Diet week 1 update

It has been exactly I week since I start my diet and new training routine as a part of Michelle Brannan's Shape Team. 

As I already mentioned on my Facebook page, for 3 months I will be working with Showgirls Fitness and see how are my results and motivation level after. If after 12 weeks I will be in a reasonably good shape, I might think about competing in bikini fitness :) 

my coach Michelle Brannan at last Olympia contest

My 12 weeks started exactly week ago, on Tuesday. 

I have to admit that first days were the hardest day dieting I have ever in my life. Calories restriction killed me and together with very, very busy working scheldue I was terrified how I am gonna survive that next 3 months.

favourite meal of the day - breakfast :)

The is only onre reason it was that hard and it is ME only. 

meal prep in full scope ;)

I was tottaly unware that I get into trap I was alarming every one of my clients: eating too much because of tiredness and active lifestyle. I was counting my macros but I relied to much on listening to my body. And my body was sending me signals about hunger when it was not only hungry, but tired and stressed. It all result in eating too much and too often. 
When I got my meal plan and eat according to eat, for the first days I couldn't adjust. Hunger I experience was indescribable.
Luckly, during that days I was in still contact with my coach Michelle. She reacted very quickly on each of my strugglings. After few days we adjusted little my calories intake and make things easier. 

Now every day required a lot of planning. I have to do meal prep at least every second day. But on the other day, during day I don't have to think what to eat to meet my goals, everything is ready so I just have to grab a fork and eat it. 

one leg press exercise

Training-wise I am thrilled. 
I have 5 day split training and I train legs a looot! 
I thought I was keen on almost every resistance exercise, but still tried some few new for me, like one leg press. 
This exercise literally killed my ass ;)
 
Beside resistance training I have my cardio workouts. Luckly, Insanity classes count as a one of them, so only with no-Insanity days I have to do something additionally. Cardio will be definately that big change if it comes to my training since I wasn't do much cardio during winter time.

On Saturday I had my first cheat meal/free meal. I had some of them before, but that time I wasn't dieting that strictly. This time it was tottally well deserved meal.

I didn't choose anything fancy, just a toast with double cheese and ham together with some corn nachos and rice cakes. Carbs mostly ;) Nothing sweet. Again, I just realise that I don't have necessar a sweet tooth ;)





The feeling of happines while eating my toast was soooo big. I don't want to build wrong realtion with food (and junk food), but I needed that carb loading.

Now I've just send my stats and pictures to my coach and wait about her comments about how well or bad I did during my first week. 
My current form pic (I dropped 2cm in waist, and 2,5cm in hips so far):

7 days done, 77 days to go :)

Fresh start

Back in London with a good energy

Everything I know I learn from my own experience. I didn't have any coach or mentor. I've chosen the way which is harder and more complicated, with lots of ups and downs. But in the end I learn for life and then I know that as a trainer, I share only the knowledge which is proven by myself. 

beautiful Toruń by night

As you probably noticed I have been off for one week which I spend in Poland.  Main focus of my visit was to spend quality time my family and friends, but secondly I went there to recover. 

Before my short holidays I found myself in a place where my body was tired, my soul was tired and I was n a bad state of mind - suffered from lots of indigestion problems (due to lactose and dairy intolerance) and then from terrible lower back pain due to constant over train. I had to STOP.  

So I took 8 days off from training, sport supplements and take care over my body. Had two 180 minutes massages, walk a lot and eat naturally (with some nice treat meals) food. But, most importantly, I get the connection with my body&mind again. 
There are lots of people who say that you have to love your body in order to see change but I really can say this is true!

After charging my batteries with love, friendship and rest, there was a time for some change with my training approach. 

from my first run this year in Victoria Park

This s what I learned this time: don't focus only only on training, recovery is a important part of a training process. What does it mean in practise? I reduced weight training to 2 split trainings. I will have pull and push days. The rest will be dedicated to Insanity training (twice a week) and cardio. Plus long stretching sessions at least 2-3 times a week and sauna session once or twice a week. More time for cardio and flexibility. And maybe some massage from time to time :)

back to food prep after some time of rest from lunchboxes

Now I feel more in balance with my own body and I hope that my new approach will show results quickly :)

New Year

Such a shame that only after 18 days I was able to write something on the blog first time this year. Crazy times! Moving in and lots of work resulted in my absence. And lack of internet! We have been waiting for weeks to have one in the house and we still have to be patient. Till that I am using only my phone, which makes things difficult. 

hi world, I am still alive ;)

I feel like I've started a brand new chapter of my live in England. With my own place to live, with my own kitchen where I can cook and my own space where I can write and work... Things are going to be much easier right now. I hope so and strongly believe in it!

new green tea to my collection in lemon honey flavour, perfect for a sick girl

Unfortunately, my body didn't take all that stress good. Recent weeks were crazy busy at home and club and I totally over-trained and overworked myself which resulted in 2 weeks cold. After doctors appointment I decided to take some time off to recover. Only 2 additional days, but it is still something and I hope it will work.

luxurious home made food - mash potatoes, sourekaut and pork lion in mushrooms with cooked beetroot

Good food, lots of hot drinks, blanket and newest season of How I Met Your Mother is my best remedy. Together with love. Lots of love. It always helps :)

Christmas shopping

new cool pants :)

This year's first Christmas shopping I started with buying something... for me ;)

 I saw that Wr.Up Freddie's pants were very popular in Norway.I am one leg there and one leg here, in UK. Yes, still. After months after moving out from land of fiords ;)

Freddy's flagship shop in Covent Garden, London

Luckily, we do have flagship Freddie's shop in London, so I could check it myself what is this Wr.Up about. 

I have to admit that I found booty-flattering and the most comfortable pants! Perfect for each fitness girl :)

If you need some gift inspiration for your partner, think about that awesome piece of clothes :)

booty shaping effect

Diet spaghetti

diet spaghetti - half of calories, full of good carbs and protein

Today I tried to prepare diet spaghetti :) How I turn that dish into healthier option? I used sphagetti squash instead of regular pasta.
As I mentioned in previous post, I have a little winter squash obsession those days. Checking out spaghetti squash was next on my kitchen wish list.

raw spaghetti squash

How to prepare diet spaghetti?

half squash and take out seeds (use spoon)

Half squash and take out seeds.
Put two halves on baking paper and make some holes with knife.

put squash on baking paper and make little holes with knife

Bake 30-40 minutes in max temperature in the oven until squash is soft.

inside of prepared squash goes very easy out, you need only fork

In a meantime prepare meat. I used extra lean pork meat (less than 5% fat). I basically fry it on a teflon pan with garlic, thyme, salt and pepper. 
Then I added canned tomatoes and lots of tomato puree. I boiled everything together until I got great souse consistency.

half of calories, yummy taste

Serve spaghetti squash with meat in tomato souse or serve half of regular pasta portion and fill the dish with squash.
Enjoy your low carb dish! :)

Eat your veggies

broccoli mousse

Struggling with eating enough veggies? Make yourself a soup! I have already written how good soups are in term of your PH balance here.

broccoli mouse soup with chunk of chicken

I used boulion I made last time. I simply frozen part of it and defrost during the night. I added little more water, then chopped broccoli head, parsnip and carrot and boil everything together.

mix your veggies

After 20 minutes I mixed everything together, add spices (salt, pepper, garlic) and spoon of greek yoghurt and Philadelphia light.

add some greek yoghurt for better consistency

I will eat that soup with chicken chunks, but you can served it with pasty. 

good dish for cold autumn days

Easy, quick, healthy and delicious :)

Terrible blogger

I admit sincerely. I am terrible blogger recent days/week. 
It is all due to the fact that we are still not settled down in here, in UK. We still don't have our own apartment and share place with my man's kind family. I hope this situation will change somehow soon and I will be more dedicated to my blogging.

warm up at roing machine

If it comes to work and training, it couldn't be better. I started my own routine consisted of 3 heavy lifting sessions and 2 hiit cardio days in between. 

daily lunchboxes

I am not so strict with my diet as well, I still track my macros. I keep my carbs quite high, but I have to admit, that my body react very positive for that. 

friday flex

My current training split is: 
* back/biceps
* legs/shoulders
* chest/triceps
(I did ABS on my class and sometimes with chest day)

Beside that I have 2 cardio workouts, which are normally hight intensivity interval ones. In practice they are no longer than 25 minutes. 
Sometimes I did hiit on treadmill, sometimes by doing 15 reps of different exercises like clean up, burpees, push ups, kettelbell swings and so on. After one full month of that routine I want to track my progress by doing bodyfat percentage measurment :)

current form

Have a nice Sunday!

Cool down approach

Having a while to contemplate my recent fitness journey I would say that for last 3 weeks I have incorporated more cool down approach for my dieting and training.
 

struggling with diet and training? ;) foto by Marek Sysoł

Last years are constant battle with my body and mind (with my ups and downs). 
The more I am into that, the more I know that without love and care for yourself, you won't achieve anything. 

You can train as much as you can and eat 100% clean but if you don't do that with peace with your inner self, you will in the end collapse and find yourself binding.

After rough start with my journey in UK and very stresfful job, my body and mind were tired. I prepared myself for photosession with Marek Sysoł and did amazing job with him and then I just simply... allow myself to relax. It is totally not my style, but I felt my body needed that. 

I took 1 recovery week from training, then gradually back to gym activity. For about 3 weeks I allow myself to eat wisely but not strictly. 

today's form

I definitely look softer, but I think it will work good for metabolism as well. While you dieting you metabolic ratio decrease, especially if you are crash dieting (drastic calories restriction in a short amount of time where your body goes to starvation mode and slower metabolism in order to stay alive). Once you eat normal or a little bit more (gradually) and don't stop training, you metabolism has a chance to recover and speed up. I hope that at the end of my 'cool approach' I will achieve exact that effect.

And do you take regular breaks from dieting?

First week at Soho Gyms

I am thrilled that I've changed workplace. My new gym and role is way more accurate with my interests :) (I am a Full time Fitness Instructor right now).

my new super comfortable uniform

I've been working for Soho Gyms Bow Wharf for the few days in a row now and I am more than happy that my duties are creating training plans for clients, doing the measurements and guiding them at gym floor.

 
I have time for my own training in between working hours and the weight section is exquisite. 

happy girl at her work

And I work in one of the most comfortable uniforms I've ever had! ;)

Happy!

Summing up the week

Saturday and training outside just right to Buckingham Palace :)

Since I started my job, my free time amounts extremely decreased. I will just sum up the last week then and try to be more detailed in upcoming week.

pic from Saturday's training at LaFitness Waldorf

- I had my first time of month close in the sales at LA Fitness, ufff! whoever works in sales will know how busy it can be then!

post workout pleasure for a dieting girl

- despite business I followed 'Shortcut to shred' nutrition and training plan which I am very proud of (starting week 5 next Tuesday)

- I started phase 3 of nutrition plan which is a low carb one (with one oppcarbing day in the week) which, surprisingly, wasn't so hard to follow

- I did 2 additional light cardio trainings in the park as well during training with Megi (cheers!:))

Sunday's lazy cooking - this is what I love! preparing stir biff