Ruled by numbers

A wee update on Laura and her mini 8 week plan for a fitness photoshoot!  This week she is half way through her programme, and 4 weeks in is making fantastic progress.  Her body fat has reduced by 2.5%, and she has even managed to slightly increase her muscle mass along the way.

 

Although I am a firm believer in tracking progress to keep morale and focus.  One of the reasons I failed on numerous attempts in the past to lose weight was because I never tracked anything other than scales.  When I started taking weekly progress pictures and measurements I noticed changes every week – but some of those weeks the figure on the scale actually went higher or stayed the same.    

 

I always get criticised by my coach by constantly telling him the figure I am on the scale and not practicing what I preach! However I weigh myself daily out of habit not because I am obsessed with the figure, its just part of my daily routine ‘OCD’.

 

I am at a point now where numbers really don’t mean anything, and the mirror and how I feel about the body dictate to me how I am progressing, but for people embarking on change it isn’t easy doing it this way and they need the numbers to spur them on and keep them motivated – but trust me there will come a point where numbers will not rule you, this also goes for food tracking.

End of Week 20 - Off Season

Quick round of this week!  My body has responded really well to the extra carbs.  On back and leg days I am sitting at 325g of carbs at the moment, and on shoulders / chest day 285g, with a further drop on non training days to 250g.

The most important thing is the measurements on the tape are constantly getting lower on the waist, and increasing on all other areas and the coach is happy!!!

I am a firm believer in eating your protein, and at the moment less than 10% of my macro's are made up from supplements.  I would prefer to eat my protein / carbs than drink it!

I am now away to hit micro cycle 2 for the 2nd time this week, this is defiantly my favourite cycle of Y3T as I feel am really challenged in the gym.  I have also been fitting in a lot of yoga and pilates on my rest days and feel that this will really help my muscles on stage.

I forgot to take progress pictures this morning (oops) but if you check back this post tomorrow I will have them up!

I can't believe the difference 4 weeks into Y3T, I was seeing changes myself but it wasn't until this afternoon when the coach showed me a picture he took of me the day before I started back training and it was a huge eye opener how much I have progressed in 4 weeks and that the rest period from training did me the world of good!!!

Defeat your Nemesis.

Its official, after months of speculation and comments by close friends, Sharon and I have finally admitted that their guesswork was correct and we have been secret squirrels!  

For months Sharon and I have had some secret clients we were working with to build up a portfolio for our business that we were going to be launching in January, there was a few delays due to workload, art work and the website but this week we finally went live!

'Nemesis Personal Training & Nutrition'.  At the moment we are only taking on a small number of clients as we feel that by keeping our clientele small we can give our clients 100% attention!  

Go check out the website!

www.nemesispt.co.uk

End of Week 19 - Off Season

For the 2nd weekend in a row, I have spent it at the gym or sleeping and having 'me' time.   Friday I had a quick look round the shops - still the usual sales rubbish lingering about, then went home and chilled out in the hot tub.  On Saturday I had a nice long lie in, and then pottered about the house before heading to the gym for a leg session followed by posing practice.  Today I did 2 gym sessions and in between got to see my nephew Max for lots of cuddles, and a visit from my friend Shelley and her wee girl Holly.

Ever since starting Y3T I constantly have DOMS!  Today am in pain from Saturdays leg session, tomorrow I will be in pain from the leg session on Saturday and from Shoulders today.   I have now finished Micro Cycle 3 and go back to Cycle 1 on Wednesday.  Already I see huge difference in my appearance and my body is responding extremely well to this type of training.    

I have reached my target of 316g of Carbs, but its still not enough as my body seems to be loving all these calories that it needs more!!!  My weight crept up slightly but my waist is still coming in but there is a plateau  in some measurements!  Andy revised my macro's for the week ahead and we are running 3 different macro cycles based on the workout.  (Macros for legs / back days, then shoulders / Chest / Arm Days, and then macros for non training days).  We will run this for the next fortnight and see how my body responds.  Irrespective of the high carbs / calories my abs are coming back!  I also feel a lot leaner!

This weekend I have spent a lot of time working on my routine.  The song choices I had originally selected I soon realised were either too slow or didn't fit work with the routine.  Thanks to a few suggestions from a fellow gym bud on song choices, and who helped me re order the poses, I now have my routine and song choice!  Now its practice, practice, practice to nail this! 

If you have to treat.... Think Smart

As some of you may know I am coaching Laura through an 8 week programme in persuit of her abs!

Laura loves a desert and cake - and don't we all!!! However I am being really tough on her over treats as I feel she can over indulge at times with little self control.... You give her an inch she takes a mile.

Last Saturday - LESS than a week ago I made Laura a lovely nutella and almond protein cheesecake.  I chose not to tell Laura the ingredients because she told me she didn't like nuts but couldn't be specific why she didn't!  I made the base out of ground almonds and chocolate almond butter and topped the cheesecake with a drizzle of melted nutella!

She was genuinly shocked when she found out she had consumed nuts and that she liked nutella!!!

We women have hormones to deal with when that menstrual cycle comes round and we crave all these sugary delights!  I told Laura that through prep when this happened to me I had a TEASPOON of Nutella in with my fage.

On Thursday the menace Laura told me she had a sweet craving so consumed a box of Nutella and Go!!! #ragingmad... This 8 week plan isn't about "fexible dieting if it fits your macros" 

Self Control is one of the hardest things to tackle! I always use to think, you either have it or you don't.  I certainly never use to! However self control has gradually crept upon me when I started to realise the importance of hitting my personal goals.  For Laura it's all about finding a healthier alternative to kerb these cravings!

Take for instance my  "fage sunday" I use 150g 0% fage, 15g Nutella, 150g rasberries and 1 mini crushed meringue! Yes it did peak my insulin slightly with the sugar, but macro wise a better alternative to "nutella and go"! I hit my protein, and got ALOT more to consume than a

Dob of Nutella and Afew shit carb biscuit sticks! My desert also looks tonnes better!

Other alternatives would be to remove the nutella and meringue and replace with honey and fruit/nut seed mix! Or how about bake a protein brownie then mix it in?!

WEIGHT LOSS PROGRAMMES

Yesterday evening I watched a TV show called weighing up the enemy on channel 4, presented by Dr Christian.  The basis of the programme is to get 2 overweight people to compete against one another to win a financial incentive.  They then have to show each other what they would spend the money on.

 

The 2 gentlemen on the show was Andrew a huntsman, and Karl a vegan dog groomer (you can see where this is going).  Karl takes Andrew to see a fox, who was found abandoned as its family had been shot dead by hunters.  If he wins he would spend the money on building a new enclosure for the fox.  Andrew was absolutely disgusted by how the money would be spent if Karl won, and took Karl to show what he would do with the money and took him to a gun shop.  If he won he would be getting an add on night vision attachment for his riffle so he could shoot animals in the dark – and even chose to elaborate ‘like foxes’.

 

I am still debating with myself this morning if I agree with the concept of this programme.  I agree that for anyone who is overweight that there needs to be a goal to motivate that person to lose the weight.  However I disagree that the 2 contestants put against each other have been strategically selected so they also clash morally!  However I can see that it makes the ‘motivation to succeed’ high.  Unfortunately I fell asleep on the last 15 minutes so I have to find out who won this evening on catch up.  (Please let it be Karl!).

 

What the programme does prove and I completely agree with is that in order to succeed you must have a goal!  When I did my weight loss it was because I had a Bridesmaid dress to fit into within 20 weeks for my sister’s wedding in Cuba (Bride and Bridesmaid very slim size 8).  I also think that without proper planning, guidance and help from someone experienced you are setting yourself up for failure.  A lot of people don’t seek a personal trainer because of the cost, but I find that if you pay for a block booking it enforces you to go because of the money you have spent.  It’s the same with people who pay for 12 week programmes which can cost around £300.00 – more reason to follow the plan and persist due to the money you have lost. 

 

I tried many fad diets in the past that had zero cost and I failed each one, partly because there was nothing tying me to that diet and because mentally I wasn’t that ‘fussed’ – I had not hit rock bottom, and I didn’t have a goal other than ‘I should loose a few lbs’.

 

Afew people recently asked me why I have a prep coach for my comps when I know what I am doing myself?!  The reason behind this is because my personal opinion on my appearance can cloud my judgement.  Everyone is more critical of themselves in the mirror!  It’s also very hard for someone to be honest with themselves.  I would rather have a prep coach who is brutally honest and says what he thinks, even if the opinion may hurt me.   If I am down, my prep coach is the one person that understands how I feel and is non biased.

 

Losing weight is a roller coaster of a journey both mentally and physically and embarking on this alone is going to be even tougher and your open to failure, especially if you don’t have a network of friends who are able to support you!

Super Clean AMAZING Lasagne

I love lasagne, but it is something that I had to remove when I started loosing weight because I reckon it was one of the main reasons that I piled on the lbs! (using a block of cheese for the topping!).

I have avoided lasagne now for almost 4 years!!! but today I decided to attempt a healthy version.

1. 750g of Irish Extra Lean Mince (Asda Butcher Selection)
2. 1 Red Pepper Chopped
3.  50g Chopped Red Onion
4.  150g of Organic Wholewheat Lasagne Sheets (purchased from Asda)
5.  4 Raw Eggs (Blend with whisk)
6.  800g of Chopped Tomatos.

1.  Brown the mince and add the red peppers, chopped onions.
2.  Spread out in lasagne dish for the base
3.  Add half the sheets
4.  Spead out more meat on top of the sheets.
5.  Add last layer or sheets
6.  Add remaining mince..
7.  Pour the egg mixture over the lasagne as the topping.
8.  Bake the lasagne at 150 degrees for approx 30-40 minutes for the sheets to soften.
9.  Cut into 6 portions

Macros

355KCALS per portion
9.2g of Fat
22.2g of Carbs
42.1g of Protein

(If you wanted to reduce the protein you could use 500g of Mince instead of 750g)

The Apprentice

For those of you who are regular readers of my blog, you will remember me speaking about Laura last year.  I helped Laura workout her maintenance macros, and ratios's along with developing a more structured training programme for her to follow throughout the festive period.  She did exercises taking her out of her comfort zone such as deadlifts, box squats and core workouts.

Laura's goal is to reduce body fat, thus allowing her abs to come out stronger than they were last year for her photoshoot last February.  She is not increasing muscle mass as she would have had to be in a calorie surplus prior to embarking on this plan.  Last year Laura did an 8 week plan, along with a cheat day each week.  This time round there is one cheat meal half way through the programme that I have devised, and a lot more emphasis on carb cycling, timing of foods round the workout perimeter.   I am already noticing the changes in Laura after 2 weeks and she is already defiantly leaner that she was at her photoshoot!!!!  

Laura told me that she was 18% body fat on the day of her shoot, but she started her programme with me on 18% after spending the festive months sticking to her macros i set her via flexible dieting and following the training programme so she is already starting in a better position than she was last year!!!!  Irrespective of this there is no denying that Laura is already low body fat compared to the average female and is super lean!  If we can knock off 2% body fat over the course of the 9 week programme these abs will be a lot more visible than last year!

Laura has found this week hard and has gone over her macros on several days, on a review of her food diary it was clear that she just wasn't thinking enough regarding her food choices!  A salad isn't very filling but changing it out for vegetables and more fibrous foods are going to fill her a lot better and make the plate look full!

For those of you interested in following Laura's journey you can read her blog.

End of Week 18

On the advice of my coach and I completely agree, I have decided to upload progress photographs every 3 weeks after I finish my full 3 cycles of Y3T.  I will put up some pictures next Sunday!!!

What I have noticed is that I am visibly getting tighter!!! My abdominal area and the bloat I have been carrying post op has gone!  I also noticed changes in how my body is responding almost daily, which I have never seen using other training systems!  When I first read the principals behind Y3T, I always knew that my body would respond well to this type of stimulus and training.

I have been increasing my calories each day adding in 10g of carbs, by next Sunday I will have hit my carb target.  Hopefully in the next few weeks the scales will go up but I will remain looking tight.  During this phase it is important that all food sources are clean and timing around the training parameter is vital.

Since last Sunday I have increased my carbs by 70g and my weight has dropped from 142.8 last week to 138.8 this Sunday! Not ideal but my stats are ul in the right places.

Exam results are in!!

Today I finally got my results for my Level 3 Personal Training exam.  Although I already knew I passed my practical and writing a programme back at the start of December, there was a delay in receiving my anatomy and nutrition results.  I had doubts I had passed my anatomy as there was a lot of tricky questions in there that threw me and I wasn't confident that I had passed.

PT Academy who I did my course with informed me I would get my results by COB today, and I set myself up that I would be spending this weekend re studying for anatomy resist - however I PASSED!!!  I even got 98% on my nutrition!!!

As well as finding out I passed my Level 3 Personal Training, this morning I passed my CYQ Level 5 Sports & Exercise Nutritional Advisor course as well!!!

Its been such a busy 18 months I have completed an NVQ Level 3 in Project Controls, My level 2 Gym Instructor, Level 3 Personal Training, Level 3 Nutrition & Weight Management and now my Level 5 Sports & Exercise Nutritional Advisor.  This month is the last of my practical exams for teaching Circuits, Kettlebells and TRX classes.  I have however received an email from the awarding body of my Sports & Exercise course that I have got a place on clinical weight management at a reduced fee due to my pass mark - which is very tempting!!!!  However I think its time to get my head in prep mode!!!

Turkey Chilli

Quick and simple to make, but I do recommend letting it simmer for 30 minutes!!!

Ingredients and Marcros below!

1. Brown Turkey in the coconut oil

2. Add spices, peppers and onions

3.  Add chopped tomatoes, purée and kidney beans

4.  Simmer on low heat

5.  Cook Jasmine Rice and add to dish once cooked.

I made 8 portions! Great post workout meal!

Chicken & Prawn / Rice Stir Fry

Super Fast, Zero prep! 6 perfect post workout meals!!!  Really good macros!!! 

Pre heat your wok with coconut oil, cook your chicken and prawns then add remaining ingredients!!!!  

Comp Bikini Ordered

Order is placed!  Exciting times ahead!  For this season I have went with Sparkling Sapphire who came highly recommended by Vicki Cale who competed with me in my Birmingham comp.  Her bikini for the Birmingham and British final were amazing!

I had a rough idea what design I wanted on my bikini (fairly simple nothing to over elaborate), and I knew what fascinators I wanted!  Sammie who owns Sparkling Sapphire was extremely helpful and answered all my questions very quickly!!!  

If your interested in getting a Sparkling Sapphire bikini then I recommend you speak to Sammie ASAP, as she has already got 40 bookings in for April / May comps!  

http://sparklingsapphire.co.uk

End of Week 17

I guess my posts the past few weeks have been misleading, from stepping off stage in September I technically started my prep for competing this year.  I always hit my macro's but the foods consumed to hit my daily target may have not always been the best choices!  However that is what an off season is all about! having a bit more of a social life, getting the 'gains' (hate this word at the moment) and consuming food you wouldn't normally eat during cutting phase.

I am still in my off season.  I have 6 weeks prep to catch up on from recovery of my op.  As mentioned in a previous post I am going to stay in a calorie surplus until mid/late February and assess how I look.  I have a few comps in mind but I am openly committing to a comp until I am happy with the progress I am making over the next 8 weeks.

I have started using Neil Hills Y3T system which I am following for a 12 week cycle.  I pulled together my own programme initially but then had doubts if I was focusing enough on the areas I needed to improve on.  Lucky for me I have someone who always tells me the truth even if sometimes its not what I want to hear.  Andy took a look at my programme and tweaked it (thank youuuuu!!!), now tweak is probably an understatement! What he has pulled together has really challenged me the past week (and thats just the first cycle of 3).  As they say if it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you!!!

What I like about training with Andy is that he can really push you past your limit.  I sometimes find it hard to push myself when training alone, but the past few weeks I have been managing to do this!  Y3T is defiantly all about challenging and pushing yourself and you can't be afraid of DOMS!  I have had them after every workout so far!

Each of my cycle consists of 5 workouts, with 3 on, 1 off, 2 on and 2 off.

• Legs & Abs
• Shoulders & Triceps
• Back & Biceps
• Legs & Calves
• Shoulders, Chest & Triceps

Thrown into this is 3 X 20 Minute Moderate Cardio Sessions.

Each micro cycle targets a different muscle fibre.  Micro Cycle 1 targets 2B Fast Twitch Fibres, Week 2 Type 2A and Week 3 Type 1 Slow Twitch.  I started Micro Cycle 2 today (legs) and to say I have DOMS is an understatement!!!

Quick round up of this weeks stats... my weight has stayed steady all week!  I am increasing my carbs    to get back into a surplus for the next few months and get these 'gains' everyone keeps talking about! 

Protein Oat Cookies

I have tried Afew different protein oat cookie recipes.... This one isn't the worst but it certainly isn't the best!!! ( my fav one is the one I did 6 months ago!).

8g Carbs and Protein, 2.1g of Fat... 90kcals per cookie,

1.  Blend your oats until a fine powder!

2.  Mix all ingredients

3.  Shape into cookies (I made 18 small cookies so my macros are based on this)

4.  Bake in oven 150deg for approx 15/20 min