Week 1- Exercising

Let the Games Begin!

This week we converted our garage to a gym so that we could workout in the comfort of our own home which in turn saves us a lot of time and money. The great thing is that you don't need much space. Last year I worked out every evening in my bedroom which was small! So no excuses!!

The three of us work out together each evening after work. It is so much easier to stay motivated when you have someone working out with you and you are less inclined to quit or stop half way through an exercise. We put together a 12-18 minute HIIT exercise for each day to target all the muscles in the body. The first week of exercise was a bit of a shock to the system and we were all feeling very stiff and sore. This soreness is called Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS). DOMS is caused by tiny microscopic tears that occur in the muscle as a result of HIIT exercise. After the workout, the muscle begins to rebuild itself (provided you eat enough protein). This is the rebuilding process which creates new muscle that is bigger and stronger than before.

The first week we started off with bodyweight exercises. Bodyweight exercises are strength training exercises that do not require free weights; your own weight provides the resistance for the movement. Bodyweight exercise are the ideal choice for those who have not access to weights. After a while weights can be incorporated to increase the difficulty of bodyweight exercises. It is important to learn how to do these exercises properly and to get the right technique in order to target all your muscles.

What do you need?

Interval Timer- An interval timer is essential when training. Using an interval timer during your workout enables you to remain more focused, keep your recovery periods brief and your high intensity periods even. I recommend a GymBoss. If you don't want to get one download an interval timer app on your phone.

Lets Get Started

You need to be at least working out for 12 minutes five times a week. Treat your two days off as active rest days, so this means do a mild form of exercise. I recommend you set your interval timer to 50/10 x 12 (50 seconds working out, 10 seconds rest for 12 rounds). You need to exercise to the max for these 50 seconds-give it your all.

Exercises

Below are bodyweight exercises that are essential to losing weight and getting fit. They target the whole body. Do the 12 through or pick 6 exercises and repeat twice or pick 4 exercises and repeat three times.

1) Burpees

Burpees are a total body exercise and are essential in all your workouts. They combine cardio and strength into one exercise. They will work your upper and lower body at the same time with a strong focus on the core. To make it harder-add a push up!

2) Squat

This movement works all of the muscles in the lower body including the hamstrings, quads and glutes. This also engages your core as you need a strong core to remain your balance. Do not let your knees out over your feet and keep your back straight.

3)Push Up

This is one of the best upper body exercises because it works everything from your chest to your back, your arms and even your abs. There are different varieties of push ups but start with this version. I have included the beginner version where you start on your knees. When I first started doing push ups I couldn't hold my body up and thought I would never be able to do a proper push up. I kept at it and now I can do difficult versions of the push up. If you find the knee versions too easy but the full push up do hard try do as many reps of the full push up as possible and build your strength up. Its the best exercise if you want those really toned shoulders and arms.

4)Switch Lunge

This is a challenging way to tone and strengthen your entire lower body. It also works your core.Start in a lunge position and jump up and into a lunge with the other leg and repeat.  An alternative for this if it is too difficult is to just step lunge forward with the right leg and back up straight then step forward with the left leg.

5)Plank

The plank exercise is a great exercise to define your core. Make it harder and start on your elbows go up to your hands then back to your elbows. Keep doing these movements for the full 50 seconds, you will feel it in the core. If this is too difficult stay in the plank position on your elbows. Keep your core tight and your body in a straight line.

6) Tricep Dips

This exercise targets the muscles on the back of your upper arms. This exercise is essential if you want those really defined arms. Make sure your hips are as close to the bench as possible and your feet straight underneath your knees. To make it harder move your legs further in front of you.

7) Jumping Jack

A jumping jack is a simple and effective cardio exercise and works your whole body.

8)Mountain Climbers

I think this is the best core exercise. This exercise combines a plank, it engages and works your core as your knee drives to your chest. This exercise raises your heart rate, which is the perfect way to flatten your abs and burn calories. Ensure that your technique is correct and your body is in correct alignment. Make it harder and throw in some wide mountain climbers-bring your feet to outside of your elbow.

9) Side Plank

This is a great exercise for your obliques. To make it more difficult balance on your hand rather than your elbow.

10) Frog Jumps

This is a great cardio exercise  and works the lower body. Start in a squat and swing your arms back and push off of your heels and jump forward.

11)Bicycles

This really engages the core and your abs will be on fire.

12) High Knees

This is a great cardio exercise and it also works your abs. So make sure your raise your legs really high to engage your core.

* Don't stop for the 50 seconds if you find an exercise difficult switch to an easier exercise, just once you keep your heart rate up for 50 seconds. Your heart rate needs to be at a high level to gain the benefits.

Week 1 - Diet

Boys Vs Girls

So I convinced both my housemates Fergus and Taylor to commit to 6 weeks of clean eating and HIIT exercise to show how effective it is on both the female and male body. Our exercise regime has been pretty slack or non existent over the last two months and our diet left a lot to be desired, so we decided to give it our all for six weeks and see what we achieve.

Eating healthy involves alot of planning and preparation so you have been warned. The fact that the three of us are doing this challenge together makes it a lot easier than if you were doing this on your own. It means you have less meals to prepare and you get to all experiment with different meals. So try encourage a housemate or a friend to join you so that you can motivate each other when the going gets tough.

What we ate this week?


So this week we tried to lower our carb intake and increase our protein. We tried to have protein with every meal. Fergus and Taylor both have big appetites and were a bit apprehensive about the thoughts of eating such little carbs and such small meals but they were surprised about how easy it is once you plan and have snacks prepared for throughout the day.

The first week will you find that you are tired and weak especially at 11am and 3pm and are a bit sluggish after your lunch. This is your body trying to force you to eat sugary foods as the body doesn't like to use stored fat. This is a last resort. Don't give in and train your body to take that fat for energy. After a few days your body will have no choice but to use the fat stored in your body for energy. When the body eventually starts using fat stores for energy you will find you have more energy than ever as there is more kcals of energy in fat.

So don't make excuses like I feel weak, I need sugar or I need chocolate for energy. If this is your attitude you will never see progress even if you are exercising properly. To combat these hunger pangs prepare snacks throughout the day so you never get hungry enough to be tempted by sugary carbs.

Here is all our diet plans this week combined so that you can get an overview. Do your research and experiment and you can find some really tasty meals.

Breakfast:
Scrambled egg (1 yolk, 2 whites) with avocado or porridge (made with water) and rice syrup

Snack 1:
Celery with peanut butter and green tea or carrots with cottage cheese dip or nuts or seeds

Lunch:
Tuna salad with cottage cheese and green tea or salmon fillet, broccoli, and brown rice or chicken salad or Turkey breast salad

* use apple cider vinegar as salad dressing with some chilli flakes

Snack 2:
Wholemeal cracker and peanut butter or patacchio nuts

Post work out:
Protein shake

Dinner: 
Chicken Korea
Chilli Con Carne
Crustless Quiche
Sweet Potato Shepherds Pie
Prawn Stirfry
[Make big portions so you can bring some for lunch the next day]


*all sauces made from scratch using spices
*add green vegetables to each dish or green leafy salad
*keep carbs to a minimum

Dessert:
Greek yoghurt with fruit
Sugar free jelly

Green Tea [try drink green tea with every meal]

****Protein******
Protein is important in your diet when you are exercising in order to repair and maintain your muscle. Remember muscle burns calories throughout the day. The body breaks down muscle first because its much easier to break down muscle. Protein makes repairs and builds your muscle so that it is harder for the body to use as energy so it reverts to your fat stores.

Shopping List
Try use these healthy protein and carb ingredients to plan your meals for the week

• Eggs
• Chicken Breast
• Turkey Breast
• Salmon
• Tuna
• Pork
• Kidney Beans
• Peanut butter
• Greek yoghurt
• Avocado
• Brocolli and any green veg
• Pistachios/Almonds/Walnuts
• Cottage Cheese
• Sweet Potato

 

Style Diary

 

 

 

Black pepulum top: Primark

Jeans: Topshop

Boots: Primark

Navy blazer: Bershka
Shirt: New Look
Jeans: ASOS
Boots: River Island

Jumper: New Look
Jeans: Topshop
Boots: Primark
Bag: Longchamps Pilage Bag

Style Diary

 

 

Playsuit: ASOS
Chain: ASOS Marketplace
Shoes: Aldo

Good Health is a Marathon, Not a Sprint!

As I said before, getting fit and healthy is 90% diet and 10% exercise. So I can’t stress enough how important it is to eat clean. There is so much conflicting information out there at the moment it can be so confusing and difficult to know what the right foods to eat are. Last year I came across Wendy Chant who is a nutrition and exercise expert.  She brings science to a very common language, so it’s easier to understand why to do things; they make sense. I have summarised her findings as I believe it’s important to learn how the body works in order to gain optimum health.

ULTIMATE SURVIVOR

Fat loss is not only losing fat for the right reasons but losing fat efficiently. Anyone can lose fat. Starve yourself, eat only protein, work out six hours a day-all of these ill advised attempts will have the same result: less fat. But will it stay off? NO, because  no matter what you do to your body, the ultimate survival machine, it will adapt and find a way to put fat back on as it continually evaluates and responds to your fad diet of the month.

When you diet your body’s balance is off. The body sees imbalance as a threat to survival. The body immediately seeks balance and in doing so, adapts to even out your intake and expenditure. The adaptive response is better known as the dieters “plateau” where the scale doesn't move even after continued attempts to lose weight. Now you see why plateaus are common. It’s simply not in your body’s best interests to lose weight.

One thing you must understand is that your body is a survivor. The body disregards our own wants and needs for the betterment of our survival. This is why diets don’t work. 

FUEL FOR THE BODY

PROTEIN

Protein is essential for maintenance, repair, and growth of all body tissue. Protein also supports lean mass in the body, such as muscle ,bone and structure. If we compare the body to a car, protein is like fuel for that car.

FACT #1: Protein is Responsible for Muscle Maintenance, Repair and Growth

The body uses the protein in the body in the above order.

FACT #2: Protein Burns More Calories

You can count on burning up to five times as many calories when you eat protein as when you eat fats or carbohydrates

FACT #3: An Active Person’s Body Needs 1 Gram of Protein for Every Pound of Lean Body Weight

It’s important to consume just enough protein, and not too little or too much. Too much protein is counterproductive; the body can’t use it all at once, so the rest goes to the kidneys for processing, and the spill over gets broken down into fat.

FACT #4: Protein helps you maintain a positive nitrogen balance around the clock

Nitrogen balance is so important. Nitrogen is a by-product of proteins break down in the body. Nitrogen is literally the thing that makes your muscles hard and firm. When the nitrogen level in your muscle has a positive balance, your muscles are firm, harder and healthier. When muscle has a negative balance, because of poor protein intake, your muscle is unhealthy and “squishy”. When your muscle is unhealthy, your body is more likely to use it for energy, which is the last thing you want. So when the muscle is healthy, the body won’t turn to muscle for energy, because it’s harder to burn. It will turn to fat instead, because, as always, the body follows the path of least resistance. Don’t make it easier for your body to rob muscle for energy.

FACT #5: You need quality proteins at each meal

Unlike carbohydrates, which are quickly utilised and almost immediately processed for energy, protein doesn’t last throughout the day. As a result, you have to keep taking in quality proteins throughout the day. Otherwise, your body will want to shed poor muscle tissue instead of fat. Eggs are the number one protein source. When you eat eggs, 100 percent can be used by the body towards a positive nitrogen balance for maintenance, repair and growth of the muscle.

FACT #6: Eating Protein Helps you Burn Fat

Protein promotes a glucagon response in your body. Glucagon is the fat burning hormone; it aids us in releasing and unlocking fat by making it usable for the body. As you take in protein, you’re increasing glucagon.

FATS

Inside your body, fats are the oils that lubricates the many systems needed to get through your day. Fats have gotten a bad rap lately. The truth is that we need fat in our diets. Like oil in your car, fat doesn’t get used quite as often as protein. This is a great way to think of fat in the diet. We need it, just not so much of it. The more natural a fat is, the more healthful and less harmful is it for you. The most healthful fats are polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats. These are mostly found in natural foods. In avoiding fat, be careful that you don’t eliminate fat, even saturated fat. Something that has saturated fat doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily bad. When it comes to fat, it all comes down to quality. You need fat because it protects your immune system and lubricates the body parts. It also aids in the digestion of foods and keeps your immune system fit and ready to do battle against sickness and disease.

CARBOYDRATES

Carbohydrates have also gotten a bad rap these days. Despite the prevalence of “low-carbohydrates” diets- and the way they are perceived as successful by many short term dieters-carbohydrates are actually vital to the human body. The primary function of carbohydrates is for energy usage and storage. Carbohydrates can also be used as a coolant for the human machine.

HOW YOUR BODY USES AND STORES ENERGY AND EXCESS FAT FROM CARBOYDRATES

Stage 1: Immediate Energy Needs

When the body needs energy, it doesn’t want to mess around with auditioning new sources of energy. The body’s go to source for energy is carbohydrates. That’s because there is no waiting around. Carbohydrates are immediately available for energy. Digestions begin in the mouth and carbohydrates are quickly made available for energy needs or stored for later use.

Stage 2: Storage in the Muscle and Liver

While the digestion of carbohydrates starts immediately in the mouth the rest continues in the small intestine. The energy that isn’t used immediately by the body goes to storage. Your body stored carbohydrates as glycogen in the muscle and liver as a source of energy for movement and daily function.

Stage 3: Storing Fat/Spill Over

When energy intake is continually abundant with little or no expenditure of that energy, muscle and liver stores overfill and your body stores excess and unwanted energy as fat.

It is important that we understand these three processes in order to understand how the body works and how you can manipulate the way the body works so that it can start burning fats instead of carbohydrates.

SO WHAT IS THE KEY TO FAT LOSS?

Key 1: Protect and Support Muscle

Our bodies don’t like muscle. For every pound of muscle on your body, you burn twenty to thirty calories in the course of a day without activity. For every pound of fat, you burn just four or five calories. In other words, with more muscle, you burn more calories. So since you burn more calories with more muscle, when there is an energy deficit, your body would rather shed muscle as its first source of energy. But it can’t if the muscle is protected. The only way to get your body to burn fat instead of muscle is to make it easier for the body to do so. The easier we can make it for the body to go grab fat, the more likely it is to do so.

To do this we need to protect and support our muscles by exercising with resistance training and by eating the proper foods for muscle maintenance, repair and growth.

Key 2: Level Blood Sugar

Increased levels of blood sugar promote fat storage. Balanced sugar levels make the body capable of using stored fatty acids as a source of energy. Foods either absorb quickly, at a relatively high rate, or slowly, at a low rate. The more quickly a food gets absorbed, the more likely it is to be stored as fat. That’s because these readily available sugars send a signal to your body to release insulin. In turn, insulin sends a message to your fat cells: “Hey there is too much sugar clogging up the bloodstream. Your fat cells start absorbing all the excess sugar to get it out of your bloodstream.

Key 3: Create an Energy Deficit

You can’t lose weight without a reason for your body to go get that excess fat you have stored.

Think of it this way: Your body likes to have energy in the “bank”. Its an energy hoarder, it doesn’t like to “spend” energy. The safest way for the body to store energy is in the fat cells, so if we don’t create an energy deficit, there will always be plenty of fat for the body to store up  and save for later. We have to create an energy deficit so that the body dips into its savings account and spends some of that fat.

Calorie Reduction

By reducing the amount of calories you eat, you can provide less energy for the body to store. When we create an energy deficit, the body must look to fat sooner for an energy source. We can’t be in a constant calorie deficit as the body will adapt to it. By alternating not only the amount of food you eat but also the types of macronutrients you make sure that the body never gets a chance to adapt.

Exercise

It is important to alternate calorie reduction with exercise. Exercise also uses energy, so we can create a second type of energy deficit. Think of the  energy (glycogen) we store in our muscles as the body’s current account and fat as a savings account. The more we reduce calories and exercise the less energy left in the body’s current account that it has to take from the savings account.

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Next week my two housemates and I are going to start a 6 week challenge of clean eating and exercise and see what results we get. I will post our progress along with our exercise regimes and food log. I want to show you that this works for both men and women!
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e eTH

Longchamps Pilage Bag

One of the great advantages of living in London is getting inspiration from people’s style. My style has definitely changed since I moved here and daily I get inspiration from all the people I see everyday on my journey to and from work. 

Recently, I have noticed that nearly EVERY woman, young and old on my tube journey has this bag that I never heard about. I soon did my research and found out that it is the Longchamps Pilage bag. It is a very popular bag, and comes in various sizes and styles.It has been worn by royalty such as Kate Middleton and celebrities like Katie Holmes and Rachel McAdams to name a few.

This bag is practical and stylish. Its folds up to a wallet size so I find it very handy to put it in my hand luggage when I am flying home to Ireland. Another reason I like this bag is that it has so much room. Its ideal for work, loads of room for heels, make up and all your essentials. It definitely comes in handy on Friday after work, you can throw in a change of clothes, heels, make up etc.  It is also a great bag to throw in your gym gear if your going before or after work and also a great weekender bag for trips away. It's really functional and stylish AND its waterproof, a must if your living in Ireland and the UK.

I was a little shocked with the price of the bag-£72 (Selfridges/Harrods) for the large shopper bag. So as I do, I researched options to get the bag for a better price and looked at maybe buying a duplicate. So I looked on iOffer and discovered that they sell replicas. These are obviously not as good quality and for that reason are a lot cheaper. The advantage is that you can buy various colours for little or nothing.

For those of you who don’t know what iOffer is- it is an online trading website where different wholesalers offer replicates of items from shoes, to bags, to dresses etc. You put a bid on an item and can bargain with the seller. The products take up to 14 days or more to deliver. On this website you can get two of the bags for £20 or less. I know they might not be great quality but if it rips you could always get a new one for a £10!!!

I was lucky to get it from my family for Christmas. I got the black colour as I wear a lot of black in winter, I also like the burgundy as that is a big colour this winter. Navy is probably the most popular and be perfect for the Spring/Summer. But I know I will want more colours and I will be getting my replicas from here.