Ironchics

IRONCHICS





What's your diet like?





Hey everyone! This week I've decided to write about the one question that I'm asked about more than anything else. What's my diet? Well I wish it was just that simple! Reality is what I eat and what someone else eats or needs to eat will be totally different! The types of food I eat are pretty basic, lean protein, veggies, healthy fats and slow digestable carbs. I keep it simple and basic, and I prepare all my food for the week on Sunday and store it in containers and bags in the fridge and freezer. I work a lot of hours and have a very busy life, I have no time to cook everyday! All my food is fresh, no frozen meals! The amounts I eat will not be the same as someone else. For one we all have different body types and metabolisms. I don't eat the same as I did a year ago, your body changes, your metabolism changes, when you have more muscle you require more fuel. I weigh 131, about 11.5% bodyfat and I take in between 2200-2800 calories a day for maintenance. A year ago at this same weight I was eating 1900-2400 calories a day for maintenance. Ive added some muscle, dropped some bodyfat and manipulated my calories to increase my maintenance calories. Someone else may weigh the same as I do and may even have the same amount of bodyfat but may require more or less total calories. Someone with more bodyfat at 131 will require less calories.

Next, what are your goals? Are you trying to add muscle? Loose bodyfat? Maintain what you have? There are so many variables! If you are trying to add muscle you definitely want to eat more calories, only 150-250 extra calories a day though! You definitely don't want to go on a "bulk" diet with lots of extra calories, because all those extra calories will end up as "bulk"fat that is. Your body only needs a few extra hundred calories to build muscle the rest will be stored as fat on your booty and your belly! Not what we are after here! Same goes with loosing weight/bodyfat. You only want to decrease your calories a few hundred a day. Crash diets will only break your body down both mentally and physically! You cant stress your body out but so much before it gets tired, and when it gets tired it slows. Try getting a good workout in then. Personally I would rather have enough fuel to get in a good workout, than be so mentally and physically beat down that I skip it all together! Balance and patience is the key! Slow and steady wins the race! I'll say it again, do not starve your body trying to loose body fat! I see this all the time, and I have been one of these people several years ago. Eating 1000 calories a day is asking for trouble! When your body is starving your metabolism slows, your body hords everything you eat and stores it as fat, and you begin breaking down your own muscle tissue for fuel! Can you say skinny FAT chic! Not to mention, you will be a mental basketcase before long! The mentality of got to eat less and less to loose fat is so wrong! Yes you have to eat less than you burn, but going to the extremes is disaster and will get you no where! It was a hard thing for me to grasp at first, eat more¦but if I eat more I will get fat! I couldn't understand that my body was dieing, literally wasting away! I was ill and snappy, very tired all the time, trained 2 times a day, and oh was that hard! My thinking was off, felt anxious but yet drained all the time! You have to change that mind set! If you are one of these people start by increasing your calories a couple of hundered a day from what you are eating now, and slowly work your way up! Ok so your scared or fearful that you might get fat, but what if you actually kickstart your metabolism and start burning fat, feeling better, and working out harder?? You will never know if you don't try!

Another thing is I hate seeing these cookie cutter one size fits all diets. Drives me nuts! No one is the same and no one will have the exact same results on the same diet! Just isn't happening!

Now to take it a step further, some people do better on low fat higher carb diets, and others do better on low carb higher fat diets. Lean protein is always a must! Make sure you eat protein with every meal, that goes for everybody, eating just a cup of fruit isn't going to cut it! (I've had a lot of clients do this) It will digest quicker and will leave you hungry in no time! Add some lean protein and that will slow the digestion down and give you plenty of steady energy and without the hunger pains!

So what and how much do you need to eat? Well who knows your body better than you do? If you really want to know, take the time to write down EVERTHING you put in your mouth, break it down into calories, carbs, fats, and protein! Pay close attention to your weight, how you look in the mirror, how you feel, your bowl movements, yeah that plays a part in it too! Constipation for a few days is a sign of not enough fiber or your metabolism is slowing down. Yeah this can be tedious for a while, but if you really want to maximize your results, you just got to do it! After you figure your body out, it will become like second nature. I wrote everything down for a year. I played with all types of variables, higher carb, higher fat, higher cals, lowers cals, I just had to be my own science project! Ive got my body figured out now so it's no biggie! Take the time on Sunday to plan your entire week, cook and prepare all your food for the week and follow it. Keep it simple! Don't make things more complicated than they have to be! If you are gaining weight, reduce the calories or if you are eating to many carbs try reducing them to earlier in the day, or try a carb cycle. 2 days low, oneday high. If you are loosing weight, add calories for maintenance or to build lean muscle, again it all depends on what you are trying to accomplish with your diet! One thing I do believe from my experiences with myself and my clients is most people succeed at loosing more body fat with a carb cycle. High carb one day followed by several days of low carbs.

Listen to your body, don't be scared to try new things, obviously if what you are doing now isn't working, what have you got to loose? It may seem easier to have someone tell you exactly what to do, what to eat, when to eat it, but in reality if you take the time and put forth the effort you can figure yourself out a lot better! The internet is full of so much information, read, study, experiment, you aren't in a race, quit looking for shortcut¦There are NONE!!!

Another excuse I hear is, "I don't have time to write down and prepare everything" If I can find the time to do it so can you! Its just an excuse! If you really want to succeed and have a fit body you have to go the extra mile! There is no excuse! Just do it! Or keep telling youself you don't have time, stay the same, keep whining and be unhappy! Its really your choice!

You can have the body you want, you can feel good in everyday life, you can have a greater self esteem, you can smile and be happy! You have to believe in yourself and do what you have to do in order to achieve the results! Successfully achieving your goals is so rewarding and worth all the hard work that's put into it! The only person holding that can hold you back is you!



Hope you all have a great week! J



Dreams really can come true, you just have to have the will and determination to see them through!

Xoxo,

Tiff