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!

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 :)

Weekend

I rarely drink alcohol these days, but if I drink, I go for champagne ;)

This weekend I spent like never before! First of all, with new job I rarely have Saturday and Sundays off. Second of all, I travel to city centre not so often, even thought it is not so far away from place where I live.

with my lovely Mom

My mother's visit was the best excuse to change that! We celebrate her birthday (happy birthday Mom! :*), went on a musical, drank champagne during our shopping and eat lots of good food. 

Thriller musical at Lyric Theatre

wonderfully decorated Carnaby Street

After such intensive two days I am so happy and pleased. That was a really great break from (sometimes harsh) reality..

another glass of amazing champagne

our brunch at Grind Coffee Shop (Westfield Stratford) and healthy pouched egg sandwich

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?

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!

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

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!