Above you will see a picture comparison as well as stats comparing week 1 (November 2, 2015) versus week 20 (March 14, 2016) of my Reverse Diet. As promised, I have documented this entire experience with the intention of demystifying the process as well as showing that it IS possible to significantly increase your daily caloric intake while maintaining virtually the same body composition.
I am eating on average over 400 calories more per day now than I was when I began this journey and I can assure you that this is a very maintainable lifestyle, whereas eating 1555 calories was much more difficult for me to get by on…I have no earthly clue how people are able to eat 1000 calories a day.
If nothing else I hope this encourages other women (and men) to EAT.
Date: 3/14/16
Height: 5’8 3/4″
Weight:136.3 this morning (135.1lb the first week of my Reverse Diet).
I am not bothering to include my latest weight chart in this post because in all honesty I rarely weigh myself anymore, so it wouldn’t be a very good graphic. My clothes fit, I feel good, and I just don’t think about the scale that often at all.
I am now on week 12 of Jessie Hilgenberg’s Muscle Building program and the focus the past few weeks has been on lighter weight / higher rep.
I’m on the lookout for my next program and am considering Amber Dodzweit’s The Total Transformation Package, Kayla Itsine’s Bikini Body Guide, or I may just go back to planning my own workouts again with either the help of the Muscle and Strength Pyramids spearheaded by Eric Helms or Mind Pump’s MAPS Anabolic Program. I plan on taking some time off at the end of this week and will figure out my next fitness move.
I enjoy mixing it up and setting new goals for myself. My FitQuest Team and I have a pull-up challenge going on right now thanks to one of my clients and I am joining in on the goal of working toward 5 unassisted pull-ups. I am happy to report that last week was the first week since my bout with Rhabdo that I have not had ANY Rhabdo symptoms in my arms!!! I am convinced that the hyperthermic conditioning (using my far infrared sauna) 3 times a week is helping, so I will be continuing that.
Comments:
Bottom line is that I am thrilled I Reverse Dieted for the past 5 months. It isn’t an easy process because there are times when you get really hungry as your metabolism increases and have to restrain yourself from going over your macros, but the restraint is so very worth it in the end.
I am going to continue my Reverse Diet, but will no longer be documenting it on the blog. I plan to focus on increasing my fats a bit more because I really enjoy good healthy fats and would like to see mine higher than they are right now. I do not have a timeline as to how much longer I will Reverse Diet, rather I plan on continuing until I am completely satisfied with my macros.
This is an on-going process and could change depending upon the type of training I do (I may get into some racing or I may not….time will tell) or if my physique goals change.
Thanks for coming along on the journey.
If you are interested in my help with Reverse Dieting or any of your nutrition needs, click HEREfor more information on my programs.
Click HERE to see the weekly logs of my 8 Weeks to 40 Cut
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 1 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 2 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 3 & 4 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 5 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 6 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 7 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 8 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Weeks 9 & 10 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Weeks 11 & 12 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Weeks 13 & 14 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Weeks 15-17 of my Reverse Diet
At the very top you will see my Week 14 Reverse Diet progress pictures as compared to Week 1 (directly below that set of pictures).
Date: 2/1/16
Height: 5’8 3/4″
Weight:134.5this morning (133.2 at my week 12 recap / 134.8lb at end of cut 10/26/15).
My weight has been moving-up ever so slightly through the weeks and I am not even a little bit worried about it because I know how many factors come into play. I have been a bit more stressed than usual lately and haven’t been sleeping as well, so I know that has a lot to do with it. My clothes fit and I feel lean and strong, so all is good.
*I reduced my fats by 10g every day for the last week in order to prepare for some work I will be doing this week in Ca. Nothing drastic, just wanted to lean-out a tiny bit. I honestly didn’t even notice the difference in my daily meals because before this week I have been having to find ways to reach my daily fat goal and that usually involved adding coconut oil to my smoothies, etc.
Week 15 Macros:
Keeping macros SAME. I will increase my macros next week when I return from my combo work/fun trip to Ca. I am guessing I will add 10C and 2F per day, but will evaluate that when I get home.
I just completed week 7 of Jessie Hilgenberg’s Muscle Building program and since I won’t be in town this week I have decided to switch it up a bit. I created my own leg/Ab workout when I got down to the gym this morning and it was a nice change. This week I will be doing pilates and when I return I think I will repeat week 7 using the same weight I used so I will be ready for the weight increases that are supposed to happen during week 8 of the program.
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Click HERE to see the weekly logs of my 8 Weeks to 40 Cut
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 1 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 2 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 3 & 4 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 5 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 6 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 7 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 8 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 9 & 10 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 11 & 12 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 15-17 of my Reverse Diet
At the very top you will see my Week 12 Reverse Diet progress pictures as compared to Week 1 (directly below that set of pictures).
Date: 1/18/16
Height: 5’8 3/4″
Weight:133.2 this morning (133.1 at my week 10recap / 134.8lbat end of cut).
My weight was actually 132.4 yesterday and then we went out to eat Blaze Pizza (fit my macros…so good) and I had more sodium than usual.
My week 11 refeed was a bit larger than usual and went over my planned macros for the day, but as you can see all of that stabilized after following my normal macros the following week. I also wasn’t as good about getting myself to sleep on time last week and that resulted in slight bloating that was fixed as soon as I had a couple good nights of rest.
I am now on week 6 of Jessie Hilgenberg’s Muscle Building program and this week we changed the exercises up a bit which is fun for me because I like variety.
I was supposed to work back on Saturday (which always also involves arms), and chose to play it safe and skip the weights that day because on Thursday I pushed myself with biceps and triceps and was pretty sore. For the first time since my Rhabdo hospitalization I actually forgot about the Rhabdo during my workout and really challenged myself. It felt good to not worry that day, so to be cautious, when the soreness came on I didn’t lift anything that had to do arms and focused on abs and sprints instead and as a result my arms felt great by Sunday.
Comments:
Reverse dieting is an interesting experience. I have been really satisfied with the amount of food I am able to eat and haven’t been increasing as quickly because of that. In general this time I have made larger increases each time and as a result have been able to get myself up to a nice caloric intake quickly. During my last reverse diet my increases were on average 5C and 1-2F per week and this time around I tended to go with 10C and 1-2F per increase. Now I am feeling like slowing it down a bit which is why I went a few weeks with no increases.
I am also happy with where my fat macros are right now and that is why this week I decided to only increase protein and carbs. With this latest increase I am happy with where my protein macros are and doubt I will be increasing that macro any further.
Let’s see how these new numbers go. I am now part of the 200C club 6 out of 7 days per week.
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Click HERE to see the weekly logs of my 8 Weeks to 40 Cut
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 1 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 2 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 3 & 4 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 5 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 6 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 7 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 8 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 9 & 10 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 13 & 14 of my Reverse Diet
At the very top you will see my Week 10 Reverse Diet progress pictures as compared to Week 1 (directly below that set of pictures).
Date: 1/04/16
Height: 5’8 3/4″
Weight:133.1 this morning (131.4 at my week 8 recap / 134.8lb at end of cut).
As you can see I was 131.1 yesterday morning and I know I didn’t gain 2 pounds overnight. I usually have my weekly refeed on Fridays, but since I was at the mountains I wasn’t able to do my heavy leg day until Saturday, so I had my refeed then. Generally my weight goes up two days after my refeed and that is what you see with my weight this morning.
I kept my macros fairly stable throughout the holidays and had a few extra indulgences, so I did not increase them for the last two weeks. I am now feeling like it is time for another increase since the holidays are over and I will have more control over my meals in general. Lately I have been craving more protein and that is why I chose to focus on protein for my increases this week.
Friday +343 calories +75C / -5P / +7F(Refeed day. Not lifting now, but keeping this higher cal day.)
Sunday +337 calories +69C / -5P / +9F (rest day)
Workout Plan:
I feel like I am finally back to a normal lifting routine where I can challenge myself. I still have to be careful with my arms and can tell when I need to dial it back, but my strength is definitely coming back and that is so much fun. I am on week 4 of Jessie Hilgenberg’s Muscle Building program and am really enjoying it.
Comments:
My family and I had a really fun Winter Break and it was sad to see the kiddos go back to school this morning.
We were able to find some time to ski and sled and then my husband and I got to take a little friends get-away while my kids spent some time with family. I had never really been snowmobiling or snowshoeing before and had a lot of fun. I managed to snowshoe for 2 hours by myself on New Years Day and really got a lot out of it…I was able to spend some time alone thinking about my goals for 2016.
Happy New Year to all of you and may 2016 be an amazing year for you filled with growth and happiness!
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Click HERE to see the weekly logs of my 8 Weeks to 40 Cut
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 1 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 2 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 3 & 4 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 5 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 6 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 7 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 8 of my Reverse Diet
At the very top you will see my Week 8 Reverse Diet progress pictures as compared to Week 1 (directly below that set of pictures).
Date: 12/21/15
Height: 5’8 3/4″
Weight:131.4 this morning (130.6at my week 7 recap / 134.8lb at end of cut).
My weight went up a little this week. I attribute the gain to some water retention from saltier than normal foods, the fact that I am working out again which means I have more water in my muscle cells, and the fact that I am constipated (TMI, but keeping it real!).
On Friday I probably went over on my refeed macros because I had some of the sugar cookies we baked and decorated as a family and I enjoyed EVERY single bite. No guilt whatsoever.
This past week I felt like I had plenty of food and did not experience the upswing in hunger that usually comes at the end of the week when Reverse Dieting, which is why I am not going to increase my macros this week. I feel like my body needs another week to get used to the current macros before my next increase.
Friday +303 calories +75C / -15P / +7F(Refeed day. Not lifting now, but keeping this higher cal day.)
Sunday +297 calories +61C / -15P / +9F(rest day)
Workout Plan:
I lifted weights 5 days last week and it felt great! I made sure I took it slow and kept the weights much lighter than usual and only did 3 sets of each exercise.
At the very top you will see my Week 7 Reverse Diet progress pictures as compared to Week 1 (directly below that set of pictures).
Date: 12/14/15
Height: 5’8 3/4″
Weight:130.6this morning (127.4 at my week 6 recap / 134.8lb at end of cut).
My weight has normalized more this week. We had Thai food last night, so I don;t feel like 130.6 isn’t my true weight…there is a bit of water retention going on from the meal. I am definitely lacking the muscle tone I had before, but that will come back now that I am working out again. I explain below that I finally had my hunger return and I discuss how I added in some extra food as my body felt it needed it.
This week I will be back to following the plan with increased macros and my refeed on my normally specified day (Friday).
Friday +303calories +75C / -15P / +7F(Refeed day. Not lifting now, but keeping this higher cal day.)
Sunday +297 calories +61C / -15P / +9F (rest day)
Workout Plan:
I finished all of my antibiotics and am hoping for a return to normalcy this week.
I am RE-STARTING Jessie Hilgenberg’s Muscle Building program and will adjust my weights to my current level. I lost A LOT of muscle throughout all of this (my booty is so much smaller now and my abs are less defined) and am excited to work on putting it back. It is always fun to have new goals.
It has been a month since I have done regular workouts, so it is totally normal that I would lose some definition.
The increased food from my Reverse Diet should do a great job fueling awesome workouts.
Comments:
We had a great week as a family. The kids and I worked on holiday baking in our PJs while my husband got the decorations down (I am so behind) and my daughter performed in the nutcracker.
We also went to the MythBusters show and that was a lot of fun! Jaime H. came and sat right behind us during the show which was exciting for the kids.
Here’s to a great week!
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Click HERE to see the weekly logs of my 8 Weeks to 40 Cut
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 1 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 2 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 3 & 4 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 5 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 6 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 8 of my Reverse Diet
At the very top you will see my Week 5 Reverse Diet progress pictures as compared to Week 1 (directly below that set of pictures).
My weekly update is coming to you a bit early because my schedule next week may not permit my normal Monday check-in.
Date: 11/28/15
Height: 5’8 3/4″
Weight:129.4 this morning (130.7 at my week 4 recap / 134.8lb at end of cut).
Below is my weight log for the past week and a half. Despite adding calories in on Monday I continued to lose weight each and every day, so I added in MORE calories on Thursday…that’s two increases this past week (Monday and Thursday). Thankfully my increase on Thursday and my refeed yesterday resulted in me not losing any more weight this morning.
I definitely do not want to lose any more weight, which is why I keep increasing my calories.
Friday 1986 calories 240C / 135P / 54F (Refeed day. Not lifting now, but keeping this higher cal day.)
Sunday 1752 calories 155C / 130P / 68F (rest day)
NEXT Week’s Macros:
If I continue to lose weight this coming week I will do ANOTHER increase on Monday. I may not have access to a scale for the next week, so I will have to go by how I feel and how my clothes are fitting.
Friday +194 calories +50C / -15P / +6F (Refeed day. Not lifting now, but keeping this higher cal day.)
Sunday +190 calories +51C / -15P / +6F (rest day)
Workout Plan:
I have been staying active by doing a lot of cooking and having people in town, but haven’t technically exercised since my walk last weekend. This coming week I MAY do some light weight training depending upon how I feel, but I do plan on doing at least 5 days of some easy cardio.
My body has been getting very stiff from the lack of exercise.
Comments:
This was a wonderful holiday week for me. ALL of my immediate family came and stayed at my house (15 of us) and it was so nice to be together. My kiddos and their cousins have so much fun together. Earlier in the week I cooked a Chinese meal for everyone and it was so yummy. When it is just the four of us I usually only cook 1 dish, so it is nice to be able to do a banquet and get a taste of many different dishes when there are a lot of people around.
Our Thanksgiving was another great feast with ham, and two different turkeys. One turkey was brined and smoked and the other was brined, cooked sous vide, and then fried (OMG!!!).
I am feeling better each day and look forward to another week of healing.
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Click HERE to see the weekly logs of my 8 Weeks to 40 Cut
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 1 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 2 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 3 & 4 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 6 of my Reverse Diet
At the very top you will see my Week 4 Reverse Diet progress pictures (that face! Can you tell I was tired???) as compared to Week 1 (directly below that set of pictures).
Date: 11/23/15
Height: 5’8 3/4″
Weight:130.7 this morning (134.5 at my week 2 recap / 134.8lb at end of cut).
Below is my weight log for the past week and a half. I am not sure what I weighed 11/16/15 since I was in the hospital (click HEREfor details). My weight was climbing prior to my admission to the hospital due to water retention and swelling (I was following my macros perfectly). It was 136.3 on Sunday 11/15/15 and that was one of the clues to me that something was up…I felt majorly bloated. I KNOW how my body reacts to macros and knew that this was weird.
As a Fitness Nutrition Specialist I know how important nutrition is to recovery which is why I continued to eat ALL of my macros while in the hospital. Despite the fact that I wasn’t training, my body was working very hard to repair the damage and that takes calories.
I did make a few alterations to my macros while in the hospital in an attempt to ease the burden on my kidneys. Each day I reduced my protein macros by 20g and increased my carb macros by 20g to make-up the difference calorically.
Despite eating all of my macros, I have list weight and that means it is time to increase and a little faster than usual.
Friday +156 calories +45C / -15P / +4F (Refeed day. Not lifting now, but keeping this higher cal day.)
Sunday +152 calories +46C / -15P / +4F (rest day)
Workout Plan:
Yesterday was the first day I went back to doing any exercise since my hospitalization and it was a nice leisurely walk. I plan on taking the next week off of weights and then SLOWLY getting back into a routine before beginning Jessie Hilgenberg’s 14 week Muscle Building e-bookagain.
Comments:
It has been an interesting couple of weeks for sure! Never forget how important nutrition is and how much you need good nutrition when your body isn’t operating as well as it should. You may be tired, but do what you can to get the food in.
My husband has been amazing throughout this hospital / Rhabdo ordeal, but it was also one of the busiest times for work for him. I knew I didn’t have the energy to cook so I stopped in to Dickey’s BBQ here and bought meat by the pound all ready to eat. I purchased chicken breasts, a rack of ribs, and beef brisket. Was it organic and pastured? No. This is what I mean by balance…it was not the meat I would normally prepare, but it was FAR better than stopping off at a fast food restaurant. I was able to feed myself and my family the meat from Dickey’s and supplement it with a pot of rice I made as well as baby carrots, snow peas, and other veggies that didn’t even need to be cooked.
Where there’s a will there’s a way!
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Click HERE to see the weekly logs of my 8 Weeks to 40 Cut
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 1 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 2 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 5 of my Reverse Diet
I am guessing that a few of you may have noticed the absence of my Reverse Dieting update on Monday. Let’s just say this has been a very interesting week.
Let me just pull the band aid off and tell you that I ended-up being admitted to the hospital Last Sunday night with Rhabdomyolysis (aka Rhabdo) and was in there through Wednesday.
For those of you unfamiliar with this condition (I had NEVER heard of it), Web MD explains it as:
Rhabdomyolysis is a serious syndrome due to a direct or indirect muscle injury. It results from the death of muscle fibers and release of their contents into the bloodstream. This can lead to complications such as renal (kidney) failure. This occurs when the kidneys cannot remove waste and concentrated urine. In rare cases, rhabdomyolysis can even cause death. However, prompt treatment often brings a good outcome.
Causes of Rhabdo (also from Web MD):
There are many causes of rhabdomyolysis. The most common causes include:
Extreme muscle strain, especially in someone who is an untrained athlete. This can happen in elite athletes too, however. And it can be more dangerous if there is more muscle mass to break down.
A crush injury such as from an auto accident, fall, or building collapse
Long-lasting muscle compression such as that caused by prolonged immobilization after a fall or lying unconscious on a hard surface during illness or while under the influence of alcohol or medication
The use of medications such as antipsychotics or statins, especially when given in high doses
Electrical shock injury, lightning strike, or third-degree burn
Confusion, dehydration, fever, or lack of consciousness
Dark red or brown urine; reduced or no urine output
In talking to the nurses and doctors they see this most often in Cross-fitters (though from what I have read Crossfit is working hard to educate their trainers about how to avoid this and how to recognize the symptoms), endurance athletes, and football players who go from having the summer off to 2-a-days in the HOT summer sun.
It seems that a perfect storm came together and resulted in my getting this condition. At the beginning of the month I had a colonoscopy and (TMI…sorry), the prep didn’t work for me as effectively as it should, so the instructions said to DOUBLE the amount of Miralax I was supposed to take. Even after doing that I still hadn’t had a BM, so I talked to the doctor on call and was told to take 2 more Dulcolax. That finally got things moving, but that meant that all told I ended up taking 575g of Miralax (that’s over a pound of Miralax) and 4 Dulcolax. My colonoscopy was 11/4 (on a Wednesday) and I never quite recovered my stamina after that. I didn’t workout the day of my colonoscopy and gave myself 2 more days afterward away from the gym to recover, but like I said, I was still exhausted. Later I did a search of Miralax and Rhabdo and found some interesting links / studies.
As I mentioned to all of you in my last update, I began a new workout program the following Monday 11/9. On Wednesday part of the workout called for 4 x 15 chin-up negatives. They were REALLY hard for me, but I pushed through and did all 60 reps. I was SUPER sore the next day and thought, “Man, I am going to get so strong if I am this sore.” I was so sore the next day and my arms had difficulty straightening. I was walking around like a T-Rex. I posted the picture below to Instagram a few days later:
I was feeling a bit better by Saturday so I went ahead and STUPIDLY did another arm workout that involved 4 x 15 parallel chin-up negatives (later I will discuss the danger of eccentric exercises if you are not used to doing them). I felt ok until I started doing them and then during it I was in pain, but thought I’d push through because in the past if I would do a workout where I would get sore, the soreness would subside, and when I worked out that body part again a few days later it actually helped. This time this was not the case. The T Rex arms came back with a vengeance and more stiff than ever.
By Sunday my arms were starting to feel swollen, I was gaining weight (despite following my macros), and felt VERY bloated. Without thinking much about it I posted a picture of my swelling to Instagram (normally my arms taper in a good amount where my bicep meets my forearm).
pritnam_brownhulk meant no harm by his comment and was trying to be motivating, but I really want people to learn from my experience and realize that you are always better off playing it safe. “Better safe than sorry” won’t do harm.
I went about the rest of the day with my family as I normally do. We went to the mall, ran some errands, and I was just beat. My daughter kept trying to hold my hand and I had to keep asking her to “Please be careful not to pull on mommy’s arms because they hurt.”
As the day went on I was just exhausted and at our last errand I asked if it would be ok for me to stay in the car which is not normal for me at all. At this point where my biceps met my forearms they were so swollen I couldn’t even get my hands half way around them. I also noticed that my brain just wasn’t processing like normal…it was almost as if I was on slow-mo and was a little confused.
When I got home my forearms began to swell more and feel really tight. I sat down on the couch and was scrolling through Instagram and looking at comments when I noticed that my guardian angel… fit_with_becca left the following comment… and this comment ended-up being THE reason I took myself to the hospital Sunday night after the kids went to bed:
After reading her comment I started researching the condition (Dr. Google) and it was sounding a little too familiar. I went in to the bathroom and measured my arms in a few different places thinking I just wanted a point of reference. About an hour later I measured again and my arms had gotten 1/2″ bigger. Uh…not good.
I turned to my husband and said, “You are probably going to think I am crazy, but when the kids go to bed I am going to go to the ER. It might be nothing, but this doesn’t feel right and we have 11 people coming to stay with us next week and I can’t be sick…if this is something I need to nip it in the bud.” He responded, “You know your body better than anyone” and I know he was thinking it would probably be nothing, but he is always really supportive. I told him to stay home with the kids and started packing a few essentials to bring with me in case I had to stay (meds, phone charger, extra water, apple, protein bars, PJs, etc).
I am going to sail through the ER experience (St. Lukes was awesome), but they drew blood to test my serum CK (creatine kinase). The doctor didn’t think I had Rhabdo because I didn’t have the tell-tale cola/tea colored urine, but he said he’d test my levels anyway. When the doctor came back in he looked shocked. He informed me that a normal serum CK level is supposed to be less than 100 and mine was over 27,000 and I needed to be admitted to the hospital. I texted my husband and he wrote back, “I guess you really DO know your body!!!”
When I spoke to the hospital doctor a few hours later we were discussing that fact that I drink a gallon of water a day and I was shocked to hear her say, “That gallon a day habit is THE ONLY reason you showed up here tonight NOT in kidney failure!” Whaaaaaattttttt???? That was so scary to hear. My response was, “Am I done working out? Because if I am, that’s fine…my kids and family mean the world to me and I need to be with them.” She told me that was not going to be the case at all and that I just needed to recover and get my numbers below 10,000 to make sure my kidneys would be in the clear. After that I needed to take it easy and get my numbers back to normal, but the other hospital doctor told me he wanted me to start doing cardio 2 days after I got home and weights about a week later. The told me they wanted me to keep working out because that will keep me healthy.
We discussed the fact that I now know what that “different” soreness feels like and I also know that “different” kind of difficult that I felt when doing those darn chin-up negatives.
For those of you new to my blog I need to emphasize that I am really fit. I could go run a 10K no problem, I lift weights heavy 6 days a week, I have been active since I was 3 years old, etc. (I’m totally NOT trying to be conceited, just stating a fact). A lot of people think this only happens to newbys who walk into Crossfit and hit it too hard, or people who show up to basic military training and have never been active, or roided-out gym nuts who have something to prove and that just isn’t the case.
While in the hospital I was contacted by a ton of people through Instagram who shared their stories with me…the doctor whose teenage son got it from a pull-up contest at school, the lady whose firefighter nephew was doing a Crossfit workout at his station, and on and on and on.
It took 2-3 days of IVs to get me below the 10,000s. I think I had 4 saline IVs and then they changed to Lactate Ringers IVs. Let me tell ya…those IVs felt amazing. After a day they tried taking me off the IVs to see if my body could bring my numbers down on its own with me drinking a ton of water and it wasn’t successful, so I went back on the IV for another 8-12 hours. After that we did the off the IV challenge again and my numbers finally got down below 10,000…the magic number that indicated my kidneys were out of the kidney failure danger zone. I went home from the hospital later that day and have been laying low since then.
I have to admit that this whole experience scared me. While in the hospital I was wracking my brain trying to figure out how the heck this happened. It seems like that perfect storm occurred that resulted in my Rhabdo…my colonoscopy and the double prep that must have left me less hydrated than my normal state mixed with the new workout and those chin-up negatives and my overall exhaustion.
My research on the subject of Rhabdo led me to information about how dangerous those eccentric motions can be when your body isn’t used to them. According to THIS scholarly article (and many others I found), “One of the main causes of rhabdomyolysis is eccentric exercise against high resistance.”Please, please, please ease into these movements. I wished I had known about this because I would have started with 4 x 3 chin-up negatives one week and progressed to 4 x 4 the next week, etc. Had I known the potential danger of eccentric exercises I wouldn’t have pushed it to finish all of the sets.
While in the hospital I made sure to keep my nutrition on point. Being sick and injured puts a toll on your body and you NEED that food to help you heal. Despite the fact that I was not training, I kept my calories the SAME and I still lost weight. I made the best choices I could and St. Luke’s menu made it fairly easy for me. I did lower my protein macros by 20g per day in order to ease the burden my kidney’s were experiencing and I raised my carbs by 20g to make-up the difference. I have kept my macros that way for the last week and will be increasing my protein a little tomorrow.
Here are some of my breakfasts from when I was in the hospital (my hubby brought me my favorite smoothie each day):
And some of my lunches and dinners:
I told my clients that if I was able to stick my macros while in the hospital they had better be killing their programs at home 🙂
Thank you to everyone for your well wishes and prayers. I head back to the doctor on Tuesday to see how my numbers are progressing.
Last week I took it relatively easy and just did what I felt like in the exercise department. I lifted weights Monday and focused on lighter weight with higher rep ranges. On Tuesday I did 45 minutes of walking on an incline right when I woke-up and then spent the rest of the day prepping for my colonoscopy. Wednesday was a day off and Thursday and Friday I did light weight high rep ranges again. Saturday my little one wasn’t feeling well, so I didn’t go to my regular class and worked out at home with weights. Sunday was a day off.
This morning I began Jessie Hilgenberg’s 14 week Muscle Building e-book. I always get excited to begin a new program and this morning’s workout was awesome. I took before pictures this morning and will share my before and after’s with you in 14 weeks.
Comments:
Monday 11/2 was my actual 40th B-Day, so I allowed myself to indulge in a pint of my favorite ice cream (So Delicious’Coconut Milk Ice Cream – Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl), as well as a small chocolate torte from Whole Foods and a few bites of gluten-free cupcake. I would have taken a picture for you guys, but I was all about just enjoying it. My birthday is once a year and treats like this aren’t something I regularly indulge in…I got a pimple as proof of that…awesome…pimple on my cheek at 40!
I also had my first colonoscopy on Wednesday, so Tuesday I was stuck only consuming a liquid diet and thus the weight loss you see on Wednesday. I have a family history of some issues and my doctor wanted to start screening me. All looks good and I need to go back in 3 years and then if all looks good then, 5 year increments. It was all definitely worth it for the peace of mind and to establish a baseline.
As you can see I maintained my level of conditioning this week, so it is time to increase again. I decided to take a leap and increase a little bit faster. Please know that even though I am a nutrition coach I get nervous about increases too. I am committed to the process and will see how this week goes on the new macros. If for some reason I gain weight, then my plan will be to stick with the same macros next week as well to allow my body to acclimate to them prior to increasing again.
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Click HERE to see the weekly logs of my 8 Weeks to 40 Cut
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 1 of my Reverse Diet
Click HERE to see the recap of Week 3 & 4 of my Reverse Diet