Post-Exercise Nausea...

Talk about learning from experience!

I normally do my morning workout at 5.30am, and that's usually the 30 minute cross trainer/interval training one.

Today being a bank holiday however, I booked a session with my Personal Trainer to happen at 8am. So didn't do the early morning session at home.

Had gone to bed later than usual last night (not a good idea so don't do this often) so woke up late this morning - at about 7.25am. So I really just had time to freshen up then go to the gym and be on time for my 8am session. No food, no drink.

Went to the gym, had a great (but intense) session, drinking water at intervals during the hour-long session...and then afterwards felt the most horrendous nausea...

Plus I felt wobbly all over. This has never happened to me after a workout session before (not even the 5.30am ones...) so I had to figure out why it was happening now. And I'm going to share with you the things I'd done (or not done), which contributed to how bad I felt. I don't want you making the same mistakes.

I feel great now, having corrected the correctable factors from the list below:

• Intense workout on an empty stomach. Yes I often workout on an empty stomach when I do my 5.30am sessions, but they're not as intense as what Craig put me through this morning. Plus, 8am is a couple more hours without food, after an overnight fast, than 5.30am. So basically I was a bit hypoglycemic.
  
  
• Dehydration. I normally drink 600mls of water on waking up, and a further 600mls during my 30 minute workout. Today however, because I was running late, I didn't drink that amount - after an overnight fast - I hadn't even had up to 300mls by the time I got to the gym, though I took my water bottle with me and drank some along the way as well as had some sips during the workout.
  
  
• Intense workout. It is possible that some of the things I did today were beyond my fitness level - there was definitely one workout which targetted the abs (and this morning, my abs were housing my empty stomach...): I did one level fine but the higher intensity level I couldn't do as well, found it too hard though pushed myself some. So if I'm to pick any exercise from today's session to blame as contributing to my nausea, that would be it!

Well, not all the above are correctable this morning after the workout, so I set about correcting the ones that are:

• Quickly reversed the hypoglycaema with some high glycemic fruit - grapes. Also then ate some banana and baked chicken. The protein is to help lower the glycaemic load of the meal so that the release of the sugar into my blood is sustained... Soon after I had a few grapes, I felt better.
  
  
• Reversed the dehydration by drinking, to start with, 600mls of filtered water. Now we're talking...
  

Nothing I can do about the fact the session was intense, as that's in the past. However I can do something about that in the future. I'd have been better able to cope with it if I'd had a little something to eat and drink about an hour before going to the gym. Which would have been possible if I'd woken up earlier today...which I didn't do cos I slept later than usual...which is a bit of a bummer!

Note to self: don't mess up the sleeping pattern! Early to bed and early to rise, makes a girl healthy, wealthy and wise. (from Benjamin Franklin) :D

IMPORTANT NOTE/ DISCLAIMER:

- Before you put down any nausea to just exercise, go to your doctor and have them check you out to rule out any other reason. Ladies, if you're sexually active, you want to make sure you're not pregnant, if you're getting morning nausea, for instance.

Have a fantastic, healthy day, dear reader!

Blessings to ya!