Hi! It's been a while since I've been here! The last time, I cut out caffeine and chocolate.
However, it's now pumpkin spice season, and I've been tempted a bit too much from decaf coffee and wanted to try another round, since this is definitely hard. Let me know if you have any recipes!
I've been reading books on building strength and eating from bodybuilders, and somehow something clicked in an old bodybuilding book - I want to gain more muscle and look more "defined", but to do that, I have to burn off the fat that I have, which means sticking to a calorie deficit, regardless of the exercise that was done.
Because my mode of workouts for so long was strength training and no cardio, while I'd gain muscle, I'd never lose the fat on top/underneath it because of eating too many calories. And also to calculate how many calories for "sweets/ultra-processed food' you have for day, which I'm putting as 20% of my calorie expenditure. I will say that I'm going slightly over - unsure how to modify my Starbucks order, so would love any help for that!
Seeing it broken down mathematically just clicked, and now I get the "why" behind what nutritionists have told me to do.
Eating out makes it almost impossible to find out the nutrition, and whenever I do find a menu, it's so disappointing to find how much added sugar is in there! I love Nashville Hot Chicken, but the amount of sugar is even more than the spice/1 burger is how many calories I need to eat in a day on a deficit, which has been eye-opening.
I went grocery shopping and have been eating eggs in the morning. If I don't get to it, I'll grab egg whites from Starbucks alongside a short pumpkin spice latte. And then I'll have 2 homemade pumpkin spice cookies with protein yogurt as "icing". Or add cottage cheese as "icing".
And then I'll have grapes - definitely found a love for fruit. If I don't eat out, I'll usually air fry salmon with broccoli. I bought a meat thermometer to cook meat more and definitely want to try more recipes!
My goal this round will be to calorie count because I always want to eat out, but alas, it's too much and I've been at maintenance this entire time instead of a deficit.
I will say, I've noticed a lot of changes quite quickly with focusing on diet (focusing on high fiber and high protein)! I'm definitely much more toned after reducing exercise. I'm technically doing FB Fit R1, but I'm taking 12 weeks to do it and doing strength training just 2-3 times a week. It also has more cardio than other workouts, which has been great! I've added treadmill intervals and I'm finally seeing definition in my legs and arms. Definitely not where I want to be, but I think I definitely see that it's much more clear that I can get to where I want to be/look like if I focus on cooking at home. I've also increased my Reformer Pilates classes to 6-7x/week, which has helped with muscle definition and also just recovering from everything else. I've added a class at 7 AM every day so I can get that done, then I'll do 20-25 minutes on a Treadmill after work or a FB Fit workout if I have the time. I do more of the FB workouts on the weekend when I have more time.
R4: Cooking more and Eating out Less
Hi! It's been a while since I've been here! The last time, I cut out caffeine and chocolate.
However, it's now pumpkin spice season, and I've been tempted a bit too much from decaf coffee and wanted to try another round, since this is definitely hard. Let me know if you have any recipes!
I've been reading books on building strength and eating from bodybuilders, and somehow something clicked in an old bodybuilding book - I want to gain more muscle and look more "defined", but to do that, I have to burn off the fat that I have, which means sticking to a calorie deficit, regardless of the exercise that was done.
Because my mode of workouts for so long was strength training and no cardio, while I'd gain muscle, I'd never lose the fat on top/underneath it because of eating too many calories. And also to calculate how many calories for "sweets/ultra-processed food' you have for day, which I'm putting as 20% of my calorie expenditure. I will say that I'm going slightly over - unsure how to modify my Starbucks order, so would love any help for that!
Seeing it broken down mathematically just clicked, and now I get the "why" behind what nutritionists have told me to do.
Eating out makes it almost impossible to find out the nutrition, and whenever I do find a menu, it's so disappointing to find how much added sugar is in there! I love Nashville Hot Chicken, but the amount of sugar is even more than the spice/1 burger is how many calories I need to eat in a day on a deficit, which has been eye-opening.
I went grocery shopping and have been eating eggs in the morning. If I don't get to it, I'll grab egg whites from Starbucks alongside a short pumpkin spice latte. And then I'll have 2 homemade pumpkin spice cookies with protein yogurt as "icing". Or add cottage cheese as "icing".
And then I'll have grapes - definitely found a love for fruit. If I don't eat out, I'll usually air fry salmon with broccoli. I bought a meat thermometer to cook meat more and definitely want to try more recipes!
My goal this round will be to calorie count because I always want to eat out, but alas, it's too much and I've been at maintenance this entire time instead of a deficit.
I will say, I've noticed a lot of changes quite quickly with focusing on diet (focusing on high fiber and high protein)! I'm definitely much more toned after reducing exercise. I'm technically doing FB Fit R1, but I'm taking 12 weeks to do it and doing strength training just 2-3 times a week. It also has more cardio than other workouts, which has been great! I've added treadmill intervals and I'm finally seeing definition in my legs and arms. Definitely not where I want to be, but I think I definitely see that it's much more clear that I can get to where I want to be/look like if I focus on cooking at home. I've also increased my Reformer Pilates classes to 6-7x/week, which has helped with muscle definition and also just recovering from everything else. I've added a class at 7 AM every day so I can get that done, then I'll do 20-25 minutes on a Treadmill after work or a FB Fit workout if I have the time. I do more of the FB workouts on the weekend when I have more time.