Keeping it simple and real

This post is about two things that help me in my fitness process without getting frustrated or overwhelmed.

Keeping it simple:

If you Google weight-loss you will find loads of articles, if you look at the newspaper/magazine rack there will tones of health magazines available all with lots of suggestions, lots of ideas. For me this information overload is something that makes fitness sound more complicated than it actually is.  I know all of us are keen on doing the most effective workouts, we are always looking for the healthiest food option but I think it’s always good to keep it simple. Depending on your fitness level your simple will change.When you are just starting your journey it’s better to start with any activity you can do instead of wasting time trying to figure out which type of workout. I know it’s important to find something that works best for you but just adding some sort of activity can be a good start while doing your research. I feel once you are used to do some sort of workout then trying new/different workouts or training for something is a lot easier to manage. 

Even your food plan, why not start with just  avoiding junk food,  then move towards counting calories, reading labels and constantly improving your choices over time.

I feel if you take a step by step approach rather than jumping directly to something more complicated the change is not sudden so it is more manageable.

Keep it real: 

All of us have different schedules, different responsibilities just because somebody else can manage working out twice a day does not mean you have to make a similar plan, its always better to make a plan that you can stick to for long term instead of making a plan that is difficult for you to follow through because every time my plan fails I feel like I failed but sometimes it’s just that my plan was not good, I based my plan on something that I read in a magazine or heard about without thinking about how to fit in my life. I think its best to keep reality in mind when making a fitness plan, know how much time you have in a day, know your schedule, prioritise your day and decide your fitness plan so you can make sure you can continue your fitness journey for a life time. I'm not saying don't give importance to your workouts or your food all I am saying is make a plan that fits in your life rather than copying somebody else.

As you continue your fitness journey your simple and real both will change, you will be able to do more and managing a healthy lifestyle will become your second nature

Keep Reading I will Keep Writing 

Tanvee

Macro nutrients and Increasing calories

Why macro nutrients?

When I started my personal training sessions it was the first time I ever heard of macro nutrients, like most of us I had an idea about carbohydrates, protein and fat but I never really focused too much on it. My main focus was always calorie count and avoiding junk food and it worked for a long time but I was very keen on learning more about food and how I could use it to maximize my workouts and day in general.

When Michelle mentioned that I should focus on macro nutrients I thought that would be a good starting point for me to learn more about the food I eat :)

Why more calories?

I started with increasing my calorie count – we went from 1200 to 1500 in a span of 5 weeks, my fear of putting on weight made it very difficult for me to increase my calorie intake, I was really worried increasing my calories would make me put on weight/inches or go back to my old habits but I also wanted to do more in the gym, I wanted to lift more weights, I wanted to run longer...so I decided to trust Michelle.

She would always tell me I would be surprised at the amount of calories she eats and what matters is what calories she eats, so if she was my fitness bench mark I had to improve my eating. Even before I started my training with Michelle I started concentrating on my protein – carbs – fat ratio because I was looking at improving my strength training and energy Michelle suggested increasing my calories and sticking to a ratio of 40% -30%-30%
Please remember increasing calories does not mean adding unhealthy options to your food

Surprise!!

I use MyFitnessPal to log my food, it has an option that allows you to check your ratios, The day I checked mine for the first time I had more than 60% carbs and the rest was split into protein and fat (note : this was when I was not eating junk and eating considerably healthy). I played around with my food till I changed this ratio a bit, I was not sure what I had to cut out so I could reduce my carbs, I did not eat pastas or bread...that’s when Michelle created a day’s meal plan for me. It was more about increasing my protein than reducing my carbs, because of a lot of carbs % was through vegetables.

Michelle's food plan for me (I also started including protein)

Is it too much hardwork?

5 weeks in, I knew how to manage my food while sticking to my calorie count and maintaining my macro nutrients ratio. Initially I struggled but my struggle was a lot to do with increasing calories, sticking to the ratio was not so much of a problem, it was more about switching my meals to include more proteins (eggs/chicken..) and good fats (Avacado/nuts..)

The macro nutrients part was not too much hard work because it takes very little time for you to know how much of what you need to eat to stick to your macro nutrient ratio 

Advantages

The first time I increased my protein and calorie intake I added lots and lots of chicken to my lunch, mentally it was difficult to eat but slowly I finished the amount Michelle had suggested...

That day I had worked out for about 90 minutes in the morning, after lunch we went walking (8-10km) I got back home and I was not dead tired, I could still keep my eyes open, I actually messaged Michelle telling her what a good surprise that was. All I did was add more protein while sticking to my increased calorie count.

One more thing I noticed was body recovery, before this usually after my body pump class I would be in pain for at least two days, I would go for my other work outs but my muscles would hurt, so I’m sure every week for two days after my body pump class my other works would be less intense. But now I recover faster, even though I increased my weights my muscles don’t hurt for that long this helps my other work outs

Back to Basics

          Food can be carbohydrates, protein, fat, minerals, and vitamins. All of these can be added to your daily meals through healthy options and unhealthy options.

Protein:  our body needs protein for growth and muscle repair

Carbohydrates: these are very good to give you energy (if you eat the right carbs you will see notice that you have energy for long, but if you eat the processed or bad carbs you will notice a spike and drop in energy)

Fat:  these protect your organs and also help in mineral/vitamin absorptions (the word fat is scary and most of us will want this to be negligible in our daily intake, ladies from personal experience I can tell you if you reduce it too much you will surely see hormonal effects...not good. )

     Our body needs everything in proportion, depending on how much work your body does and what you are working towards achieving you can change what  you eat and how much you eat  but always remember Good choices.

 

My Suggestion:

If you are used to eating healthy, if counting calories or points has become a part of your life something that you don’t need to struggle with, then tracking your macro nutrients is a great option to move forward. 

Please make sure you are eating the correct amount of calories, I thought I was but my body spoke a different language, I was not hungry but tired.

Start simple then move on to the next step!!

(P.S - next post will be on good/bad carbs and fats)

Expert opinion – Over to Michelle 

https://www.facebook.com/MichPersonalTraining

When people are aiming for fat loss many believe it is simply a case of eating less food; results will indeed be seen using this strategy however it’s not necessarily sustainable long term and very often the weight lost using this method is regained with even a little extra on top.  When putting some thought into which foods you are eating and considering the marco nutrient ratio you are able to fuel your body with what it needs to function and still achieve your fitness goals.  Eat a healthy, clean and balanced diet which includes all food groups (where possible if you’re not vegetarian or allergic), and consider your portion sizes and you will be able to achieve any of your goals – fat loss, muscle growth, maintenance or a combination of the three. 

Tanvee’s goal was to lose body fat, gain strength and energy. During our first consultation it was clear to me that Tanvee was one, not fuelling her body enough for the amount of activity she does and two, not consuming enough protein to aid muscle repair/growth. 

My first challenge with Tanvee was to increase her overall calorie intake.  Using Tanvees age, weight, height and activity level I calculated that she should be consuming 2140cals per day to maintain her current weight, this was close to double what was being consumed at the time.  It would have been almost impossible for Tanvee to immediately increase her intake to this amount so I requested she increase by 200 each fortnight; which she found extremely difficult but has been gradually building on.

There is no one size fits all ratio when deciding how to portion you macro nutrients; it’s a case of trial and error with each individual and is dependent on each person’s goal (weight loss/muscle growth/maintenance) and body type (each body types tolerate food groups differently).  For Tanvee I decided to start on a ratio of 40/30/30 (Protien/Carbs/Fat) with the goal of fat loss in mind.  My main goal was to increase her protein intake to increase her overall calorie count and for muscle growth – Tanvee had been training for quite some time and could not figure out why she wasn’t getting any stronger, in short she was not fuelling herself with enough protein for repair and growth. 

As Tanvee progresses through her training this ratio is due to change….but first we need to hit our calorie goal! 

Please note I’m not a qualified nutritionist and the above is learnt through extensive reading then experience with my own body and my clients.

Keep Reading I will Keep Writing 

Tanvee

Chicken 65 (Indian Style grill)

Its has been a while since I posted a recipe, this recipe is quick and easy like my usual posts. Its a little on the spicy side so you could adust the spices according to your taste.


Ingredients
4 Dried red chillies
2 inch Ginger
6 cloves Garlic
2 tablespoons Coriander seed
12 Black peppercorns
--
1/2 cup Yogurt
1.5 tablespoon Lemon juice
2 table spoon Rice flour (I used less of this or sometimes even skip this step)
Salt to taste
Oil (I use very little)
--
450 gms Chicken
--
Method:
1. Grind the first 6 ingredients
2. Mix it with the remaining remaining 5 ingredients
3. Marinade the chicken in this mixture for 1 hour
4. Grill the chicken (this is usually a stir fry recipe but I prefer grilling)
Hope you don't find it oo spicy, I usually serve this with a yogurt dip to balance the flavours.

Keep Reading I will Keep Writing 

Tanvee
(http://www.sanjeevkapoor.com/chicken-65---dakshin-delights.aspx)

 

My experience of working out with a personal trainer

This post is all about my experience working out with my personal trainer Michelle
Why did I go to a personal trainer?

Most of you know my weight loss/fitness story, over the years I have struggled with exercising and choosing healthy food, finally I had reached a point in life where I was enjoying my workouts (maybe too much) and eating healthy (maybe too little). My goals had changed from just losing weight to becoming stronger.

I knew I was in a healthy weight range but I also knew I was not feeling healthy; there were days when I would feel too tired, I could not do much of strength training. As usual I did my research did lots of reading but I think I needed somebody to point out my mistakes which were actually related to overdoing everything.

I was looking for somebody I could trust to guide me in the correct direction, somebody who understood where I came from and listened to my fitness goals. I was not looking for a trainer only to push me to workout harder instead I was looking for somebody to tell me to work hard in a different direction 

Michelle – my personal trainer

When I first started thinking about working out with a personal trainer, I looked at all the personal trainers in my gym and decided to narrow down to Michelle randomly. Michelle is certified, is a boxing instructor and she also conducts classes in my gym for me she sounded perfect. I had still not made my decision, I wanted to talk to her and then decide. My first consultation with her was great. Trust me I was worried about meeting somebody so fit, I was worried about her judging me and telling me how unhealthy I was but she was very sweet, the first time she just let me speak, she heard me out, heard my goals understood my worries and that’s when I decided my training sessions with Michelle would be good. We also did a test workout session before we started my actual sessions.

If you want to know more about Michelle –  http://www.ms-pt.co.uk/

My sessions

Working out with a personal trainer was not in my budget, luckily for me Michelle came up with a solution instead of 1 hour workouts we did only 30 minutes workouts. I did my own warm up and cool down and promised her I would put in maximum effort for the 30 minutes that we worked out.  So I did 5 sessions, 1 per week for 30 minutes and trust me those 30 minutes made a difference. (More details on this in coming up posts)

My food

The first time I was talking to Michelle she asked me to show her my food log and I was embarrassed because at that point I realised I was eating less, even though I had stopped junk food and most unhealthy things I knew I was not eating enough, especially since I was working out a lot. She made a food plan and slowly increased my calories intake every two weeks. This was more difficult for me than any exercise we ever did. Never in my wildest imagination did I think eating more would be a problem for me. We increased my calorie intake mostly by increasing my protein % in my meals.  (More on this in another post)

Result

30 minutes every tuesday for 5 weeks + increasing my calorie count and focusing on macro nutrients

total loss - 11.2 cm

chest - 2 cms

biceps - 1.5 cm

waist - nothing (thank god!!!, I was hoping for no loss here)

hips - 2.5 cms

thighs - 3.7 cms

I was surprised especially because I had increased my food intake I was worried I would disappoint Michelle and myself at the end of 5 weeks so this loss of inches was a pleasant. The other very important thing was my strength increasing, I was noticeably less tired during the day, I have increased the amount of weight I carry and I can keep up little more with my body pump class, I feel more confident when I enter my class or the weight section now.

(I continued to do my regular workouts along with these PT sessions)

What did I learn?

1.       Importance of getting your calorie count right (not too less not too much)

2.       Focusing on my macro nutrients (Now I look at the ratio of protein/carbs/fat along with my calorie count), make sure I eat more protein (40%-30%-30%)

3.       I can do more weights, if I can manage 8 reps of a heavier weight that is better than 15 reps of lower weight and over time I am able to increase my 8 reps to 10/12

4.      Complete body workout (cardio/weights/squats/burpees/jumping lunges/cool down)

5.      Importance of sticking to the correct rest period between intervals. I would never measure this sometime it would be more than a minute but when I started working out with Michelle she measured my rest period, this make the workouts more intense. 

I’m hoping to work on a few posts with Michelle to share with all of you a few important things we discussed during my sessions.

Keep Reading I will Keep Writing 

Tanvee

Interval training

I think interval training is great, every time I do interval training I can literally feel myself pushing my limits. It’s something I started when I was stuck in one of my many weight loss plateaus. Once I started it has always been a regular part of my workouts.

I’m listing a few things I discovered over time hope you find them useful

What is interval training?

Interval training is working out in intervals, meaning you divide your workout into alternating intervals of high intensity and low intensity.In other words you push yourself as much as you can for one interval and followed by stabilizing your breathing/heart rate in the next interval

Usually intervals are very short; I stick to a maximum of 1 minute and a minimum of 30 seconds this is because my high intensity is usually manageable only for 1 minute, that’s how I decide my intensity. Anything that I can comfortably do for more than 1 minute is not intense enough for me.I have seen people (a lot fitter than me) do shorter intervals of 10-15 seconds with 30 seconds rest but their intervals are a lot more intense than mine and I’m working towards that.

Can everybody do interval training?

When I started interval training for the first time I had just started getting used to jogging continuous for about 15 minutes (that was a long way from where I started which was barely few seconds) so I started intervals of walking and jogging at a little higher speed as I become more fit I changed my intervals to jogging and sprinting. Basically whatever your fitness level you can create your own intervals. You can switch between walking and jogging,walking and increasing incline, walking and sprinting or jogging and sprinting

The best thing about interval training is it depends completely on you, you decide what is high for you and how long you want your intervals to be. For example there are some people in my gym whose high intensity is too high for me and mine might be very easy for them but it works for me, during my high intensity I know I’m putting in my maximum effort which is all that matters.

Is it really more effective?

I have read a lot of about how and why interval training is more effective, from a personal experience I can definitely say it is very effective in terms of increasing stamina, speed and it is definitely more taxing than training at regular pace.

If I train at my regular pace I can comfortably manage an hour but with interval training 30 minutes (including my warm-up and cool down) is all I can manage after which I’m done.

How often do I do interval training?

I have personally noticed I can’t do the same interval training on two consecutive days, I might do sprint intervals on the first day followed by bike intervals (spin) the next day but I have not been able to do two consecutive days of sprint intervals. My spin intervals are usually easier than my sprints. I try and stick to 2 days of sprints and 2 days of spin.

Just because it can be done in shorter time does not mean you do it every day because then you are surely at a risk of injury. I think it is best to listen to your body, push yourself just the right amount, don’t overdo it. For some alternate days might work while others might be comfortable sticking to 1 day a week, whatever works.

Some of my regular intervals

2 min warm up – 3 min jog at base speed – [1 min alternate intervals of walking and sprinting ]* 20 minutes-3 minutes jog at base speed – 2 min cool down

2 min warm up – 3 min jog at base speed – [1 min sprint (slower than when my rest interval is a walk) 1 min jog at base speed]*20 - 3 min jog at base speed – 2 min cool down

Sometimes I include incline

2 min warm up – 3 minutes jog at base speed – [1 minutes incline (no holding the bar – that reduces the effort) 1 minute walk or jog]*20 - 3 min jog at base speed- 2 min cool down

Sometimes I play around to include both sprints and inclines, sometimes I change my machines by doing 10 minute intervals on each of the different cardio machines - treadmill, elleptical and stair master

Which machines do I use for interval training?

Anything that can get my heart rate up, I do similar intervals on elliptical, stair master, bike and even skipping rope and sometime I do it without any of the machines outside in the park :)

1 Misconception I had

When I started jogging I was focused on increasing the time I ran for, so when I first started I was always worried my stamina for running for a longer time would go down because I was going to run only for short intervals but trust me I was completely wrong, not only did my stamina increase but my speed also increased considerably because of interval training, my current base speed used to my sprinting speed...

what do you think? do you enjoy interval training as much as I do? I would love to hear about your intervals

(hope you found this useful)

Keep Reading I will Keep Writing 

Tanvee

Check out my new page :)

I want to push myself a little more, become a little more disciplined so I have decided to share my workout and food plans with all of you for the next few weeks, if you are interested in seeing what I eat or  my workout on daily basis use the 'My Fitness Plan' tab on top
I'm hoping by noting things on the blog I will become more aware of my shortcomings :) and it will help me understand what effects my workout intensity and food intake.
Hopefully this will help  me improve my plans and become better.

Keep Reading I will Keep Writing 

Tanvee

Fun Friday (This is how my weekend looks)

 

I love the sun and I love my weekend walks, hope you all have a wonderful weekend !!!

Keep Reading I will Keep Writing 

Tanvee