Buffet

Ugh, I ate at a Chinese buffet today.  My brother invited me to lunch, and he seriously had a craving for Chinese, so I agreed to go.  Which was probably mistake #1.  I behaved quite well, I think.  I googled calorie content for Chinese food before I went and everything.  I avoided anything deep fried, and stuck mainly to sushi.  I also had a few steamed dumplings, some zucchini and shrimp, and a the World's Smallest Serving of chicken and broccoli.  For dessert I had a couple of those little sesame ball things that have bean paste inside and a piece of watermelon.  So yeah... probably overate, but I definitely did waaaaay better compared to what I used to eat.  I'm still shocked that not a single noodle landed on my plate.

After eating, I came home and went to work in my little garden.  I put poles in the ground and tied up my tomato plants, and then I started to remove grass because I want to enlarge my garden for replanting my herbs.  Somewhere during this time, I became aware that I was exhausted.  And my head was throbbing.  The last few minutes of clearing the grass were beyond painful.  I quickly put my yard tools away and went inside.  I figured I just needed to rest a bit (grass removal is a bit taxing), so I grabbed a book and reclined on my couch to read.  But my head hurt way too much and the complete exhaustion I felt overwhelmed me.  I fell asleep for at least an hour and woke up still feeling pretty awful.

I'm not entirely sure what made this happen.  Since the Chinese food is the only change in my usual routine, I'm leaning towards giving it the blame.  I phoned my friend and told her about it, and she suggested that I was perhaps too long in the sun.  Perhaps.  But I honestly feel I wasn't in the sun all that much.  I put some poles in the ground and cleared grass from a very small patch of land before I had to come inside.  So, I'm still thinking it was the food. 

I know that MSG can give some people some pretty wicked headaches.  I'm also wondering if the white rice on the sushi made my sugar spike.  I haven't really had any refined grains since I started this healthy venture of mine, so perhaps my body just reacted poorly to the sudden influx.  (which is awful, because sushi is one of my favorite foods of all time).

After I woke up, I made myself a cup of green tea, which seemed to make me feel a bit better and then I forced myself to go to the gym.  My plan prior to my surprise nap was to finish in my garden and then go to the gym, and I didn't want to let anything stop me.  (plus, for what I paid for the stupid thing, I'm going to use it).  So I went to the gym and hopped on the elliptical first.  I ran 2 miles in 15 minutes on it, although they were some of the hardest 15 minutes I've had in awhile.  I then switched to the bikes, and pedaled my way through another 20 minutes, whereupon I changed it up and went to another machine that I have no idea what the name of is.  It's like a stair master and an elliptical had a baby.  I like it especially because it has a fan built into the front console that'll blow cool air on you while you use it.  I used this machine for another 10 minutes before calling it an evening. 

And guess what?  I felt so much better.  My headache was gone.  I wasn't exhausted, even after all that cardio.  I felt more energized and all-around better.  So.  Lesson learned.  Chinese buffets are out.