For the first time in months, I can finally say that I am leaning again. There were days that I sincerely believed I would never get there, but I made it! It is a very humble victory, but most important, it is a definitive step back on track.
One of the things I have been investing special attention these days is my intake. I am not a big eater. In fact, I spent most of my life as skinny fat. Getting to "know" what kinds of food suit better and how to combine them to get the best results has been a challenging task, but I am loving it. Some weeks ago, I was home for a couple of days and I took advantage of it to work on my skills.
It is not like I have been cooking amazing stuff, it is just that I am truly putting effort in varying my diet to get all my macros, vitamins and minerals and also keeping it balanced. I might me going through a long off-season period, but it does not mean that I am planning on going over the board just-because.
Having protein in all my meals is very important at this point. Due to the months of limited or no activity, I lost muscle mass. Besides getting smaller, it is much harder to burn fat when one has no muscles (you know what I mean by "no muscles", don't you?). Most of my protein comes from hormone free meat and poultry, but I also add superfoods and shakes to my diet.
Another must-have are carbohydrates. My goal is keep on working out 5-6 days a week. My training mostly takes place in the evenings after a whole day at the office (except for Sundays when I go to the gym in the morning and Thursdays when I do Power Yoga during lunch break), which means that I am already tired before I even started. To make sure I have enough energy to kick ass with the weights, I need to carb myself up. Caffeine is not a option since I have been sparing my adrenals the extra stress. My carbs come mainly from vegetables, lots of them; and I cannot miss oats in the morning either. At this point, I also have a fruit a day, but then again, I am not in contest prep.
Balance is the key for getting in shape and staying healthy. One must also include fats, minerals and vitamins to provide enough fuel for the body to perform all tasks properly. We all have a life beyond the gym that demands a huge amount of our energy as well.
Not choosing my vegetables is quite fun. I enrolled for a weekly subscription from the local organic farm and I only know what I am getting one day in advance. It is so challenging, but I am discovering a lot of veggies that we do not have in Brazil or that I simply had never had the chance to try.
Even though cooked greens lose part of their vitamins, they fit me better than raw. I am still working on detoxing my gut and I do not want to overload my digestive system (a portion of fruit a day is already more than enough). The easiest solution in this case is steaming.
There are a lot of interesting and informative articles on the internet. Be careful on not just looking for "diet" and "weight loss" tips. Learn about metabolism, allergies and food in general. I am not going to play specialist here because I still have a hard time myself putting the right combinations together in optimized portions avoiding as repeating the same ingredients over and over again (the latter being my major weakness). Do not rush. It is your body we are talking about and you must know it better than anyone else (including your MD).
Modern life brought us a lot of facilities, but also an enormous amount of challenges and demands. Our body has the incredible capacity to adapt itself to the obstacles of society, but we cannot neglect feeding it properly. To keep any machine running smooth, we put oil and do regular checks, why not applying the same principle to ourselves.
Healthy days everyone!
One of the things I have been investing special attention these days is my intake. I am not a big eater. In fact, I spent most of my life as skinny fat. Getting to "know" what kinds of food suit better and how to combine them to get the best results has been a challenging task, but I am loving it. Some weeks ago, I was home for a couple of days and I took advantage of it to work on my skills.
It is not like I have been cooking amazing stuff, it is just that I am truly putting effort in varying my diet to get all my macros, vitamins and minerals and also keeping it balanced. I might me going through a long off-season period, but it does not mean that I am planning on going over the board just-because.
Having protein in all my meals is very important at this point. Due to the months of limited or no activity, I lost muscle mass. Besides getting smaller, it is much harder to burn fat when one has no muscles (you know what I mean by "no muscles", don't you?). Most of my protein comes from hormone free meat and poultry, but I also add superfoods and shakes to my diet.
 |
| Hormone free chicken and rice with organic carrots and leek |
Another must-have are carbohydrates. My goal is keep on working out 5-6 days a week. My training mostly takes place in the evenings after a whole day at the office (except for Sundays when I go to the gym in the morning and Thursdays when I do Power Yoga during lunch break), which means that I am already tired before I even started. To make sure I have enough energy to kick ass with the weights, I need to carb myself up. Caffeine is not a option since I have been sparing my adrenals the extra stress. My carbs come mainly from vegetables, lots of them; and I cannot miss oats in the morning either. At this point, I also have a fruit a day, but then again, I am not in contest prep.
Balance is the key for getting in shape and staying healthy. One must also include fats, minerals and vitamins to provide enough fuel for the body to perform all tasks properly. We all have a life beyond the gym that demands a huge amount of our energy as well.
Not choosing my vegetables is quite fun. I enrolled for a weekly subscription from the local organic farm and I only know what I am getting one day in advance. It is so challenging, but I am discovering a lot of veggies that we do not have in Brazil or that I simply had never had the chance to try.
 |
| Asperges, hormone free pork, organic celeriac oven chips and corn salad |
Even though cooked greens lose part of their vitamins, they fit me better than raw. I am still working on detoxing my gut and I do not want to overload my digestive system (a portion of fruit a day is already more than enough). The easiest solution in this case is steaming.
There are a lot of interesting and informative articles on the internet. Be careful on not just looking for "diet" and "weight loss" tips. Learn about metabolism, allergies and food in general. I am not going to play specialist here because I still have a hard time myself putting the right combinations together in optimized portions avoiding as repeating the same ingredients over and over again (the latter being my major weakness). Do not rush. It is your body we are talking about and you must know it better than anyone else (including your MD).
 |
| Salmon with organic beta and corn salad |
Modern life brought us a lot of facilities, but also an enormous amount of challenges and demands. Our body has the incredible capacity to adapt itself to the obstacles of society, but we cannot neglect feeding it properly. To keep any machine running smooth, we put oil and do regular checks, why not applying the same principle to ourselves.
Healthy days everyone!
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