Service for a Mom :)

Since we left Hungary my mom is desperate about dying her hair. She usually gets to do it whenever she goes home but if she can't , she can't visit her favorite hairdresser. That leaves the honor of dying her hair on me. First times, well... it took me about 40 minutes to do the whole thing. I mean there is combingthe hair up, dying it on both sides, trying not to mess up everything around, get the areas where there not much hair but try not to put a lot of dye because 1) I only use half a packet to dye the 'roots' of the new grown hair 2) it irritates the skin on her head if there is too much :(
The last time I was however significantly faster. Took me 20 minutes, and even she acknowledged that the speed rate was much faster, however the results weren't that great :)

I will have to improve my speed along with the effectiveness so I don't leave spots, yet I could recignize that I already feel more comfortable with combing and dying. She might look funny but hey... That's the pont :P

How people feel about cardio during diet?

People hate it. I did as well. I didn't know simply where to put it! Before workout - I'm too tired for weights then. After - too tired from lifting...
Therefore I made a new schedule based on a friend's idea from the gym. One day of lifting, one day cardio.
Since I can't do legs due to my hurt knee my new schedule look like this:
Back-Cardio-Shoulder-Cardio-Chest-Cardio.

Weight trainings I will soon post with oral comments (with Shaun) under proper videos takin in the gym, however recording cardio would be pretty boring :)

Day of Cardio

Treadmil - walking (20 mins)
Started off with :
Incline - 8
Speed - 7 km/h

Now at :
Incline - 10
Speed - 7 km/h

After 20 minutes I rest and strech. I do 4 exercises of for the abdominals (4 sets x 15 reps)
- Leg raises
- Body twist
- Abs machine
- Situps
and then return to the treadmil.

Treadmil - intervals (10 mins)
Started off with :
Min speed - 8 km/h
Max speed - 15 km/h
Switching speed - every 45 seconds

Now at :
Min speed - 8 km/h
Max speed - 16 km/h
Switching speed - every 50 seconds

Really gets the blood pumping and sweat going :) the afterburn is sick!

Drawing

I said I would draw easier things first but what can one do when he feels like drawing? There was a lot of details here to pay attention to, however I focused on the tree and branch rather than anything else to have be able to reflect on a simpler thing. Since the branch was thin it was hard to create the appropriate shading. This is not much yet but I felt like posting it after an hour of drawing. After all it is one of my products :)

Coaching

People would be surprised how much someone can develop in a couple of weeks. David and Franchesco not only gave an example to others and attracted people to lunchtime gym (such as Daniel and Kirill) but showed amazing developments.
Franchesco' form worried me a lot in many exercises. One of them was benching towards his belly and not the mid-chest area. Today his form was perfect and he was aware of it which is even better as he seems reflective and cares about the things I explain.
David has gotten stronger as well. His form was good in the beginning and is better by now, but the change is not as significant as he started out pretty good. He is making really good progress and he told me: "now i understand how you get addicted to trainig". I was relly happy to hear that :)
Unfortunatelly David might have to ease up or even stop on training legs because it hurts him. Since I'm not a sports doctor (yet :) ) I advised him not to train legs. It isn't worth risking. Just a quick update on lunchtime coaching service. I actually might add some pictures to show Franchesco's posture development!

Popular diets + lunch example

For a long time now I have been willing to figure out what diet I should follow throughout the day. There are myths to bodybuilding diets and many many types are heard of all over the internet.

1) Low-carb diet: This diet includes about 70-80% protein, the rest is for fat and  little carbs. Based on my experience it is the worst anyone can try. First of all the body doesn't have its main energy source so it will obviously break down itself somehow. There are carbs in everything. Literally everything, and the choice of foods is more than 80% less. There is vegetables, eggs, meat, protein powders, tvorog, cottege cheese and thats about it. It is boring, catabolizes the body, leads to massive muscle loos on the long run and depressing. Don't even give it a try (however people usually use it in the last couple of weeks of their diet to get rid of the last bit of fat - I think only competitors should do it. It is not healthy!!!)

2) Carb-cycling: This makes more sense to me, however did not give it a try. There are three days: No carbs, Medium amount, and Refill. By emptying glycogen storages (carb storages in the muscles and liver) the body will get rid of the fat rapidly / following the idea above/ but then the next days the body is refilled with carbs so it doesn't have those negative effects which a long term low carb diet may have. If I get there where I only need a couple of kilos to lose (at about 78kgs / because my final goal is 75) I'll give it a try, but still don't suggest it  for just anyone.

3) Intermittent fasting: This one is a wierdo and large scandals rise when bodybuilders discuss whether it is good or not. It is basically having a 4-6 eating window every day. In the rest of the day people fast. This supposedly leads to HGH (High Growth Hormone) secretion in the body as there is no insulin -as a reaction to food in body, especially carbs. Insulin supresses GH secretion preventing muscle growth. This is however a theory. If people don't eat they wont grow either, therefore they eat all their caloric needs (lets say 2000kcals) in 4 hours. I tried this one and felt a lot of positive feedback from my body, however didn't work on the long run. I still think 1-2 days in a week should be like this because it has several health benefits as well (cleanses the body) but if I don't have breakfast my day is ruined, yet I need to eat after training too which is in the evening.

To make it clear, this are myths because theye are worth arguing for or against. For me right now the only important thing is to eat less than what I use so I lose weight, and get lots of protein as well as carbs (less fat) to maintain muscle. This is why I dont care if people tell me: don't eat after 6! Or don't eat bread! These diets fail because they are too strict on people and so everyone gets bored of them... This explains why I eat sandwhich at school :) So here's my lunch example:
- Lots of fruits
- Sandwich (slice of ham, cheese, spinach, ketchup (moderate), mayo (moderate), lettuce)

Sunday 27th

Just a quick check in from my morning weight in. I weight 84.7 this morning. I actually went lower before but it fluctuates a lot when someone is trying to lose weight. It will slow down majorly because in the first couple of days it is mostly water-weight that people lose, not fat. The fat will come after and will take way harder work to get rid of it without burning away muscle or risking high cortisol level (cortisol is a hormone, which appears in the body under stress or lack of sleep. It leads to the breakdown of amino acids in the body which is ultimately the breakdown of muscle-tissue. To avoid high cortisol level at least 6-7 hours of sleep is needed, which makes me finish my homework earlier every day :) )

Breakfast

In order to start the day healthy here is my first tip for diet breakfast!
It seems like a regular oatmeal and it is with just a little bit of my extras. It fills me up until the first break in school, not just oat but there is some raisins to make it chewy and enjoyable and also there is no added sugar whatsoever. So let me show how I prepare it (takes 15 minutes, I always make it the night before):

Step 1. Pour about 100/120gram of oats into a dish. (Oats are not only healthy carbs / slow digesting-low glycemic/ but also have valuable micro-nutrients and vitamins such as vitamin Bs)

Step 2. Add milk or water (I add milk for higher protein content. Milk has 80% casein which is a slow digesting protein, enables the food to last longer and make you feel full)

Step 3. Slowly cook it, and meanwhile add some washed raisins to it.
Step 4. Stir it until it has a thicker consistency which makes it harder to stir.

 

Step 5. Add a scoop or two of whey or any kind of protein (the sweetener in whey protein is just enough to replace sugar and add more flavor to it, and of course also increases my daily protein needs)

Step 6. Store for maximum 3 days in fridge and it eat every morning :)

Drawing Project

It is not only fitness I'm interested in lately. I've been drawing a lot, however realized that to me it is the technique of shading which makes something realistic. First I was only drawing things which popped into my mind, however to be able to reflect on my drawings I figured I should draw something I see and can take a picture of in order to comapre the two. In previous drawings I practiced how to make the shading, now I'll try and use it to make pictures realistic. These are only pictures I drew for fun, but my goal is to make shading perfect, the pictures more accurate and finally to pay special attention to details of what I see. Therefore the first pictures will be simpler, than I'll try and go into more complecated images. Don't take the last picture seriously. Everybody has dreams :)

Diet project specified. Week Zero

I previously described how I will be going on a diet. I took a picture this week (monday) which shows an initial evidence for where I start my diet from.

Every monday I will be posting a new picture to track my progress. My goal is minimum 1kg minus by each monday. With this progress by the February (15th) I aim to be 82.8kgs or below.  There are many factors which contribute to my weight loss. I've done it before and learnt what mistakes I did. As a bodybuilder we can't go ahead and not eat for weight loss. There is a smart way to do it and this is to avoid the catabolism of muscles yet getting rid of the fat. From now on I will be posting on my blog about food and traning as well.

The food part will include what to eat, why to eat (based on my own diet) and how to make it?
The training bit will include videos and comments on form, number of sets and the weight chosen during diet.

As far as the service goes I've been helping David and Francesco during lunchtimes with training questions. I will be reflective on their progress as well as on my own. Their aim (strength gain) might differ from mine (weight loss).

I'm also happy to issue articles to the school newspaper which include tipps for a helthy lifestyle. What to do, what not to do and why?

Lunchtime coaching is therefore direct trainig advice which i can reflect on, yet sharing knowledge in form of articles also contribute to service since "If you are good at something, never do it for free". In this case I will be just glad to share what I learn and read ever since I got into fitness.

As part of creativity I'll try and cook something that taste good and everyone else can easily prepare to follow healthy diet.

Diet

Its been a long time since I posted on my Blog. It was Winter holidays and have to be honest I wasn't even nearby internet, however now that I'm here I'll try and flood my blog with posts I missed out. My first thing was to go back in the Gym, but with a different workout program. So far I went 4 days in a row (legs, shoulders, back, chest) and then 1 day off completely. However I'm starting my diet. Less food, less energy for weights, therefore every second day is going to be a cardio (legs, running, shoulders, swimming and it goes on) This way I burn more calories weekly and have more time to recover from lifting weights, yet I attend the gym every day still. My goal is to go down to 82kgs in a month, so by the Fridays holidays (16th) I should be around 82-3kgs. Right now I'm over 86. Tomorrow I'm going to weight in, take a picture and then every now and then (probably weekly) I'll make an update along with workout videos which I plan to post on youtube to I help out people who might have issues regarding planned workouts. There are going to be hypertrophy workouts as well as strength workouts. Unfortunately my knee gave up a several weeks ago so I will have to go light on leg days. I've been to the doctor but all he could say is that I'm still growing and my kneecap hasn't developed propely. I shouldn't be training legs at all, but I dont want to miss it. Since i do more cardio (which is also hard on my knees) I might skip heavy leg training every second time, but I'll se how much it hurts. I'll have my pictures and videos up soon.