NIKE & Leg Day!

EEEEEEEKKKKKKKK

I still can't believe my sister got me CUSTOM NIKE FREES for my birthday! They fit so snug, feel like CLOUDS on my feet, anddd the first time I tried them out was LEG DAY. Here's my workout that I did! Burned a prettyyyy good amount, and topped it off with a relaxing sauna stretch :]

• Warm up: jog laps 5-10 mins
• Squat Rack: wide 3x10, narrow 2x10
• Leg Press 4x8-10
• Smith Machine Backward Lunges 3x10 alternating
• Leg extensions 3x10
• Hip Abductors & Adductors 3x10
• Glute Kick back reps: 10,8,6,6
• Hamstring lying leg curls 3x10
• Deadlift 5x8    

#VMFITYEAR Food Plan

Again, repost of my earlier 16 week plan! That post messed up my blog layout! So here it is again!


To see my workout plan, click here

------------------------------------

--> FOOD/ MEAL PLAN:

PHASE 1 – BUILD – 2 weeks - around 1800-2000 calories a day

·      Carbs included in:

o   Breakfast

o   Post workout with shake

o   Post workout meal

PHASE 2 – BUILD – 3 weeks - same calories from phase 1

·      Carbs included in:

o   Post workout with shake

o   Post workout meal

PHASE 3 – BUILD & LEAN – 3 weeks - High: 1800-2000 calories, Medium: 1700, Low: 1500, No: 1400

·      Carb cycle: 1 high, 2 medium, 2 low, 2 no

SPRING BREAK – 1 week - WISDOM TEETH REMOVAL – LIQUID/SOFT CLEAN DIET

PHASE 4 – LEAN – 3 weeks - High: 1700-1800 calories, Low:1600-1700, No: 1400

·      Carb cycle: High, Low, No - repeat

PHASE 5 – LEAN – 4 weeks - Low-No: 1400-1500 calories, High: 1700

·      Carb cycle: 3 days low-no, 1 day high – repeat

4-5 meals a day – I like to eat a bit fuller meals, so I won't be eating every 2 hours. More like 2-4 hours. Instead of 6-7 meals with fewer cals, I'll be having 4-5 with a bit fuller calories. 

IF YOU CLICK THE IMAGE, IT WILL BECOME LARGER! 

• During the building stage I'll have proteins and carbs high, fats low.

• During the carb cycling stage, my low days will have higher fat for energy and low carbs, and the opposite on high carb days. Protein still high.
• I'll have a separate post when it gets closer to the lean out stage on how my meals will be different with the carb cycling implemented  

• I'll be having Breakfast, Lunch, Snack, Post W/O shake, Dinner [sometimes the snack may be in a different order]
• Lots of veggies in every meal
• Will be going STRICTLY GLUTEN FREE [due to thyroid]
• due to thyroid conditions, will NOT be eating any soy products or raw goitrogenic foods
• Carbs post workout & breakfast choices: GF oats, sweet potato, brown rice, GF pasta, brown rice cakes, fruit, etc [good complex carbs]
• Protein choices: eggs, chicken breast, turkey breast or ground turkey, sirloin, shrimp, salmon, tilapia, whey protein, etc.
• Fat sources: nut butters, avocado, egg yolk, nuts, flax oil, coconut oil 
• Snack can be whenever you're hungry, can be after lunch, before lunch, after dinner, whenever!
• I'll try and post all my food on Instagram for all of you to get some ideas from! :D  

 I am keeping my calories HIGH

I don't usually count calories and you alll know how much I advocate that! So I won't be using any kind of calorie counter, just "eyeballing" my portion sizes and guestimating.

Some reasons to keep your calories high during the first few weeks of your program:

• If you eat too few calories, your body will go into starvation mode, causing it to HOLD ON TO ANYTHING IT DOES GET as fat to protect itself! NO GOOD
• If I reach a plateau, I can either decrease my calories or increase my workouts. 
• Imagine if you're already on a dangerously low deficit of 1100-1200 calories. You decrease to 1000. Now you've reached another plateau. Do you think going down to 900 or 700 will be good for you? NO. So think about it in the long-term! 
• This will help your body continue to bust through plateaus while still having enough food to sustain yourself and be healthy
• It's going to be higher in the beginning because I want to BUILD muscle, therefor I can't have too big a deficit in calories! Then as the phases go on and I want to lean, the added cardio will make the deficit, NOT lessening food calories drastically to dangerous levels.
• It is better to have a deficit from WORKING OUT, rather than decreasing food intake! If you decrease the food intake drastically, this can 
• make you catabolic - or break down your hearearned muscle
• be harder to get to maintenance mode
• starvation mode
• stall your metabolism

----------------------------------------------------------------------

This is my big plan for 2013! 

What do you all think?? I'm hoping to see some MAJOR changes! And I'm very excited! I've been SLACKING off SOOOOO hard these past few weeks/months, and it definitely shows! And with my new SLOW metabolism from killing my thyroid, it's going to be ESPECIALLY hard trying to lose all the extra fat I've accumulated. But I'm keeping my head up, trying to be positive, and hopefully everything will take care of itself!

So are you going to join me to a fab fitter 2013 year? I hope so! 

Remember, these numbers are for ME and my current body weight and goals, switch yours around accordingly! And my schedule is based off MY needs, and are scheduled around my classes, when I work, and what foods work best for my body. Please make adjustments where needed!  

#VMFITYEAR 16 Week Workout Plan

Sorry guys! I had to repost this original post split in 2 parts - workouts and then food, because it was messing with my blogger layout!

To see my food plan, click here

---------------------------------------

So another year DOWN. Goodbye 2012,  

HELLOOO 2013! 

We're a pretty strong bunch #fitfam. We survived the dreaded Mayan end of the world!

So now what?

Well now it's time for a NEW YEAR.

Did you all slip this past holiday season? These past few weeks, months, or even year?

You know what's great about a New Year? Those little things called

New Years Resolutions!

Eh but who are we kidding? No one EVER sticks to those do they?

So now I am setting my 2013 PLAN, as in, I WILL achieve it! Not a resolution where I'll stick with it for maybe a few weeks, 2 months tops, and then quit.

No no my friends, this time I'm ACTUALLY sticking to these goals I'm setting!

YES. SELF-MOTIVATION! And not to mention motivation from my shmexy Fab 5 friends, and all of YOU, my wonderful followers!

I'm going to stick to my plan because I deserve to be the happiest I can during this New Year right?!

AND SO DO YOU! 

Also It's my birthday tomorrow, January 2nd! I think it'd be a nice birthday present to actually succeed at one of my long term goals!

Remember to use the hashtag on Instagram - #VMFITYEAR - I want to keep track of my progress this year, but alsooooo see all of YOUR journeys and progress! Lets kill this year fitfam! It'll have no idea what hit it!

I've made myself a

 16-week plan 

What?! That long of a plan for a girl who can never stick to something for more than 4 weeks?!

AHAH YES!

This 16 weeks will be my entire Spring Semester as a College Sophomore.

The time will pass anyway, 

so why not be productive and use that time to get in the best shape of my life?!  

BOOM.

Mind blown...

So here I've put my plan out there for all of you to see!

Feel free to use it as a base for ideas if you're stuck with what to do, but you should never copy them EXACTLY. Switch them around to fit YOUR specific needs and goals! I'm having these workouts and foods because of how my semester is planned out with classes, and because of how my body reacts to certain foods.

I'm doing these next 16 weeks in "phases" so that they don't draaaaag out.

I have a habit of getting bored easily, so doing them in phases will help to keep me still interested and motivated!

My plan is a mixture of short term goals [each phase] and one long term goal [16 weeks total!]

Haha I guess I can kinda say "16 weeks out" right?

Like those fitness competitors do for competitions! Makes me feel more "legit" teehehe.

[Switched shoulders & bis/tris day! Fits better with my schedule]

IF YOU CLICK THE IMAGE, IT WILL BECOME LARGER! 

MUSCLE and Bulking

 Importance of Building Muscle

So if you all read my 2013 plan, then you know that I'm doing a mini-ish 5 week bulk! 
I feel I've gained quite a bit of fat over the past few months from my not so strict diet :/ eek sorry! Now I'm determined to turn that fat into STRONG MUSCLE. 
Why do I want muscle? What are the benefits?

• better athletic performance: power, strength, energy, stamina
• can inhibit sarcopenia, the age related loss of muscle
• muscle burns more calories than fat - more muscle = more fat burn
• increases metabolism, even at rest! 
• when building muscle, it increases oxygen flow to the body - which means healthier heart and lungs!
• muscles protect the joints and bones
• better posture
• the same weight of muscle takes up less space than fat. even if the scale says you weigh the same, you'll look tighter, more firm, and toned    

 Having muscle is a prettyyyyy good thing to have don't you think?? Now  
how exactly am I changing my diets and workouts for this bulk?
 Specifically during these next few weeks I'll be:

• increasing CARBS!!! YESSSSS :D
• I'll be having them in my breakfast, immediate post workout with my protein shake, and then in my post workout meal for the first 2 weeks, and the 3 weeks after I'll cut it to just post workout shake and post workout meal. 
• GOOD carbs though! Complex carbs like oats, brown rice, sweet potato, brown rice cakes. Why?
• carbs will give me energy to build my muscles! The carbs will get stored in my muscles [glycogen] and that's where they'll be getting their energy! This means more intense workouts, heavier weights, more reps = building that muscle! If I don't get enough carbs, it may try to get energy by breaking down protein, which is NOT what I want! I want to keep my muscles, not break them down
• help muscle recovery! This is especiallyyy important to build up those muscles! Carbs get the protein we eat to go to our muscles! This is especially important POST workout because our muscles are primed to absorb what we eat! So we include carbs to shuttle the nutrients to our muscles to repair and build the muscle  

• doing only short low intensity cardio either in the morning or post workout. I don't want tooo much cardio at this time so that I can build my muscles! About 20 minutes or so of cardio!  
• speed walk, incline walk, light jog
• Check out that 2013 plan to see what my actual workout days will be looking like!
• increase of calories - your body won't grow if you're in a deficit of calories! So I'll be aiming to have around 1800-2000 or so calories a day, except for rest days where it'll probably be around 1400-1500
• PROTEIN PROTEIN PROTEIN! Protein's made up of amino acids, which are the building blocks of muscle! You should have AT LEAST 1 gram per pound of weight
• HEAVIER weights, shorter reps! I want to give my muscles that nice pump! I'll probably be doing 4 sets of 6-8 reps! So that means lets say I'll do 6-8 squats heavy, then a brief rest, and repeat that for 4 times total! I really want to build my GLUTES, so I'll be incorporating 2 leg days in my plan!

So that's my mini-bulk plan! Now obviously it's not going to build TOO much muscle, some people take MONTHS to build the amount they want, but I'm not competing, so I'm just doing this little mini 5 week plan to just build a little more, and then start shedding the fat off! Now if I do this wrong, have TOO many cals or TOO much carbs, I may put on fat! But that's ok for now, because my next phases will be dedicated to leaning out! I'll do another post during that time to give you an overview of how I plan on doing that!