I took some time to recover after the meet. So, I ended up waiting about 5 days, and trained on Thursday in San Diego at CETC and again on Saturday at EliteFTS. I decided to train again this morning, just to make sure I was getting my training in for the week (I only train 3 days a week anyway). I'm still very sick and fatigued. I was actually sick my entire vacation, but it's easy to put to the side when you're in beautiful California. I'm able to train, regardless of sickness this week, because the week after the meet is super light, to allow for recovery. It's important for me during this time to stay focused and actually just get into the gym and go through the motions. Let's be serious, for a lot of us meets are extremely draining. After my meet in October I found myself out of the gym, a lot. I did 2 meets back to back and I was just sick of it. I had to take some time away. There's a big difference between that, and now. Now, I'm just sick and being lazy, so getting in there and training is super important in order for me to stay on track.
I also have been basically eating whatever I've wanted for over a week. That should probably come to an end, like yesterday. I have no idea what I weigh, and honestly I'm not sure I want to know until I have a week or so back on my diet. I think I talked about my dieting going into this meet, and how I completely back tracked the last 2-3 weeks going into the meet. I mean this in regards to eating habits, obsessing over the scale, the no carb diet, binging after weigh ins, vacation, etc. It's time to get back to where I was with my relationship with food. I don't think it will take long, I just need to commit and remember the goal.
I had a girl at the seminar this weekend ask me about nutrition and how I deal with that aspect of the sport. We obviously started talking about food and diet, and I quickly had to even remind myself that this is no longer a diet. It's so important for me to reiterate that to women in this sport. There was a time where I thought if I could just make it through the months of dieting, I would be able to one day just eat whatever I wanted again. It doesn't work that way. Dieting and binging quickly became the norm for me, and I would just throw all of the hard work out the window. Sure, maybe if you're cutting weight for a meet, we can say that you're "dieting", but I mean realistically after that diet, you probably want to maintain, with another type of diet, right? In that case, is it dieting, or is it learning how to live a better, healthier lifestyle for the sport you're competing in and for your general overall health? Maybe I'm totally in left field with this one, but I can't help but thinking there are other females out there struggling with these same issues. The 2nd definition for diet is: " a special course of food to which one restricts oneself, either to lose weight or for medical reasons." <--- that is what instantly comes to mind when I hear the word. You too? I'm sure.
You should never think of this as dieting. I just had a conversation with Swede in which he just kept repetitively telling me it is a diet, and what you eat is your diet. Well, yes, it is essentially your diet. Maybe it' s because I'm a woman, I don't know, but I feel as though diet has a whole other meaning to our gender. You say you're following your diet, or you're dieting, and immediately you get the "why?" questions. The general public cannot wrap their head around the fact that you're in awesome shape, and you have to follow a meal plan. As if working out just magically makes you super jacked. You are choosing this lifestyle. I think we all kind of fluctuate between enjoying life and eating for pleasure, and following a meal plan of some sorts, which allows for balance. The point is, I think it's fair to say, whether you're a SHW woman, or you're competing at 123, you are following some sort of nutrition plan 90% of the time. I think striving to have a healthy relationship with food and yourself, whatever that looks like on the scale, is one of the most important things.
Enough rambling about food.
I'm super grateful I got to train at The Compound 2 days in a row, what a treat. Again, this is all dialed back for the week, because of the meet.
Bench: barx2x15, 65x15, 95x2x25
Swede Burns Pull Aparts: Pro mini long bandx3x30
Rolling Triceps: 20x3x15
That's a wrap.