30 day challenge

This morning I got a coffee and sat down to look at my emails and Facebook when I saw one picture that made me think.This photo sparked an idea that turned into a fantastic motivational challenge. For those who follow my blog regularly, yes i have set some similar objectives in my previous posts and this is basically merging all of them together. Keeping all my goals and all my plans together will make it easier to keep track.

"You have not failed until you give up. "

It will be very simple. Post your before stats before starting on my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/mj.trainer.9?fref=ts as I will be posting them here.  You can follow my routine or create your own for your goals. 

A few points to prep before starting

#1 - Set goal

#2 - Weight-in, measurement and before pictures 

(you do not have to share this information online if you do not feel comfortable)

#3 - Plan out your workouts and meals

My goal for this 30 day challenge: lose inches and gain muscle definition.

Here is what my workout routine will be like for the next 30 days.

My routine will be split up into 6 days of work 2 days of rest and one scheduled cheat meal. My workouts will be lower body days, upper body days, cardio days. This is what a week will look like. 

(example given form May 1st to May 7th) 

May 1st: Lower body day

May 2nd: Upper body day

May 3rd: Cardio day

May 4th: Lower body day
May 5th: Upper body day
May 6th: Cardio day

May 7th: Rest

 Lower body and cardio

Working in a circuit style, each move one after the other with little to no rest until round is completed. Rest for 1 or 2 minutes and repeat 5 times in total.

-20 jump squats

-20 walking lunges with kettle bells

-30 jumping jacks

-20 side lunges with barbell

-15 bench step ups with barbell (each leg)

-20 calf raise with kettle bells

20 straight leg dead lifts

15 minute treadmill interval run

~ 2 minute flat walk

~ 2 minute set at 5 incline walk

~ 2 minute set at 5 incline jog

~ 2 minute flat jog

~ 2 minute flat walk

~ 2 minute set at 10 incline walk with 30 second jogs

~ 3 minute cool down

Upper body and cardio

Working in a circuit style, each move one after the other with little to no rest until round is completed. Rest for 1 or 2 minutes and repeat 5 times in total.

15 push ups

20 dumbbell lateral raise

20 triceps extension

20 military press

20 Bicep curls

20 shoulder shrugs

Boat rope interval*

*Boat rope interval.

How to do the move: create a wave like motion with the rope by alternating arms going up and down.

How long to do it: in intervals set up like this --->15 sec work, 15 second rest, 20 second work, 15 second rest, 25 second work, 15 second rest, 30 second work. 

15 minute spin bike interval 

~ 2 minute warm up

~ 2 minute slight hill climb

~ 2 minute flat

~ 2 minute off seat hill climb

~ 2 minute flat

~ 2 minute off seat HIGH hill climb

~ 3 minute cool down

Cardio day

Choice of any cardio equipment for 40 minutes with interval work. Keep it intense, keep your heart rate up and keep moving.

Meal planning

Here is an example of what I eat during a 7 day planned out meal prep.

Breakfast
1/2 cup of oatmeal with berries
1/2 cup of yogurt with granola and fruit
1 Multi grain toast with hard boiled egg and avocado
1 poached egg with chicken bacon and asparagus
4 egg white omelet with veggies
2 protein pancakes with fruit
2 eggs with turkey sausages and fruit

Lunch
Chicken breast with 1 cup of grilled veggies
spinach and cheese frittata
Strawberry and spinach salad wit almond and avocado
Tomatoes sandwich with avocado spread and a hard boiled egg
Oven roasted chicken with whole wheat pasta and tomato pesto
6 bean salad with tuna
Small pepper steak with sauteed onion and mushrooms

Supper
Ground turkey with wild citrus rice and salad
Orange marinated chicken served with brown rice and steamed asparagus
Turkey burgers with home made coleslaw 
Beef and broccoli served on quinoa
Chicken Quesadilla with whole grain tortillas 
Whole wheat spaghetti with home made sauce
Cheat meal!
 
Snack
Peanut butter and banana smoothie
Mixed nuts
Almonds butter and apple
Light cheese and 1/2 cup of raspberries
Carrots and humus
Yogurt
Apple puree and celery

There you have it, that is all my prep for the week. I hope to stay on track. My cheat meal is planed out to be tomorrow on my first day. This is only because my regular schedule that I've been following calls for a cheat meal on this date. I plan to go eat at red lobster! :) yum!

Now on to the stats.

I took my measurements about a week ago (also in a previous post) so I'm posting those as I know they have not changed.

154 lbs
30.5% body fat
Calorie intake to maintain weight: 1550/day
Calorie intake for weight loss: 1050 to 1350/day

Chest: 34.5 inches

Breast: 35 inches

Waist: 29.5 inches

Hips: 41 inches

Thighs: 24.5 inches

Calf: 14.5 inches

Bicep: 11 inches

And now, drum roll please. The "piece de resistance"

........the pictures...... 

*sigh*

Here goes nothing!

    

   

There is is, the beginning of a 30 day challenge. I will weight in and measure myself in 15 days and will post the results along with some mi-challenge pictures.

Join in on the fun and challenge yourself. See what you can achieve in 30 days!

Be strong. Be Proud.

Be the BEAST

Boot camp

I fell in love last year with giving boot camp classes outdoors. After getting my certification in Personal training I wanted to create something fun for a few people I know. I did a few weeks of boot camps last year close to the season's end but I plan to go full force this year. I currently hold a position at my local gym where I give classes on Monday nights and I love my participants! My group has a range of beginner to elite athlete, from 16 yrs old to, my guess is, early 60's, this amazes me. How any one can join in if they only try. Take fear and set it aside. You will never get to the happiness level you are looking for if you stay hiding behind fear.

I just started my second year in outdoor boot camps last week and i'm supper excited to create new and improved workout for my fellow boot campers. Here is what a boot camp is all about, for those who have never participated and are wondering about it.

From Wikipedia:

A boot camp is a type of group physical training program. These programs are designed to build strength and fitness through a variety of intense intervals over a 1 hour period of time. 

From my brain:

What I do:

My boot camps are structured to work every part of the body with strength training moves and cardio work. In a regular 1 hour routine I will make you work biceps, triceps, lats (upper back), lower back, glutes (bum), thighs (both hamstrings and quads) and calves and build up your cardio. 

How and why it works:

The reason why boot camps are so effective is that during the full 1 hours, you are moving your entire body all the time, activating different muscles every other minute with little to no rest. This keeps your heart rate up and helps burn fat fasted then cardio alone.

Join a boot camp class vs. doing it alone:

you don't have to sign up with me to have a great workout, most people can find something to do at home that will work just fine, for some time. Eventually, you will find yourself in a routine rut where you don't know how to challenge your body anymore to achieve the results you are looking for. I am not saying you absolutely will have to join some kind of group or gym at one point but the human brain craves interaction, competition and gratification. boot camps offers all that and so much more, you meet new people that share a lot of the same goals and realize that you are not alone in your journey. 

What does a session look like:

Warm up run/jog

just a few examples of what you can find in 1 minute circuit stations:

burpees

push ups

jumping jacks

triceps dips

mountain climbers

chair pose hold

jumping jacks

squats

crab walk

lunges

kettle bell hip thrusts

I also like to combine some game like activities to put some fun into it. i'll let you try and figure what type of fun I can get you guys into while sweating your asses off!! :)

I will also be ordering some boot camp shirts available to buy a a reduced price for anyone that will participate to a session. They will be available to everyone at regular price around the beginning of June.

Be strong. Be proud.

Be the BEAST.

Day 4 and 5 adventures

I've been a bit busy the past few days and trying to fine the time to write down a good blog post was a bit hard so I compressed two days into one post. I've been working a lot and putting lots of effort into my days and it's starting to pay off. I think I found the right pace for my lifestyle. I could not be any happier then how I've been feeling for the past week. I found this image that I think shows how I feel compared to lots of people around me. Some need to learn to relax and just take it day by day. Surrounded by unhappy faces.

Because I'm happy! 

My eating has been spot on for the last two days with the most basic meals. High protein and low carb and I've had more energy then I ever did. This goes to show that when you eat good, you feel good! I instructed my first of the season, outdoor boot camp, yesterday night and absolutely loved it. I missed doing it outside and I missed my two most loyal boot camp members! 

Today was leg day at the gym and I decided to put more explosiveness to my moves to add more cardio into my routine. I added lunges to my leg day as I never really did any. I focused a lot on my hamstring and glutes.

Here is what it looked like:

Super set of:

-20 walking lunges with 20 lbs kettle bells in each hand 

-20 body weight walking lunge

Regular sets of:

3 x 12 Front lunge with raised rear leg (each leg)

3 x 15 rear lunge with high front knee (each leg)

3 x 10 One legged step up (onto bench) with leg extension and lunges on landing (each leg)

3 x 15 Super set of:

Leg extension

Leg curl 

Seated calf raise

Last night I made chicken sausages for supper and used the BBQ for my first time. Aside form being a bit burnt, to my defense they were honey garlic flavored so the sugar had to burn, they were tasty and so lean!

In a few days I'll be posting a few recipes form my favorite summer time dishes. Make sure to catch those.

Be strong. Be proud.

Be the BEAST

Day 3 - Third one's a charm, right?

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2014

Today is a long day for me. don't get me wrong, it's not a bad thing that I get to spend my entire day in a gym. Last year, that was exactly my dream job. This year, heck, I got my dream job. I work at the service counter at a great gym, for awesome bosses and I have the world greatest co-worker EVER. I get to talk about fitness ALL DAY LONG. The only down side is that I get to watch people workout ALL DAY LONG. It the worst kind of tease for a gym brat. 

Along with that I also get to train some of the members at the gym with the Basic training program. YEESSS, I am officially training clients at a gym and also give my boot camp classes to a great group of participants.

Dream #1 of lists of achievements: Achievement unlocked!

(yes, I'm a bit of a geek) 

So I really don't mind that i got up at 4:45 AM to go to work on my bike with my giant lunch bag.

I'm at the service counter form 6 AM to 2 PM and training from 4 PM till 9 PM. In the small free time between my two shift, I will take advantage and do a cardio workout. 

My workout will look somewhat like this:

10 minute warm up on stair master. 

Circuit training for 20 minutes

1 minute work station with 30 seconds rest in between
Just a few example of the stations in my circuit:

Spin bike
Kettle bell thrusts
jump squats
jump rope

20 minute cool down run on treadmill

FOOD for the day!!! Cause, I got to eat.

Breakfast:

1/2 cup 0% fat plain yogurt with 1/2 raspberries and blueberries and some mixed Nature's path bio cereal.

Snack: 

One Banana and a light Babybell cheese

Lunch:

Baby spinach salad with sunflower seeds and strawberries (no dressing, the strawberries add just enough flavor!)

1/2 cup of crab meat with home made ketchup and two plain rice cakes.

Snack:

One small apple and a light laughing cow cheese. Not shown in picture: A cookies and cream Quest bar.

Supper:

6 turkey meat balls with 1/2 cup of brown garlic and herb rice with sauteed veggies seasoned with no salt-Ms. Dash and a side of fresh red pepper, cucumber and celery.

So that is how my day will go, I will get home at 9:30 PM and go in the shower then I'll probably hit the pillow faster then you can say "superfragilisticexpialidocious". You know, that Mary Poppins song!

Summer boot camp blog coming up!

Be strong. Be proud.

Be the BEAST

Second of the first

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2014

Today was my second day of the new routine. I`m crazy sore from yesterday and can`t wait to go to bed. Tonight`s bed time will definitely be way before 10 PM. I have been up since 6 this morning and I feel like I have not stopped. Here is what I did so far.

Rise and shine @ 6 AM had my breakfast while checking my emails. Got ready to go to work for a morning group glass and took my bike to the gym.

8H30 to 9H30 was my group class with a new group of ladies. I was asked my a co-worker to take over her class for two weeks. Last week, I tried doing her class (20-20-20, which is 20 minute blocks of aerobics, step and strength). As I can't dance to save my life, the two first segments of the class were a bit of a sight for sore eyes since the moves are timed to the tempo and there is some coordination involved. This week I played it safe and had them try out my boot camp. I was very impressed with them. They are a group of older ladies and they were strong till the end.

9H30 to 10H15 - All in all it was a good workout followed by a 45 minute long stretch/ yoga class (that I also instructed).
  Two hard boiled eggs mixed with franks red hot, Ms. Dash and pepper on a low sugar, low fat whole wheat toast (I like the crusts) and two slices of low saodium ham. All that with a tomato and light Babybell cheese (I like to slice it up, it make it seem like there is more). I washed that down with my daily vitamins, glutamine and cucumber water.

Got home at 10H30 I stuffed the above plate down the hatch and not long after I decided to go for a Shoulder/Back workout (totally not in my plans after doing my classes this morning)

Here is what my workout looked like.

10 minutes warm up on elliptical (really felt all my soreness come out during that warm up)

All super sets and high reps of 15

3 x Seated row + Seated Shoulder press 

3 x Bent over single arm row + Single arm Lateral raise

3 x Standing row + Barbell shoulder press (behind neck)

3 x straight arm cable Lateral pull + Seated Lat pull down

All that was done with the support of my mini-beast Valerie <3 

When I finally got back home (for good) around 1H, I was hungry and needed protein so I whipped up a batch of protein pancakes. I like to put some blueberry jam I have, it's low sugar and so yummy, it takes just like a bunch of munched up blueberries and nothing else, no sugar added, no junk!

 

 From the time I was done eating my post-workout pancakes to 4H30, I was hard at work on my client files and putting everything in order. Twice during that time I almost flat out fell asleep at my desk and had to get up and walk around the house a bit to wake up. On top of that i also manage to do two more loads of laundry and prep my meals for tomorrow as I am in the Gym from 6 AM till 9 PM.

This bad boy is what is keeping me alive right now as I am writing.It's a Golden monkey black tea. I'm a Tea freak and always end up spending at least 50$ at Teavana every single time I go.

Check out the next post, it has all the details of my meal prep for tomorrow's long day at the gym and what I plan for my boot camps this summer.

Be strong. Be proud.
Be the BEAST.

The first of the first.

Monday, April 21st, 2014. 

Today marks the first day of my new routine for the next two months. Here is what today looks like for me along with details of workout and eating.

Rise and shine
I woke up a bit late this morning. I guess my body needed the added rest. I officially got out of bed at 10 AM. To be honest, I hardly ever sleep in but lately I have been struggling with getting up or not taking naps. That is why the second goal I set for myself  (posted in previous post: New goals for a new season) is to Energize myself. I don't have a issue getting tot he gym or getting the work done but once it's done I crash and burn.

To give you an example of my energy levels lately, yesterday was Easter and rest day #2 for me. I got up late, had breakfast and watched movies all day. When I say "watch movies" I really mean "put the DVD in and fall asleep 10 minutes into the movie". I did this 3 times. However, I did manage to go for two walks during this lazy, cat like, kind of day. I went to bed at 9 PM and woke up this morning at 10 AM. I think this speaks for itself, I'm a tad tired.

Bedtime
Setting a routine for yourself is very important. Once your body knows when to do what, it become easier to do it. Reminder of routine importance: Long weekends are killer when you eventually get back to work, right? This principal is the same for setting a workout and nutrition routine. I set my bed time for 10 PM every day of the week including the weekends.

Nutrition

Breakfast 
1/2 whole wheat English muffin with low fat cream cheese and smoked salmon. A small blood orange with a hand full of blueberries and raspberries.

Snack
5 grams of Glutamine, 1 plain rice cake with 1 tbs of natural crunchy peanut butter and a banana.

Post-(#1)workout / lunch
6 oz crab meat with giant veggie salad

Supper
Chicken Bacon and strawberry salad with Beet crystals. (recipe and photos to come in next post)

Post-(#2)workout
5 grams of Gutamine and cookies and cream Quest bar (these are to die for!!!)

Workout

AM cardio
20 minute run

Chest day

4 X 10 Flat bench dumbbell press

3 X 15 Incline dumbbell press

4 X 15 Incline dumbbell fly

3 X 20 Pec Dec

4 X 20 seated chest press

3 X 20 Cable cross over

PM cardio

1 hour boot camp

Be strong, be proud.

Be the BEAST.

New goals for a new season

I am at the last stretch of my weight loss journey. Started at 196 lbs, gone through major ups and downs, feeling strong and feeling weak. I struggle a lot with my weight as I tend to not hold on to a routine for very long. I have officially reached my main goal weight of 150 lbs a few months ago. Now that I have done so, I want to see what else my body can achieve.

For the next two months, I will be a on full routine and keeping it on track EVERY single day, with one cheat meal per week, working out 6 times a week, including a lot more cardio into my day and sticking to a clean eating lifestyle. I will be sharing with you every detail of the way. My weight-ins, my measurements, my body fat %, calorie intake, meal planning and workout routine.

As of today, these are my numbers:

154 lbs
30.5% body fat
Calorie intake to maintain weight: 1550/day
Calorie intake for weight loss: 1050 to 1350/day
Chest: 34.5 inches
Breast: 35 inches
Waist: 29.5 inches
Hips: 41 inches
Thighs: 24.5 inches
Calf: 14.5 inches
Bicep: 11 inches

Goals:

#1: Feel amazing
#2: Energize myself
#3: Reduce Body fat %
#4: Gain muscle mass
#5: Increase cardio

In all, my goals are mainly to achieve a level of happiness within my body. To appreciate myself and to see what I can obtain. The numbers above are for statistics purposes only, I have broken up with the scale because we had a really bad, unhealthy relationship. I learned that the scale does not define me or how I feel.

Stay strong, be proud.
Be the BEAST.

2 month long weight cut

I'm on a 2 month long "cut". I will be sharing with you my ups and down and progress.

Why am I doing this?

-I am doing this because I want to finally reach my goal. This is not about how much weight I will loose or how many inches go away but more about how it can change how I feel. I did already ditch the scale since March and It's been going great. I have almost no interest in knowing what me weight is.


What am I doing?

- I am simply sticking to a clean diet and one cheat meal per week routine with a lot more cardio and less weight training. I'll post a blog entry all about my workout routine and my meals.


What is different then what I usually do?

- Usually, i'll workout 6 times per week, every day is weights. Cardio would only be 3 times a week for about 20 minutes. i would be strict on my diet but not really checking calories and i would eat a lot at night.

What will I do after this "cut"?

-If all goes well and I'm at the body image I want, I will start to add mass to my body. More muscle gain and definition.

 I will be posting a before and after shot of my results at the end of this along with my measurements and weight.

Be the BEAST!

At home leg blast

Do this for an added leg workout to your routine or by it self for a great leg blast.

Do this circuit 3 times through. One move one after the other with little to no rest for 12 reps each. 

1-Reverse plank with alternate leg lift

2-Glute bridge with alternate leg lift

3-Squat with front kick

4-Glute bridge with pointed toes

Don't forget to warm up ahead and stretch afterwards.