You Can Do It Too!

A word from one of our Underground Fitness Boocamp champions…

Change Your Body

Paul commited himself to the Underground Fitness Club 6 months ago and has never looked back. His hard work and dedication has lost him almost 6 stone since joining.

“I dropped the weight so fast and built some good muscle, and its all been fun. I can feel my body much stronger and fitter. It’s amazing!”  –  Paul Ainscough

Anabolic Post Training Milkshake

*Protein powder required for use.

A great idea for a fun and nutritious snack is to have a beneficial post training shake. If you look at the post below (search: Anabolic window) you’ll know that your body has a desire for insulin after you train, which drops exponentially within the following 3 hours. The insulin which is a storage and building hormone delivers much needed nutrients to the trained muscles.

So the idea is to supply the nutrients to raise insulin (sugars – banana) and also supply the nutrients needed for muscle recovery (protein – protein powder).  This combination is a great “toner”, as it allows for muscle building while facilitating back to fat burning not too long after.

 

Post Training shake

– 100ml Full Fat Milk (contains CLA for fat burning)

– 1 Banana (high GI sugars for insulin increase)

– 1 1/2 scoops of protein powder (amino’s for muscle recovery – choc works best)

– 1 tbls peanut butter (healthy fats for joint recovery)

– A few ice cubes

– Additional water to desired consistency

 

Blend the mix adding water to your desired consistency. You’re left with a delicious shake you can have after every training session. Yum yum for a flat tum! This is actually good for you at this stage. Simply reduce the milk if you are lactose intolerent or susceptable to allergens.

Enjoy!

 

 

Your engine Needs Oil

I just wanted to write a few words on the Metabolic Diet we do here and hopefully help people get a good understanding of why we’re doing it. There is a general idea out there that to lose weight you need to perform a lot of exercise while at the same time eating much less food. That is in energy terms (calories), to greatly increase output while severely limiting input. This method is flawed and highly counterproductive.

The more stress you put on your muscles and central nervous system the more rest you will need, and the more nutrition your body will require to rebuild stronger. I recently heard a great analogy that doing it the other way (eating less while exercising a lot more) is like revving the engine of your car while the engine oil light is on. You’re running low on maintenance which come from good nutrient intake, so pushing your body to extremes in this period is just going to do damage. The damage is similar becuase we are feectively organic engines, and our over-heating is inflammation (which is stressful on the body). This stress releases cortisol which burns muscle tissue. It is for this reason we recommend no more than 3-4 classes per week, as the high intensity nature of the workouts, if done too much, is similar to over-revving.

Keep yourself adequately fed; just be sure to intake the most beneficial nutrients to your body. Keep your engine oil topped up with good protein and fibre, and be sure to stay satiated throughout the day.

Metabolic Diet – Lifestyle and time issues

 

I have to start by saying this eating pattern is all about self-preparation. You are going to find it harder to achieve your goals through this meal plan if you are unwilling to prepare things the night before, or allow yourself to be in too many situations where “I just had to eat what was there”. Unfortunately some of you will be in jobs etc. where you won’t know where you are from time to time, which makes it difficult. Those in regular jobs will just need to prepare foods and bring them in if there isn’t a suitable healthy option readily available.

Saving time

You can save time cooking around the house by preparing much larger quantities of your meals, with their left-overs ready to be heated and consumed at other times.  Another strategy would be to just eat the whole foods, for instance;

– Chicken pieces or smoked salmon (cold), an apple, a carrot, and a bag of mange tout.

Natural Yoghurt with a scoop of protein mixed in, a tub of cottage cheese, a steak on the George Foreman grill; these things should not be that difficult to prepare. If you’re  just peckish an apple or a handful of mixed nuts or seeds should suffice.

Meals On The Go

For most people this is a major issue because of just how hard it is to purchase food on the go.

When you are in a restaurant or shop all you can do is purchase the option most like that on the food list. You are opting for meats, but whole meats only. So, no pies or sausage’s etc., as the added ingredients to these meats are usually terrible for you. Every shop should have chicken pieces to buy, and bigger stores like Tesco express or Spars should have deli counters where you can buy salads or mixed veg.

If you’re stuck you can go for a sandwich. The wheat is usually what you are trying to avoid but it’s the best of a bad bunch. Ask for lots of meat and veg in it, and always try to get it on a wholegrain brown or rye/spelt if they have it.

You should keep a protein shake handy in case you can’t get your hands on any meats. Remember that its protein that’s keeps you feeling full and satisfied for longer.

Fruit is another food that shouldn’t ever be that far away. Always go for an apple, pear or a punnet of berries. If they don’t have them go for any other fruit available (try to avoid bananas).

Drink wise that’s an easy answer, go for water, or if you’re in a café they should have a green tea.

 

Preperation

Honestly the real answer to your problems is your possible unwillingness to prepare foods. You’ll be surprised how easy it, and how much time it saves you at your actual lunch time. Cooking some meat and veg, and throwing an apple and some nuts/seeds beside it is not hard work. Even easier is the idea of having left-overs. If it doesn’t sound appealing having food that’s cooked the day before, I’m sorry but I can’t help you. It is just something you’ll have to work on.

Conclusion

I have provided some answers to time saving and what options to go for in shops etc. If you feel you need more to get through this and feel this diet is not doable, I honestly believe the real issue is you need to rethink your commitment and willingness to achieve your goals. This is sacrifice for a much greater good. It’s not convenience food, eating healthily and for your body can seem inconvenient. Restaurants and shops don’t care if you’re healthy, fit and lean so they’ll sell what’s most profitable or will get you to repeat purchase. If you are looking for any eating plan that’s as easy as the unhealthy microwaved dinner meals of old, it doesn’t exist.

Put in the work needed, and it will become easier and most definitely pay off.