Morning exericse

I usually exercise in the morning, early, say 6am. I eat a few handfuls of cereal first, along with coffee with a generous portion of milk. Generally works out fine. On the weekends I wait until later, just because I can, but usually regret it, as I'm either hungry or full, depending on if I've eaten breakfast or not.

So today, I started a long cardio Jillian workout at 9 am-ish, arrogantly thinking I would add some small weights, as it was too easy during the first circuit. Then we got to the mountain climbers. About half-way though I almost passed out. I got weak and dizzy and was verging on disoriented. I literally could not move my muscles. How could this be? I do this one all the time!! I got really upset. I even thought I might be pregnant, that's how weak I felt, despite the fact that I have very strong, reliable birth-control. I was freaking out completely.

I tried to find the remote to press pause and couldn't find it. Alex was on the floor in a heap of blankets and pillows and I started berating him to get up and help me find it. I really started to fall apart. I just used it to start the video - where could it POSSIBLY have gone to???!!!!  I pleaded with Alex to get daddy to help me find the remote -  like I had lost my wedding ring or something.

"Alex PLEASE go upstairs and get daddy!!!" Poor kid. Sweet Alex has a mean mommy.

Dave found it wedged on the side of the couch and tossed it to me with a scornful look. I'm not sure if the scorn was for the fact that I lost it, or interrupted him to find it or that I was generally acting like a lunatic. Maybe all three. I pressed pause. Workout preserved for later and complete failure averted - I would finish it after resting a bit I told myself.

I wasn't really all that hungry, but I am familiar with this reaction to low blood sugar so I tried eating. I went upstairs and ate a HUGE bowl of cereal with milk and yogurt, then when I finished that I downed a few extra handfuls of dry cereal and a banana. I calmed down. Blood sugar returned to normal levels. Obviously I was hungry. I had eaten a little slider before the workout and had several cups of coffee (we have LOTS of sliders left). Caffeine and protein are not the ideal pre-workout meal.  And I ate the slider about 5 minutes before so I didn't even have time to digest it. I guess people carb-load for a reason!

After eating I went down and finished the workout with the same level of fatigue as normal. It's hard but  I can do it. I only had 10 minutes left but wanted to prove I wasn't sick or falling apart or pregnant. So lesson learned. Carb loading from now on. And I remembered something I knew already - I'm a complete disaster when my blood sugar drops. Irrational, angry, reactionary. Sometimes not even very hungry but kind of past that feeling. The fear of getting to that irrational place was one reason I snacked a lot, and it is one reason I'm very good about planning snacks now. No one likes to feel out of control and it's completely unnecessary.  Back to early workouts after cereal.