Welcome back to my blog💕
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| This is me performing some light exercises while watching Vikings |
First of all : TAKE IT EASY
The mental factor
This is the most important thing to state here. Most of us (myself included occasionally) freak out PRETTY MUCH with the few extra pounds we shed (or sometimes it's just the mental guilt or subliminal fear following up a cheat). This is also applicable to the days/periods of missed workouts, which can spread the panic in combination with crappy eating. The first step we need to make, is to be conscious, see the condition in its true size, spot and admit our "faults" and calm down. Most of the times a meal, a day or even a week of cheats is not enough to ruin our condition to the point of no return the day after. In fact, what you eat today will start showing its results roughly 3 weeks later, so it is not possible to destroy the whole thing the following day. RELAX. The most frequent symptoms that fuel up our panic are the instant bloating, the water retention caused by excessive consumption of salt and/or sugar, the whole discomfort the body goes through due to lack of minerals and nutrients (as the nutritious food has been replaced by unhealthy options) and of course THE DEHYDRATION. I used caps on purpose to focus your attention around it. Dehydration does not occur only because you forgot to drink water. Count down all the fruits and veggies you didn't eat (and their water percentage you missed) plus the amount of alcohol you consumed plus the reduced amount of CLEAR WATER you drunk these days and you get a very common equation leading to a dehydrated organism. Stress is also an "incognito" dehydration cause (under stress, their is a rapid drop in the production of the hormone aldosterone. This hormone plays a key role in the regulation of body's fluid and electrolytes, so reduced amount of it means poor control leading to dehydration. Furthermore, when you stress too much, there is a cortisol elevation which influences insulin imbalance aaaaaaaaand eventually weight gain. So, CHILL OUT. You need to be relaxed and focused if you want to take charge of the problem, otherwise you will not let your body reverse the effects. I guess you are pretty conscious and ready for some action since you are here reading this article, so if you ticked the first note on the list, exhale peacefully and keep reading! Liquid Hacks
Here are some fluids I usually consume here and then in my daily routine but I make sure to drink consistently everyday during my "recovery periods"
- A LOT OF WATER (the most common but most underrated as well. At first you will be BFF with your toilet but after some time your body will adjust and the WC TOURS will be less.)
- GREEN TEA (contains a good shot of caffeine, benefits the organism a lot, promotes detoxification and can be used as a good preworkout fluid)
- VERBENA TEA (another variety of tea, Verbena (or "Luisa" - as commonly called in Greece) tea is highly linked to weight loss. I make sure to drink a large cup of it with a slice of lemon (optionally) every morning)
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| Starting the day with a cup of verbena tea and a glass of lukewarm soda/lemon water |
- LUKEWARM WATER + SODA + LEMON (EPIC detox fluid, I use it on empty stomach once or twice a week when I need to flush off the toxins. Please be careful with it, do not use large amounts of soda and lemon as they react together and do not drink this mixture very often otherwise you will cause an imbalance of your stomach's acids.)
- DETOX SMOOTHIES (the list here can be quite large - if you follow me on Instagram then you already know what kind of smoothie lover I am). There are thousands of detox recipes out there, whether you go for green smoothies or fruit ones, adopt this habit for some days.
- COFFEE (coming of coffee beans) => contains a good amount of antioxidants, promotes the increase of body temperature thus it gives a booster before working out or performing an activity which demands high concentration. Do not overdo it.
Nutrition
Well here's a good point: I consider myself as a QUEEN OF CHEATS but not in the legendary image of someone devouring large burgers and pizza everyday. In addition, I WISH i would be that kind of cheater as I have tracked down the fact that I do not shed a pound If I consume such type of meals, or at least since my diet is relatively clean, consuming such carbs here and then do not really have an impact on my physique. What I suffer from is..... the mighty sugar. I can eat TONS of food, healthy or not, I can have a caloric superplus and still not get a noticeable change. If I eat any sugary snack, I can see a happy bloated Irina waving at me even the following morning. Not even to mention what happens when I repeatedly eat sweets or sugary foods in large amounts for a long period. DIS-AS-TER. Regardless the food group which heavenly gifts you fat, the obvious rule is: Keep It As Clean As Possible. After all, if you swallowed TONS of unhealthy meals the previous days, I don't think you will miss them for the trending week.
*Click on every description to view more pictures and details, all of the following photos are taken from my personal Instagram page.*
- EAT A LOT OF GREEN SALADS: It doesn't need to be extra gourmet, these are some of my salad meals on the post holidays recovery period.
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| Mushroom, cucumber, egg, pepper and lettuce salad |
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| Greens heaven |
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| Spinach, Pomegranate, Balsamic Vinegar Cream and Fresh Tomato |
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| Pretty Mediterranean Salad |
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| Greens, carrots, tomato, cranberries, seeds, peppers and vinegrate sauce |
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| My favourite salad of boiled turkey, greens mix, pomegranate, balsamic vinegar cream, sunflower seeds and paremsan cheese |
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| Very nutritious and delicious salad. |
- RESTRICT SUGAR/STARCHY CARBS: For some days forget anything made of sugar, white flour, preservatives etc. If you workout, you can have A SMALL SERVING of rice or spaghetti POST WORKOUT but in general avoid it as much as you can.
- VEGGIES FOR THE WIN: Whether in salads or solo as a snack, they are an excellent source of vitamins, minerals and fibers, they will help you replenish the precious fluids and they will help you satisfy your hunger without taking an eternity to digest them.
- MODERATE FRUIT CONSUMPTION: Fruits are your allies on health maintenance, personally they are my FAVOURITE food group and thankfully they are a nutritious option no matter what. However, some of them have a high percentage of fructose so they need to be under control during the recovery period. 1-2 servings of fruit + 3 to 4 servings of veggies (or more) per day can be great.
Fruit/veggie salad and a cup of verbena tea with lemon - BERRIES: All kind of them, cranberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries contain precious antioxidants, they promote a metabolic speed up and are a MUST in your diet (not only on your recovery days)
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| One of my favourite deserts. Click here for more pictures and details |
- CHANGE THE MACRO-RATIO: This might sound a bit "advanced" if you are not familiar with these terms but things are pretty simple. Regardless the percentages of protein, fats and carbohydrates your regular diet consists of, these days you need to INCREASE your LEAN protein consumption a lot, DECREASE the unnecessary carbs (ideally consume them early in the morning and/or around your training) and keep the HEALTHY FAT intake on a steady to slightly increased proportion.
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| Shrimps and veggies. Click here for more pictures and details |
- FATS: HEALTHY FATS will help you recover from the stomach/gut inflammation yourbody suffers after an overdose of processed foods or overeating. Aim for fatty fish sources, tahini, seeds, avocado and boiled eggs. If you're into supplements, cod liver oil, Omega 3/6/9 or CLA are all great sources as well.
- CALORIES: You don't need to go crazy about it, but have an eye on the level of your caloric intake. Starving yourself will only turn things worse. Aim for an intake close to your maintenance needs with a slight deficit ( of around 200kcal ).
Further Practises
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| Get enough sleep. Don't be like me composing this article during the entire last night. |
INTERMITTENT FASTING: Oh well, this is a HUGE topic which I plan to make an excessive reference to, but on this point, for the purpose I state it here I will just mention a few key things. This is an eating pattern with TONS of benefits on human health, especially if it gets adopted long term. One of these benefits is the reduction of body fat and maintenance/development of muscle tissue. Intermittent fasting is actually an eating pattern with many variations depending on the longterm goal, which does not command what you will eat or how much you will eat but insists you eating on a specific time window. Of course, it works optimal if you eat whole nutritious foods and you do not eat on caloric superplus (= more than your maintenance needs) but THE KEY of this principle is WHEN you eat your calories. Specifically, all of the variations have one thing in common. Your day is divided in two unequal parts. The one is the fasting part, when you do not eat/drink any calories at all and the other one, called "feeding window" is when all your meals should be consumed. If you make a research you will find out that Intermittent Fasting can be used on a daily basis (as the pattern stated above) or on extended periods (for instance, fasting for 24 hours or longer and eating normally the other days- but this is a whole different story, you need to be familiar with the daily fasting first which means that you have already a basic knowledge around it to do adopt it as a lifestyle so i will keep this short.
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| This T-shirt has been my favourite health shoutout. |
CARDIO:
An important chapter here, cardio should always be a part of your health routine, not
only for fat burrning but for the further benefit it offers too. It varies from low forms such as walking or just taking the stairs, to medium forms (like power working or LISS- Steady pace low intensity exercise for extended time) up to HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). No matter the form you use (depending on your goals, needs and body composition), if you're interested in burning fat, my BEST advice is to go for some cardio 5 times per week until you lose the desired amount of fat. You can keep exercising with weights or any other method you prefer but make sure to go for 2 HIIT sessions (elevated heart rate from points of 90+% for a very short time followed up by reduced intensity and heart rate around 65% of your maximum beats for longer time) per week and 3 sessions of low intensity exercise. HIIT can be 25 minute sessions and LISS can be anything from 35mins to 1hour. Low intensity cardio is pretty safe, can not cause overtrain, it is applicable to any person and can give you a good amount of calories burned without making your legs pump. Linked to the previous bullet, the IDEAL time to perform your cardio is while being on fasted state (12+hours of not eating). The second ideal time is to perform it RIGHT AFTER your weight training, when the glucogen stores in your muscles are empty so the only available source of energy is stored fat. In the past, I tried the best possible scenario of having my weight training on fasted state AND hitting my cardio right after but this didn't work smoothly - at least for me. I was able to workout on a fasted steady but heavy weights followed up by cardio were TOO MUCH for my body to afford so I figured out that what works best for me is to split them. Going for fasted cardio in the morning will cover the hour gap to complete my fasting window, it will be done before i even "wake up properly" and I will have some meals to fuel me up with energy in order to have a great weight session later in the day. In that case, I make sure to workout late in the afternoon or early in the evening so that my last meal before fasting again will be my legendary postworkout meal which will keep me full for a good amount of time.
SAUNA: 1-2 times per week is enough. Be very careful with the exposure and the fluid consumption around your sessions. Always consult your physicial about it.
Hugs,
Irina
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