Happy Weekend!
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BY BUNMI AHMED
I started my journey 27/06/2012 when I looked at my stomach
one morning and felt real shame. This also steamed from the fact that a few
days before I had been to see my doctor with regards to my high blood pressure
which had been managed by medication for about 4 years. On that day I decided
enough was enough and I went online looking for solutions. I wanted to take
back my health!
There was no quick fix, I had to change my attitude towards
food and exercise and I did this by carrying out a lot of research on Google
and YouTube! By understanding the amount of calories my body needed to consume
to function properly and lose weight at the same time I was able to discover
the types of foods to eat and those to stay away from! I began to eat to fuel
my body and not just because food was available.
DECIDE AND COMMIT
I had decided I wanted to get healthy and look better so I
looked for a workout routine that would suit me. I came across Shaun T's
'Insanity'. It seemed tough but I was
convinced and purchased it straight away. It came with a diet plan which I
followed for about 2 weeks. The weight wasn't falling off as I hoped so I
decided to continue research about nutrition. You will note I did not give up,
I had decided and committed to something and I was going to see it through! You
will already note, it wasn't so much the workout that helps in shedding weight
it is more about nutrition as you will see if you continue to read.
I was convinced that I could achieve great results without
having to prepare 6 small meals a day as it was actually making me feel more
hungry than satisfied! Then I discovered Intermittent Fasting ( IF) WHAT
fasting your asking? YES unfortunately I can't credit the first person whom I
had discovered this lifestyle from as I can not remember his username on
YouTube. However if you have heard of the Hodge Twins you will know that they
used to preach 6 meals a day until they themselves discovered IF and they now
swear by it. Check their channel out ( fasting twins).
What is IF?
I will only give a quick definition but you can click on this LINK to my blog for more info:
It is a lifestyle NOT a diet, that is one thing you need to
understand first. I follow the lean gains form of intermittent fasting which is
where I fast for a number of hours during the day and have a specific eating
window with which I eat all my daily calories. I started with 20 hours fasted
and a 4 hour eating window. Now I fast between 18/19 hours a day with a 5/6
hour eating window. During your fasted state you are only allowed to drink
water.
The idea behind this is that your body spends more time
burning fat than constantly digesting food therefore aiding weight loss. A lot
of you are saying what about breakfast?! PLEASE read the link above so you can
understand more! Brad Pilon who is the creator of Eat Stop EAT another form of
intermittent fasting did a lot of research and concludes that it is not
compulsory to eat breakfast first thing in the morning and it is a 'gimmick'
which the food industry has got us all to buy into over the past few years,
after all they can't sell fasting to us can they? Breakfast means breaking a
fast whether in the morning afternoon or evening. Do read that post as I
explain about some of the studies that has been carried out on this subject
matter. Personally IF has worked wonders for me I credit it for a lot of the
results I have achieved. IF is not for everyone but it is worth a try!
What do I eat during my feeding window?
Over the past year I have experimented a lot, I even went 30
days eating as a Vegan! It was great, I lost weight and I had great bursts of
energy. Of course I went back to eating meat lol.
I found a lot of ways to eat the foods I used to enjoy prior
to my journey, I made home made turkey
burgers using lean turkey mince, I even found some healthy cupcake recipes
which I enjoyed during Christmas!
I incorporated a lot of vegetables and fruits to my diet and
stuck to white meat (breast/minced), nuts (mainly Almonds), whole grains like
whole wheat bread, whole wheat pasta etc, and LOTS of WATER!!
I am now a Pescetarian which means I only eat meat from the
sea! There is nothing wrong with poultry, it's just a personal choice. I'm enjoying being a Pescetarian I love
seafood so you really can't go wrong with that, it's opened me up to a wider
range of fruits and veg, beans, lentils and things like Quinoa which is great
alternative to rice.
I do have a treat meal once a month to balance it all out,
let's face it you can't eat clean 100% of the time! I would say this helped me
stay on track! Just make sure your cheat meal is not on your rest day!!
Exercise
I've done insanity twice now, well first time I stopped at
day 40 as I went to Vegas and upon my return I joined the gym. I went to the
gym twice a day doing some cardio and weights in the morning and spin class in
the evening!
I'm still looking to join a gym here in Nigeria as I am a
firm believer in lifting weights! Heavy ones at that, this will help to ton the
body! No it won't make you look like a male body builder ladies! Weights are
what helps to bring out your natural curves.
I started insanity over end of May and will complete in a
couple of weeks, this workout isn't for the faint hearted and if your not yet
quite athletic then research and look at other workouts, beach body's charLENE
Clean is a good one, or beach body's T25Focus.
If you have any questions please leave your comments below!
I hope this post inspired you.
Follow me on TWITTER and FACEBOOK
Cheers to a beautiful weekend!!!
"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" 2TIMOTHY 1:7
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