Whole30 Day 3

Day 3 is drawing to a close, and I'm feeling pretty good. I had a headache Monday evening, presumably from sugar withdrawal, but since then have felt ok. The hangover phase is over, hooray! Let's see if I become cranky and irritable in the next few days - there's a definite timeline to the challenge, it's documented here.

You'll notice that I tend to eat the same things over and over, with a few variations. I made my breakfast hash again this morning, plus I sipped a mug of the silky gingered zucchini soup on my drive to work. I had pulled pork with tangy BBQ sauce and oven roasted broccoli for lunch, and a late afternoon snack of 2 hard-boiled eggs, carrots and cucumbers.

When I got home from work, I was craving some healthy fats, so I made some Caramelized Coconut Chips from Well Fed. They hit the spot! I love the slightly salty, slightly sweet, crispy texture. After my snack, I finished cooking the jicama home fries that I'd soaked overnight, then threw in some ground beef to make hash. A bowl of that plus some carrots, broccoli, and Dijon vinaigrette made for a tasty dinner.

Mmm...Caramelized coconut chips

Beef and jicama home fry hash

You might have noticed that I haven't mentioned anything the past two days about my exercise/training; it's not because I'm just leaving it out. I've been dealing with lower back pain for the past four months, since the end of the Crossfit Open at the end of March. I honestly don't remember exactly when I injured myself, but it was the 14.4 workout: 60 calorie row, 50 toes to bar, 40 wall balls, 30 power cleans, and 20 muscle-ups. I made through half of the power cleans before the time cap. The following week I began noticing pain in my lower back, but it wasn't that painful at that point. A week after the end of the Open, I began attending Barbell Club, which I loved. I PRed the majority of my lifts during the first week, but went easy on the deadlifts because my back was still tight. As the weeks went by, it became harder and harder to perform some of the lifts, especially front squats, cleans, and eventually deadlifts.

I finally stopped working out around Memorial Day weekend, taking over a month off from any exercise, and began seeing a chiropractor twice a week. Ultimately, the sessions did little. It did start to slowly feel better, so I began going back to the box in early July, and severely limited what exercises I did. For awhile, it was only strict press, bench press, strict pull-ups, and the airdyne, but eventually I added in rowing and a few other exercises. But when I was in Chicago, I dropped in at two local boxes, and definitely tried to do too much (we did Fran at the second box, definitely not a good idea). Add to that an alumni volleyball game last week, and my back was killing me all over again. I decided on Monday to finally see an orthopedic doctor, and my appointment is tomorrow morning. So we'll see how that goes. I hate being sedentary, but I need to heal my back and get past this.

That's it for now, tune in again tomorrow for a rehash of what I shoved in my mouth for another day! And hopefully an update on my back!