Fitness check

Last October I registered at a girls-only gym. I’ve evaluated 5 gyms before picking this one and it has been a good decision. There’s a small fitness area where I don’t go as often as I should but I do a lot of aerobics classes like Zumba, Pilates, Step, Fatburner Aerobic, Legs-Bums-Tums and many more. The trainers are very skilled and it’s so much fun that I go 2-3 times per week.

So what’s the problem then? A fitness check is done every three months, which is good. Last time we did a fitness check in January I showed improvements. So it’s been a while but this week we’ve made one again but it didn’t go as well as I’ve hoped.

We measured the body fat, weight, bust, waist, hips, thighs and arms. I knew that it won’t be much better than in January because I wasn’t really motivated to lose weight. Instead I enjoyed food within a certain limit and I went to sport frequently. But it was still quite a shock to see that all the measurements were worst than last time. Especially because it’s summer. This is the time when I usually eat less because of the heat, we bbq often and have lots of salad and fruits, I go biking and walk a lot. Nevertheless it seems like I gained weight instead of losing some. I don’t even want to think about what’ll happen when autumn and winter comes. That is the time when we pack on some weight because of the cold.

I decided to take advantage of the remaining summer and to start being more careful about what I eat now. I got some pretty good nutrition advice at the gym which is definitely going to help me change course in the right direction:

I’m going to stick to three meals per day, no snacks in between. Snacking only makes me hungrier.

I’ll eat normally for breakfast and lunch, obviously taking care to eat healthy so no fried junk food.

Carbs in general and sugary fruits are only till lunch allowed.

Dinner has to be no-carb so meat or fish with veggies or salad will be on the menu. Muscles are built up and fat is burned during the night in my sleep so I need to give it some extra protein to help the process.

The first bite at a meal has to be protein. Not sure why but I’m already doing it anyhow.

Only fruits with low sugar are allowed in the evening, although I can only think of water melon or apples. Perhaps berries.

A small amount of nuts are also allowed, but not fried and oily!

No food allowed 1.5 hours before and after doing sport so that I force my body to take what it needs from my “reserves”.

I’m not cutting out carbs completely from my diet. I’ve tried the low-carb diet lots of times and while it is the fastest way to lose weight, it’s also bad because the body needs carbs to function properly. The brain needs 100 grams of carbs daily, otherwise the concentration level will massively decrease. I felt very weak and grumpy all the time. I also got terrible headaches. Low-carb is not the way to go, at least not for me. I’ll try to find the right balance between staying healthy and slowly losing the excess weight with a healthy diet and lots of sport!