exhausted, then I’ll know what’s a good calorie level for me.

·         I’ll stick with my current nutrition plan. I’ll just be eating more of what I’m currently eating, especially protein.

·         Don’t be afraid of food… as long as they are good choices.

While this nothing new for me and I preach it to others, finding the right nutritional needs for me personally all came together for me the past few days. What really sealed the deal for me was this morning’s workout. At 8:00pm last night, I didn’t hit the calorie mark I wanted to for the day. So I had a 6^th meal of primarily protein. A 6^th meal is not something I normally do. As a result, I had a decent night sleep and felt really good during my workout this morning. In fact, I hit some new highs in some of the exercises in my current metabolic circuit! Granted, I popped a marshmallow Peep just before I started, which probably helped a bit. But I think it was the additional calories the night before that set me up well for my workout this morning.

 I’ve come to realize my metabolism is higher than I thought, and no “dah”… look at what I need to fuel on a daily basis! All this is good learning and has taught ME a lot about ME. You can use the latest fad diets or try to follow exactly what someone else is doing. But in the end, they may not work for you. You need address your own lifestyle and do lots of reflecting to recognize what works for you.

Going forward, I’ll be keeping my fuel tank at least half full… no more surviving on fumes.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 16th, 2009 at 11:59 am and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.