Cartilage Damage, Metabolic Damage and No More Sugar Cravings!

Hi everyone!!  It brings me great pleasure to tell you guys that my knee is FINE!!!!!

I had an MRI last Monday and it turns out that I had/ have a Baker’s cysts that ruptured at some point causing the pain and swelling in my knee.  I assume that the initial pain while I was training for my bikini competitions and the severe pain when I was running the Run to Remember half marathon was actually from tight IT bands.  But at some point along the way the ruptured cyst also took place.

However there is a little damage that has been done to the tissues in my right knee (and probably my left too – I mean I wouldn’t be surprised) due to overuse.  This is no surprise as I workout 6 days a week.  Granted I do take days where I do light cardio and yoga but I do something 6 days a week without fail.

But while I was training for my bikini competitions I stepped it up and would do more stepmill work or ride the bike longer after doing my circuit training.  Working out at that level for a sustained period of time does absolutely no good.  I stayed lean after my bikini competitions, but that’s due mostly to the fact that I continue to eat clean.  It’s hard on your body and my knee told my body to back off.  I listened.

Recently I’ve been doing more research on metabolic damage and adrenal fatigue.  Not that I think I suffer from it but I’ve been doing the research moreso to help clients.  Basically if you work out a lot then you want to get leaner so you work out more and/ or eat less thinking you’ll get leaner.  Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t.  Then you decide you want to get leaner and you workout more and you eat less.  This can just spiral out of control.  After you train 12 weeks for a bikini competition you should absolutely take some time off.  Sure, continuing to Eat Clean and continuing on a workout program are really good things, but it should not be at such a high intensity.

If this is done for a sustained period of time you could eventually begin to suffer from metabolic damage and your body will just STOP burning fat amongst sooooo many other awful symptoms.  If you want to know more do yourself a favor and listen to this webinar from Metabolic Effect.   I think this is something that if I had continued down the path I was on, would be something that could eventually happen to me and that is something I really do not want!!!!!

So basically, I think that the ruptured cyst was a blessing. It got me into the orthopedic’s office to find out what was going on inside my body.  It got me to take almost 2 full weeks off, well I did lift a couple of days, I did yoga once and I took my dog on nice long walks, but I totally scaled it way back.  My body needed it and would not have done it otherwise.  Now I know I need to give my body more recovery between workouts, especially after this week because my goals and workout schedule is completely changing.

Now, the other huge transition I have made….

While I was really scaling back my workouts I started toying around with cutting starches and adding fat to my diet.  I’m not a pasta or bread kind of girl anyway, but my morning oatmeal is non-negotiable.  And I figured that if my workouts are not going to be intense then why do I need the starch?  Why do I need the fruit?  What are they going to fuel?

Well the oatmeal is non-negotiable because a. I LOVE MY GISG OATS and b. because when I wake up I go straight to work where I chase clients around a gym with heavy dumbbells and demonstrate push ups for hours.  My oatmeal and berries 100% fuel to my working hours.  I don’t have a normal sit on my ass all day job.  And with my workouts not being intense, or even existent some days, I wouldn’t need post workout high glycemic fruits.

So basically my meal plan looked like…

meal 1 – protein, fat, veggies, fruit, starch

meal 2 - protein, fat, veggies

Meal 3 - protein, fat, veggies

Meal 4 - protein, fat, veggies

Meal 5 - protein, fat, veggies

For my fat I would include 1/2 an avocado, oil, whole eggs, beef, etc

And at night I do not measure my portions at all.  I’ve eaten as much as I’ve wanted.  I have felt slightly less energized but my body is adjusting.  At first I did go through a period of cravings.  But after a few days this totally subsided.  As a matter of fact last Tuesday after yoga I welcomed myself to go to Whole Foods to get one of my favorite gourmet white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies and I DID NOT WANT ONE!!!!  That’s when I realized that not only are my carb cravings gone, but so are my sugar cravings.  I’M NOT ADDICTED TO SUGAR ANY MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!

I 100% believe that there is a correlation to this.  I believe that when you add healthy fats to your diet it helps cravings go away.  It keeps you full so much longer and I believe that my body is starting to know it’s cut off point for food.  I don’t feel like I could eat until the cows come home.  And you wanna know what.. on Wednesday morning I weighed myself and despite it being TOM I was 4 pounds lighter than usual!  Like I always say, I don’t care about the scale, but I think that’s my body’s way of telling me that it’s happy with all of these changes.

But like I said, those oats are non-negotiable and now that my workouts are intense again I am having post workout fruits like crazy!!!!  So I am never going to avoid carbs, I’m never gonna go Paleo.. I’m just doing what my body tells me to do!  And I vow to always listen to and respect my body from here on out!!!

Kyra,

The Get in Shape Girl

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