How to create your work-out plan

Beginnings are always difficult but they are almost unbearable if you don't know how to start and how to plan. When it comes to fitness, there is so much confusing information out there that you will get a headache before you know what goes with what; hence, one more introductory note before we actually go to kick-ass work-outs.

I remember myself at the beginning when I didn't know which part of body to exercise, how often, with how many repetitions etc. I only cared (I still do) about my abs, but they haven't cared about me too much as I am still working on those slowly emerging bastards. I did a lot of abs exercises (which, weren't the most efficient, anyway), a bit of arms and then exercises on a cross trainer for 10-15 minutes at a steady pace. Shame, shame, shame. And it was a bit disturbing, I must admit. It was overwhelming, as well, because not knowing what to do I wanted to do everything not to miss anything and eventually did nothing (omg! I just love this sentence!).

Somewhere after half a year (shame, shame, shame) I started having a clear idea of what, how and how often to exercise and have been improving (or so I want to believe) ever since. It took me another 3-4 months to understand I cannot neglect my legs (they are seriously one of the most important muscles you need to exercise). It took me a year to include cardio in my work-out. You live and learn... So finally, I do things consciously and it feels pretty damn good.

So here, without the further ado, I am going to present to you a very neatly organised work-out plan (not by me, Heavens forbid!) that you can follow with all your heart. You will get all the satisfaction from doing your exercises the way they should be done. And believe me or not, it does feel jolly good and it adds to your motivation. The plan is organised by Tatiana whose blog I came across quite by accident (http://www.lovingfit.com). By the way, check the blog 'cause it is awesome! :)

That is the work-out plan:
http://www.lovingfit.com/fitness/creating-your-workout-plan/

I personally follow... none of them (idiot!), but I base my plan on the whole idea and I find it really useful. I like separating my cardio from my strength training and doing abs exercises more often. But enough about me! You have a perfect start here, so you should be running out of excuses not to exercise! Are you? :)

Till next time!

Natalia

Nutrition is the key!

I am sorry to say so, but you will not be able to go far with exercises alone. If you believe that a strength training session will allow you to stuff your face with processed burgers... I am going to blow that bubble right here, right now.

The exercises you do (and remember, your sweat session needs to be a sweat session, not taking selfies in the gym mirror) is 20% of your success. It is the food that makes the difference! Ok, ok, I get that, but what to eat? Keep on reading.

I could write about food & nutrition for hours (somebody, stop me!), so instead I will just tell you what not to eat and give some basic guidelines. Wow, still difficult, where do I start?

1. EAT CLEAN FOOD: stay away from anything that is processed. How do you know what is processed and what is not? Anything that comes from nature is good for you and anything that doesn't come form nature, but is rather produced by humans is bad, bad, bad! I will repeat after Zoe Harcombe... Oranges come from a tree (good stuff), orange juice - NOT!
Why is it so important to eat clean food?

A bit of science (mind you, this is a simplified sketch):
If you eat a potato your body knows that you ate a potato. Potato is carbohydrate. Carbohydrates are eventually converted and absorbed into the blood in the form of glucose. Now, once the blood glucose level rises, the pancreas releases insulin to return the glucose level in the blood to normal levels. Some of the glucose will be converted into glycogen (stored in muscles or liver). Once the glycogen storage is full (if you do not use it up for energy), insulin will convert it into fatty tissues (fat we so much hate and want to get rid of). This is why insulin is so important in losing/gaining fat! You want to eat food that doesn't cause the release of insulin.

Action of insulin

So, going back to our potato -> once you eat a potato your blood glucose level rises and the pancreas releases as much insulin as needed (not too much, not too little) to bring the blood glucose level back to normal after.
However, if you eat mashed potatoes or any other processed food your body sees it as an alien food, so the pancreas will not release the "right" amount of insulin, but will release 20 times as much. Now, that's where the horror starts. So much insulin will surely get bored and will start converting glycogen into fat. Another thing is, that after eating processed food, your blood glucose level goes up up up very fast, and then (due to the insulin release) goes down immediately, below the normal level, so you will need to eat something sweet again to rise the blood glucose level (low blood glucose level is dangerous, but I will not write about that now) and this is how the vicious circle starts. You will keep on eating carbs to bring the blood glucose level up, it will drop after the insulin release and again and again and again.

Just think about how hard it is to stop eating candies once you start. You eat one after another.

Ok, for all of you who don't make much of my science talk above, just remember to eat clean food.

2. REDUCE CARBOHYDRATES TO MINIMUM: The reason is the same. Insulin is released to the blood ONLY when you it carbs, and storing fat is only possible in the presence of insulin.
Don't get me wrong, I am not telling you to ditch brown rice, fruit (fresh, not juice and not dried!) etc.. You can eat that every now and then, especially after a long cardio session when you feel exhausted (you may even feel sleepy!), but do not eat too much of carbs and NEVER combine them with fat (e.g. pasta with bacon is a big NO!). Why? Because your body will use carbs (pasta) as an immediate energy source and will store fat (bacon) for later. Storing fat is only possible in the presence of insulin (and of course your body release insulin cause you ate carbs). So, if you make a risotto, make it vegetarian, if you eat wholemeal(!) pasta - add peas and onion, drop the bacon!

The beautiful thing is that if you reduce carbohydrate intake to minimum or even stop eating carbs all together, your pancreas will start releasing glucagon (have a look at the image above), which will cause liver to break down the stored glycogen (your soon-to-be fat) into glucose and release it into the blood to release the blood level. This way you get rid of glycogen (stored fat) and start losing fat (again, please remember, I simplified the process just to give you an idea).

3. STOP COUNTING CALORIES: calories do not make you fat. This is such a long story. The theory of calorie counting has no base whatsoever (another long story) and it doesn't work! I am a real example of that.
If calorie counting worked, all those ladies who eat weight watchers crisps would be slim, instead they are obese and sick. Of course, when - from one day to another - you decide to eat as few as 1000 calories a day, you will lose weight, but you will lose lean muscle(!) not fat. Your body will go into a starvation mode and will slow down the metabolism to minimum, so in a month you will start gaining weight eating still just 1000 calories. Now you need to go down to 800 calories a day > in a month your body will get used to that > you need to drop down to 600 and so on and so forth.

Calories from protein and fat are the fuel that your body needs, they are called the Basic Metabolic Rate calories. You need them to repair your cells, pump the blood, manage the waste, stay alive! Calories from carbs are purely for the energy (so if you are not going to run a marathon, you do not need them!). Anyway, you can get energy from protein and fat (fat is the most concentrated source of energy, by the way). So carbs are, simply speaking, useless! They do not help you with your BMR, they have no vitamins or minerals that you couldn't find in protein or fat, and they can only be used for energy, but then again, you can use fat and protein for energy instead.

If you start counting calories, you will start eating all the bad food, processed fat-reduced chips, crisps, reduced calorie drinks, reduced-calorie snacks etc. You will end up eating 3 apples a day, 4 cups of coffee and reduced-calories chocolate bars. You will eat fewer than 1000 calories per day for sure, but you will feed your body with glucose all the day long (remember what I said about insulin and gaining fat?) and you will never get any BMR calories that your body needs. You ill feel sick, without energy, lack of concentration and woman will lose their period, which of course is a sign something is wrong (I can confirm, been there, done that). It is not worth it cause you neither lose weight any longer (even start gaining) and your life gets miserable.

So, to cut a long story short:

The recommended ratio of carbs, fat and protein is 10/30/60, respectively!

A good guide to get your 10 carbs, 30 fat and 60 protein :)

In the Internet you will find a lot of info on the so called eat well plate (are you kidding me?), which recommends making carbs and starchy food 50% or even 60% of your daily calories intake. It is not a joke, unfortunately. If you believe in it, have a look at the UK population that blindly follows that plan, where over half of men and women are overweight, and by 2030 the numbers will increase (Have a look at this article from the Guardian). Now, think twice and reduce your carbs and definitely get read of that bag of crisps you are hiding in the drawer by the desk.


P.S. The above guideline is really basic, and there is so much more to cover. Yet, I hope I gave you some idea of how a human body works and processes food and how to eat to stay healthy and fit, to get results and do not exercises in vain. If, however, you are interest and would like to know more, I strongly advise checking what Zoe Harcombe has to say: http://www.zoeharcombe.com

From where do I take the motivation?

I thought that the best way to start is to start from the beginning ;)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that motivation is where it all starts. A very shy: 'maybe today I will hit the gym' is half the success. Even if it is only about this one time, it is still the motivation that makes you put on the sweats and go to the gym.
The success is when you make "hitting the gym" a regular thing and the real magic happens when you make a work-out your addiction. I will try to tell you how to do it. Or... if I just tell you that you are a lazy ass will that work? ;)

Where did I get my (initial) motivation from? I really do not know!
All of you who know me from high school, remember that I was always the last to get my butt moving. Always with a doctor's note stating that I couldn't exercise (a bunch of boohaki of course, greetings to my GP who used to give me a note for a smile), waiting on the bench till the rest finished squats, basketball match, splits or whatever else they were doing. I hated any kind of physical exercising. Oh, no, there was a period when my friends :* and myself used to rollerblade HEAVILY to "Ghetto Gospel" by 2PAC!

What happened to a girl who would cry if you asked her to lift a dumbbell? Here's a short story.

When my Kevinuzzo and I moved to a new place, we had a well-equipped (for a girl who had never seen a cross trainer in her life before) gym downstairs. Kevin said: 'you will have to go with me to the gym.' I said : 'sure' and deep inside I was desperate, crying, thinking how to get out of this, would a doctor's note help this time? No, there was no salvation for me. I put on my old sweat pants and we hit the gym. I didn't know what to do, how to exercise, how to set up the machine, but I survived and I felt like I was the boss: 'Yeah! I did it, now leave me alone'. He didn't...

We went to the gym a couple of times more, Kevin dropped out and I stayed. Why? Because I started seeing the results! I saw my abs slowly emerging, I was stronger, reaching higher goals, and, overall, I felt a lot better. At that point, I started researching, looking for more exercises, subscribed to youtube channels where I could find routines and valuable tips, etc. I still wasn't sure if I was doing the right exercises (the right for what I wanted to achieve), but I kept on going.

Month after month, more knowledge, more exercises, more equipment, more motivation... until I got to the point where I am now. A day without sore muscles is a lost day and a day when I should work out (you need to have a day or two of rest, but we will deal with it later on) is a day I MUST work out, no excuses. Make me miss my work-out and I will cry and punch you!

So here we go, I strongly believe that you take your motivation form the results! Imagine doing a strength training and getting no muscles, or doing cardio and losing not a single cm of fat! It wouldn't be worth it. However, once you start seeing that you feel better, your clothes fit you better, you feel more energised, you name it... you will stick to your fitness plan and eventually you will make it a habit, and then an addiction. Hey, but you need to give it some time! That takes me to another point.

What about the initial motivation, the one you need for the first month (or even less! I am not kidding, you can totally see amazing changes within a month)? Well, this is a tricky one. You need to want the change to stick to your work-outs. If you don't care about changing your body, or if you admire your love handles, do not care about your health then there is every likelihood you will not succeed. You will not see the point of trying and struggling (it is a struggle! In my next posts I will share with you work-outs that will make you feel like you are dying). If you are happy with your knowledge of Spanish, you can only say: 'Hola! Como estas?' and you claim you are proficient you will never start learning. If you can make only dried-out scrambled eggs and you call yourself a chef, you will never start learning how to cook. Pretty simple. If you do not want to change your body, you never will...

So you need to want the change and the best shocking therapy is when someone else points that out: 'Have you put on weight recently?', 'With this much fat you will surely survive winter!' (I am awful, I know). Of course, I do not want you to hear any of these and I hope you will realise it yourself (just as I miraculously did) that staying active can change your life. I am not only talking about the health benefits, but also about the looks. Bikini will be your best friend ;)

And there are no excuses. You have no time? You have an engaging job? You have no money to subscribe to the gym? It is cold outside? No no no no no!
I have an extremely engaging job (not too much time), I am studying (even less time), I am taking online course as a part of my CPD (super no time for anything), I am running from one meeting to another (time in debt), I am no millionaire, and I live in London where it rains 27 hours per day and summer doesn't visit. So I will not believe you saying that you cannot spare 1 hour (or less) of your day. You can exercise at home, you just need a mat, a pair of dumbbells, maybe a resistance band, a jump rope and your own body weight - the total cost of around £50 for a good start (indeed, that's a fortune).

Motivation is a b..... She makes you do stuff. This is why it is better to befriend her ;)