day 6 - no sugar

I have never gone this long without some kind of grain. Ever. Never gone this long without some form of sugar. I've already accomplished a goal that I've never accomplished before and it's only the 3rd of January! Of course, I didn't wait until the new year to start after my goal. I was too excited to start my new journey to wait. And, I started on a Saturday, if that's not weird enough in itself.

This "diet overhaul" I've done is a little more involved than just simply not eating sugary treats. It's eating nothing with sugar in it. Like last night, we had taco salad for dinner and I was going to put some hot sauce on my salad but decided just to check the ingredient list to make sure, and there was sugar in it. So I didn't use it. I was going to get some smoked salmon at the store the other day, but the ingredients listed brown sugar, so I put it back. Making sure to check the label is important. Sometimes even food you wouldn't think had sugar in it, does.

I don't crave anything. Not one thing. It's a freedom like I've never felt. I don't associate food with happy feelings anymore. And I'm just shy of a week into it. I don't think I'll ever go back to eating the typical western diet. This is going to change more than just my body. This is going to change my life. I feel like it already has.

No more food addictions. I'm not a prisoner to cravings. If I crave anything at all lately, it's vegetables. I'm not even kidding. Another first for me.

I went into the gym today, still feeling a little on the dizzy side. This is my only remaining side effect. I am hoping that by the end of next week, that will be history as well. Anyway, I had legs today. I only had 5 exercises on my schedule. 4 sets of each for 10 reps each set. It still took me an hour to complete (including a warm up on the treadmill at max incline - 15%). My legs were absolutely rubber when I was finished. They are still weak. My dizziness almost interfered with squats today.

I used the olympic bar for squats instead of the squat rack today. I can't handle as much weight this way, but I wanted to hit my abs with stabilizing my body. I have to sort of clean and press it, because I start with the bar on the ground, so I can only use about 65 - 75lbs, otherwise I might not be able to lift it over my head to get it on my shoulders. Today I used 65lbs. Pulling from the floor up to the beginning squat position, where the bar is on my shoulders, made me extremely dizzy. It's a quick movement from the floor, so it's no surprise that it really affects my already dizzy state. But, after a short pause, I handled it just fine.

I also did deadlifts with the olympic bar instead of in the squat rack. And for those of you who don't know what that is, it's a bigger bar - 45lbs just the bar itself. See, the cage makes you feel so secure. It's very useful when you are lifting very heavy weight without a spotter because with just a twist of your wrist, you can rack the weight, where as with the free standing bar, it's all you. So I managed to do 95lbs today. And despite not having lifted heavy in a while and not even exercising at all for a week, I wasn't unhappy about that.

Then was jump squats with a 10lb medicine ball. Leg press and single leg press. Those were intense!

I burned 450 calories doing those 5 exercises. Not too shabby! Especially considering it's all coming from fat!! A lot different than horking down a bunch of sugar loaded carbs to fuel an hour long aerobic workout that does absolutely NOTHING for the physique. I honestly don't get why people still do that. It seems like a huge waste of time. Most likely it's due to an old school mindset or using outdated information. Kind of like the way some people still think that eating good fats will make you fat. But, it doesn't matter to me, I'm not the one doing it. It just makes me feel smarter ;)