Working away and keeping up with your routine

I am away with work this week which means no gym, eating out, late nights, early mornings and very long days! It is easy to let your healthy lifestyle slip and this is where the sneaky pounds creep in! 

Sure it is only a week, but a week of drinking, lack of sleep and no exercise can leave you feeling sluggish and burnt out. 

So I am making sure that I am keeping up with at least some of the aspects to make sure that doesn't happen! 

With no gym you have to be inventive - outside workouts are key! A brisk walk in the morning can really help wake you up and make you ready for the day! Spending time with work colleagues is different to spending time with family or friends when you are away and this 15-30 mins of alone time can really help focus you and get your head together! 
Steer clear of excessive drinking - a glass of wine can often turn into a few and this is were the sneaky calories are hidden because they are liquid you are not as concious that you are consuming them! 
Stick to one glass if you really want, or stick to water. I always order water for the table anyway, so having this there can making less tempting to chug the wine. 
If you are eating out opt for healthier options and steer clear of desert! I know the chocolate brownies might be tempting but every night? Not needed! Keep it healthy all week then on your last night go for the brownies! 
Drink water! I have a 2 litre bottle at my desk that I drink all day, sometimes when your out and about it is easy to let it slip, make sure you have the bottle near you and that your keeping up the water intake, it will keep your hydrated, refreshed and vitalised.
Snacking! So I am at a trade show this week and we have lots of little snacks on the stand for clients throughout the day, sweets, mini chocolates, crisps etc... yes it is tempting! Stand clear of the snacks and if your tempted walk away! 
I distract myself by fixing something on the stand going for a walk or drinking some water! The snacks are the calories you forget to count! 

Enjoy your time away and don't make the gym your only thing in life, but as it is a work trip and not a holiday I don't take a break because it is my normal routine! 

Sweet Potato Wedges

I am obsessed with sweet potato fries at the moment, when I go out to eat if I am feeling like chips I opt for sweet potato fries if I can, so I decided to experiment and see if I could make my own version. 

Ingredients:

1x sweet potato - a large on cut into small chunks got me about 20 little wedges 
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Prep:

Wash the sweet potato and cut into small chunks 
Lay them out on a pan lined with tin foil 
Put the olive oil into a bowl along with the salt and pepper, then mix together
Coat each wedge in the mixture making sure it is covered all over
Put into a pre heated oven and leave to cook until dark brown

They were very tasty and a nice low calorie, good carb afternoon snack! 

They work well with several different types of meals especially home made burgers, chicken - in fact all meats! Just replace the potato or chips and add in these! 

Workout Wednesday - Bench press

For me training chest was always neglected, apart from the pec fly I wasn't really into it!
I am pretty flat chested as it is, so I didn't really want to lose any more boob!

However as we all know, if you are training once muscle group and not the other you will become unbalanced... and so the chest training began!

My favourite is the bench press, there are 3 ways to do the bench press - flat, incline and decline. Today we are looking at flat.

Bench press can be done with 3 different types of equipment as well - dumbells, bar or with the smith machine. For beginners or people who don't have someone to spot them start light, either with dumbells or just the bar on the smith machine, this will help with building the muscles but also stability and give you the confidence when doing this exercise.

As you begin the exercise with the weights above your head inhale and bring the weights down to your chest, if you are working with a bar bring the bar to your chest, and exhale when bringing the weight back up.
Repeat for 8-10 reps 3 sets and add weight if you feel confident to do so.

Weight lifting - the good, the bad and the ugly

There is no doubt about it that whilst weightlifting does not make you bulky it sure as hell does change your body!

Like any exercise when you dedicate yourself fully to the programme your body will change for the better. 

Looking at my past exercise programmes they have always been weight loss based, and the results I have been used to were clothing getting bigger, me getting smaller and the number on the scale decreasing.

BUT was I happy? Honestly... no. I was never satisfied with the results and never knew where this was going to end. If I got skinny my life would be better, but I got skinny and I was still the same, life was still the same and therefore my end goal kept changing to a lower and lower weight. 

Switch to now and my end goal is endless, I have a clear focus and it is limitless... to an extent of course!

I want to compete in crossfit and olympic lifting competitions, I want to be strong as fuck and beat all the boys. 

I am one month into training and I am loving it, it has made exercise fun, and I am constantly working to improve on everything. 

Sounds great right, and of course it is I love it but the changes to my body and the new calorie and nutrition goals are new to me and have been proving to be a struggle mentally to make sure I hit the calorie goal and also deal with the fact I am outgrowing my trousers! 

So why lift? 

The good: you feel pretty badass when you hit a new PR and achieve something new each week. Highlights for me have been lifting 85kg deadlift, and also being able to squat with 140kg on my back. The feeling of this was like no other and I felt so proud of myself to have done this. 

You will also feel sexy, you will find you have curves and muscles like never before, and also an ass and legs that both women and men will envy. 

All the foods. That is all I have to say on that one. 

The bad: you will out grow your clothes, trousers will become tighter and eventually jeans will not be your friend, tops will become tighter and if your like me you will spend every free moment in gym clothes, vests and shorts... work clothes are not usually my friend! 

But this is all progress, it is just a different kind, health and fitness are not measured by numbers alone, it is about how you feel and what your goals are. 

Don't compare yourself to anyone else, just focus on you. 

The ugly: you will be questioned if you are a girl as to why you lift. People in the gym bubble love it, admire it and cheer you on, those who are out of it will question it, and probably will not understand it. Daily I hear "don't lift to heavy, you will get bulky" "aren't you scared you will look like a man" "surely you just want to be toned and not have muscle" 

Brush it off and again focus on you. There will always be negative people in the world, you don't need this in your life.

So if you had worries that lifting weights would make you an instant bodybuilder have no fear! The women and men who train specifically for bodybuilding have been working for months or even years to look like that.

When it comes to body shape there is no quick fix and it is the same for muscle gain - there is no quick solution!

Next time you are in the gym, embrace the weight section and watch the changes happen! 

I just can't get enough...

Food! 

Upping my training meant I was working alot harder and obviously I was going to be tired, but after week 3 I started to feel exhausted, like really exhausted and was finding it hard to function normally - but why? I was sleeping enough so that couldn't be it, so I turned to the foods I was eating. 
Now I briefly touched upon this last week but eating is SO important!! Sounds obvious right? But really it's not. I thought I was eating enough, but when I tracked for a day I was around 1000 cals under my eating, my carbs were too low and I was not getting the right amount of energy in for the energy I was putting out. 

So I logged into good old My Fitness Pal and reassessed my goals, my training hours and weight, hit save and up comes my calorie allowance of 2750... wow! I don't think I have ever eaten that much in one day unless it has been Dominos cheat meal!!
So I began logging my food for the day making sure I was eating enough carbs - still working on this, enough fats again still working on this, hitting my calorie goal or at least near it to make sure I have the energy and nutrients I need to function. 

Eating this amount of food is harder than you think, sure I could stuff my face with high calorie foods for 3 meals a day and hit it, but that it is not effective and will not benefit me in anyway! One of my fellow gym goers said it doesn't matter what form it goes in you just have to eat... even if it means takeaways and Burger King... no just no. If you are looking to get fat and basically undo the hard work you are putting in when in the gym then sure go for it, but I don't recommend following this advice at all! 

I want to be lean, muscular and have low body fat, so eating clean is a high priority to me, my boyfriend eats 3000 cals a day of healthy clean food, carbs and fats included, he is working on bulking so experimenting with food to see what works best for him - I can assure you it is not Burger King! 

So if you are looking to track your calories and see how much you are eating or not eating I highly recommend My Fitness Pal, it has a great online community as well!

Workout Wednesday - Circuit Training

Circuit training is a gem if you get bored easily during your workout, and really simple! 

I have been doing more circuit work recently and I am a fan! As someone who was finding her routine a little to familiar and not pushing myself as hard as I felt I could circuit training has really helped inspire and motivate me to work harder.

Short bursts of high intense training is also great for improving fitness and burning unwanted fat! 

So where to begin? Look at your favourite exercises that use free weights - dumbells or kettlebells and cardio that doesn't involve a machine - or it can do if you want it depends on the layout of your gym - pick 3 from each and put them together for 6 stations. 
For timings if you are looking for a hard workout spend 45 secs at each going all out with 15 seconds to move on and prepare your next exercise. 
After 6 mins take your first minute to 2 minute rest, no longer as we don't want the heart rate to slow down! 
Then begin again, I would aim for 4 rounds at 6 minutes work 1 minute rest totally in 28 mins of exercise. 

Remember to warm up before the exercise by mimicking some of the movements you are going to make and also 10 mins of cardio to warm up the muscles and get the blood flowing. Cool down and stretch is also essentials as you do not want to be sore after! 

An example of the circuit I did the other day was as follows - 4 stations 1 minute at each, with 1 minute rest for 6 rounds. 

1 min row
1 min kettlebell swings
1 min thrusters with weight
1 min ring pulls 
1 min rest

If you think that sounds easy have a go! It is tempting to go all out on the first round, but then you will burn out, maintain a pace throughout and go all out on the last 2 rounds giving everything you have, then enjoy the satisfaction when you are done!