New beginnings are always exciting! New Nutrition & Training - Getting lean!!!

Today is a new beginning, a fresh start, and it is a day we will never live again. Let's make the most of it!

It's particularly significant as it marks the 1st of April - a new month for the continuation of life's journey however colored with new details, elements and different beautiful aspects.

In this month, I'm going to change/tweak my nutrition and approach to training. Mostly a change in my nutrition.

Since Dec 17, 2013 (so 3.5 months) I started have 30g carbs (Oats) pre-workout + Protein and then weight training. I've continued training 5-6 days/week and eating a lower-carb intake overall. Most days I typically consume 65-90g (max) Carbs and 150-160g Protein, 25-39g Fat for overall 1400 cals, which I've bumped up to this amount in the last 2 weeks.

My goal is to become leaner and more toned; to go from 19% Body Fat (measured last week 27 Mar) to 15-16%. According to the caliper info, it's reasonable to have fat loss of 1%/month. So it will take 4 months at very least. I'm no expert and I could easily be missing some info although that isn't as important as having a specific outcome of what I desire and basic parameters to guide me.

• So the new nutrition approach?

Following sound advice of my nutritionist :-) I will start to gradually increase my calories and carbs.
40% Carb, 40% Protein, 20% Fat and approximately 1600 cals. I'm a bit hesitant to bump up my cals yet I do train consistently 5-6 days and thus my energy requirements are likely higher than I am giving myself credit. In fact, many fitness experts and nutritionists advise that eating below cal requirements can result in some fat retention as the body is holding on the energy in the body; if adequate cals are consumed then this can facilitate the body to build muscle, promote fat metabolism, and reaching the lean, toned, defined body I crave :).

Despite the fact that I am satisfied on my current eating plan (lo-carb, no wheat or limited grains), higher protein and average fat, I am willing and open to adopting and implementing a new approach to see if it will shock my system and yield the desired results.  If I do the same thing I've been doing, I'm going to get the same results, and thus I won't know until I give it a shot and self-experiment.

The best that can happen is that I start to tighten up! See more abs definition, more defined, lean muscles and overall stable, optimal energy levels. That would be incredible! I want to embrace the possibility for a great outcome and if I apply myself conscientiously and diligently I can totally evidence the outcome - whatever it may be, and it can be amazing.

Well let me see.

• Some of the carbs I will now include/continue emphasizing:

- Sweet potatoes
- Oats
- Lentils
- Quinoa
- Gluten free pasta & bread
- Pumpkin
Basically, carb food items I've been excluding due to the higher Carb content. I haven't been craving, wanting or missing these. Nevertheless, I will probably enjoy the greater variety of food I can include in my daily intake.

• What else?

From my recent coaching session (I was being coached as part of our final exercises), I committed to tracking my metrics objectively so that I have concrete data to compare. Many times we are (I am) quite subjective, emotional, hard on ourselves and generally unable to accurately gauge our progress. Thus, I can best track progress with specific tracking - one of the components in achieving my desired outcome :-)

I'll start by (1) resuming weekly progress pics, (2) body measurements with tape measure and (3) taking caliper measurements for Body Fat %.

In terms of training, I've started incorporating higher reps for all weight training exercises to stimulate muscle activation and increase my metabolism, and I am also starting to include some HIT moves (which I had been doing although not necessarily consistently) at least 3 days per week.

Part of me thinks I could greatly benefit from having a personal trainer who can make a plan for me which I can follow without having someone there by my side. It's worth considering.

For time being, I will focus on just a couple of key changes: nutrition (40/40/20 macro split), higher cals 1600/day, and incorporating higher reps on weight training + HIT at the end of each session, or else sprinkled in between training.

Hilarious - I love this one cuz it's often true! haha :-P

I'm excited for this new approach and new start! I have a goal in mind, the desire and a plan to implement. Now it's just applying, trusting the process and having fun at every single opportunity.

 xx