I'll start off with a short backlog on my progress thus far. I've managed to lose 75 lbs and about 7-8 inches off my waist over the past 2 years or so. I went from 235, with a 38-40" waist size, down to me currently being 160 with a 32-34 waist size. My workouts and motivation levels have been highly irregular in the past, but I still managed to lose that much (would work out for a couple of weeks, then just lose all motivation to do so for the next few weeks or even months). About a month ago, I discovered bb.com and it gave me a whole new level of motivation. Seeing some of the success stories posted here as well as educating myself on nutrition and the possibilities of HIIT sessions grabbed my attention, and it hasn't let go for the past month.
Workout/HIIT
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A poor man's session... I guess that's what you might call this. The gym in my apartment complex isn't too great, but has some machines that are decent. I use elliptical for all my cardio, and my cardio now consists strictly of HIIT. The machine is from Life Fitness, has 20 resistance levels, no incline settings (or so I don't think), and goes to a max of 100-105 RPM before it feels like your body can't go any faster. Just thought i'd mention that since there are ellipticals with different settings and etc.
I get to the gym and do about 20 twist-crunches on each side or so, just as a general warm up. I follow up with doing a few sets of bench presses everyday (machine, not free weights) and doing a few sets on the lat bar on alternate days. After this, I hit the elliptical, and my routine is something like the following:
Minutes 1-4: Warm up, level 10 @ 60-70 RPM
Minutes 4-20: Level 4-6, 30 seconds @ 90-100 RPM, 30 seconds at 50-60 RPM
I know I can improve on the above in two ways: increasing the 'rest interval' rpm from 50-60 to about 70 or so, and also increasing the level from 4-6 to maybe 8 or so in due time, but it's worth mentioning that I make it a point to go through the entire routine that I mentioned above, 7 days a week. On three of those seven days, I go twice. Those 2-session days are the days on which I go in the morning - but otherwise, I go every single evening/night. I know it's more beneficial to go in the morning, but I don't get a chance at times.
Though i'm not benefitting too much from the lack of equipment at my gym, I do find that it's helping me. HIIT too, I sweat a lot more than I did when I used to do boring, low/medium intensity stuff all this time when I lost that much weight in the past. It's more fun, and gets done quicker... so no complaints here.
Nutrition
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I would have classified my diet as a typical "see-food" diet before this past month, but I completely revamped it. My current diet includes eating about 5-6 times a day of course. I brought protein powder about a month ago, and it was a 'mixture' of egg, soy, casein and whey protein. Not being too educated about proteins when I bought it, I found that Soy was absorbed slowly, over time... so a couple of weeks ago, I went out and bought some good-quality whey protein. I usually have my first drink PWO in the mornings (unless I don't work out in the mornings on some days, as mentioned above), followed by one sometime in the afternoon - and the whey protein drink at night time, PWO. For breakfast, I try to have 3-6 egg whites with a slice of brown bread (this, about an hour after my workout... I have the shake immediately after my workout). I also like putting oats in my shake in the mornings/afternoons, just a couple of teaspoons or so.
I was thinking of getting some Flax Seed oil gel capsules that I saw in a store nearby, but they were quite expensive. Seeing how I don't live in the US, options are limited for me - but these would have costed me 12 dollars for about 30 capsules, so i'm not sure if they were worth it. I guess I could add more carbs to my diet, but i'm wary about including carbs with my proteins for some reason... as if I might be going overboard or something.
After my nightly workouts, I sometimes have this vegetable soup that I make. I basically boil carrots, beans, cabbage, tomatoes and mushrooms and make a thin soup out of it, while having a good portion of the vegetables. To add some protein value to it, I put about 4 boiled egg whites in there. I hope it's not too bad to eat this stuff a couple of hours before sleeping or anything - but let me know if it is
Anyways, not too sure what else to add to this - but I hope i'm on the right track! Any comments/suggestions would be appreciated!
Thanks!
Linear Mode
