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 :)

Insanity UK

By the end of December 2013 I had an opportunity to become one of the first certificated Insanity instructors in UK. My gyms, Soho Gyms, were the first ones in England to introduce that format to their clubs.

With every week more and more people sign up because they want to do Insanity training. I am more than thrilled! And I can definitely say that this course was a milestone in my fitness instructor's career.

What is Insanity?
It is a high intensive interval training where you use your own body weight to do specific moves for exact amount of time with some short breaks in between.
Training itself is based on home DVD series made by Beachbody. It was that popular, they decided to introduce it to clubs as well. 

What can you achive?
This is the type of training where you definitely go out from your comfort zone. You work on your stamina and endurance but improve your strength too. As I often say to my group - you hate it during the process, you think it is too much, but when you're done you feel amazing and you have that endorphins kick! Check the video:

And here you have some moves you can expect during the class:

Is Insanty for everyone?
Class is designed for everyone, on every fitness level. You can always do low impact modification of the move.You can move in your own pace and this is not a class where you exercise to music. 

But definitely not everyone will goining to like that tempo. If you have hearth and serious back and knee injuries, you should not take it. But you still might consult your instructor before class, so he/she can help you with finding some other variations of the moves. Or propose some other suitable form of training.

Can you join anytime?
Yes. This is the main difference between DVD series and class in a fitness club. I introduce new moves and keep them changing a lot, but there is nothing like day 1 or 60. Even if you already know some of the moves, there is always room for improvement. 

Where and when?
Try class (as a guest if you are not a Soho Gym member) at one of my classes at Bow Wharf (East London). Wednesdays 7:00 PM and Sundays 10:00AM! :)

Here you have a timetable for all Insanity classes at Soho Gyms.

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!

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 :)

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?

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!

New role, new gym

new workplace - Soho Gyms Bow Wharf

Today I had my first day at new workplace - Soho Gyms Bow Wharf.
I will be a fitness instructor there. My new role would be all about taking care over our clients on a gym floor - from doing induction hours and taking measurements for designing training programmes.

new outfit ;)

This is the club where I had one of the best trainings in London ever, so I am very glad that I will spend there more time :)

and new neighbourhood

Soon I will start a new training routine, since I know where and how I work. Yupii! :)

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? :)