Busy days diet survival

As I started my work at LA Fitness West India Quay, my days become extremely busy. 

I was having my old good rotuine once in Norway, but these days are no longer here! 
In London everything is busier and more intense.

I quckly found that with no proper preparation adn dedication, I could become easly lost in that London's rush, eating crap and miss trainings.

Here are 6 easy to follow tips which are helping me to stay on track, maybe you can incorporate them to your life as well :)

1) plan your food and trainings ahead

use 5 minutes from your day to plan ahead and spare another 60 minutes during the day for either running in order to find some food store/restaurant or collecting your training clothes in a rush

2) scheldue your training as a first thing on your today to-do list

if you don't do your training first thing in the morning, belive me, you will din't thousands of excsuses to pospone it during the busy day, you won't have energy to do it at the end of your day either
to lazy to woke up in the morning? believe me, good sweat in the morning, will work better tan 2 cups of coffee

3) have a healthy snack with you

I like to have mini barbel light cheese with me and some sugar snap peas, portion of whey protein works good too, as well as an apple. 

I try to be careful with protein bars, because they are still a treat, not a meal (they are processed and high in carbs, so they are just healthier version of normal chocolate bars).

4) take only these food which are prepared for that day only

If you already bought yourself a pack of nuts - good for you! 
But don't take all pack with you, because you will eat all of eat and you will never notice when! so devide everything into portions and just don't let yourself get into a quantity trap (you can eat 'good' foods and gain weight as well!)






5) don't follow the other peoples diet/eating routines

even if people in your office eats lots of fast food, or your company delivers it to you for free, it doesn't mean that you have to use each opportunity for eating free food only because it is for free!

different people have different goals, do not compare yourself with the others - you don't know what they eat before and after work. 
If a huge guy will eat 2 slices of pizza and stay lean does not mean that you will stay after eating one. 
Have your lunchboxes with you and eventuality take your free food home with you or customize the content of it that it would suits your macros (take croutons out from salad, have a dressing on a side and so on)







6) eat when scheduled and determine hunger from cravings

 
take a minute to see the rule of your eating at work - do you eat when stressed? or differently, you don't eat anything during the day and splurge in the evening? 

If you answer is 'yes' for one of this question, it means that you have to work on your habits.

 If you are an emotional eater, try to find something which you could do intead of eating when stressed. Maybe drink a tea or have a 5 minutes out from office just to breath a fresh air? If you still in a need of eating sth, give yourself 20 minutes. If it lasts after 20 minutes, maybe you are just hungry. So eat. But ask yourself a question "would you eat 0,5kg of broccoli right now?" If yes, that means that you are hungry, if no, it is most probably craving. 


If you eat nothing during the day and almost can't go our from kitchen in the evenings, that means that you don't eat enough during the day.

 Although not always eating many small meals if good for everyone (research shows that for good fat burn it is more about macros, not frequency), but think about sipping some meal replacement/whey protein shake during the day to keep your hunger over control later in the evening.

Is one of problems mentioned above describes you as well? What is your problem then?

Crazy week!

totally tired but happy :)

I survived my first week of trainings at new work! I have to say that it was the most challenging and instructive time in my life for like 2 years! :)

I've had my training in sky scrapers area

I definitely went out from my comfort zone, learned sales basics, met lots of new people. I am impressed how LA Fitness is structured and organised. 

There is a procedure for everything which happens in the club which gives you control over everything. My training was designed to give me the overall view how I will be working and checking all the competitors as well to see how we differs from them. 

Amazing! 

LA Fitness Waldorf is based next to Hilton Waldorf hotel in amazing musicals area, Covent Garden

First day I spent at LA Fitness St Pauls, checking out one fo Membership Advisor's work. Then 2 next day were dedicated to Sales Foundation Course. Led by Regional Sales Managers and Directors, I was impressed how easy one can learn from others by using different learning techniques. Last today I spend at LA Fitness Waldorf. General Manager dedicated so much from his time just to explain me how it is my work about. I am so thankful for that experience!

 

This week was so busy, crazy and exhausting, you may guess it was not so effective from my 'Shortcut To Shred' perspective. I did have my days off from training because I was too exhausted to train after 11 hours shifts. Regarding diet - I did eat no more than 1g carbs per pound of weight, but found it difficult to eat within 1800 kcal. I had 3 days off instead of 1, but there is still Saturday and Sunday to catch up :) 

 

 

This is the moment when keeping up with trainings and proper nutrition gets heavy - once you are too busy to find a time to prepare food and so tired to get your ass for training. I will manage everything properly next week!

New place of work

After 3-4 intensive weeks full of job hunting, interviews and checking out London's possibilities, I found my dream job! From tomorrow I will be trained to be membership sales advisor in LA Fitness gym, at West India Quay :)

I am excited for the new possibilities and challenges and can't wait to start. This position will be continuation and upgrade from what I did in Norway, in bigger and better organised fitness club. LA Fitness in third leader in English fitness club branches. It was Britain 2011 best health&fitness mark as well :)

In upcoming weeks I will also try to incorporate some of trainers/grouptraining classes to my schedule as well, not to forget how to work with clients in a training field :)

That all means that this Sunday is my last day totally free from work. In upcoming months I will be very busy, since I would like to start my Personal Trainer course as well. Let's use this Sunday right!

First week of 'Shortcut to shred'

Like I wrote last Friday, I started Jim Stoppani's program 'Shortcut to shred'.
I made it through first weekend! ;) 

Over last week I did:

- 6 trainings for over 60minute each with cardio acceleration in between each set
- no more than 2 minutes of cardio at once!
- burned approximately 2500 calories during workouts (plus more calories with afterburn effect)
- eat way more carbs than I am used to (1,5g per bodyweight) and increase my calories consumption for about 400-500 kcal to boost metabolism

- about minus 1 cm from thighs and minus 0,5 cm from his together with 0,4kg more in weight (can be due little water retention after creatine, but the difference in weight is very little comparing to the food I consumed over the last week)

- got totally sore and got my body if very stiff
- tried at least 3 new exercises (smith machine hip thrust)
- felt more toned and firmed already
- got pain in the ankle (due to lots of jumping)

Today I have my well deserved rest day and I am gonna enjoy it for the best I can :)

Day 2 and LA Fitness West India Quey

entrance to LA Fitness West India Quey - my today's place of training

Second training from 'Shortcut to shred' was dedicated to legs, shoulders and calves.

grumpy mood? lifting some weights should help! ;)

Today I check another gym in my neighbourhood - LA Fitness West India Quey. I love the neighbourhood of a gym - Canary Wharf reminds me equlibrium buildings, lots of banks and well suited people around :)
 

pic from www.lafitness.co.uk

The gym itself is quite big (two floors) and has a swimming pool. Which for ones will be a huge advantage, but for me... not necessarily. I felt chlor everywhere and there were many kids in the changing room, since swimming pool is open for them as well.

cardio part with treadmills and other cardio equipement

By using summer offer I've got 5 days free trail (great idea!) at LA Fitness. So for next days I will visit that place and do my 'Shortcut to shred' workouts. 

The part with free weights was kind of messy for me - dumbbells and barbells around all the place which made my training quite hard. Beside that there as only 1 smith machine and 1 squat rack - too little! I had to wait in a que to make my exercises and hat to moderate 2 others for other equipment because I was already well warmed up and didn't want to lose it. (05.08 - I visited West India Quey out from peak hours and I have to say that weights room situation was way more better than with the first visit :) )
The other thing I didn't enjoy was a lack of natural light and lots of random people around. I mean, it is totally fine that they are coming to train (good for them!) but I would rather train in more professional atmosphere.
Of course there was still possible to train in there, and I will definately do that for few upcoming days :)

little messy changing room

I am very critique in relation to gyms because with my 6-times-in-a-week training routine I will be spending mch of my free time at the gym, that is why I want to feel there comfortable and have  essential equipment to use. The other thing is I already have worked in a gym and I know what to look for in order to find the perfect place for training :)

gym part with machines (and free weights in the back of the room)

On today's training list there was:
for shoulders: dumbbell shoulder press, one arm dumbbell upright row, barbell presses
for legs: barbell squat, barbell deadlifts
for calves: standing calf raises, leg press calf raises

cardio space from another perspective

I was still a little sore from yesterday's workout, but I made my best today.
I have pretty good energy because of lots of food I am consuming. I am not used to eating so much, but I decided to commit for 100% and do whatever Stoppani suggests (in oderd to training, nutrition and supplements), so for this week I eat way more carbs that I used to. And carbs makes me happy ;)

delicious breakfast today: 40g oatmeal made on water with Sukrin Gold, egg scramble frm 2 eggs and 100g of egg whites and 1/2 grapefruit

Epic first workout

As I wrote yesterday, I've just started Stoppani's 'Shortcut to shred' program. 

Today I had my first workout - chest, triceps and ABS with cardio acceleration in between each set of exercise. In practice it meant that I was either jumping/stepping up/doing jumping jack or running for 60sec. between each set of exercises. Sweat was literally run down from me!

I did new exercise as well which was smith machine hip thrust. I was scared to do it, because it looks so strange... but felt excited on the other hand to tried out something new.

it looks sick! but it engaged lower abs well

Normally I wasn't training for more than 60 minutes, but with that double training I was exercising for about 80-90 minutes. Non stop training with very high intense! Approximately 550-600 kcal burned. I am draineeeed! But on the other hand, really enjoy training. I was focused, persistent and haven't felt that good training buzz for a long time!

If you are curious what exact did I do today, check out this link: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/jim-stoppani-six-week-shortcut-to-shred-day-1-chest-triceps-abs.html and video.

Shortcut to shred

making adjustments to plan

So, it is August 1st and it is about a time to get serious about nutrition and training again. 

this is my 'before' photo - hope to see great results in 6 weeks :)

After some consideration, I will follow Jim Stoppani's 'Shortcut to shred' training and nutrition program for 6 weeks.

Trainings are based on intensive cardio sessions in between each series of exercises. You train each of body parts twice a week, having 6 training days all together with 1 rest day.

Nutrition is based on cutting calories with each week. For the first week there are 1,5 carbs per pound of bodyweight, then 1g carb and at last only 0,5g carb with high protein and healthy fats included.

Supplements are essential part of the program. They are additional to training and food, but still they may help!

my supplements :)

Whey protein, casein protein are the crucial ones, together with BCAAs, some fat burning combo (yohimbine, coffeine, l-tyrosine, green tea), l-carnitite, carnitine and CLA.