Hey guys, if you’re new to these posts, listen to this podcast episode to get the scoop on what changes I’m making in my life and you can start back at my first daily post here.
I love a fresh new day but I definitely wish I had slept better last night! I struggled to fall asleep and woke up every hour or so. Sleep is a huge priority for me right now so I’m going to try to get in a nap after my workout today. (Update: that didn’t happen)
I got a new chalkboard to help me stay productive in a more “life” than “task” way. (We won’t talk about how on the first day I had it I wrote on it with permanent chalk marker. 🙁 I went back to the store to buy a new board…)
I’ve always been great at knocking out tasks, but I don’t just want to check tasks off a list. I want to make sure that I’m improving my life and not just trudging through it, efficiently.
I want to be super happy, not super efficient.
It’s easy to focus only on task management and end up being productive but not creating a life you love.
Anyways…
I checked my blood sugar upon waking and it was 83 mg/dL. I’m planning to check it before & after my workout to see if and how a workout has an impact.
Before the workout my blood sugar was 82 mg/dL
I warmed up for about 30 minutes (light rowing, some body weight stuff) and then got into the workout.
The workout today is a good one – I love rowing!
50/35 Calorie Row – cash in
5 Rounds:
10 Burpees
10 hanging knee raises
50/35 Calorie Row – cash out
Basically what this means (for the ladies) is you do a 35 calorie row and then 5 rounds of the burpees & hanging knee raises as fast as possible and then another 35 calorie row as fast as possible. The guys do the same but a 50 cal row.
Immediately after the (fasted) workout, I checked my blood sugar. 133 mg/dL! Wow! That’s a heck of a difference!
Ready for me to geek out a little bit (while keeping it super simple)?
When I posted it on Instagram, a few people commented or private messaged saying, “Hey! What happened? Why in the world did your workout increase your blood sugar?”
I think my body was doing exactly what it should have done. First, it’s important to note that it was an intense workout. The goal was to move as fast as possible.
These are the exact situations that require muscle & liver glycogen. As I have mentioned in the podcast, we have short term sugar storage in our muscle & liver tissue. It’s stored in the form of glycogen.
When needed, the glycogen gets broken down to glucose to help fuel the body.
In this situation, my body is going to tap into those stores to provide fuel for the workout. That’s what they are there for.
In addition, this workout certainly increased my adrenaline, which also encourages the liver to generate glucose.
Since I checked it immediately after this intense workout, insulin probably hadn’t responded yet. My body was releasing/generating glucose during the workout.
An hour later, insulin had responded and my blood sugar was right back down to 82 mg/dL.
You might be wondering, “does that mean you weren’t burning fat during the workout?”
Maybe. Maybe not. First, it’s important to note that my body’s metabolic requirements stay elevated beyond the workout itself, due to the intensity. So the immediate blood sugar reaction doesn’t tell the whole story of what fuel my body is burning.
I may very well have been burning fat during that workout, however.
Remember that the stored version of fat in our fat cells is a triglyceride. What does the “glyceride” part of that word refer to? The glycerol backbone that holds together 3 fatty acids. And that glycerol backbone can be used to provide sugar as fuel to the body when needed.
Ultimately though, I’m not looking to pinpoint what fuel my body is using during the x many minutes of a workout. I’m looking for fat loss trends over time.
I hope that makes sense 🙂
On the food front:
Can we talk for a second about water? I shared that after my 5-day fast I realized I need to drink more water, and I have been. But, I don’t drink tap water.
This harkens back to my product development days. I remember sitting in a product training and hearing a man talk about the importance of water filters. He talked about how city water supplies aren’t able to filter out toxins and drugs that enter the water supply through sewage systems.
I’ve done a full episode on it here, but suffice it to say, I’ve had a drinking water and shower water filter ever since. I worked with different water filtration companies in my last corporate job, and Aquasana is the company I love. I use their counter top and shower filter.
About an hour afterr my workout, I had a large spinach salad with hardboiled eggs, veggies & almonds. (I ate right after that blood sugar check.)
Dinner was my primary meal and it was a delicious one! I treated myself to a homemade meal of brussels sprouts and a ribeye!
But wait, there’s more!
I told you guys I’m trying to incorporate more leafy greens to help with anti-inflammation so I took some Halo Top ice cream and put it in the blender with several handfuls of spinach and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. It was dang good!
There’s not really a recipe. I just put a few scoops of Halo Top in the blender with a few handfuls of spinach and a handful of cashews. Yum!
Love you guys! I hope you’re enjoying these posts!