Today, I woke up at around 6.30am and, even though I put lots of effort and worked hard yesterday on my legs I felt well rested and felt great. I also looked through UP’s muscles meal programme and got some great pointers on how I am going to change my diet about.
How? As I decided yesterday, I’m moving onto 5 smaller meals each day which are going to have leaner protein in them and green veggies in most meals. Giving the fuel that my muscles need to grow and nutrients/antioxidants that my body wants to help it burn through and get rid of my excess body fat.
However, I did realise that Quest protein bars are now off the menu for me. I have an intollerance to whey protein that I already know about and I stupidly didn’t check the ingredients on the Quest bars before I had one after my workout yesterday. They include a whey protein isolate blended with a milk protein isolate, so it didn’t have a huge affect on me like some whey protein powders do but I didn’t feel great because of it.
Fitness Session
Following on from yesterday’s gains, I was working towards upping both the weight I was doing and number of reps per set I was going for. I wasn’t sticking to the 5×5 rule as I think this was stalling my progression. Here’s what I did:
- Prison bar triceps presses: started on 40kg x 8 reps, then 45kg x 6, 45kg x 7, 45kg x 5.
- Z-bar triceps extensions: started on 20kg x 8, 25kg x 8, 30kg x 5, 30kg x 5.
- Shoulder bar presses: olympic bar with 20kg x 6, 20kg x 8, 20kg x 4, 20kg x 5.
The only one above where I didn’t go up after the second set was the shoulder press. I felt really tired by the end of the workout and I felt that I’d worked hard, so that wasn’t so much of a let down. The main thing was that I progressed.
Food
Today I was getting used to consuming more meals but with less amounts in them. Here’s a run down of what I ate:
Breakfast
I started the morning with a lovely bit of sirloin steak and some spinach. I’ve seen this (or a really similar one) mentioned quite a bit and also in UP’s muscle meals programme, so I thought I’d start the day with a positive bit of red meat.
Morning Snack
This was a tin of tuna with a glug of olive oil and 100g of broccoli. This follows UP’s directions and this is how most of my meals will form in the future with some variations by me.
Post Workout
Half an apple and a teaspoon of crunchy peanut butter (organic Whole Earth) was my food intake for after my fitness session. I’ve been speaking a lot with my trainer and it’s clear I was consuming far too many carbs after working out, but I wanted to consume some quick releasing ones because I want my body to be able to control my sensitivity to sugar.
Post Workout Meal
This was one of my favourites for this meal: consumed about an hour after I’ve finished my workout. I want it to be high in protein and have some greens in. After looking at UP’s planner it was clear that they also recommend consuming some fruit sugars (such as pineapple or red grapes) with this meal, so I was on prawns and broccoli with some pineapple. Easily prepared and tasty.
Snack
I was a little hungry later and I knew I would be eating my evening meal a little later, so I decided to have a ciabatta toasted with two soft boiled eggs on it, kinda like eggs on toast.
Dinner
My evening meal was similar to some of the other days this week, being pork loin with kale and red onion. I do like this meal, but it seems too high in fat content so I think I’m going to use it sparingly in the future. Opting for other meats or fish that are a little less in fat but still offer a high amount of protein when consuming them.
I was a little shocked when I looked at the totals from MFP because I thought I would be way over my calories and carbs for the day, but I wasn’t which was great news.
I’ve also educated myself more about food and what the different elements are (in percentage terms) that go into the most popular foods I eat, and some of that information highlights my naivety.
How I’m Feeling
Today has been a great day. I’ve moved up some of my lifting weights and reps, and I’ve gone through one full day of my adapted eating regime. My sleep is also getting better: I’m going to bed around 10/10.30pm and waking around 6.30/7am, having a solid eight hours sleep and feeling a little better throughout the day.
However, I am having a lull in the afternoon where I feel tired that I want to go and take a nap but I’ve resisted. I’ll be monitoring that over the next few days and see how I progress.
Leave a Reply