Nutritional Tips:
-Instead of eating 2-3 big meals a day, try to go for 5-6 smaller meals throughout the day. This will prevent you from overloading you digestive system and will keep your metabolism (how many calories you burn) high. Try to carry around some small healthy snacks with complex carbs, protein, and fiber (nuts, health bars, fruit, granola, etc)
Example) Medium Breakfast - light/medium snack - medium lunch - light snack - light dinner - very light snack
-Try to eat the majority of your food during breakfast and lunch time (and before and after your workout to a lesser extent) when your metabolism is at its highest.
-Unless you've had a very long day and haven't eaten much food, do not eat too much food after about 7pm as your metabolism slows down at this time. If you eat something it should be somethin light, ideally with mostly protein, fiber, and complex carbs.
-If you are trying to lose weight in a healthy way, it is best to eat 200-400 calories less than normal 5-6 days per week but 1-2 days a week you can over-eat a little bit and consume 200-300 calories more than normal. This allows you to have a "cheat" day when you go out to eat at Cheesecake Factory, get shitfaced, etc while also keeping your metabolism from going down. If you diet everyday your metabolism will drop because your body cannot work as hard on no energy and will thus conserve its fat and calories (not to mention you'll feel like shit).
-Vegetables are always good, fruits are good but eat in moderation as they contain a lot of simple sugars as well as nutrients.
-Increase your protein intake to approximately 80 grams a day as protein will help muscle recovery since you workout a lot, increase the metabolism, fill you up, and it isn't stored as easily as fat. Foods that are good for this while being low in fat include skim milk, luke's protein, powder, nuts, seeds, chicken, turkey, lean beef, fish (wild alaskan salmon is the best!), protein bars, beef jerkey, fat free cottage cheese, and fat free yogurt, etc.
-Avoid simple sugars from foods such as soda, fruit juice (oj is ok in the morning because it has lots of nutrients and no added sugar), white bread, cookies, candy, cakes, etc. This is nearly impossible but you should try to opt for more complex carbs when you can such as whole wheat products, oatmeal, sweet potatos, kashii, total, etc.
- All fat is not bad for you, unsaturated fat can be quite beneficial and actually increase your metabolism and health, good sources include nuts, seeds, and especially fish such as salmon.
-Consume protein and simple carbs right after your workout to jumpstart recovery since your metabolism will be boosted significantly.
- For increased metabolism and overall health take a multivitamin everday and drink a cup of coffee or 1-2 cups of green tea daily.
-When you drink no fruity pussy sugary drinks! Only light beer, straight alcohol, and diet soda chasers!
Lifestyle Tips:
-Get around 8 hours of sleep a night so you recover fully, don't get too stressed, and don't throw off your hormonal balance which can lead to muscle loss and weight gain.
-Stay relaxed, increased stress leads to weight gain and overeating.
-Everything in moderation, no over-drinking, no over/under-eating, and at least 1 day of rest per week from working out.
Workout Tips:
- Your dance classes are probably tough workouts so on top of that I'd say do 3 days a week of cardio, no more than an hour each session (as if that was a short amount of time haha, don't worry my cardio sessions are only like 30 minutes tops). While doing your cardio you should do a moderate pace for most of it but whether you're on the bike, elliptical, treadmill, etc (I prefer to use all 3 each workout but thats just me) to burn the most calories you should do quick 30 second to 2 minute intervals of increased speed or intensity to really push your body and raise your heartrate before returning to your normal pace; repeat every 3-5 minutes or so. Other small changes like using/not using the handles on the elliptical or peddling it backwards or turning up the incline on the treadmill will make small changes that push your body in a different way and keep your workout a little less boring.
-Lifting workouts should take 45 minutes, maybe a little longer at first or on a bad day. Since you would be going for smaller leaner muscle mass, you want to do a lot of sets, high repetitions during each set (15-25 reps), and short breaks (30-90 seconds) in between sets to mimic more of a cardio pace and burn the most calories. Start with the larger muscle groups and work your way to the smaller ones. Dont' worry about bulking up its not gonna happen :)
- You should lift about twice a week because lifitng workouts boost metabolism for up to 72 hours and burn off a lot of carbs, also bigger muscles burn more calories because they're metabollically active.
- If you do lifting and cardio on the same day, either split them up (lifting in morning, cardio at night for example) or do lifting first then a quick cardio workout after (20-30 minutes). If you want to just do a little lifting before cardio I would suggest a 10-15 minute ab or core workout.
-Lifting workouts will focus on compound exercises that will use the most muscles at one time and therefore burn the most calories at once as opposed doing isolation exercises.
Lifting Workout #1: Upper Body
1x warm up chest press machine
1x warm up row machine
1x warm up dumbell curls/dumbell hammer curls
STRETCH
3x chest press machine
3x row machine
3x lat pulldown machine
3x military press
2x dumbell lateral raises/front raises/upward rows
3x dumbell curls/hammer curls
STRETCH
Lifting Workout #2: Legs and Core
1x warmup leg extension machine
1x warmup leg curl machine
1x warmup crunches
STRETCH
3x squats
2x dumbell lunges
2x deadlifts/stiff-legged deadlifts
1x leg curl machine
2x seated calf raise machine
2x standing calf raises (alter foot position: inner, outer, rocking back and forth)
3x crunches with twists + planks for 10-20 seconds
2x leg raises
2x dumbell side leans (light weight)
STRETCH!
I hope you enjoyed this article about how to live healthier on a frugal budget and maximize your performance!
Interested in more articles about frugal fitness?
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I hope you enjoyed this article about how to live healthier on a frugal budget and maximize your performance!
Interested in more articles about frugal fitness?
Read My Posts:
Stay Frugal & Fit My Friends!
Frugal Fitness World Wide Wellness
Free Workouts & Nutrition On A Budget
"Crushing Fitness Costs Worldwide"
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