My Exercise and Weight Loss Information/Plan/Workouts!

Hello fellow beauty lovers! I hope most of you still know what my blog is after me not posting anything for MONTHS! I can explain this.. really. I have been working hard in school while maintaining a part time job. I just finished the Critical Care semester of my nursing program. I can't wait to graduate from nursing school in a year and a half and be able to have more time for everything! 

But enough about that, lets get to the good stuff. If some of you also follow me on Instagram, you would have seen some of my progress pictures of my body through my working out and eating healthy. If you have not seen these pictures I will include them below.  Keep in mind that, like I said, I am a busy bee during the my school semesters and only am able to work out when I can. But, when I do, the information that will be included in this post is what I follow religiously. Throughout the last 5 years I have gotten pretty deep into working out and training. It has helped shape my body and change it in such positive ways that I want every one to experience this! I wrote this information for a few friends that asked how I stay in shape and keep my figure. This is the information that I gave them. 

First for some pictures of my results and being in my best shape! 

(I am wearing a bra here but blocked it out because I did not want the girls hanging out with these pictures being on the internet!)

This next picture shows my progression. During this past summer and spring (2013) I had been suffering from bad back pain and wasn't able to work out as much as I used to. Once I got help from my doctor and a physical therapist, I then was super motivated to work out again. I saw these results in a matter of 2 months!! (the picture to the far right that says "now" was at the end of August/early September)

And now to the information that I have learned throughout these past years...

(Keep in mind that this is long because I have learned A LOT! But the read is worth it, I promise :) )

ABS WORKOUT INFORMATION!! 

J

NUTRITION

-In order to help build muscle, have something with protein (shake, bar, eggs, etc) 1 hour before, during, OR 1 hour after your workout. This will be most effective

-It is also good to eat carbs 30 min to an hour before your workout

-Eating carbs earlier in the day is the best case. For example: Have your breakfast be your meal HIGHEST in carbs since you will have the whole day to burn them off (Carbs that are not burned off with activity will be stored as fat L ) Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!

-DO NOT EAT ANY CARBS AFTER 7! (If you can, try for earlier than 7)

-Go to bed hungry (not starving)

-Try and eat something with protein in it with every meal. This will help keep you full longer.

-Alcohol = weight gain (in most cases) Alcohol causes your body to burn the calories from the alcohol before any other calories that you ate. SO all of the other calories will be stored as fat. If you do drink alcohol, drink clear alcohol (like vodka) as shots or mixed with club soda or fresh fruit juice with not a lot of sugar.

-DO NOT DRINK POP! It is probably one of the worst things you can have (in my opinion). Instead, drink water or juice (not sugary sports drinks). I buy things such as "Mio" and "Dasani" flavors to add to my water to make it more appealing.

-Try to limit dairy as much as possible. Dairy is a reason that women store fat in the areas that they do (stomach, thighs, muffin top). Also, as human beings, our bodies are not programmed to digest cow’s milk. A good amount of the human population is lactose intolerant without knowing it. A better alternative to cow’s milk is almond milk (my fav.), soy milk, or coconut milk.

Working out

Women’s bodies are not programmed to get as big as men’s bodies. Therefore, there is no need to worry about getting big and bulky when lifting heavy weights.

Most people also think that cardio is the key to losing fat. Cardio does help with losing fat, but it also needs to be mixed with strength training (weight lifting). I read an article that said runners who run marathons or long distance actually stress their bodies to a point where the body will retain fat (Not saying that running is bad). Lifting heavy weights actually helps you to burn calories for HOURS after your workout because your muscles are doing work trying to repair themselves, therefore you are using energy (calories).

My favorite way to work out is to do most of my heavy lifting at the beginning of my workout followed by cardio afterwards. The heavy lifting at the beginning will burn the stored carbohydrates from food and once that is all burned you hit your body with cardio afterwards to burn PURE FAT! YES

I usually will do 4 different weight lifting exercises, each 4 times. ( For example: ill do a set of squats 6-8 times and repeat that 4 more times.. I then move on to the next exercise) There are two kind of muscle fibers that you want to work: slow twitch and fast twitch fibers (remember this from anatomy??..lol). The way to work slow twitch fibers is through using heavier weights with less reps (for example: as much weight as you can do for 6-8 reps). The way to work fast twitch fibers is through lighter weights but more reps (a weight that you can comfortably do 12-15 times) SO earlier when I said I usually do 4 different weight lifting exercises, I alternate one slow twitch workout with one fast twitch workout (slow twitch exercise, fast twitch exercise, slow twitch exercise, fast twitch exercise).

EXERCISES THAT EVERY WOMAN SHOULD DO!

-SQUATS! SQUATS! SQUATS! Squats are probably my favorite thing. They work your legs, butt, and abs all at the same time. They are the KEY to a lifted sculpted  booty J.

For example… The left is no squats.. the right is with squats (those pictures are not of me)

(Image from google Images)

-DEAD LIFTS! I really like straight leg dead lifts because they help to work the back of the legs where most of my cellulite is (ew). Look up how to do straight leg dead lifts on youtube!

-LUNGES! Lunges are also great for working the leg muscles and the butt. I like to do lunges with free weights in my hand to make it more challenging

CIRCUIT TRAINING

Circuit training is one of the ways I get my cardio in after I lift my heavy weights. Basically circuit training consists of 4 different exercises done as fast as you can for 4 or 5 rounds. (Start with 3 rounds and work your way up!) I do not use heavy weights for this and try to do each exercise 10-15 times.

Here is a list of exercises that I commonly use for circuit training...

Burpees (these are hard)
Jumping Jacks
Jump ropeing
Box jumps (I like these)
push ups
Bicycle abs
Goblet squats (one of my favorites..)
Sumo squats
Body weight squats
body weight lunges
Jumping lunges
ETC..

(If you do not know what some of these are, look them up on Youtube)

So basically you could choose 3 or 4 of the exercises listed above and do each one you picked 10-15 times for 3-4 rounds. The cardio part is trying to go as fast as you can! You can also find a lot of exercises to do for circuit training on pinterest.

WORKOUTS!!

Here consists of one workout. The pink and purple are the heavy lifting and the orange is the circuit training. These colored workouts were written for me by Eric Jay, a personal trainer from my local Snap Fitness. He really knows his stuff! To check out his website with tips and workouts click here!

These exercises can be interchangeable with other exercises as long as you follow the same basic format. 

(sorry these are not formated the same as the rest of my post.. blogger problems)

Push Press 4 x 6-8

Military Press 4 x 8-10

Back Squat 4 x 6-8

Gobblet Squat 4 x 8-10

A1) Box Jumps 3 x 15

A2) Push Ups 3 x 15

A3) 2 Hand Swings 3 x 15

 

Trap Bar Deadlift 4 x 6-8

Deadlift 4 x 8 - 10

Chin Up / Chin Up Grip Pulldown 4 x 6-8

Seated V-Grip Row 4 x 8 - 10

A1) Burpees 3 x 15

A2) Pull Ups / Lat Pulldown 3 x 15

A3) 1 Leg Deadlifts

Bench / Dumbbell Press 4 x 6-8

Dips / Dip Assist 4 x 8 - 10

Reverse Lunges 4 x 6 - 8 (Per Leg)

Leg Press Machine 4 x 10 - 12

A1) Push Ups w/ Torso Twist 3 x 15

A2) Jumping Split Squats 3 x 15 (per leg)

A3) 2 Hand Swings 3 x 15

Incline Press 4 x 6 - 8

Dumbbell Thrusters 4 x 8 - 10

Lat Pull Down / Hanging Knee to Elbow 4 x 6 - 8

Barbell Sumo Deadlift to High Pull 4 x 8 - 10

A1) Walkout w/ Push Ups 3 x 15

A2) Body Weight Squats 3 x 15

A3) Pull Up / Lat Pulldown 3 x 15

I like to stick to this or I will make my own workouts.

What I did today.. (the day that I wrote this)

Lat Pull Down 4x for 6-8 reps
Leg Press 4x for 12-15 reps
Squats 4x for 6-8 reps
Glute Kickbacks 4x for 12 reps

I then did a circuit that consisted of ..

Body weight squats 12 reps

Sit ups on a bosu ball for 15 reps

That is a bosu ball ^^

Push ups for 10 reps

Ending your workout with sprints!

Sometimes after I am done with my heavy lifting I will skip the circuit altogether and just do sprints on a treadmill.

Your body will burn more calories if you do different intervals of speed rather than one steady pace.

Below is an example of what Eric the personal trainer put in my workout for treadmill sprints…

Warm Up 5 min
Time	Intensity
40 sec	80%
20 sec	Rest
40 sec	90%
20 sec	Rest
40 sec	100%
20 sec	Rest
40 sec	100%
20 sec	Rest
40 sec	80%
20 sec	Rest
40 sec	100%
20 sec	Rest
40 sec	90%
20 sec	Rest
40 sec	100%
20 sec	Rest
Cool Down

But I usually do not do that many sprints since I hate running. I will usually do 4-6 sprints depending on how tired I am. 

How I sprint..

I will stand on the sides of the treadmill and put the speed that I want (I usually start out at 8 or 8.5)
I then will sprint on the treadmill for 40 seconds
Once that 40 seconds is up I jump back on to the sides of the treadmill for my rest period for 20 seconds
I usually move my speed up by .5 every time until I reach 10.5 which is very fast for me!

If I’m feeling gutsy I will do up hill sprints by raising the incline of the treadmill but going at a lower speed around 6.5. This will work that booty J

ABS

Ab workouts can be added to any workout or done any time during the day.

NOTE: In order to lose fat from your stomach area, you must do cardio. No amount of ab exercises will show until you lose the fat!

I find a lot of good ab exercises on Pinterest. I also will do Pilates sometimes and that is all about strengthening the core!

 My favorite ab workout to follow..

To see a bigger version of this picture, click here!

Some other ab exercises that I love are...

Leg lifts
leg lifts with one of those big workout balls between your legs

Planks!

You wouldn’t think so but pull ups (on the assisted pull up machine) are also good for strengthening abs! Also, squats will help to work your abs.

Reverse planks

AND… That is it!! Let me know if you have any questions!!!

I hope you all might become inspired by the progress that I have experienced to push yourself to get into a better and healthier way of living. ANYONE can do this, it just takes a bit of motivation and a lot of hard work! 

Also, expect more beauty posts to come. My next post shall be a review of the NEW Maybelline "Dream Wonder Powder".