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What happened after I hit a plateau with my weight

Its been a while since I posted about my fitness routine. Here is what’s cooking/working out for me

If you had followed my previous posts, you would know that I have always been working out regularly at the gym. I have no issues hitting the gym 3-4 times a week. However, after my usual workout for almost 3 years now, I feel like is I hit a plateau. Nothing works anymore. No change in my body or scale. The only driving factor has been the feel-great-factor after my gym session. This kept me going no matter the number on the scale or my waist. To be honest, I do not want to be fixated with a body image. For my mental well being I just want to work out to get the sheer joy of finding myself, finding peace, getting into the meditative state, finding some ME time.

But at the same time, I also want to challenge myself and push myself to meet a commitment, a goal to keep the fitness momentum going. After working out for almost 4 years one key factor that contributed to my consistency is putting effort in being motivated. Motivation is not something that our mind does or picks up automatically. We need to work on motivating our mind so it triggers us to gather energy & reasoning for working out day-in & day-out

I have always dreamed flat abs. After motherhood no matter how much Im working out my abs are hard to be seen. So, to strike that off from my bucket list, I decided to work towards defined abs/strong core/flat abs. I put all the visual pictures in my office room to feed my mind. I did some google & book research on how to get defined abs. More or less, all the data seems to point in one key factor, which I conveniently ignored all the time before, which is my NUTRITION or the FOOD I TAKE.

I have been working consistently 4 times a week at the gym but I undermined the importance of food tracking. I knew I had to eat less than my total energy expenditure for a day to lose weight & get lean & build muscle. But I had this trial and error approach to estimating my food intake. I always planned/tracked my workout but never did I tracked my calories intake. I was eating protein in every meal but how much of protein, how much of cards & how much of fats- My macros are all messed up before.

I realized all along I was doing only 20% of what is needed to see the results. I did not hit a ‘Plateau’ as I thought. I only did my workout regularly – that is it. I thought I ate clean food. But when I started monitoring, the sneaky sweets/carbs that I ate, without much thought, thinking they will be matched up for the workout I did- were adding up at the end of the day/weekend and messing with my workout results. It was my food that is hindering my workout results.

Now after 4 months of working out, along with the nutrition plan, I have great results. Flat Abs are still far away but I know my path is right to get there. I have lean muscle

Nutrition plan that I follow: (This is after discussing with a coach & is here for reference & might not work for everyone)

  • Breakfast (350 Calories)
    • 2 eggs (boiled or omlette) with any bread slice w/butter
    • Coffee with milk&honey
  • Lunch (428 Calories)
    • Rice (150 gm cooked rice)
    • Chicken/Soya/Paneer/Fish/Lentils curry (120-150 gm) w/Veggies
  • Pre-Workout meal (200 Calories)
    • 1 Banana or any fruit or protein bar
  • Dinner (428 Calories)
    • Rice (150 gm cooked rice) or Rotis (w/50gm wheat flour)
    • Chicken/Soya/Paneer/Fish/Lentils curry (120-150 gm) w/Veggies

This is close to 1400 Calories. I also give space for 100-200 extra calories in a day to account for any cravings but being mindful. With my workout plan, I spend close to 1800 calories a day. So this plan (1600 in and 1800 out) gives that 200 calories deficit everyday. This deficit over a period of time with my workout is giving me the lean muscle gain & definition to my body.

To be honest, I did not 100% stick to this plan. I did eat 2000 calories on some weekends. Some days when I miss my breakfast, due to my busy work schedule, & I still follow the plan- it gave me more deficit. Overall, what this plan gave me is being MINDFUL of what I put in my body. This made me not to starve and also not to overeat just because of my mood/work/stress etc.

Now to the workout. I workout at a gym with this set plan 4-5 times a week

All of my workouts begin with treadmill run for first 15-20 mins (walk/stretch till warm up & then run) followed by 40 mins of weight training (3 sets of 12 reps)

2 exercises for each muscle group/3 sets of 12 reps each

Day1- Lats + Biceps + Abs

Day2- Quads+Calves+Abs

Day3- Just Cardio day (Run or Walk or Zumba)

Day4 – Chest + Shoulders + Triceps + Abs

Day5 – Hamstrings + Glutes + Abs

I also started being active throughout the day & not just sit all day & be active when at gym 🙂

Got fitbit & try to hit 10K spread across the day- like 5K before lunch & 5K from afternoon to evening. I do 10K for almost 4 times a week & around 7/8K for the rest of the days.

With all the planning and tracking and doing the grind everyday, sometimes I just stop the routine (like after doing it for 2 months straight), I do nothing but just walk everyday.

I do go off track but after a while will miss the feel-great-factor & how my body starts to ache & feel lethargic – then I go back to my routine & my fitness journey continues…

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Covid & Workouts – MOVE EVERYDAY, the new slogan

Its been a while since I posted anything online. Could not find time to jot my thoughts and post it online. Thanks to Covid, I can now spare sometime to really pen down my thoughts.

I was a regular F45’ian till few months back. The workouts and routine has set me up for good. Now I have the knowledge of posture, reps, building strength and endurance and their importance. So I quit F45 to save dollars and joined LAFitness. Quite a leap.

With LAFitness, I embrace the power and responsibility of managing my own workouts and tracking it, all without a team/group. I was always a HUGE fan of group workouts. But now I like the power of managing based on my family and my work schedule. With that said, I recently hired a Personal Trainer to give me core workouts (will talk about it in a minute!)

Past year has been a game changer for me with my workouts. I had a goal to add variety in my routine. So, I tried Spin class (which I LOVED sooo much that I ended up buying a Spin cycle at home!) , did weekend hot yoga at a studio nearby, started Running, learned Swimming and the biggest of all started playing with my kids- soccer, silly fun runs with them and what not. This has really set the stage for me to UP my game this year.

I have become lean and stronger in my arms & legs. No doubt ’bout it. But Flat abs/tighter Core is still a distant dream. So I decided – 2020 is the year for ABS. I hired a trainer (online for time being due to covid) to help me with the core workouts that I do once a week. Rest of the days, I start with Spin class (30 mins) as a warm up & to prep-up for running and then run around my neighborhood (2-3 miles), finish with 10 mins abs workout (never knew Amazon Prime had great workouts to follow) & cooldown stretches. My goal is to do workouts everyday. No break. Intensity might vary but will have to MOVE EVERYDAY. That’s my Slogan.

With that said, I also promise myself to keep updating my blog.

F45 Fitness, Uncategorized

F45 Challenge with Indian Meal Plan

So you know, I am doing a Fitness Challenge. Its F45 Challenge.  Its a tough 45-minute High-Interval-Intensity- Training (HIIT) with mix of  killer Cardio and Strength sessions. I started the F45 journey a year ago and never looked back. It is my Go-to place to rewind, look inward, do a little self-talk after work. 

The challenge comes with a 3-phase meal program that is designed to lose fat and build muscle. There is a meal ordering service associated to F45 near our region that takes the guessing out of the game and delivers food at our door step.

However, I chose to stick to my routine meal plans (Indian food) for this challenge.

I am tweaking my Indian meals a little to lay emphasis on adding Protein and limiting carbs. This means I will be eating more of lentils and Pulkas and omiting Rice all together. Yes ! NO RICE !

I can’t believe I am doing it.

The last time I did the F45 challenge, I only had rice during the weekends. I managed to stick to the plan most of the weekdays but could not resist my cravings on Friday’s and weekends. How much ever I tried I had a very hard time keeping up with energy during the weekdays with just rotis and couldn’t wait for the weekends.

So it would be a tough battle for me to omit rice all together till 15th Sep. In order to do that successfully, I am planning to eat more lentils. Lentils of all kinds in bigger portions. I will be eating dal as a main meal and have rotis as a side dish.

Let’s see how it goes !

The Challenge also requires to not having coffee for the first two weeks and just black coffee(no sugar, no cream) for the rest of the weeks. I do not want to handle too many food limitations at the same time. So I am keeping my regular coffee, 6 oz, with cream and sugar just once in the morning.

My Focus is doing 5 workouts a week, less carbs – a.k.a no rice and limited rotis, more protein. The Challenge is ON!

F45 Fitness

May, June, July Workouts & F45 Challenge !!

A quick update on where I am at with my workouts and activities. After working out for 14 days in April, I just did 3 workouts in May. Well, I knew May would be my slack time as I took 2 week vacation to India to attend my sister’s wedding. Just before taking OFF, I managed to do 3 workouts that week and that is all I am proud of in May.

Anyhow, coming back to June, I hit the gym really hard. I have been consistent with my weekly workouts and managed to do 15 workouts.

JULY sure started slow. I picked up lot of physical activities, like biking, starting Swim lessons. Especially my swim classes took lot of my focus away from F45, for a good reason :). I always wanted to learn swimming to overcome my fear of water. This July I took the plunge. After just 3 weeks into it, I am away confident in water and love to spend time in the water. Swimming is my new love. Will talk more about swimming in a new post.

July is also the time for F45 Challenge !!! I am all geared up this challenge. It started on 22nd July and will be on till 15th September.

I am going to meticulously track my workouts, my meals to really see the difference.

My goals for this challenge is to lower my body fat %, tone my waist and arms, UP my game and move further along my fitness journey of being strong, energetic and lean.

F45 Fitness

Catching UP

Last 2 months have been hectic with work that I did not spend enough time Blogging.

Here’s what’s happening

Do-20 Challenge is still a far reaching goal for me. I managed to do 11 workouts on Feb and just 7 during the whole of March. I think it was due to spring time, I was hit by terrible cold, backpain and overall weak that I did not have an ounce of energy to workout. I slowly regained myself with Yoga and walking in the park but that’s about it.

I am doing much better this month, recording 14 workouts to-date. Not only that I worked out consistently for at least 3 times a week this month. After a disastrous March, April schedule gives me hope that I am close to completing at least 2 ‘D0-20’ challenges this year.