It's Holistic

[Gem]

Originally Posted by naturesflow

Your doing great. Inspiring, glad that wall idea came in handy.

What do you typically eat while doing this kind of training?

For breakfast

50g rolled oats with 75g banana and 3 tblspoon mixed chia+sunflower kernals+Hazelnut and a tblsp honey and 2 heaped tablespoons yogurt. Sometimes I have 1 wholemeal toast with avo, 2eggs, fried mushrooms and greens - which is a lot less calories.


Then I make 4 'ration packs' of 150g chicken, 75g brown rice and assorted veges. Sometimes I change to sweet potato, fish.

I used to have 4 coffees a day or even more, but I found out that the sugar in that was driving my carbs really high, without nutrients, so today I started making a thermos of mint tea.

Yesterday I has a fast day, and my weight dropped 2 kilos, so I'm probably not really gaining fat.

[naturesflow]

Originally Posted by Gem

For breakfast

50g rolled oats with 75g banana and 3 tblspoon mixed chia+sunflower kernals+Hazelnut and a tblsp honey and 2 heaped tablespoons yogurt. Sometimes I have 1 wholemeal toast with avo, 2eggs, fried mushrooms and greens - which is a lot less calories.


Then I make 4 'ration packs' of 150g chicken, 75g brown rice and assorted veges. Sometimes I change to sweet potato, fish.

I used to have 4 coffees a day or even more, but I found out that the sugar in that was driving my carbs really high, without nutrients, so today I started making a thermos of mint tea.

Yesterday I has a fast day, and my weight dropped 2 kilos, so I'm probably not really gaining fat.

Well you are eating pretty healthy, but with the training your doing is it enough food in your daily intake to match the workout your doing? I guess that is worth considering..

I recently had a food health check done with my naturopath, what I liked with her was that she held the view, that you feed and support the body according to its own needs and lifestyle. My body with lots of yoga went into its own detox mode and so I started to notice some signs of depletion arise. The clearer my body became the more those subtle aspects of needs arose in this way. I didn't know what they were, so I went to her for a review on my diet and age, lifestyle etc.. So you might notice this in yourself over time as you become more clearer body wise. My tongue and mouth at one point started to burn and I had metal taste in my mouth. So I investigated that and changed a few things. I guess its just about listening deeper to your body if its acting out in some way of its normal response. My feeling is the clearer you get in yourself, the body starts to signal itself more readily. I also started to feel really low in energy so that signalled a problem too. All of which is a good thing, because I listen to investigate, which I am sure you would do too if you have too..

I realized I wasn't eating enough at meals and between meals, so I had to make a conscious effort to include nuts and more fruit between meals to snack on. I also do smoothies with banana, spinach avo or the likes. Sometimes I will throw in a fresh vegie juice as well with ginger added. The naturopath suggested also I make my own bone broth soups and fill that up with vegies, fresh herbs. I find them really nourishing and enhancing to my health now. I will snack on rice cakes with tahini (protein support) or something similar. I don't eat wheat so I just look for substitutes in crackers. The other thing I added was more legumes like mung beans, lentils etc. I cut out salt and sugar, using herbs and garlic mostly as my additives. Like you coffee became a problem for me, I was drinking too much. So I use that as my treat day thingy when I take myself out to café :)

[rainbow.sprinkles]

Originally Posted by Gem

Apart from being weak and unfit, the other reason for my weight training is purely good looking aesthetics of the body ('be in shape'), and the belly paunch is the worst part of that appearance, When I started losing weight I was glad, but the I did some research into dieting for muscle gain, and it said eat much more - so the weight started going back on. I figure it is muscle gain because I have gone over and double checked all the diet requirements, and have been strict about eating just right. Still, I don't like the weight going on because I want to take off the belly paunch. Now I'm confused what to do, but I might switch to a weight loss diet, as I just feel better when I see the weight coming off.

My BMI is 24, which is at the upper end of 'health weight range' (BMI 25 is trhe cut off for 'overweight'), so I think best I drop a few kilos .

well see there are a couple of different ways to combine training and eating.

one is called recomposition, which means eating at your maintenance level (enough food to maintain your current weight, not enough to gain and more than would have you losing weight). the upside of recomp is you don't gain weight, but the downside is it takes forever to actually build muscle.

the other way is doing a bulk/cut cycle. cutting is eating less than maintenance to lose weight while working out just to maintain already existing muscle for a pre-determined period of time, and then bulking for a period of time. when bulking you eat more than maintenance, which means you do gain weight but you also gain muscle. so you would bulk to gain the muscle, then cut to lose the extra weight, then bulk again and cut again, or if you get to a desirable weight cutting then you just switch to a recomp.

so yes if you're eating "lots", as in more than maintenance, you're gaining weight. but you're also gaining muscle faster than if you were recomping.

[Gem]

Originally Posted by rainbow.sprinkles

well see there are a couple of different ways to combine training and eating.

one is called recomposition, which means eating at your maintenance level (enough food to maintain your current weight, not enough to gain and more than would have you losing weight). the upside of recomp is you don't gain weight, but the downside is it takes forever to actually build muscle.

the other way is doing a bulk/cut cycle. cutting is eating less than maintenance to lose weight while working out just to maintain already existing muscle for a pre-determined period of time, and then bulking for a period of time. when bulking you eat more than maintenance, which means you do gain weight but you also gain muscle. so you would bulk to gain the muscle, then cut to lose the extra weight, then bulk again and cut again, or if you get to a desirable weight cutting then you just switch to a recomp.

so yes if you're eating "lots", as in more than maintenance, you're gaining weight. but you're also gaining muscle faster than if you were recomping.

Yes indeed, that's exacly what I foud out in all my research,

I figured out my calorie requirements, BMI, body fat percentage by taking an average from 5 different online calculators.

I then broke it down into protien, carbs and fat to get the right balance, ad aimed for about 300 calories below maintenance. I weigh all my food so I can calculate the right quantities.

I then started logging everything I ate and working out calories ad nutrients, and I found out that the sugar I consume was driving carbs over the amount I should take. I stopped taking extra sugar simply by taking it out of coffee, and reserve coffee without sugar to pre workout meal and perhaps one more as I settle down in the afteroon.

I then found what I was consuming before was just about right, but lessening the carbs (sugar) means my calorie intake is now about 600 below maintenance, which is probably a bit too much, so I have to add more protien, fat, ad maybe just include more veg.

I'm surprised at the quantity of food I need. It's a lot more that I was eating, but my old way was like coffee and cigarettes and just sitting around - so the new way is totally different.

[Gem]

Figuring out the diet has been pretty hard, but I've settled on something now, so I'll keep weighing myself, and according to my very scientific calculations, I should lose about a kilo every month - which is a couple of pounds.

I have been going pretty hard at the gym. I had a rough day to today due to not sleeping regularly, and of everything screwing up my life right now, sleep is main problemo. For some reason I find it difficult to rectify, what with all this computer entertainment right at my fingertips - HUGE distraction!

However, its not enough to stop the schedule from going. It just makes it unnecessarily difficult. Anyway, despite my extreme lethargy, I pushed on through, keeping the discipline, and I'm glad for it.

I am 'this close' to performing the deadlift, and my squat motion is also progressing. My shoulders are also coming along... Yep, All good.

Wow. I saw a girl in the gym yesterday moving some serious weight! I was impressed. She's amazeballs - WAY stronger than I am.

[Gem]

Tosay was arms day (which I swapped with abs day), so I changed it up a bit by doing supersets, which is mixing two or three exercises ad doing a moster set. Biceps to triceps and back again with some forearm exercises thrown in. Hardly any rest time, so get more done in less time. Also, the break from my old routine shocks the muscles as they were getting used to the old way, and lastly, it keeps me interested in something new. Boom!

[rainbow.sprinkles]

I somehow hurt a muscle in my neck/shoulder yesterday doing overhead presses. it feels quite a bit better today so not a major injury but no idea why it happened, didn't do anything differently or even increase weight. my whole workout felt a little off though so who knows. just one of those days.

[Gem]

Originally Posted by rainbow.sprinkles

I somehow hurt a muscle in my neck/shoulder yesterday doing overhead presses. it feels quite a bit better today so not a major injury but no idea why it happened, didn't do anything differently or even increase weight. my whole workout felt a little off though so who knows. just one of those days.

Too bad. I hope it gets better quickly. I have the off days, like yesterday was pretty lame, and abs day which probably the hardest of all... but I also have an obsession so I just do it any way. I've always worried about doing an injury, because that could put off training for a while, and my shoulders are probably most likely, or maybe lower back, where I already have mobility issues. I hope it comes good soon.

[Gem]

Today was chest day, which for me includes a lot of bench press.

My presses are inhibited by mobility issues in my shoulder, and now that I'm adding weight to the bar, my shoulders are at risk of injury. I have noticed today that my shoulders are aching, not in a good way but in a stressed way, and I know I must be doing something wrong when benching. So I went to research, and came across this excellent instructional video, which revealed to me how much I'm doing wrong. I'm doing a lot right, too, but the bench press is a heavy compound movement, and with that much weight, the things one does wrong is bound to cause injury.

Here's the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esQi683XR44

Video and article here http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/how-...ete-guide.html

[Sarian]

Doing good, Gem.

I lost 8 lbs...thrilled about that...some was due to being a bit on the sad side but I did not starve myself...but I also threw myself into running and brisk walking twice a day for an hour or more. I do feel better physically.