As good as I was feeling earlier in the week about my training, my body decided to give a reality check. One 3 hour bike trainer workout, 2000 yard swim, another bike trainer session and a two hour run left me feeling fatigued but strong....well...that was until my body reminded me that I have Thyroid disease and a gastric bypass.
Tuesday night, I decided to get my nails done. I figured this was a good reward after weeks of consistant training. The nail tech was just finishing putting on my top coat...and then...from nowhere...I start to shake. I can't keep my hands still. Suddenly Im ice cold and shaking as if I were in a blizzard.
One odd look from the nail salon personnel and I am out the door. I figured I just had not eaten enough that day. I went across the street to meet friends at a restaurant for dinner...and the shaking continues. I sit down at a table and ask for some bread and some soup right away. I figured this would help my body calm down..
My friends arrive and my shaking has stopped to some degree but I am still absolutely frozen. I order some hot tea but it doesn't break the chill. I eat a little more but leave the table early for home.
I called my friend Beth who is a coach and an Ironman triathlete. I tell her my symptoms and she assures me that I probably haven't had enough calories in the last two days and my body just needs food and rest. I head home and get under 14 blankets and fall hard asleep. My friends from dinner come to check on me because they know my husband is gone and they have a key to my house. They can hardly wake me from my sleeping...but I was awake enough to acknowledge them.
Wednesday morning I wake up at the regular time (4am) for work and feel ok but by 10am, my body is jittery and fatigued. I call the doctor. I don't have a fever and show no other signs of illness so he calls me in for a blood test.
The results??
My thyroid has slowed down to almost shut down. He has added two additional medications to get me through the next few months of training but he is uncertain of my ability to lose weight prior to the race or to be able to continue with the rigorus training that an Ironman requires.
After the new medication and a few more calories, today I feel great. Hector and I took my workout session to chat about my situation. We are upping my calories and taking the day off before the attempt at major brick workouts this weekend.
The "unknown" in my nutritional world is how many calories my body is actually processing. My doctor suggested that if I REALLY want this goal of Ironman that I will need to remove as much processed food as I can from my diet and no more diet soda (which is a major addiction for me). My physician feels that my ingestion of Diet Coke may be one of the factors that is hindering my metabolism. This has not yet been proven in humans but it has been in lab animals.
So...I now have some choices to make and some things to consider. Just how BAD do I wanna be an Ironman?? Am I willing to give up the addictions of food and Diet Coke for a dream?? My gut reaction is HELL YES. The reality of a person with an eating disorder is...you won't be perfect but you can give it your best shot possible.
God I love a challenge...and I have definitely found it in Ironman!!
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4 comments:
Ugh. I am really sorry to hear about your thyroid. I would imagine that coupled with the gastric bypass makes ironman training that much harder.
I am struggling with my own food addiction problems. Between you adn me (and all hte readers of your blog :o) ) I have put on 20 pounds in the last year trianing for ironman and I think most of it was in the last 3 months. I was not really prepared for the emotional toll of ironman training. My crutch is, and always has been, food.
I am trying to make some changes to break this cycle, not just lose weight, but actually change how I think about food and me in general.
We do the best we can. That is all we can do.
I'm so sorry about your thyroid. I'll give up diet coke with you and buy you an entire case of it when you finish your Iron Man!! I know this is a frustrating set back (my last blood work showed my thyroid was ok but my corisol was super high which would explain my inability to lose weight, but I have to test again in August and their only advice was to try not to be stressed). Hang in there!! You can do it!
I too am a diet soda junky. Diet coke, pepsi, mountaint dew, root beer, etc.
I have recently switched to club soda with lemon or lime and a touch of splenda, gonna try estevia next. This seems to satisfy my need to fizzy drinks, at least so far. It has certainly helped me cut back on the amount I was drinking.
You know, when the world gives you lemons.... (you know the rest), you make lemonade. Corny stuff, I know, but if kicking diet drinks and other processed food is the trick, the benefits may be far greater than just finishing Ironman.
It takes 30 days to form a habit. In that time if you can form the habit of not doing diet drinks, processed foods, etc. your end reward will be racing IMFL. Here is the bonus. Now that you have formed this habit, you will have the added bonus of breaking through another barrier. That barrier could very well be the one that is impeding your ultimate goal of reducing weight and becoming even healthier, as it is fairly well documented that processed foods hinder weight loss.
The great thing is, it only takes 4 months to find out. If it doesn't work, knock yourself out with Diet Coke on Nov. 9 (although you probably wont want to after forming your new habit)
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