The Problem With Bulking

January 27, 2024 / No Comments

Lift more weights, eat more food, do less cardio.

Sounds pretty easy right?

Well, I guess it is physically but it’s not so easy mentally.

To put it into context, I’m coming to the end of the first month of a 6 month plan in which I’m spending 3 months building muscle and then the last 3 months will be spent trying to strip body fat to increase definition and get that ‘toned’ look that I’m after.

To build muscle, you need fuel. And that fuel is being supplied by nearly 2,000 calories each day of unprocessed food. That’s an awful lot of food, especially given that to meet this I’m having to eat mountains of vegetables, lean protein and lots of carbs squeezed into 3 main meals and 2 snacks each day.

The workouts are focused around lifting increasingly heavy weights and doing very little cardio training (apart from my daily commute and occasional cycles to see friends) which is very different to the high intensity stuff that I normally do.

The result is that although I feel stronger (I’m PBing all over the place on squats, presses and basically everything), I also feel ‘bigger’. You’re probably thinking ‘well obviously, you’re building muscle’ but for someone who has spent their entire life trying to be smaller, this feeling is alien and not entirely comfortable.

Watching my abs disappear day by day, the scales creep up slightly and my legs getting bigger is actually bloody difficult. It goes against the grain and it makes me feel out of shape bizarrely. It’s having an effect on my willpower too as I’ve never had to eat more to hit calorie goals before, so I’m thinking ‘well I might as well have 3 biscuits, it’ll help me hit my calories’.

As I keep telling myself (and my friends and clients), you have to trust the process and getting control over your willpower and brain is part of this process. So I’m making sure that I eat plenty of ‘clean’ foods and hitting the gym to try and avoid the dips in willpower.

Most of all, I’m accepting the fact that I’m struggling and that is ok. Not everything is easy and I know that I will appreciate the results a lot more because of the battles that I’ve been through.

The Clean Eating Revolution

January 19, 2024 / No Comments

You might have heard people talking about ‘clean eating’ but what does it actually mean? Well, there’s different levels of clean eating.

For example, you could go hardcore and do a Whole30 which cuts out all sugar, dairy, legumes and grains or you can do a slightly more lifestyle-friendly version, which is what I’m doing.

The rules are very simple. If it came out of a packet and has been processed far beyond its natural state, don’t eat it. So that means trying to steer clear of:

Bread (especially white or over-processed types)

Pasta

Cakes/biscuits and anything sweet or dessert like

Most dairy (minus a bit of feta or greek yogurt here and there)

‘But what is there left?’ I hear you cry. Plenty is the easy answer. You can eat all vegetables (although try to stay away from canned veg and beans as they often have stabilisers and other chemicals in them), meat, fish, brown/basmati rice, sweet potatoes, fruit, dark chocolate (with 3 ingredients or less), nuts etc.

A typical day of clean eating:

Breakfast - green smoothie (½ banana, handful of berries, 10 pieces of cucumber, a big handful of spinach or kale, 1 stick of celery, juice of ½ lemon, 2 tsp flaxseed, 1 tsp chia seeds)

Morning snack - a few almonds or macadamia nuts

Lunch - baked chicken breast with spices, baked sweet potato, steamed green vegetables, raw spinach, tomatoes, cucumber, ½ avocado, drizzle of olive oil

Afternoon snack - 100g greek yogurt with a chopped apple or berries

Dinner - 2 egg omelette with mushrooms, pepper, spinach and a side salad (spinach, cucumber, spring onion, cucumber, pumpkin seeds, olive oil, lemon juice)

Evening snack - 1 square of 90% dark chocolate

When I’m focusing on eating ‘clean’ foods 80-90% of the time, I feel less bloated, my energy levels throughout the day stay much more constant rather than peaks and troughs and I feel stronger and more focused in the gym. It’s also really good for building lean muscle without increasing body fat whilst doing the right sorts of workouts.

I eat out at least once a week with friends and the key to sticking to your clean way of life is to pick things off the menu that are as unprocessed as possible, preferably without sauces which are often loaded with salt or sugar. If you do want to indulge yourself then go for it but try to limit it to once a week if possible.

Let me know how you get on!

Let’s get moving

January 14, 2024 / No Comments

It’s now halfway through January and I’m kicking ass so far. I’m committing to my diet, eating ‘clean’ (ie. unprocessed) food 90% of the time and working out HARD. I’m focusing more on strength training than cardio at the moment to try and build some muscles before I start upping the cardio again in a few weeks to bring down my body fat and increase the definition.

Can anyone say… fit bride?

Anyway, here’s 2 things that are inspiring me this week:

1) This Girl Can campaign

One of the things that really got into my head when I first started getting fit was not looking fit. I was overweight, overly sweaty and self-conscious of everything that was jiggling. I so desperately wanted to be one of those women who bounds through the park like a lithe deer, rather than the baby elephant that I was resembling.

However, once I got stuck into the process of getting fit and noticing the tiny steps that I was making it became about me and my progress, no one else’s.

This campaign from This Girl Can is designed to encourage more British women to get into sport and exercise, I hope it works and gives women that boost of confidence that so many of us need.

2) Taking small steps

If, like the women in the video above, you’re struggling to get moving then why not come along to a FREE taster day at Love Your Body Health Hub in Clapton, East London.

I’ll be there all day with Kate from Form Fitness and Carly from Project Hot Bitch doing free fitness assessments and helping you to set realistic and achievable goals (yes, having a bum like Beyonce is doable as long as you are committed and have rather a lot of time…).

There will also be free classes throughout the day and a photo competition with the chance to win fitness goodies including fruity protein drinks from the lovely people at Everything But The Cow and personal training sessions.

Get your beautiful selves down there, details below:

Where: Love Your Body Health Hub, 150-152 Cassland Road, London, E9 5DA

When: Saturday 7th February, 11am - 3pm

What: Free fitness assessments, free classes, competitions & goodies

How to book: Email [email protected] or call 0207 998 8181

2015 is going to be a awesome year

January 7, 2024 / No Comments

2015. How did that happen?! Last year was a year of big ups and downs for me, including a redundancy, 2 part-time jobs, a whole-lot of soul searching, a new career direction and a marriage proposal! I said yes, obviously….

So I’m starting 2015 with a big smile on my face and a lot of exciting goals:

1) Set up my PT business - watch this space for updates on names, logos and websites…

2) Gain experience as a PT and build a client base

3) Plan a wedding (any ideas would be gratefully received, I’m not really sure where to start!)

4) Get lean - I’ve started a clean bulk (increasing muscle mass) before embarking on a cut to drop some body fat, this bride is going to be FIT

5) Do an Olympic triathlon - I’ve already signed up for one in August. Gulp.

There’s some pretty big ones in there already so I’m going to leave it there and crack on. See you in the gym!