The kind of things I eat. Suggestions welcomed!

LOVE Japanese food...mmm, yum!!

No, it was incredible that I didn't feel more drunk... My brother was pretty raucous, though

Here's yesterday's entry:

9:00AM
- 1/3 cup oats
- 1/4 banana
- 2 dates
- 1 Tbsp sultanas & currants
- 1 Tbsp ground linseed
- 1 Tbsp nut&seed mix

10:30AM
- skim latte

11:30AM
- Apple
(was out & couldn't get anything more substantial...)

2:00PM
- 100g tinned salmon
- 2 Tbsp low fat cottage cheese with dill
- 1 slice wholegrain toast
- 1 cup salad leaves

4:00PM
- 1C fruit salad
- 100g no-fat yoghurt

4:30PM INTERVAL SPRINTS (more like jogs* )

7:00PM
- 1C salad leaves + shredded cabbage + fennel
- 1/4 avocado
- 100g smoked bonito
- 1 tsp seeded mustard
- 1 Tbsp no-fat yoghurt

7:30PM Iyengar Yoga (1 hour class)

9:00PM
- 2 pieces toblerone
- 1C full fat milk (no skim left...)

* At the moment running is a bit painful for me. I've got collapsed arches that are in need of a good podiatrist before I can seriously approach running without risk of an injury. I'm going to an info session at the podiatry clinic on Thursday night to find out about strengthening exercises.

Yo swanso5, what's the beef with yoga/pilates? Nah, seriously - I guess I was more accurate when I said that it "gives the APPEARANCE of a longer leaner figure". But do you debate that it lengthens the muscles/tendons, etc? I'm interested to know what you think of it...

I don't them as an only source of training which many females do. Nothing stretches ligaments really and why not just stetch at home?

Yoga

i use some moves or variation of moves but...

- often promotes flexibility in the wrong places
- you wanna look longer and thinner? eat clean, train hard and fix your posture
- how often do you move slowly into a position, hold it then come back out of it in real life? not very meaning it's carryover to reality is little at best
- for therapautic benenfits i'm all for it but if one is not doing any strength training then they are missing the boat

Pilates
again i use some moves or variations of them but...

- most people can't control their core properly for 5mins let alone a 1hr class
- the class setting doesn't give you the one on one type attention you require for proper core activation
- once a muscle is activated it has to be strengthened somehow or it's all to no avial (i.e. once glutes are activated through glute bridging etc then a loaded hip extension movement needs to be performed such as a deadlift, pull through etc)

all up, they are good as accessory/recovery based workouts but as stated if you're not training with wts, which a lot of females still don't for ridiculous and unsubstantiated reasons, then you're not training as efficient as you could be

www.uponlinetraining.com

Point taken.

I like to alternate weights days with yoga days, but I mix up my routine on non-weights days anyway. Variety is the spice of life!

I totally agree about women and weights. Weights & core training are the most important part of my fitness regime. I just don't get why an aversion to weight-lifting is so prevalent when it comes to women. The mythical phobia of bulking up is the most stupid, debilitating concept...

Yesterday was THE biggest pig-out. I might as well have eaten a house. Not worth writing down everything I ate... It was "that time of month" and I get horrific cramps that nothing seems to ease. I read that exercise helped so I did a lower-body circuit for about 30mins. Nearly died. It did nothing but serve to increase my appetite - GREAT.

Porridge. Cake. Lasagne. Cake. Curry + oily white roti bread + leafy greens. Cake. Chocolate. Some more cake with cream for good measure.

That's what my day looked like.

Ewww. My brain seems to think that the remedy to my cramps is eating continuously.

Today's been better. A bit erratic, but healthy at least:

9AM:
- 1/4C oats
- 1T linseed
- 1T nut/seed mix
- 2T no fat yoghurt

11AM:
- 1/4C oats
- 2T no fat yoghurt

12:30PM: 40mins Cardio & 40 mins Weights (upper body/torso)

2PM:
- Musashi SLM Protein Revival Shake
- Banana

4PM:
- Carrot + 50g Low-fat Hummus
- 1C mixed leaves
- 1 boiled egg
- 2T cottage cheese + seeded mustard

Dinner is going to be malaysian themed, I think (SO OILY). Coconut based chicken curry & a coconut based veg curry. (I'm not cooking tonight! )

If I drain the sauce off - do you think it'll be even vaguely healthy?? Still going for about 100g chicken & 1-2 cups veg. It's not really a salad & fish/steak though, is it?

I live in a house where one guy usually lives on maccas, one guy has a stomach ulcer and barely eats and one girl who's given up on losing weight & eats whatever she feels like (namely anything fatty, sugary or carby). She's the one who's cooking tonight...

Question - how do you politely tell someone: "Thanks for cooking a fatty feast for me - but if you haven't NOTICED, I'm trying to maintain a pretty strict diet unless it's a special occasion."

verbally and physically if needed

Have your own grocery,
Make your meal,
Eat when you need to eat and let them do whatever they want.

That's what I do.

Could you ask her to set some aside without the sauce? Like put some in a bowl before she dumps the sauce in?

I ended up doing what you said Allison, & asking her to set some veg aside for me to steam. But the chicken curry was already made, so I just drained it. I felt bad because there was bugger-all chicken in the curry compared to potato & I took a lot of chicken! I had to eat some tinned salmon after dinner to make up my protein.

I also ate 2 squares of Cote D'Or raspberry dark chocolate (YUM). But I have to kick this habit of eating chocolate at the end of the day. I think it's more habitual than anything else. I get to then end of the day & start craving it, but all day I don't even think about it. It has to be psychological...

Heelus, yeah I would do that and for all other meals I do - but I live in a sharehouse where the policy is to have "family" meals a few nights a week, where we all cook together or take turns in cooking a meal. It's something that I signed up for when I moved in, so I can't really complain now. I'd have to find a different sharehouse otherwise, & I really like this one.

Today's consumption:

9AM
- 1/4C oats
- 1T linseed
- 1T nut/seed mix
- 2 dates

12PM
- Banana

YOGA (1 hour class)
25 mins cardio
25 mins abdominal/lower body workout

(a BIG break here which I'm really shitty at myself about - got carried away in kmart because they had 30% off & lost track of time!!! kinda silly really...)

4:30PM
- 100g tinned salmon
- 1C raw broccoli
- 1 tomato

6PM
- 20g dark chocolate
- 3 brazil nuts

LOWER BODY WORKOUT (30 mins)

7:30PM
- 1/4 lebanese cucumber
- mint, spring onions, coriander
- 1/2 tsp sesame seeds
- 1 tsp coconut milk
- 6 skinless chicken spareribs fried in wok w/ 1 tsp rice-bran oil & marinated in soy sauce + chinese 5-spice

I TOTALLY didn't eat enough today, but it's too late now... I hate that - once you've missed a meal, eating more later doesn't help. So frustrating!!

get back on top of it this weekend and you'll be fine

8:30, time for footy!!

www.uponlinetraining.com

Right peeps! I've been talking about taking it up a notch from Monday. So here's the plan:

Meal 1:
- 40g Rolled oats
- 1 Tbsp linseed
- 1 Apple

Meal 2:
- 1 Banana
- 200g Yoghurt

Workout (TBA )

Meal3:
- 1/3 Cup Brown rice/Wholegrain pasta
- 1 Cup Steamed veg/salad
- 100g Skinless chicken breast/tinned or fresh fish/lean steak

Meal 4:
- 1/2C Veg
- Low fat cottage cheese (what other forms of protein can I replace this with???)

Meal 5:
- 4 egg-white omelette
- 1.5 Cups steamed veg/salad

Meal 6:
- 1 Cup skim milk (more to substitute the chocolate that I normally crave at the end of the day than to constitute a "meal")


Can't be arsed with protein powders/shakes right now. I'm not really massively into that stuff anyway - prefer to get my nutrients from "wholefoods" if possible. It's cheaper that way as well, which is a big incentive for a student!

My trainer is reassessing my workout on Monday & I will be posting the new workout as soon as I get it. I've told him to REALLY push me & it's going to include HIIT, resistance (free-weights, machines & compounds) & I'm going to keep up my yoga.

I'm going to be doing a split routine (upper day 1/lower day 2) for 10 days straight, because after that I'm going on a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat. If you're familiar with the technique you'd know that it means NO talking, NO eye-contact, NO exercise, rising at 4am & resting at 10pm, eating 1 vegetarian meal a day before midday & eating only fruit in the morning & evening, meditating for practically 18hrs a day for 10 days.

Yeah, I know - sounds like torture right? It's actually to combat the ADD that I suffer from & assist me in learning to focus. It's been proven to work & because I really have a problem with taking drugs (I'm particularly mortified by the idea of taking Ritalin), it's an alternative that I'm willing to try.

The main problem is that I've just started getting serious about working out & now I'm not going to be able to exercise for 10 days.

Hence the pre-meditation retreat self-perscribed Boot-Camp! My trainer's really keen to see how far I can get in 10 days. I know I don't have a hell of a lot of body fat because I'm already at the lower range of my ideal weight & I've got a decent amount of muscle on me. But we're going to get the calipers out and measure me up & from Monday the plan is to lose as much excess body fat & gain as much strength as possible.

So that's the plan! & I'm pretty excited!!! Particulary about the workout (Sorry, will post ASAP). It's going to be incredibly hard work, but it's going to be a really fun 10 days. Plus I trust my trainer - I've already come lightyears in the month or so that he's been helping me out. Everyone here is doing wonders to keep me on track & keep me feeling empowered (even if you don't realise it! ) so keep hitting me up with your feedback.

I'll be posting daily with updates on workout & diet, etc.


Cheers!

Meal 1:
- 40g Rolled oats
- 1 Tbsp linseed
- 1 Apple

(You really need more Protein here as there's practically none)

Meal 2:
- 1 Banana
- 200g Yoghurt

Workout (TBA )

Meal3:
- 1/3 Cup Brown rice/Wholegrain pasta
- 1 Cup Steamed veg/salad
- 100g Skinless chicken breast/tinned or fresh fish/lean steak

Meal 4:
- 1/2C Veg
- Low fat cottage cheese (what other forms of protein can I replace this with???)


(Peanuts, Low Fat Cheese, Chicken, Turkey, Flax, Lean Ham, Soy products including Tofu, an Nattokinase, (fermented Soy with a Bifidus culture added), Eggs.

Meal 5:
- 4 egg-white omelette
- 1.5 Cups steamed veg/salad

Meal 6:
- 1 Cup skim milk (more to substitute the chocolate that I normally crave at the end of the day than to constitute a "meal")


Can't be arsed with protein powders/shakes right now. I'm not really massively into that stuff anyway - prefer to get my nutrients from "wholefoods" if possible. It's cheaper that way as well, which is a big incentive for a student!

(Actually a decent Concentrate powder especially with Carbs would be cheaper than food in a way. I get 3lbs of the stuff for £15. A Carb free one would be cheaper too, as then you could then have whatever Carbs you wanted with it, and use the powder as part or whole of a Breakfast based Protein portion, and maybe after workouts too.

Not trying to sway you, just stating things as I know them.)

- as bosman suggested, more proteinat first 2 meals
- a protein based breakfast has been shown to drop more wt then acarb based breakfast, maybe something to look at (eggs, cooked veggies etc)
- bananas are the worst fruit, berries are the ebst
- i'd take pout the yoghurt too for a more solid protein source
- pump out the veggies for all meals after training as they have lots of fibre and will keep you feeling fuller for longer but still eat all your regular meals though
- need a solid meal before bed
- if going for 10 days straight you should be doing something like this:

1 - low rep full body
2 - cardio
3 - moderate rep full body
4 - cardio
and so on

10 days of wts and no cal's will more then likely result in a muscle loss as you're tearing it down everyday byt never rebuilding it

www.uponlinetraining.com

Does the retreat include yoga or any kind of working meditation? At the Zen retreats I've been on, it's a similar schedule, but sitting is broken up with walking meditation (kinhin) and working meditation. The right kind of meditation will definitely help your focus. I'm partial to Zen though...and shikan-taza. But everyone has his or her own path!