Monday, March 24, 2014

Being Careful Not to Over Do It

I had a great weekend, but it also taught me an important lesson about my limitations while on a very low calorie diet.  I managed to do quite a lot of garden work as well a fertilizing and watering the roses and fruit trees.  It didn't feel like a lot of work, but my body begged to differ.  Prior to my diet I'd be carrying 50 lb. bags of compost and soil, and yanking up dead plants and weeds for hours. This year, my body wasn't going to have it.

I found myself feeling quite dizzy after an hour or so.  I needed to sit down, drink lots of water, and have some soup (with beneficial sodium).  I did this a couple of times over the weekend, but the dizziness stayed on, and I finally gave up.  I wasn't sweating, but maybe all the bending over caused the dizziness.

This year, I'm going to need some help from my big strapping boys if we're going to have some nice veggies to eat.  The last thing I want is to feel sick or hurt myself in the process.  But heck, there is nothing wrong with everyone pitching in.  That will be the reality this year and it will be a family garden in the truest sense.

Although I focus mostly on the psychological part of my journey in this blog, I thought it might be helpful to those who are just starting out to hear about my experience of over-doing it this weekend.  I'm not alarmed, I'm just being practical.  A body can't be expected to move mountains on 450 calories a day!  When I reach my goal, and start eating food again, I'm sure I'll be good as new, and planting and pruning with even more energy.


3 comments:

Unknown said...

Such a great point. When I was on 6-800 calories a day (the first phase of Optifast Australia), I really struggled doing a lot of things I'd used to take for granted. Like spending hours cleaning, cooking or gardening. I can only imagine what it feels like on 450 calories! Good job not pushing yourself. You're right - the last thing you want to do is overdo it!

I think it has to do with the fact that while we can get energy from our stored fat, the process of burning fat is a tough one on the body. It is very hard for the body to gain quick and sustained energy from our fat stores, I think. Which is why we feel so poorly when we push it too much!

I'm really glad you've been able to see the positive side of this. Turning this into a family effort will be very rewarding for everyone. :-)

Kathy said...

Why not involve the family! I complete understand about the dizziness you were feeling. I had an episode when I was on Optifast where I had to get a MRI done. It was on one of those open machines, so I was standing up getting it done. I had to wait for 5 hours for my appointment (don't even get me started on that one!) and, long story short, I ended up passing out because I didn't have any shakes with me when it was time to stand next to the machine. Needless to say, don't overdo it!!

happyinca said...

Thank you Kathy and Caitlin. I didn't know the science behind the fat burning going on, but it makes sense to me based on how I feel when I exercise or need to sprint somewhere. Kathy, what a bummer- that is such a terrible feeling.