Please read the specifics of my situation before offering your advice:
I wasn't intentionally under eating and over training, I was just staying 100% raw, and it's really hard for me to get enough calories raw with the level of training I was doing. I was doing probably 1-1.5 hours of exercise every day easily (biking, running, bikram yoga - almost all cardio), and getting about 2000 calories a day for a while. My weight was quite low and I started feeling really fatigued and low energy, but I'd still force myself to work out. I think I may have gotten a hormone imbalance from over training, possible too much testosterone, and my health was deteriorating. I understand now my main problem was just not getting enough calories, because I would get bored of eating the same things all the time. Even if I had a few higher calorie day, I'd get bored with raw fruit and go back to 2000 calories of the same old.
With the encouragement of some raw till 4 friends, I started eating more cooked carbs and understand I need the cooked carbs to maintain 2500+ calories a day. So, I've got the diet part under control. I'm smashing in the carbs and eating close to 3000 a day, which I think is healthy for me right now. I'm gaining some weight, but I believe in the system so I'm not worried at all.
My body still feels fatigued and tired, and I'm thinking of reworking my exercise routine. Maybe less intense running and bikram and more weight lifting and yoga? I really kind of scared myself with how fatigued I feel and overly moody and testosteroney. I would like to be thin and strong, and not fatigue my body too much. I want to feel balanced and healthy.
Any advice for getting my body back to a balanced happy place, because I'm not there right now :/
Replies
One really weird symptom is that my breast size kept decreasing! :/ Even though my weight was pretty much the same, I think my estrogen/testosterone balance was off. I just didn't feel as vibrant. I looked more tired in my face, and I didn't have a lot of motivation/pep in general. My weight was quite low but I also didn't have much of an appetite. I was pretty moody.
Right now I'm doing 1 day of bikram yoga and 1 run per week. Other than that I'm just doing easy bike rides. And I'm trying to get a lot of sleep. It's tough for me to go with no exercise when I just increased my calories so significantly - and my energy level is up! Do you think this level of activity is acceptable while I'm getting a lot of rest?
I'm hoping that the increase in calories, and consistently hitting 3000/day, will let my body know that's it's in a safe and happy place and it can relax and heal. I'll make sure not to add crazy training, in fact I'm not even motivated to right now. Just something sustainable where I feel I'm sort of maintaining so I can pick up at some point in the future.
I do have future dreams of doing bikini model competitions, so I want to feel I'm headed in that direction, but not really worried about the speed.
Agree 100%. You must listen to your body. Your endocrine system is out of whack - you need to rest to let all your hormones balance. If it takes months of not exercising to achieve this, then that's exactly what you must do. To do otherwise at this stage will simply cause you further problems down the road, from which you'll struggle to bounce back. Your body is giving you warning signals now, don't ignore them. Do nothing but rest, eat (don't reduce calories to make up for reduced exercise - that isn't how the body heals) and sleep as much as you can. For as long as you need to. Push yourself even slightly now and you'll regret it later - seriously.
I used to overtrain and undereat as a distance runner in college. I did that for about 3 of the 4 years I was there. After I graduated my body pretty much gave up on me and I barely had energy to sit around all day. Basically what I did was tell myself that I needed a break and I needed time to heal. I stopped running as much, took a lot of days off throughout the week and only jogged when I really felt like I could. Took up yoga instead and easy biking. I also started to eat to my heart's content (all vegan, primarily raw and high carb) and sleep in as much as I could. I didn't get a job for a long time in order to be able to do this. In this time I also gained weight but I could see my body healing. Soooo.. 3 years later and I'm feeling A LOT better. I would say after 1-2 years of really laying low with the training (compared to what I was doing in college) and resting as much as I could, I finally was able to pick things up a bit. Right now I am training to run a sub 3:30 marathon and it's going really well! I finally feel amazing! My moods are stable and generally always good, my period is back to normal (I didn't get it during college), I feel comfortable with my body weight and all my hair and nails are strong and not brittle like before.
So moral of the story, ease off the training and rest as much as possible and eat as abundantly and nutritiously as possible until you start to feel consistently better. It might take a few months or years but when you heal you will feel so freaking amazing!!!!! :D Good luck
Eat more and train less! And forget about cooked carbs, because that's a wrong science. Energy doesn't come from those calories. They only make us all tired&sick, although they taste marvellous. Actually I don't think that you train too much, I think that there was something wrong with the rawfood you had before. Maybe not ripe, maybe the wrong type, maybe full of chemicals. Naturally, sweet juicy fruit (pine, mango, apple, oranges, etcetcetc) gives you everything you need for superhero power. But there's another thing: Rawfood cleans you, and if you have stored poisons, it can make you horribly tired. I had all kinds of poisons from decades of "normal" lifestyle. But 100% raw food is the correct way to go...
HI! I would definitely definitely prefer to stay raw. I just get bored of sweet fruit by the end of the day and don't eat enough. It's tough where I live. In summer it's maaaybe possible, but it requires more organization. I wish I had a friend who was dedicated to being raw with me and we could support each other. I just have a million things going on and not a big eater normally. I have trouble getting enough food in.
if i ate 2000 calories a day and did that level of exercise i'd be totally starving. I'd be downright ravenous. If you where not already thin i'd say maybe your body is getting by on excess fat stores.
That being said when i started eating this way I had to really stuff food down in the begining to get my stomach to expand.
I'm not sure about over exercising. I was running 7 days a week. now I"m running 6 but the same amount of miles I'm trying to work 1 rest day in. Not so much because I want too but because I've had 2 lingering pain issues that for some reason this time my body just does not wanna get past. If those 2 things ease up I might crank it out again I might not too tho I kinda like the day off.
Take a day and go easy just take a nice walk etc... try and relax.
I would recommend checking with Swon. This guy is really really smart and gives lots of free advice. He has me on his program right now and I am feeling really really good so far. If nothing else, I'd message him on here and see if he has some time to offer a few pointers...
http://www.30bananasaday.com/forum/topics/swon-s-fitness-advice-cal...