Clean eats

Quick update!

Blogging has been pretty slow as of late. Haven't been home for the last month or so and have been on the go go go go......Nevertheless, I've still been able to eat clean and train hard! I've also taken on board my brother as a...... lets just say a guinea pig. He wants to shed some fat.

It's officially been 1.5 weeks since the start of my fat loss phase. I know I wrote a post earlier on saying that it was supposed to start early/mid April. However, due to some set backs (as life has its way of playing out) I wasn't able to. Don't see anything stopping me now...just need to keep my head screwed on tight and focused 1 week at a time!

Pictures of what I've been eating and cooking up for the beastly brother. 

Firstly, This is what my fridge consists of clean, clean and more clean..did someone say clean? Protein all portioned out to minimise cooking time.

Grilled Chicken and kale salad

Grilled salmon salad

Grilled Chicken with sauteed greens and spicy salsa

Meal prepping

Sweet potato and cucumber soldiers - filled with prawns, egg, peppers

Sautéed prawns and greens with chilli and cracked pepper

Launch the HULK!

OH~ how corny was that title..=S

But yes, I've officially begun BULK phase....(oh gosh)

If you've read my previous posts, I briefly explained how I was trying to get up to my maintenance calories

Maintenance calories - CHECKED!                  "CHEERING"

Now moving on, bulk phase will consist of - 

• Focus will be shifted from cardio to weight sessions. I will be doing 5 weight sessions with 2 cardio workouts. This will be a massive challenge as I am a cardio freak! Thinking about only doing 2 sessions a week is already burning me.
• Build more lean mass (47kgs is still a good amount that I have already but we'll see how much more I can build)
• Clean eating with 1 cheat meal/week
• Macro-nutrients will be: 

P - 170g

C - 150g

F - 50g

SF - 21g (atm the diet I've planned only consists of 10g, but lower the better for this)

Calories - 1700-1900

After speaking with a couple of people and recommendations from the results of my DEXA dietary requirements, I came to a decision that it'd be better for me to continue bulking for the next 4-6 weeks. The reasons behind this is because: 

1. More lean mass = more energy burn
2. So that my body is able to stabilise a bit longer on a higher calorie intake. If I was to reduce my calories already (only been about 4 weeks since I reached 1200cals and only 1 week since I reached 1600cals). I don't think it'll be much of a shock factor to my body...My measurements haven't gone up since increasing my cals which is a good sign, but I guess I'll have to experiment with this new phase. 

All this food is quite overwhelming, no joke! I am eating 24/7(I'm surprised no-one judges me at work LOL)

But i'm going to push through, KICK SOME BUTT and get this block over and done with!!! If this strategy fails and I gain a hideous amount of weight *shrieks* I'm going to go into hiding forever!! I kid I kid....All about trial and error and I guess if it does fail it's a 4 week loss out of whole life span! RIGHT?!?! =S

Anyway, I'm leaving here with a snapshot of a meal I had on saturday, post hill Sprint session (SESSION OF DEATH)

Grilled Snapper and Spinach salad drizzled with balsamic vinegar

Measure me up

dum Dum DUMM!! Here come the measurements.... So awkward posting it out to the world but hopefully this will aid to keeping me FOCUSED!!

I feel as the progress has been quite slow because most of this was probably post holiday weight (pulling my hair and gasping) and also due to the main factor of trying to figure out the perfect nutritional and training program for my body. So we've been trialling several methods and haven't quite hit the beauty spot. But I can definitely say we are getting there.

I can't wait to see how much ill be able to lose in the next couple of months!
I'll be going back for a DEXA scan late April/early May - with this I'll be able to see how much fat I actually lost and lean muscle mass I gained.

Lets smash it!

Bored?---> Try out HIIT

Sick of running on the treadmill/elliptical for hours and hours or you simply need a quickie before you meet up with bunch of friends and you have no time to hit the gym??? TRY THIS OUT! Something I just mashed up. It'll seriously get your HEART RATE screaming for its dear life....


You can use the 'Tabata' method (20sec intense exercise followed by a 10sec rest) but I find that 20sec is just too short. So I set my interval timer on for 30 sec exercise 10 sec rest and then 1 minute rest between each set.
So this is what it looks like.


Do a quick 5-10 minute warm up: jog, jumping jack etc


30sec - Jump Rope (boxing style)
10sec rest
30 sec - Burpees
10sec rest
30 sec - Jump Rope
10 sec rest
30sec - Burpees
10sec rest
30sec - Jump Rope
10sec 
30sec - Burpee
1 minute rest.


So basically you're alternating between Jump Rope and whatever exercise you plan to perform(3 sets)  


Continuing on...


3 x 30sec - Chair Dips (alternating with the Jump Rope)
3 x 30sec - Jump Knee Tucks (alternating with the Jump Rope)
3 x 30sec - Elevated/Decline Push-ups (alternating with the Jump Rope)
3 x 30sec - Jumping Split Squats (alternating with the jump rope)
3 x 30sec - Dumbbell Lawnmowers  ("   ")
3 x 30sec - Squat kicks ("   ")
3 x 30sec - Dumbbell 2 arm Tricep Kickbacks ("   ")
3 x 30sec - Max Speed Turning Kicks ("   ")
3 x 30sec - Dumbbell French press ("   ")
3 x 30sec - Dumbell walking lunges ("   ")
3 x 30sec - Jumping Knee Tucks ("  ")
3 x 30sec - Sprint for your LIFE!!


These are some examples of what you could incorporate into your HIIT workout! You will probably need to adjust the workout times and rest times according to your fitness level. Just don't forget to push yourself to the point where you are pulling those horrid facial expressions and for some the big GRUNTS....you need to feel the burn buRN BURN baby!!




Benefits of HIIT

• Saves time
• Increase in Cardiovascular function
• Increase in Strength Power and Speed
• Significant reductions in body fat and insulin resistance
• Increase VO2 Max (Maximum amount of oxygen you can uptake during exercise)
• Prevents injuries
• Activation of the fast twitch muscle, resulting in more muscle mass. More muscle mass the higher your RMR

On another note I've mentioned all the benefits of HIIT training, however, endurance exercises are also beneficial for fitness and health. (it just takes longer). 

I sure do love my looooooonnnnggg runs. Yes, it takes longer but this sort of exercise helps me recover from all the tough weight and HIIT sessions whilst still burning that stubborn FAT.

I tend to rotate between HIIT 2 times a week, Long distance 2-3times a week and 5-6 weight sessions (detailed schedule to come).