Sorry for my lack of posts. I have been joining my family on holiday for the last few days... so as you can probably imagine... lots of delicious food and beautiful views! Went out for a meal at to a restaurant called White Table. Their menu was fantastic (and great value!)... the chef said that she had been inspired by the menu from the W hotel chain... oooo errr!
Anyways, if you're a salad fan, then you would LOVE this menu... as they seemed to make them all very different and exciting. So, I thought I'd share them with you so your salads never need be boring again!
My sister had a goats cheese walnut salad with warm dried bilberries and a pomegranate dressing... OH EM GEEE... DELISH
My step mum had an apple and beetroot salad with grilled halloumi cheese. Also, VERY TASTY!
Being bias, mine was defo the best. I had a courgette salad which wasnt AT ALL like what I was expecting it to be. Mine was a whole bowl LOADED with grilled sliced courgettes (hot) covered in mint, chilli and lemon with a dill and yoghurt dressing thing with feta cheese mixed in it... WOW!!! So, I immediately came back and started looking for recipes... as this was a very clean (minus the cheese), very healthy, much lower calorie meal than I was expecting, and my god... it was GREAT!!!
This is a Jamie Oliver pic... sorry... phone ran out of battery... but his recipe sounded the most like how mine was cooked!
In other news... 3 month plan is starting on the 1st October... so I will be doing more updates with day by day info on my chompings and fitness routine, (as well as some potential rantings about student life.. :P)
This will be my 5th day in a row of exercising... So I don't want to make it too heavy, as I have a hard one planned for this weekend... so this is just to keep the metabolism ticking over!
20 minutes HIIT (High Intensity Interval training)
This is great to work up a sweat. Normally I would do this for 40 mins, but this is my 5th day in a row in the gym... so want to do less cardio, and more muscle building exercises. I do this on the elliptical. The treadmill is probably better, as I know the elliptical is renowned for saggy arses but I prefer doing this followed by an arse... I mean glutes... workout!
5 mins warm up- increase HR to 60-70% (for me this is between 144-158... this can be calculated online!)
10 mins interval training... I am starting on a 1:3 ratio of HIGHEST INTENSITY: low intensity
(my HR tends to be around 180 (approx 85%) by the end of the 15secs FULL POWER (resistance 17). I then bring the resistance all the way back (to 5) for 45 seconds before repeating 10 times.
5 min cool down- I decrease the resistance to 5, to complete the rest of the workout
In time I will alter the ratios so that I am eventually doing 1:1.. but for now 1:3 is fine!
After that I will do the butt exercises
I asked for some ankle weights for my birthday and they are fantastic... FEEL THE BURN!!! Mine are from John Lewis, and I take them with me everywhere.
The workout I do for this is actually the Victoria Secrets butt workout... (I wonder why I googled that one!) and you can find it here....
Write the exercises down and then GO FOR IT! If you dont have ankle weights... squat away... the glutes are mega muscles... if you have them toned, think of the metabolism you will be creating... FAT BURNING FURNACE!!! I want me a big butt! So gunna have to work for this one! I also have a great workout for when I am actually in a gym with a smith machine etc... but this is more for maintenance!
After the arse exercises I will do 3 sets of the following exercises
Deadlifts (35kg barbell) x10
Wide squats with 5kg dumbbells (i find this REALLY gets my lower back) x10
Normal Squats LOW (unweighted) x10 (aim of these is to go as low as possible... and after all of the previous exercises I am sure I will feel it....OUCH!)
NOTE TO ALL!!! NEVER GET ON A PAIR OF SCALES EVER!!!! Massive mistake on my part, getting all ahead of myself thinking... yeah... I've started clean eating... must be dropping a bit of weight... WRONG WRONG WRONG!
Turns out I am currently a little heavier. However, this is kinda to be expected as my body is going through a bit of a detox, so will have a lot of water weight etc.
STILL.....EWWWW.... was so not happy with that larger than life number.
I still have my gym session for the day to come, so will do some fat burning work later!!
My dream body.... oooo.... now isn't that a nice thing to think about. In a dream world, I would get mistaken for a Victoria Secrets model on a daily basis!
'What do you mean this isn't me.... I don't know what you're talking about!'
When thinking about what you would like to look like... it is important to be realistic with your aims. Don't aim to look like someone else, just to be a better version of yourself. Don't aim for perfection, but progress!
You can do this... you just need to believe that you can!!!
I would put myself at Level 2. (see previous post to see what level you are at!), aiming to be a Level 3, with fat percentage under 20, and a 27" waist. I have been at this before, so just want to fight to get it back!!!
Are you going to be the dreamer? or the FIGHTER? only one can make that dream a reality!!
So, yesterday was just one of those days that I call an 'eating' day... where you just eat absolutely everything in sight. Luckily, there wasn't that much junk food around, but I did snaffle my nans maltesers (shh!!!) and I may have spooned peanut butter from the jar a couple of times... oops! Overall I ate around 2200 calories (doesnt happen often)... but I burnt 800 in the gym late that night... so evens out (ish) okay.
Normally I would feel dreadful about that sort of thing... but I really didn't. As we all have slips, and it satisfied my cravings for a while. So, yesterday didn't count as clean eating (that's for sure), and I had myfitnesspal to point this out to me!!
Now then, I add everything I eat onto myfitnesspal as I find this the easiest way to keep track on the go. It is also easy to see when you have overeaten and when you are on track. I try to aim to net around 1300 (my aim on it is 1150, but thats cos I know I will go over it). This was, I'm not 'afraid' for when it goes into the red!
Feel free to follow me. From now on you will see the clean eating coming through (the aim anyways!!) Last monday I had a ridiculously large indian (which was INCREDIBLE)... so have spread those calories throughout the week (as quick add calories)... so as you'll be able to see... I am still trying to work off that pig out...
I can't believe I am opening this up to everyone... no hiding now... *gulp*.... feel free to catch me out. I always need that sort of encouragement... 'Oi, I can see that chocolate biscuit you just ate... did you really need it? tut tut tut'
Myfitnesspal is fantastic as you can add your exercise and all your foods and keep track of your macros to make sure you are getting your calories from the right food groups!
I am not encouraging that you get obsessed with calorie counting as it is much healthier to hit a happy medium... however, I like to keep track, and found it helped me A LOT!!!
So, now you can keep track... Almost ready OpLeanMeaners?
Fundamentally, I do believe that clean eating is the best diet for anyone who wants to be lean. However, the success of it will really depend on the stage that you are starting at! If you eat at fast food restaurants several times a week, and eat a lot of junk food, then you will really struggle if you try to go straight to clean eating as your body will be going 'ERR HELLOOO.... WHERES MY SUGAR BABES?', and you will feel very sluggish!! (If you are fine with going straight to clean eating... then you are superwoman and I say GO FOR IT, and I am very impressed... I just know that I wasnt quite strongwilled enough!)
Therefore, I suggest slowly adapting your diet over a period of time so that it never seem difficult and you just slowly flow into it! Remember, if you want to change, you must bring about change!
Just a quick statement... I apologise now for my grammatically incorrect blab. I am a Cambridge science student with a tendency to yap. (no english skills!!). Also... this song always empowers me when I feel a bit poop... so LISTEN IN!!!
Anyways, despite only being 21, I have been at all stages of weight/ eating habits (including he drastic under eating) so I will try to write posts to cover all of them depending on what level you are on!
The different levels will be separated according to current diet and weight
Level 1 (I was at this level when I was 14)
Overweight with bad eating habits. Would find switching to clean eating difficult, and don't really want to give up chocolate and sweets... after all... it tastes so good! However, you know you are bigger than you should be and feel rather self-conscious about certain aspects. Diets never normally last longer than a day, as you slip back into old eating habits. Probably eating over 2000 calories a day, and live a fairly sedentary lifestyle.
I remember when I was like this. I was the big girl of the year, and ate like a machine. I hated plates being left with food on it (that hasn't changed), and being at an all girls school with a lot of eating disorders... there were always lots of leftovers for me to dig into at lunchtime... SCORE!!! At break I'd eat 2 cookies, a chocolate bar and a pack of crisps, and after school, a strawberry frapuccino (with cream on top.... duh!!!!) and a blueberry muffin. I have since counted the calories I used to eat, and it must have been around 3000 a day!.... oops! Fundamentally, I didn't like how I looked but just accepted that this was how it was going to be.... I was a big girl... they were small girls... just as you have big dogs and small dogs... and I didn't think that it was ever going to change!!!
Aim: Just want to get smaller!!!! (of course you will change levels as you get closer to your goal... but this is just to see where you are starting out!)
Level 2
Bigger than you want to be, but eat fairly healthily. Aren't scared by clean eating, but would really miss that afternoon cake/ pudding at dinner. You are quite active, but don't seem to be able to to be changing shape much at all.
This level can be split into 2 initially but can be solved in the same way. The split is caused by a difference in muscle mass. You're either fairly active, and eat fairly big portions of food (with a fair amount of muscle) or don't eat all that much, but seem to be quite fatty (with little muscle mass). I would classify skinny fat as a level 2. I have been this latter version for a long time now, as I don't have much muscle mass at all... hello 26% fat! GREAT! Aim: Budge that fat, maintaining/building muscle. Level 3
Very active, and eat very healthily. Just want to budge that last little bit!
You are very lucky if you are a level 3, and I'd say that just watching your diet and making sure you eat clean will help to shift that last little bit. After all... abs are made in the kitchen! Level 4
Very active, skinny, and you restrict your calories. It has become a bit of an obsession. May eat a piece of cake, but go and burn it off immediately, and are unhappy if you haven't. Will spend a long time doing a lot of cardio, but not much strength training! If you eat a little bit more than normal, you seem to put it on as fat very quickly
I was exactly like this when I was 17. Although I was skinny, I didn't have much muscle tone as I was running a ridiculous amount and not replenishing the calories. So what did my body do.... it burnt the muscle of course... as it was more energy efficient for it to keep the fat than it would be to keep hold of the muscle. So, when I started eating normally again... hello fat... my body stored it as fat as it wasn't sure when it was next going to get food again. Unfortunately, this is a very obsessive state of mind to be in and isn't healthy at all. My friends started to get very worried about me as I was looking gaunt and my immune system hit rock bottom. Despite being at the weight I wanted, I wasn't completely happy as it was a stress that I had to constantly think about, and I was tired ALL THE TIME!!!
If anyone reading this is at this stage, I THOROUGHLY recommend you trying to eat more and doing weights to build muscle. That way, you will find your metabolism will increase, burning that last bit of fat, and you will be able to eat more without putting on weight. Your energy levels will also be much higher. Having been through it.... I completely understand. If i could turn back the clocks... thats EXACTLY what I would have done, but I knew nothing about weight training and thought I'd just get bulky! I promise you wont!!!
So.... there are the levels. Most people will probably be a level 2, of some degree aiming to be a Level 3. If you are a Level 1. I will write a post giving you step by step help to try to change those habits and get to where you want to be. It amy take longer.... but I promise you, you can do it.... and you WILL do it!!!
To anyone reading this... feel free to comment with personal info and I can try to help. State what level you think you are at, and what your issues are and I can try help you overcome them (as I have almost definitely been through it myself at some point!!!)....
I am a 21 year old student about to enter my third year of university, and have found that since starting, my weight has been about as constant as a flipping roller coaster!
When I was at school I was a much bigger, weighing about 155 pounds at 5'7".... I just loved food (and junk at that)
When I was 17, I lost a lot of weight FAST, by doing a ridiculous amount of moderate intensity cardio and seriously restricting my eating. It worked, I lost the weight... but wasn't able to keep it off! I then put a bit back on and was the happiest I have ever been body wise (5'9", 126lbs)
I promised myself that I would stay at this... HA (FAT CHANCE!).... with my weight slowly increasing, I then started doing the dukan diet/ the 5:2 fast.... ANYTHING to try to keep my weight down.... FAIL!!!!!! The fat just kept increasing!! BOOOOOO!!!
Unfortunately I could never blame my weight on being big-boned... as... well... my wrists are ridiculously small. Neither was I stocky, as I had zilcho nilcho strength. So, in summary... bone and fat.... great!!!
So I now find myself aged 21, 5'9", 144lbs and 26% body fat, and I want to change!
My BMI may be within the normal range, but I don't care about 'weight' as such... I just want to jiggle a little less in the wrong places, and build my strength. I'm not going to use the phrase 'tone'... as that will come along it time.
So, that is a brief description about my past, but now it is all about changing now. And after all, to change, you have to make change!!!
So... I am going to set my goals on here now for all to see. Figured that this is the only way that I'll actually stick to something! I will try to post every few days on what I have been eating/ what exercises I have been doing (including when I slip... after all... I am human) and update my progress.
EATING CLEAN, OPERATION LEAN MEAN.... HERE WE GO!!!!
Current stats
Weight: 144lbs
Fat percentage: 26%
Goal weight: (not fussed but ideally somewhere between 126-133)
