Paleo Day 26: Totally Wired!

When I woke up at 3:45 am and couldn’t get back to sleep, I assumed I was going to be in for a crash half way through the day.  Little did I know I’d still be up at midnight still going strong.

We all have had boughts of insomnia, I’m sure.  When you aren’t adapted to caffeine it can sometimes be induced by caffeine consumption.  Sometimes it can just be the stress of life.  Sometimes it is just because.  I didn’t wake up from a nightmare or because I was too hot (or cold).  I just woke up.  I laid there and tried to get back to sleep.  I then tried doing a little reading to get myself tired.  In the end I gave up and started my day a bit after 4 am.  My original intent was to quickly check my e-mails and then go to the gym.  Instead I wasted a good ninety minutes on the internet.  What a waste of a good opportunity.  I still managed to go to the gym around 6:15 and be back home about 7:45.

Breakfast was a Virgin diet shake with extra berries to reward myself for a good workout.  Lunch was supposed to be, and was, revolving around watching the USA v. Germany world cup game at a local British pub.  On cue we were at the pub just before noon revving up to watch the game over beers.  I obviously couldn’t have beer, but I did want to get a little into the drinking spirit (but not too much since I was heading back to work) so I instead had a glass of wine.  How authentically British of me!  It’s not like I’m actually a soccer fan, but it was a good excuse to hang out with friends in the middle of the day.

Rather than wolfing down pretzels, sandwiches or pizza (I told you this was an “authentic” British pub) I wolfed down steak, potatoes and asparagus.  The last few days I have been in more calorie deficit than I was hoping to achieve.  By evidence of that I was done eating that and I was still hungry.  Rather than order something else at half time I headed back to the office to get more stuff done.

By mid-afternoon I was still pretty hungry so I cracked open the snack I brought along.  It was my somewhat usual pound of tomatoes, half pound of carrots and few ounces of assorted raw unsalted nuts.  Again, a sign that I am probably needing more food, that didn’t even put a dent in my appetite.  About that time I was finally getting a little bit of a lull.  I assumed a significant crash was on the way but I had to be sharp for some meetings so I had a cup of Earl Grey tea.  I figured the caffeine would give me a good jolt if the sugar in the vegetables didn’t.  It certainly did do the trick, again a good reminder of why it is convenient to not be caffeine adapted.  I originally was really craving a Coke Zero, not a tea, but I figured breaking the seal could be nothing but bad news so I backed off on that.

Dinner was a rather boring half rack of ribs and broccoli from Famous Dave’s.  I’m not sure if it is the meat they use or the seasonings, but at this point their products don’t agree with my stomach.  I don’t feel good after eating them and neither does my stomach.  I don’t get that same effect when I make ribs at home.  If I just did twenty minutes of planning in the morning, I not only would have ribs that wouldn’t bother my system, but I probably would have had healthier ribs that also cost half as much even though they were pastured pork products.

I finished the night banging out a lot of work snacking on various kinds of fruit and berries.  By the end of they day I actually had consumed a bit more calories than I had burned.  That was fine.  I really needed it after the last few days of deficits and with a big run tomorrow.  I have yet to figure out why I was not only wired at 3:45 am but wired pretty much the rest of the day too.  A jolt of caffeine at 3 pm consisting of a cup of tea isn’t enough to explain me being wired past midnight.  Maybe it was two days of those Super Salads that has my body just electrified.  I’m sure tomorrow I will be dragging ass and wondering where it all went anyway, but it’s a nice thought to hold for a brief moment in time.