1 month progresss

It is a month since I start to work with Michelle Brannan as my coach and I begin my diet. 
This month was full of new experiences and lessons. 

Diet itself was hard at the beginning but after some amends I got used to limited food and preparing everything in advance. As soon as first changes started to come, I was more motivated to keep it. I sticked to my cheat days, but the be honest only once I cheat in a full understanding of this word (where we went to restaurant and I had cheesburger and fries ;). Other 3 cheats were more like refeeds with some freshly baked baguette and some ricecakes. So carbs, carbs, carbs mainly ;)

my cheat meal after week 2

Training wise I am thrilled about my resistance trainings and still working on proper amount of cardio I had to do ;)

my regular foods: some complex carbs (wholemeal couscous), protein (oven baked white fish) and veggies with balsamic vinegar

If it comes to stats, after 4 weeks I've lost 2kg and minus 4,5cm in waist and 3,8cm in my hips. Wow! :) I couldn't been more excited!

trainings legs 3 times a week results in rounder booty ;)

But, the most importnatly, by doing that, I haven't feel that good in my own skin for years! This is the best outcome I got so far!

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 :)

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!

Keep focus in December

Time flies and we already have December! 

When shops are getting busier, gyms seems to be more and more quiet with each day.

People tent to concentrate on Christmas preparations, buying gifts and splurging with food and warm winter drinks. It is natural, I think, but I still believe that keeping yourself on track during December will results in better energy and attitude when exact Christmas time will come. 

I plan ahead my cheat meals

Don't postpone your fitness training til January:

* you will have more energy on your trainings from some additional calories from Christmas treats

* you will feel better with yourself of eyou know that you won't binge every day in December 

* you won't have so much work to do in January because you won't gain so many kg's in December 

My strategy for December is to plan my cheat days in advance, keep on my training going and do some circuit training instead of cardio between resistance training days. 

Kale chips

crispy, salty, healthy snack

Want some salty and spicy snack? Try super easy and healthy kale chips.

Kale is green veggie full of iron, with characteristic curly leaves. It contains lots of iron, beta caroten, vitamin K and C. In 100g it has only 28 kcal.

How to prepare chips from kale?

Wash and dry kale leaves and tear them into medium size pieces (I used packed, already washed kale).

Warm up oven til 200 degrees.

put kale on baking paper, spray a little oil on it and season

Put kale on a baking pan and spray oil on it, then season with salt and pepper (or chili).

bake for 30-40 minutes in 200 degrees

Bake for about 30 minutes until kale is crispy. 

done :)

Enjoy! :)

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?

I'm back!

After some pause from blog I'm back and ready to start a new chapter of my English journey.

making off latest photosession

Over the last couple of weeks I finished my Stoppani's program as well as work for LA Fitness. I got another job offer which was even more into my interests than sales. From today I will work as gym instructor/general assistant for Soho Gyms :)

Finishing my work for LA Fitness was at the same time as I had my trip to Poland planned. It was a great ending of some chapter for me, my first chapter of my life in UK.

 

Over last week I had a photo session, then break from gym (recovery week) and dieting. I spend quality time with my closest, eat natural and home-made food and try to relax as much as possible.

made by Marek Sysoł http://foto.sysol.pl

As I mentioned, I finished Stoppani's "Shortcut to shred" program. Honestly speaking, due to my very demanding job I did 80% of the program, but still I was satisfied. 

Marek Sysoł http://foto.sysol.pl

How was effects of the program? I think that pictures from my last sessions speak for themselves :)

I start this week with new energy and excitement! How about you? :)

Sometimes you have to take step back...

yeah, one of those bad days

On Friday I found myself drained from stress, trainings and dieting with horrible mindset and in terrible mood. 

My new job is very demanding and time consuming, so I have to adapt to new, longer working hours and more stressful environment. Combined with exhausting "Shortcut to shred" trainings and low carb phase of diet, it resulted in Friday's mind&body collapse. 

my weekends remedy - normal amounts of carbs and green tea at starbucks

But I took my weekend off and charged batteries. 
I did a step back and treat my body better, give it more sleep and food (since I started to getting cold as well!).  
Three things always helps me getting better: good food, sleep and shopping. And I did exacxtly all of them ;D

week 4-5 "Shortcut to shred" form with some stress and job related distractions

My weekend, beside mental relax, was quite active though.

On Saturday I had my personal training session where I mastered deadlift technique. 
As a new LA Fitness worker I have to check classes, Personal Trainers and other facilities to make sure that I know what I am offering to our clients. That is why I had my PT session on Saturday. 

deadlift are one of the best whole body exercises but only if you do them right!

An hour with a trainer was challenging and I enjoyed it very much! I am finally sure about my deadlift technique (I found it hard to check my own form while exercising) and was reassured that my squats technique is perfect! :) After that we trained in a park with Meggie :) 

we trained at Green Park again :)

Today I joined Body Conditioning class, followed by yoga session, quick swim and relax in jacuzzi.
 

quick relaxing swimming session in our renewed swimming pool at LA Fitness WIQ

I am not keen in yoga, but my body and soul needed that and really enjoyed that form of activity and stretching. Perfect! A already feel better :)

I hope that I've charged my batteries for whole week and I won't find myself in a place like on Friday again