I mentioned yesterday that I am starting to see results. It's true! That being said I think I'm at the stage now where I keep doing what I'm doing and only tweak when I stop seeing results.
I just want to touch on a few subjects about what I currently am or am not doing and my reasoning behind my actions.
Calories.
I am not counting calories right now. I would chalk it up to pure laziness really. I'm getting results so I don't see the need. Plus, I'm not flying completely blind. I can eyeball a teaspoon, tablespoon, 4 oz of chicken, proper oatmeal servings, proper sweet potato servings, etc. I am eating around 1600 calories a day based on what I know from the days when I was tracking my food. Since I am making this project my lifestyle I don't want to make it un-fun or mundane by forcing myself to do tedious calorie tracking. I'm seeing results, I'm enjoying things, I eat super clean, and I'm never hungry so I must be doing something right. If I ever do a figure contest, I'll count calories then.
Eating at Night
This is an area of controversy for people. Many schools of thought tell you not to eat at night because you are more sedentary at night and thus less likely to burn any calories that you ate and they will get stored as fat. Other schools of thought say that it is ok to eat at night, in fact it is beneficial because the nighttime is when your muscles are the most at-risk of eating themselves.
I used to subscribe to the first school of thought, which sucked because I remember many nights going to bed hungry.
Calorie for calorie, as long as you consume less than you burn, you won't gain fat eating at night-- but, you can't just eat any ol' thing at night. You should eat protein. Pure protein, with maybe a little fat if you haven't had your fat serving for the day. Something like almond butter or peanut butter or avocado. By pure protein I mean a protein shake, or if you want something more substantial, scrambled egg whites, or 4 oz chicken breast, or both. Green veggies are ok too but not tons. This way your muscles have something for the 6-9 hours you aren't feeding them, and they can really repair and grow.
I have been drinking 1 scoop of protein around 9:00pm or so when I start winding down for bed. I don't chug and then sleep- there is probably a solid 1.5 hours between consumption and sleeping, but it is late. I don't do this on nights where I ate a late-ish dinner though. It has to have been at least 2+ hours since my last meal.
I really think this is helping in my recovery process. I am shocked by my lack of soreness, and visible muscle tone.
Water.
See my purple Nalgene bottle on the right? This nifty bottle sits on my desk at work all day, and lucky me I sit right near the "water cooler" (lol). It's 32 oz, so 4 of these equals one gallon. I try my damndest to drink 3+ of these per day during work hours. Then in the evenings, at home I drink water all evening long too. So I figure I am drinking a gallon of water per day.
Water is magic. Read here for more info on that.
Lifting Heavy, Lifting Often
I am lifting weight as heavy as I can and still perform 10-12 reps with proper form. Sometimes I end up doing only 6 or 8 reps on my last set.
In the past I have told myself "you already have a good muscle base, you should probably just focus on cardio to burn fat." But that is just a myth people buy in to. I am finally taking the advice of thousands of fitness professionals and making lifting the primary focus, instead of a supplement to cardio. I lift 5 days per week right now, focusing on 1 or 2 body parts per day. The intense explosions that happen within the muscle when you lift heavy are metabolism fire-starters, and produce HGH - human growth hormore, plus other good things which I'll expand on in the future.
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| Alreadyt seeing some great stuff in my chest/shoulders/biceps. |
Cardio
Like I just said, I am spending a lot of time lifting and getting a good sweat going that way. My typical gym routine is to lift intensly for 30 minutes then cap it of with 15-30 minutes of treadmill interval bursts. I'm olny doing 15-30 minutes sessions because I just don't want to spend 45 minutes on an elliptical machine. I have no mind for it. I am really into doing really fast, intense running spurts followed by a walking recovery. Then I'll walk fast for a few minutes before doing another crazy sprint burst. I just feel so alive that way. I think it will make me a fast runner overall too as I get used to the fast spurts and can last longer each time.
I also run outside on my lunch breaks if that's all I have time for. Running outside is a different animal than the treadmill. I like both.
Being Prepared
Just like a boy scout. I can't stress enough how much of this lifestyle involves being prepared. Nothing just happens. You have to grocery shop, prepare food and portion it out, and wash dishes, and remember to grab your food before you leave the house, and pack your gym bag, and remember your ipod, and socks, and shoes, and clean workout clothes, and gym lock, and earphones, and water bottle, and post-workout fuel.....it's EXHAUSTING! But, it is doable. You just have to plan. And roll with things that come up.
Speaking of rolling with punches.... As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I made an awesome squash soup yesterday, which I had for my meals today and was planning to have tomorrow. Well this afternoon my boss asked me to travel on the company plane to our Illinois facility. So already I'm thinking "damn, no run at lunch...and hmmm what about my meals? The soup doesn't really travel well, so what am I going to do?" I knew I was going to have to make food for my trip. After work I walked to the co-op for a few ingredients and threw together a healthy garbanzo/diced chicken breast/pea shoot/diced zucchini/diced green pepper/toasted walnut/arugula/lentil salad. I spiced it with chili powder, lemon pepper, a splash of apple cider vinegar and some Udo's oil. Bam! Power food. Then I portioned it into my little containers that I can grab and I won''t have to worry about the volatility of soup transport. lol :)
Today was a rest day. Tomorrow is a big back day with some cardio to boot. I'm just going to go straight to the gym as soon as the plane lands tomorrow evening.
