It's the truth, and I knew it was the truth, but I still struggle with this so much. I don't eat enough. Since my first post I wanted to give myself a couple of days to do a "reality check" to see really where I was at with my calorie intake. By doing this I could start this week off strong knowing where I needed to be with calories. Are you wondering how in the world I even figure this out? Well check this out! When I first starting trying to gain weight a couple of years ago I found a really good workout/nutrition program with a very specific sub program exactly for people trying to do what I'm attempting to do...gain muscle mass weight without becoming out of shape or just 'bulking' up. (Don't worry I did some research about the program because I'm pretty leery about stuff like that). Each week I have the ability to enter in specific body metrics and my exercise level and it spits out exactly what my target nutrition levels should be each day for the week (like calories, fat, carbs, protein). So when I tested out where I was at, the program told me my maintenance calorie number was 2700 and my calorie intake goal was 3400. So I spent a couple days seeing if I was hitting these numbers. The hardest part of figuring this all out is tracking everything you eat. Seems weird because you really aren't on a diet but you have to see where you are coming in at. Truth be told I was barely even hitting my maintenance calorie number. The other number I have to watch closely is the protein number because protein aids in building muscle and recovery, and of course I wasn't getting enough of that either. So it goes to show that gaining healthy weight isn't just about being in the gym all the time, the other half of it is your nutrition.
Speaking about being in the gym. The program also gives you a 12 week workout routine which is extremely intense. You need to be in the gym five times a week and workouts can last up to two hours. With the busy life I have now this is extremely difficult to do. I've been trying to figure out a way where I can still complete the workouts (at least partially) without having to go to the gym everyday or at least limiting my time in the gym. Well I came across a fascinating idea while reading a magazine. It's call sandbag workouts. It is just what it sounds like. You work out with a sandbag. Of course I needed to test this out because if all you do is workout with a sandbag this something I could easily do while Gerrit is napping. So I went and got one (it's a sandbag designed especially for workout training) and I have found that I am absolutely loving it. There are still things that I need to go to the gym for because I don't have the right equipment at home, but I can do a lot of the workout routine of my program right at home using the sandbag in a similar manner as a dumbbell! Watch for another post soon in which I'll specifically go into more details about sandbag workouts!
If you have been following my blog I'm sure you readers are wondering about how it's going with cutting the pop out of my life cold turkey. It has been extremely challenging. The first couple of days I was having some major headaches that would continue throughout the day. I'm still having some, but the thing that is really getting at me now is the craving for it. I'm craving just that soda pop fizzy carbonation taste in mouth and oh I want it so badly. I also didn't realize I was using pop as a reliever when I was stressed. But I'm committed to no more pop and know it is better in the long run. The headaches are dissipating and I know eventually the cravings will too.
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