Damage Control During the Holidays

Starting Monday, I'm doing a 4 week sugar detox. Why? Oh, why, why, why, why, why would any person in their right mind do a sugar detox in December?!

That's why. Because if I don't challenge myself in December, I eat anything gluten free that looks remotely appetizing, and come out the other end in a disoriented sugar haze, having gained weight. Last December, I did things differently - I was challenging myself, and I came out of the holiday season lighter. Could never before have said I had managed that!

My nutrition/weight goals are still modest this holiday season - I'm mainly hoping to break even, and simply avoid fat gain. Though I'll be sugar detoxing, my activity levels will be rather involuntarily lowered. During the Thanksgiving Day WOD at my Crossfit box, a persistent back issue cropped up again. It's something that I can't shake, even having seen a chiropractor and having gotten an MRI courtesy of my local orthopedist's office. Over the last couple of months I've continued to scale way, way down...first it was no heavy weights...then no weights...now even rowing seems to have triggered the same back issue, so I'm to the point where I don't know what I can do workout-wise at Crossfit.

For me the main thing is this: I am mother to a 35 lb. human cannonball, aka my almost-3-year-old daughter who has sensory processing disorder. This child is in perpetual motion, and I need to be able to keep her safe walking through parking lots, able to pick her up out of her car seat and put her in shopping carts, take her to occupational therapy appointments, where I help to put her on swings and other therapy equipment. I cannot afford to have back pain in my day-to-day life, because my daughter's safety and progress depends on me being ready handle her at a moment's notice.

So, as reluctant as I am to admit it to myself, it seems that I need to take a longer break from Crossfit than the 1 week here, a few days there I'd been taking whenever the pain flared up. I'm having to think through ways to make it through December with minimal damage to body comp while still letting my body heal.

Strategy 1 is AndreAnna's sugar detox. I thrive under the gentle yoke of accountability, and knowing that at least 50 other people have joined the detox will certainly keep me on the straight and narrow. Since I won't be burning carbs 5 days/week the way I usually do with WODing, I will need to keep the carbs fairly low this time.

Strategy 2 is hot yoga. I recently tried out the new yoga place that opened in our town. I have done both the regular yoga 101 and the hot yoga 101 classes, and have already a distinct preference for the hot yoga. It delivers very noticeable relief to my back issues - and I think this is because it almost resembles a string of Kelly Starrett's Mobility WOD videos, only done in a heated room. It seems to really help to sort out that messed up tangle of hip flexors, piriformis, ligaments, SI joint, muscle, nerves, and discs. I'm hoping that I can integrate hot yoga in as a regular recuperative element in my workout routines.

I haven't figured out any good cardio or HIIT things that wouldn't aggravate my back, so for a while I may need to rely on lots and lots of walking. It certainly won't get me the same delicious heart-bursting rush that my beloved Crossfit does, but at least it will keep me moving and my body from shutting down.

What ways are you planning damage control during the next month?