jump4life Posted August 15, 2014 Share Posted August 15, 2014 Hi- Today I crashed hard about 15 min into my workout - very, very dizzy, and weirdly feeling like my skin was buzzing. Another participant in the workout strongly suggested that I probably had really low blood sugar and gave me glucose tablets - I took 3 (12 gm sugar) and felt better enough after about 20 min to drive home- there was no way I could resume the workout. I would like help identifying if the issue was really very low blood sugar and the glucose tablets really helped... or if I could have used a different strategy that would have saved my Whole 30. I will give background on my patterns before and during this Whole30 and happy to answer any other questions for those who can help. I am female, 48, have lost ~20lbs/of fat and added muscle in past 18 months but still about 40lbs overweight. Every blood sugar test ever is well within normal range. I have been working out with the same trainer 2X/week since Dec 2012 and have seen substantial gains in strength and endurance. Workouts are mostly body weight circuit type workouts with lifting heavy things and some cardio thrown in- typically by full body motions (board pushing, bear crawls, ramp climbing, etc). Past 6 months preWhole 30 have been particularly good, with noticeable body comp/structure/capability improvements. I love these workouts! Past 8 weeks I have added 2X week short interval cardio on the eliptical (not quite yet HIIT, but 25 min of fast sprint/slow recovery) and 1X week ~1hour not too fast bike ride. All good with these and no noticeable negative impact on performance in the strength work outs or sleep or overall energy. Gluten free since April , getting ready for Whole30 through out July (really on program except still using dairy, some wine), Whole30 Day 1 was August 1. I have been faithful to the template with some typical learning curve and I cook a lot from Well Fed. I have not been hungry between meals most days and have had some great high energy days with workouts. One big outage is that I have not gotten into a good habit of a protein/fat based pre-workout snack (i used to do fruit)- but this has not had any noticeable impact until today. Today: Awake (6:45) good night sleep ~ 8 hours (I use Natural Calm but only ~ 1 teaspoon) M1 (7:30) big handful arugula, handful roasted sweet potatoes, handful ground turkey, coconut milk and mustard sauce, black coffee M2 (12:30) lots of chicken/ zucchini poppers (pan fried in coconut oil), lots of snap peas, apple, and 2 spoons of macadamia nut butter WO (5:00) 5 min increasing warm up on elliptical- felt great. 3 rounds- 15 reps each leg High box steps with weights /split squats with weight+ 25 prisoner squats on low box-- felt great round 1, weird round 2, crashed round three. This is something I could typically handle well. The only other thing I noticed is that my body warms up really quickly now and that I am sweating more than before Whole 30 -- either more effort or effects of burning fat for fuel? Until today it was a good feeling... today it ended up as hot and clammy feeling at the same time. Broke my whole 30 with 3 glucose tabs. Felt better in about 15-20 min. M3 (6:35) handful frozen grapes, 1.5 Aidel organic chicken apple sausage, trader joes sauerkraut, coconut milk and cacao nibs. Felt much better about 25 min after this meal. Ok thats the end of the too many details...... any help is appreciated!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Physibeth Posted August 15, 2014 Share Posted August 15, 2014 Could you post food/activity logs building up to this crash? Overall your food looks just fine for me. Have you been doing a post workout meal of lean protein and starchy vegetables? How big of a difference in your overall carb intake do you think you are at from before Whole30? It isn't unusual to experience crashes in your workouts in the first 14 days of W30 as your body adjusts to burning fat for fuel instead of sugar. My quick guess if you have not been doing post workout is you might not be fully replenishing your glycogen stores and thus the crash though I'm not an expert. I also know for me personally hormones play a huge part in how I feel (my workouts suck at that time of the month) so this could also be from rebalancing hormones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jump4life Posted August 15, 2014 Author Share Posted August 15, 2014 Thanks physibeth- I think you nailed it in one try! I have NOT been doing a post work out meal - since my workouts are typically 5:00-6:00 I thought M3 was working for that. But my M3 is typically 45-60 min after my workout is done (I have ~35 min drive home). I just went back to the book it said post work out meal should be within 15-30 min and be in addition to the normal 3 meals- I obviously missed that first time around. I need to bring something with me to eat right after the work out before I drive home- I liked the egg white and pumpkin idea in the book, but I think I should leave out the applesauce b/c I should still stay on the lower side of the carbs since I am overweight and weight loss is a goal? Low blood sugar was probably was not an issue pre-Whole 30 because I was pretty high carb- (45-60% I am guessing) so my glycogen stores were not likely ever fully depleted even by an hour of hard exercise. Each day, 2-3 servings of non-gluten whole grains (oats, quinoa, rice, maseca), 2/3 cup whole milk, and 2 squares of 70% dark chocolate. And 3-4 glasses of wine or gluten free beer each week. My goodness that looks like a lot of not so good food now in retrospect!! So this is good- I am armed with new knowledge to start my Day 1 today!! First time around I was only posting to the Aug 1 start day group and only posting my meals occasionally. This time I will do a complete Whole30 log and post my meals each day- maybe if I had been doing that an experienced person would have been able to warn me that I was going to run into this problem. Thanks so much physibeth! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Physibeth Posted August 15, 2014 Share Posted August 15, 2014 You are most welcome. For your first go around at Whole30 I would not even worry about keeping your carbs low especially at the level you are working out. Eat to the template and enjoy 1-2 servings of fruit if you want them with your meals. I'm not familiar with the post workout recipe in the book but I have done egg whites scrambled with pureed pumpkin or sweet potato sprinkled with cinnamon and found them to be quite tasty. For the next 30 days focus on getting enough good food and fueling your workouts and see how it goes. You can always tweek things later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brewer5 Posted August 15, 2014 Share Posted August 15, 2014 Another idea would be to NOT have any substantial carbs before you workout. The book recommends protein+fat, and with good reason. If you want your body to be able to tap into fat stores during a workout for fuel, it can't be desperately searching for glucose at that time. The way you do this is by keeping your blood sugar steady all day leading up to the workout, thereby keeping insulin level low. The fact that you had to have glucose tabs tells me that is what is going on with you -- you are setting up an environment for your body to be a sugar-burner, not a fat-burner. Carbs POST-workout is the way to go, IMO (as it says in the book). I have had a lot of experience doing it both ways, and I can tell you I feel SO much better during workouts since my body is no longer dependent on glucose for fuel. Even... steady -- feel like I could go all day. I never get dizzy or feel like I could puke anymore. I am not starving after a workout, I never feel shaky. The difference is night and day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
praxisproject Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 I also found lifting heavy things helped stabilise my blood sugar in a way that cardio never has, but everyone is different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jump4life Posted August 20, 2014 Author Share Posted August 20, 2014 praxisproject - I agree! I just did a strength workout last night for the first time since I crashed and it was great! My long bike ride this weekend didn't feel as great (a bit of a low energy dip afterward). And I am skipping my elliptical workouts this week just to give my body more adjusting time. I have had a lot of experience doing it both ways, and I can tell you I feel SO much better during workouts since my body is no longer dependent on glucose for fuel. Even... steady -- feel like I could go all day. I never get dizzy or feel like I could puke anymore. I am not starving after a workout, I never feel shaky. The difference is night and day. Brewer5- success last night! I fueled steady all day and went into my 4:00 workout with no carbs on board. It felt so good! I don't know if I could have gone all day, but definitely went strong for the whole session! I also like the way I felt mentally- clear and ready to take on new challenges in the WO. My trainer noticed too and threw in an interesting exercises that would typically scare me - a modified body hang, prone, squat thing that really made me have to trust my grip strength. I see a higher box jump in my future!! Could you post food/activity logs building up to this crash? My quick guess if you have not been doing post workout is you might not be fully replenishing your glycogen stores and thus the crash physibeth- I did the egg whites and sweet potato immediately after my workout- I wasnt really hungry but I did it! About 60 min later I was actually super hungry and able to eat a whole meal 3. It really surprised me and I was upbeat and happy all night. I guess it will take a few more workouts to tell if I am really replenishing my glycogen stores but I am sold on this plan! And I am posting a log this time through in case I run into more trouble. http://forum.whole9life.com/topic/21201-jump4lifes-whole30-log-15/ Thanks again to all of you for the advise! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brewer5 Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 Brewer5- success last night! I fueled steady all day and went into my 4:00 workout with no carbs on board. It felt so good! I don't know if I could have gone all day, but definitely went strong for the whole session! I also like the way I felt mentally- clear and ready to take on new challenges in the WO. My trainer noticed too and threw in an interesting exercises that would typically scare me - a modified body hang, prone, squat thing that really made me have to trust my grip strength. I see a higher box jump in my future!! This just made my day. Seriously. Thanks so much for listening, trying it out, and reporting back. Really glad to hear it. Take care! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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