Friday 16 September 2016

Week Update 05/09 - 11/09

Nutrition:

Another solid week this week which I'm happy with and weight loss has continued nicely, really nothing remarkable to report.










Training:

5th September 4.06km Jog

Burnt 365 calories
Pace 5:59 p/km

6th September Boxing Class

Burnt 595 calories

7th September Pecs and Biceps Workout 88.1kg

Barbell Bench Press 80kg each 6,4,3
Barbell Bicep Curl 40kg 5,4,4
Incline Barbell Bench Press 60kg 6,5,5*
Hammer Curls 16kg each 8,6,6
Dumbbell Pec Fly 14kg each 6,5,5

*went slightly higher angle (about 50 instead of 35) than normal with the incline bench which increased the difficulty and reduced the reps, felt like it targeted the upper pecs better though so I'll continue with it

8th September Back and Triceps Workout 88.1kgs

Wide Grip Pullups 8,5,5
Narrow Grip Tricep Dips 7,6,6
Barbell Rows 60kg 10,8,7
Barbell Shrug 80kg 10,10,8
Machine Tricep Extension 64kg 10,8,7

9th September 4.06km Jog 87.4kgs

Burnt 395 calories
Pace 5:32 p/km

Bit of a weight win this morning, 3.3kgs lost in 3 weeks

10th September Delts and Abs Workout 86.6kgs

Barbell Press 50kg 6,5,4
Barbell Upright Row 40kg 6,6,6
Hanging Leg-Hip Raise (toes to hands) 6,5,4
Front Raise 20kg 6,5,5
Knee Raise 6,6,6
Dumbbell Lateral Raise 12kg each 6,6,5

Another huge weight loss win this morning and I'm down 4.1kgs in 3 weeks, my body looks pretty shit because of the carb depletion but once I'm down to 81kg I'll crank up my calories and look to build back a bit of mass

11th September Pecs and Biceps Workout 87.7kg

Barbell Bench Press 90kg 4,3 85kg 5
Barbell Bicep Curl 40kg 6,4,3
Incline Barbell Bench Press 60kg 7,5,5
Hammer Curls 18kg each 6,5,5
Dumbbell Pec Fly 14kg each 8,6,5

Because I had a big carb feed yesterday I wanted to really go hard at the gym today. Felt really good.

Monday 12 September 2016

Bolognese Recipe

This recipe is a little bit keto unfriendly because of the carbs from the onions and tomatoes but it's still delicious and they key to keeping it keto is to make sure you use very high fat mince in order to keep the macros in line.

Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
500g high fat beef mince (this recipe used 18%)
2 brown onions
2 400g tins of chopped tomato
2 garlic cloves (or use minced garlic or powdered garlic)
1 tsp salt (more or less depending on your taste, remember there's a lot of salt in the tinned tomatoes)
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 pinch sugar

1 chopped whole chilli (optional)

side note - a lot of people add

125ml red wine
2 bay leaves

If you're eating this for health reasons the wine doesn't actually take much away (because the alcohol evaporates) so you can, however I don't feel like bay leaves add anything to a bolognese so I don't include them.

Method

1. Peel and dice the onions into a bowl and add all the herbs and spices. Add the oil to a saucepan on high heat and wait for it to get hot and then add the onions, herbs and spices in keeping it on a high heat but stirring constantly so the onions don't burn. High heat is important because otherwise the onions begin to stew and don't develop the delicious caramelised flavours we're looking for. Once the onions have turned slightly brown (please don't burn them) turn off the heat, allow to cool slightly and scrape the onions back into the bowl. Caramelising the onions should only take 5-6 minutes on a high heat.

2. Turn the saucepan back on to high heat and add the beef, once again high heat is super important because you want to seal the meat to keep it succulent.If you're using high fat mince you shouldn't need to add any more oil to the pan but you can if it would make you feel comfortable. Once again make sure you're constantly stirring the beef to make sure it doesn't burn to the bottom of the saucepan, once the meat is 80% sealed (i.e. you can only see a few bits and pieces of red raw mince left in the saucepan) you can add the onions back in.

3. Once the meat is fully sealed, turn the heat down to med-low and you can add in the 2 tins of tomato into the saucepan. When you first add in the tomatoes it will still look kind of thick, allow it to simmer for a few minutes and the liquids and solids of the tomatoes will separate and the top of your Bolognese will look very watery. Now you want to turn the heat down to low and allow it to simmer. You probably want it to simmer for at least 2 hours and allow for significant amounts of the water to evaporate so your Bolognese can develop it's delicious rich flavour profile.

Macro Nutrient Breakdown

Based on the above ingredients and cooking method a 250g serve of your finished product should yield you the following macro nutrient breakdown

Carbs 15g (19%)
Protein 23g (29%)
Fat 18g (52%)

Calories 322

As I said it's walking a fine line of not being keto due to the high carb count so a good idea is to add a lot of parmesan or cheddar cheese in order to beef up the fat and protein content of the dish.

Accompaniments

As above I would add plenty of cheese to make it more keto friendly and to give it that authentic feel some courgette (zucchini) or carrot spaghetti. If you chose carrot be warned they have 1g of carb per 10g of carrot.

Tuesday 6 September 2016

Nutrition 29/08 - 04/09


So a bit off the rails this week, I went to the Jamaican Notting Hill Carnival on Monday and then started coming down with a cold on Friday.

At the carnival I had intended to only have a couple of beers and some fried chicken but 2 beers turned into 10 and things got a bit off the rails. Friday and Saturday I made the conscious decision to eat a bit more as I could feel myself coming down with a cold and wanted to give my body some fuel to fight it. Fortunately I had some vitamin c+zinc and echinacea at hand and ended up coming out of it unscathed.

Despite all the set backs I was still able to come in at only 2100 cals (per day average) for the week.




Training wise really happy with the 6 sessions only downside being I wasn't able to complete a 24 hour fast on Friday as (as stated previously) I could feel myself coming down with something.



Weight wise I lost another kilo in the course of the week so I'm happy with that too.

Thursday 1 September 2016

Last Week's Nutrition

Overall very happy with my first week getting back into shape managed to average only 1800 cals for the week despite a huge refeed on Saturday. Macros also look excellent and considering the volume of carbs ingested on Saturday to only come out of the week at 11% of total calories consumed is awesome.



Training wise I'm very happy as well obviously I'm still building back my strength and cardio vascular endurance but things look great so far.



I'm also stoked with the 24 hour fasts I completed on Monday and Friday which I got through with flying colours.

From a weight loss point of view I dropped about a kilo over the week and have lost about 3cm from around my waist so things are looking very positive on all fronts at the moment.