Today I’m feeling quite tired. I did go to bed around 10.30pm but I woke up around 5.30am needing to use the toilet. Alas, I knew when this happened I wouldn’t be having a great day: if I tend to wake up quite suddenly needing a wee then I am generally tired for the rest of the morning no matter how much coffee or green tea I drink.
Also, this is day two of taking supplements all through the day am I’m still getting used to what needs to be taken and when. Although, I do remember feeling overly warm yesterday afternoon, which could have been down to the warmer weather but I also feel this was down to taking supplements. And, apparently, feeling that my body is warmer most of the time is a good sign.
Fitness Session
Today, I was back to the second set of back and chest. One of my not so favourite exercises, the pullup (mostly because I haven’t been so strong to complete them), is on my ‘to do’ list. As well as chest exercises and pull overs. Here’s what I did:
- Band pullups (using the orange band): first set did 7 reps, then 5.5, 5, 5, 5.
- Incl. bar chest press: olympic bar + 45kg for 5 reps then 6, then at 47.5kg for 5, 5, 4.5.
- Dumbbell pull over: 2 x 15kg for 5, 7, then 2 x 17.5kg for 5, 6.
- Bent over cable fly cross over: didn’t complete
I was a little sad we didn’t get to complete the cable fly cross over as I really do like cable exercises, but I also understand that both my time and that of my trainer are limited. Plus, if I was training for more than 45-60 minutes in the gym every time then that wouldn’t be sustainable in the long term.
However, I was glad I could go up in weight for the chest press and the db pull over.
Nutrition Intake
My meals and the nutrition intake has been quite changeable over the last few days since I had the alarming discovery of a fat percentage increase on week 1’s fat check and analysis. Since then I’ve been doing some reading and I’ve come to the conclusion that changing to five meals a day will be beneficial to me. Below, the one annoying meal I had was breakfast. It wasn’t really avoidable and to some of you it might actually seem acceptable.
Breakfast
As I’m not awesome at planning I didn’t really have much in for breakfast, so eggs and avocado were the two ingredients that seemed the most healthy. They have a high fat content and do bring some protein to the table but they just don’t have enough of it for me to consider it a good enough meal.
But, if you’re due to go shopping today and last night had other things to do in life then it doesn’t always work out for the best. Another lesson learned today.
Meal 2
I’m eating this meal around 10-11am and following the guidelines set out by the UP guide, so I’m eating mainly some fish for this meal together with some green veg. This meal was oven baked salmon and broccoli. Tasty and filling.
Lunch
I was training a little later in the afternoon today, so I had my lunch before my fitness session. I had prawns and green beans (the latter raw) as I was not in a place where I could cook or reheat, so I needed something easy to carry and that would store well.
Post Workout
After training I had the other half of the gala apple from yesterday and another dollop of crunch peanut butter. It filled a hole and kept me nourished until I got home and was able to cook my post-workout meal
Meal 4 (post workout)
I combined some turkey breast mince and turkey thigh mince (both the lean side) to make some turkey mince meatballs. I added in some turmeric (as it helps with inflammation of the body) and herbs. I also had green beans and pineapple with them.
Dinner
My evening meal was similar to what I’ve had in the evening in the past, but I substituted the rather fatty pork loin for some chicken breast. Now, this possibly wasn’t the best decision as I have a slight introllerance to chicken and I had already eaten a few portions of it this week so you’ll find out tomorrow if I felt unwell from it. I ate it with some kale and a gluten free ciabatta with butter on.
Later on I had a few glasses of red wine, but I also had some blueberries as I knew from previous ‘mistakes’ that I always seem to get the munchies after drinking for an hour or so, so I combated that by eating blueberries instead of ‘falling of the wagon’ and eating something nasty like chocolate or a bag of crisps.
All together my food intake for the day was rather good, albeit with a few (highlighted) slips.
My Thoughts & Feelings
I’m positive today, especially as I now seem to have sorted out my meals and planning what I am going to be eating for the future. After a not so negative start to the day I felt great and wanted to relax a little so I did drink some red wine. I’m a person who looks at things realistically: in the past I’ve been on diets and gone to the gym, which involved restricting (or giving up) everything.
I know if you’re a die-hard fitness person reading this then you’re probably thinking “Well, I wouldn’t drink if I was serious about my body and this 12-week challenge!” If you are then I will thank you for your opinion and move on. I live in the real world where people yo-yo diet all of the time and it annoys me. I took the option to drink and chose alcohol that wouldn’t have as much as dramatic impact on my body as beer or cider would (sugar), so I’m happy.
And don’t be afraid to do what I’ve done above. If we all relaxed a little bit when we’re on a ‘diet’ then we wouldn’t yo-yo so much and come off a diet period thinking we can eat anything in sight (or at least as much as we did previously).
Here’s to being conscious about choices but not being overly obsessed.
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