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 :)

Free from...

Internet is back! Now I can blog again for real! :)

find me on instagram: majanordic

With previous Faceboook post probably you have noticed that I was forced to try gluten and lactose free diet. 


For couple of weeks (or even months) I've been feeling bad. Always bloated, with water retention, with huge problems with indigestion. For a person who works in fitness industry (but as well as for any other person!) this was a nightmare. Imagine coming on a class and your instructor have a belly like a 3 month pregnant woman! ;)

I started to look for some reason of that and accidentaly saw that at Stratford they make allergic tests. I took one of them and the results were obvious: highly intolerance for wheat gluten, intolerance for dairy (milk, yoghurt, cheese), yeast, leek, onion and chive. 
The only think to do for now is just to try avoid those products.

my test's results

But what is exactly a problem with intolerance of gluten and lactose? 

  
Gluten is a protein from wheat, rye and barley. 
Some people tolerate it good, some can't have anyting with gluten (one who suffers from celiac disease) and others have gluten sensivity. I am in the third group. 

If you experience bloating, pain in your joints and bones, 'chicken skin' in the back of your arms, dizzines, chronic fatique, you might suffer from the same condition as I. 

With dairy intolerance is even eeasie to explain. Most of the people has very little lactaze enzym which digest lactose, sugar from milk. But there is group of people who tolerate it even worse than others and  after consuming milk products they get bloated, sometimes diorrhoea, winds and stomach pains.


Luckily nowadays we have lots of gluten and diary free products. Not mentioning all the natural ones like vegetables, fruits, meat and fishes. However, I love yoghurts and kefir and there were always the best snack for me, so I will have to look for some other snacking choices..

even with gluten and lactose intolerance, you can still eat lots of food, just be creative!

If you also can't consume gluten (in my case only from wheat) and diary, you can still have:
* gluten free oats
* pure whey protein with little carbs in it (the less carbs - the less lactose in it)
* rice
* lentils 
* groats
* coconut, hazelnut, almond milk
* vegetables
* fruits
* starchy vegetables like potatoes, sweet potatoes and so on
* eggs 
* soups (watch out for ready ones, they are often with flour)
* pastries from sesame, oats, rye or buckwheat flour
* nuts and peanut butters
* rice and corn cakes 

story of my life! cottage cheese I miss you!

Stay away from:
* bread, rolls
* yoghurts, creams
* souces
* cheeses
* tortillas
* crispbread
* cookies, muffins and pastries
* beer (contain gluten!)
* pastas 
* supplements like gainers (they have lots of carbs, with lactose included)

now we can find a big range of gluten and lactose free products! ufff!

My women inspirations in fitness world

If it comes to inspiration, there are few woman physiques whichI admire. That doesn't mean that I want to look exactly like them, but these women give me power and motivation when I need some positive kick.

Christina Strøm Fjære

Christina is current (and last years) IFBB Bikini World Champion
 

Norwegian. Christina won twice, but - what is more important - he has great post competition form as well. Gorgeous on stage and off stage!

Pauline Nordin
www.fighterdiet.com

He has her own method of keeping herself in low body fat all year long. I don't follow her principles in 100% but I admire her dedication. Discipline your dedication is her quote.

Lone Norås
www.lonenoras.blogg.no

And this is video which is my biiig inspiration. You will find there Lone Norås. She won Nordic Championships in bikini in 2012 and Norwegian Championships this years and she is only 18 years old!

As you see, 2/3 of my woman inspirations are Norwegian. Nordin is Swedish. I think that Scandinavia is a country of strong and interdependent women where weight training is not only reserved for men. I learned everything I know about weights in Norway. So maybe because of it I admire the physiques I got to know during that time :)

Thank you ladies for big amount of inspiration I have from you!

And who is your fitness inspiration?

Last day at work

Recently my blog is full of 'lasts' - last aerobic hour, training, day at work. But soon I will post my first times in London! :) 

I am thrilled and a little sad. It was hard to say goodbye to my co-workers... But I have to admit, that I am glad new chapter of my career begins. 
In Sport og Mosjon I was not only instructor and that that other part of job wasn't as exciting as being a trainer... The more happy I am that we made a change :)

This is what I have got today: flowers from my bosses and Hungarian wine from my lovely co-workers, Eszter&Istvan. Thank You!

Fatburning cardio sequence

Mine today's cardio training was inspired by amazing and fast Silje's Mariela results which she showed on her blog and instagram. It is a Norwegian trainer and fitness personality who supports quick, intensive trainings.

this wonderful ABS are not yet mine, but Silje Mariela's - here is her blog

So, this time, instead of intervalls on treadmill (with high an low tempo), I did intensive exercises sequence. The best fatburning accelerator!

My workout consisted of:

5 minutes warm up

1.) 60 sec. jumping jacks
2.) 60 sec. mountain climbers
3.) 60 sec. walking lunges
4.) 60 sec. plank

1.) 60 sec. jumping jacks
2.) 60 sec. mountain climbers
3.) 60 sec. walking lunges
4.) 60 sec. plank

60 sec. break (you can simply repeat moves 1-4 one more time or go to the next part)

5.) 60 sec. sprints in one place
6.) 60 sec. running

5.) 60 sec. sprints in one place
6.) 60 sec.running

7.) 60 sec. running drills

5 minutes stretching

Cardio time: 21 minutes
Total workout time: 31 minutes 

31 minutes for complete workout, which you can do everywhere. 
No excuses!

Energetic Sunday!

Hello!

How is your Sunday? Mine is sunny and energetic! I started day with gym training which consisted most of cardio work - 5km on treadmill and some ABS work after that! 

Good dose of endorphins for the rest of the day :) Have a good one!

Rippin' trainings

I have approximately 30 days for next photosession in Torun with a friend of mine. So.. it's time to ripped that body!

On Monday I did a session of intervals yesterday:

* warming up for 5 minutes
* 1x1 intervals in 8 rounds (12-13,5 km/h on high ones, 6,5 km/h on low ones)
* 10 minutes powerwalk with 3 gradient
+ core and ABS exercises on TRX

Today I did circuit resistance training:

* squats on smith machine
* leg curls
* rear lateral row
* shoulders press
* dips
* lateral arm pull down
* suspended crunches TRX
* hyperextensions with weight

Burn that fat!

Yesterday I wrote about scale myth and how important is to measure yourself instead of using scale.
Today I would like to write about training focusing on fat burning. It might bring you weight loss as well, but main focus will be to get rid of fat and get body thinner, not necessary lighter.

Everything I know is the result of my own experience, there are many theories in this topic, but I would like to present my point of view here which I believe as an effective method.

1) start weight training 

Do i repeat myself? Well, yes - because it is important to go on a gym instead of running miles on a treadmill!

Research shows that resistance training burn fat more than typical aerobic workout. 

On one of sports trainings forum (fitnessbloggen.no) posted recently  a great research about this: 
Survey group it the same amount of food and train - one of them did gym trainings, second one cardio workouts. It shows that the first group burned more fat. Take a look at this chart:

Aerobic group's weight loss was bigger, but they lose 4 kg of lean mass and 12,8kg of fat mass. Comparing to group with resistance training, they loose 4 kg less, but keep their lean mass (muscles) and loose 1,7 kg of fat more than aerobic training group.

2) do intervals instead of long cardio workouts

Interval training is that kind of training where you push yourself to the limits, than take an active pause and again repeat the circle. It is shorter than long cardio workout and research shows that it is more effective as well. 

You only have to remember that you can't have any medical contradictions to make such an intensive training.

An example of interval training

Interval training is shorter that typical fat burn cardio training (at least 40 minutes with the same peace), it also has longer after burning effect. Your body after such intensive workout have to use more energy to go back to stable state. 
Take a look at this chart:

With a cardio workout your after burn effect last for 1-2 hours, with intervals it is few times longer (6-8) hours. If you combine resistance training with intervals you get 48 hours of after burn effect!!

3) eat each 3-4 hours

It is not about eating whatever you have in your fridge, but it is about clean and healthy eating each 3-4 hours. You have to now your approximate calories intake and break this calories amount into small meals. This method will keep your metabolism high!

Check out the chart above, I recommend also this calculator.

4) eat more proteins

Consuming more protein rich foods will increase your metabolism and will help your muscles grown. Body uses more energy to burn proteins than to burn carbs or fats, that is why it helps you. 

Grams of protein in selected food

But at the same time, do not exclude carbs from diet, you also need them! Just choose whole grains and eat less portions of carbs than usual in favour to lean protein sources portions.

5) have healthy snacks with you

Stress, rush and daily problems might be the main obstacle in realising your goal. Plan ahead. Always have with you some healthy snacks/meal replacements. When you are ridiculously hungry you won't thing about nutrition value, you will just eat whatever you will have in front of your eyes. Avoid it!
 
What snacks you can have in your bag?
* protein bar (choose that one which have less than 150 calories and about 20 g of proteins - not every fit/sport/protein bar is really healthy)
* apple and handful of almonds
* small yoghurt with plastic spoon (like Skyr) - choose that with no added sugar and low in fat
* protein pancake 
* sandwich with lean ham and salad
* small carrots

 

6) replace half of your carbs portion with vegetables

Instead of eating half a plate of pasta/potatoes/rice, replace 1/2 of it with vegetables of source - broccoli, cauliflower, salad, tomatoes, onion and so on. You will cut some calories from your meal and add additional vitamins and minerals to your daily intake.

7) give yourself at least 6 months

You did not gain fat by night and it is the same with burning it - it takes time. Your body need to have to it to make crucial adjustments. You have to let the burning fat machine gets started and let it work for a while! 
It is not a problem to lose 3 kg of water, but burning 3 kg of fat takes time.

Scale myth

"Weight loss" is not the same as "fat loss" or "burning fat"

Let's refute the scale myth for good! 

Scale won't show you how healthy your body is or how your diet works out!

It can be some point of reference for those who do not train, but for active one scale won't show the truth! 

 

Don't be a scale's slave and weight yourself each day! 

Women's weight can vary depends on menstrual cycle - we have a tendency to accumulate water and we are depend on our hormones.

How does it work?

If we are exercising, we are gaining muscles which weight the same as fat. 
That is why by exercising we simple replacing fat (which is burned by our hard work) with growing muscles (you can not turn fat into muscles, but you can burned fat and grow muscles)
We are getting thinner because muscles require less space. But the scale will show the same amount! So what??? I guess you are interested more in having a flat belly than having a number on scale? Will you go on the beach with that scale or rather with your new sexy belly?

Picture below perfectly illustrate what I am talking about:

The same person, different weight. 1kg of fat is the same some 1 kg of muscles but, as you can see, it makes a huge difference!

Another example of girl which actually gain weight but looks better and thinner in "after" photo:

So what to do now? Throw your scale and measure yourself. It is only point of reference if you wont to check progress of your trainings. Measure yourself once a month, for example. Waist, hips, arms and thighs will be enough.

where to measure yourself - I recommend to choose waist, hips, thigh and arm

And soon I will write about how get rid of this fat which I wrote so much about! :)

A multifunction plank

Plank with a bosu ball

I have to admit that I discovered plank only just about year ago, when I first got for Norwegian aerobic. It seems to be a common exercise in Norway and I do know why - because it is so effective! 
Like other two which I presented (push ups and squats), it can be done at home, you don't need special equipement just your body weight.

Muscles engaged

Plank engages inner muscles as well ABS as core muscles. Also, for stabilisation front side of thight (quadriceps), chest and even partly shoulders are working.

Main muscles engaged while planking

It engages many muscles all over the body. It has multidirectional power of engaging muscles.

How to do it?

Try to stay at least 30 sec. in that position

Start position is when you're lying on your stomach with face down to ground.
* slowly go up with legs and tors keeping your bodyweight on toes, forearms and elbows.
* keep yout body straight, in a line
* butt doesn't go up - only when you're trying to keep it in a line with your back and legs, you're exercising properly
* look on the floor while exercising
* try to keep the correct position for no less than 30 seconds

Why the best for ABS?

Crunches vs. plank

This exercise will tighten your ABS muscles. It is better than crunches because it won't injured your back, which is unfortunately problem while doing crunches/situps. Researches say also that there is no need to isolate ABS muscles while training, which is done in crunches exercise.


It does not mean that you have to stop doing crunches, just try to incporporate planks to you ABS routine.

Variations

There are many planks variations. Most important is for me a side plank:

Side plank, together with classic plank give a pretty serious ABS training :)

 It involves obliques, so remember to do it on each of sides.

For planking you can also use balls:

It is more difficult variation of plank

And for each of the exercises there are also variations where you moving either your legs or arms:

Side plank with leg up. Do not bend the spin!

Side plank with arms movement involved

And remember

Just a small reminder at the end: