How many times has this happened to you? >> You psych yourself up mentally (you are GOING to do it!)
>> You don outfit (you can practically feel energy flowing through your veins!)
>> You lace up running shoes (Nike: Just Do It - that’s you.)
>> You grab your towel (because ANYONE SERIOUS needs a towel).
Then it’s time.
It’s time to sweat. It’s time to burn evil fat from your body. You face treadmill (or stair climber, or rowing machine, or exercise video with perky aerobics instructor on it).
And you start.
You warm up, and start moving faster and faster. The sweat starts to pour. The blood is pumping. Man, you are burning! That size 2 exercise instructor is going to look like a whale compared to you when you get through!
The adrenaline hits your blood and you feel GREAT! You could exercise forever! In fact maybe you will exercise forever!
Your time winds down. Ok, maybe you’d better slow down, no sense in going TOO crazy here. The cool down sure feels good. You turn off treadmill, or exercise video and head to shower.
Then it hits you.
EXERCISE REPERCUSSION.
You feel like you want to die, or at least sleep for about 12 hours. You go through day craving anything you can easily grab: anything edible or, depending on how good it looks, anything at all. Nutritional value? Who cares!
But nothing seems to satisfy you and you could swear that you’ve just eaten all calories you burned during exercise PLUS more!
What was point in exercising at all if you go through your day tired and eating everything in sight? It was just a waste of your time and a stress on your body for nothing right?
Well, not necessarily, not if you can learn from it. Here's how to avoid above experience when exercising:
1) Check Your Hydration Levels
(I know not really exciting—but it will do wonders!!)
The average adult loses 10-12 cups of water a day (that’s not including water we lose from exercise, caffeine, etc).
It’s estimated that approx 75% of North Americans are chronically dehydrated. And even MILD dehydration will slow down one’s metabolism as much as 3%.
And here’s key, all you exercisers: Lack of water is #1 trigger of daytime fatigue!!!! Unfortunately this fatigue often gets mistaken for hunger and we eat more than we need in a desperate effort to get that water back into our bodies.