You know how I talked about conquering plateaus and trying new things the other day? Well, yesterday I thought I might make an itty bitty breakfast change by substituting my morning coffee with a different kind of pre-workout energy drink…

I’ve been reading a book on the benefits of vinegar. Sounds promising already, doesn’t it? Well, one variety of vinegar in particular is purported to boost energy, promote healthy hair and skin, eliminate toxic waste from the body, reduce bad cholesterol, and regulate blood pressure. It’s apple cider vinegar, or, ACV.  If this could only make me sprout wings, too, I’d say I’ve found my wonder drug! I couldn’t wait to start taking it!

The author of said book recommends starting your day off with two tablespoons of ACV mixed with water. I, the impressionable and in this case, dim-witted reader, did just that, failing to connect the concoction’s acidity with the likelihood of intense abdominal cramping accompanying it, especially if you drink it too quickly and/or don’t dilute it enough (guilty of both!).

I’ve been Googling, and it appears different people respond differently to the stuff, and it probably would’ve been better to have eaten at least a little bit before I downed the drink and let it go to town on my empty, vulnerable tummy, poor thing…

I had an appointment to work out with Michael yesterday, but on the drive to the gym, I started to, well, hear noises, those strange digestive noises, you know, that sound as if  you’re about to give birth to something from a Men in Black movie. As I pulled into the gym parking lot, the alien gurgles were morphing into stinging stabs of pain!

I managed to step onto a treadmill using the reasoning, Maybe I can walk it off. This actually worked…temporarily. I told Michael what I had done to literally make myself sick; all he could do was shake his head and sigh.

“Do you need to leave?” he asked.

“No, I’m going to tough it,” I replied as I doubled over.

“Okay, guess we’ll have to go a little easier today.”

It was leg day, and in between sets of deadlifts, leg presses, and hamstring curls, I was lying supine on a bench. No one dared ask me to move, either ;-). Somehow, because of the intermittent nature of the cramps and knots, I made it through the workout.

I learned my lesson: Just because a book tells you to do something, that doesn’t mean you can check your brain at the door and bah like a gullible sheep. I should have known better than to introduce a sizable dose of ACV to my system first thing in the morning, right before a workout.

With any new routine or goal, be it in the gym or in life, we should take small steps, not giant leaps, or in my case, giant gulps of vinegar! I’m not giving up ACV altogether, but I’m definitely going to be smarter about how I ingest it! Maybe I’ll try a smidgen in my salad dressing tonight… 🙂

Stay fit, stay faithful ~<3 Di