Last week was really quiet.. there wasn’t much going on in the ICU, and I was very in the way in anaesthetics (due to more students starting up) so I had a pretty cruisy week!! It was nice, I spent time catching up on study (this year is flying by and exams are only a few months away, eek!) as well as doing a bit of reading about exercise and nutrition.
I’ve decided to alter my routine a bit because I feel like I’m stuck in a bit of a rut and need to surprise my body with change 🙂 I’ve also decided that I want to slim down my legs – someone mentioned that my legs are looking very chunky last week & I don’t handle comments like that very well. My boyfriend says he loves my legs, but I think he’d love every part of me no matter what I look like haha <3. I found a few articles suggesting that to slim down bulky legs, you should:
- Decrease the weight and increase the reps (50+!!!)
- Less HIIT and more slow and steady cardio
- Decrease calorie intake
Basically, the aim is to change the ‘fast twitch’ muscle fibres in my legs, to ‘slow twitch’. Fast twitch muscle fibres are found in athletes like short distance sprinters – the muscles become adapted to contract quickly and powerfully over a short period of time. Slow twitch muscle fibres, like in long distance runners, are good for endurance. By comparing the physique of the different athletes, the size of the different muscle fibres is obvious. Doing heavy weights at low reps gradually transforms slow-twitch fibres in fast-twitch, so I am wanting to reverse this, to a certain extent, in my upper legs. Oh, and the decrease in calorie intake is to help with fat loss, but because my body fat percentage is quite low anyway, I don’t think that’s the main issue here.
As well as changing my leg routine, I’m just going to add some drop sets and different types of exercises for my other muscle groups, just to mix things up a bit.
Motivation: I don’t know who this is but I really like her legs. The shoes help of course haha
Weekly food plan:
Meal 1/Breakfast:
Blueberry protein pancakes
Meal 2:
Triple Chocolate Protein Cake Bars from www.runningtothekitchen.com. These are really dense and really yummy!!!
Serves 9 (but I cut mine into 16 small squares)
1 cup oat flour
1/4 cup almond meal
1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder
1 scoop chocolate whey protein powder
3 tbsp unsweetened dark cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
2 tbsp egg whites
1/4 cup Stevia (I used about 12 serves of Stevia)
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup plain Greek yoghurt
1/4 cup almond milk
3 tbsp dark chocolate chips (optional – I left these out)
3 tbsp chopped walnuts (also optional, but I added them)
Preheat oven to 175 degrees and grease an 8×8 baking dish
Mix dry ingredients in a bowl
Mix wet ingredients in a separate bowl, then add to dry ingredients
Pour batter into baking dish and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean
Let cool completely before slicing
Nutritional Info: (per 1/16 squares)
Calories: 88
Total fat: 4.6g
Total carbs: 5.4g
Sugars: 1.0g
Protein: 5.9g
Meal 3/Lunch:
Kangaroo Chili
Serves 4
500g kangaroo mince
1 onion – diced
4tsp minced garlic
4 tsp tomato paste
2-4 tomatoes – diced
1 cup of 4 bean mix (drained can)
Chili powder
Curry powder
Salt and Pepper
Basil
Thyme
Dash of Worcestershire sauce
Combine meat, garlic and Worcestershire sauce in a bowl, then brown the mixture in a frying pan at medium heat until the meat is almost fully cooked. Drain fat from the pan, then add rest of the ingredients. Cook until meat and onion are thoroughly cooked.
Nutritional Info: (per 1/4 serves)
Calories: 170
Total fat: 2.5g
Total carbs: 6.6g
Sugar: 3.3g
Protein: 28.7g
Meal 4:
I tried another protein cookie recipe and these are really yummy but next time I will add another egg because they are a bit crumbly. If you love peanut butter, these are the cookies for you!! These are Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Protein Cookies from www.createliveblog.com/.
Serves 8 large or 12-14 small (I made 14)
3/4 cup peanut butter (make sure it is 100% peanuts!!)
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup chocolate chips (I subbed in more walnuts)
2 tbsp ground flax seed (I didn’t have any of this so I used ground LSA mix – linseed, sunflower and almond)
1/4 cup diced walnuts
2 scoops of protein powder (I used chocolate whey protein)
Preheat oven to 190 degrees
Combine all ingredients and mix well
Roll into balls and flatten onto a baking tray
Bake for 14-18 minutes or until cookies are beginning to brown
Nutritional info: (per 1/14 cookies)
Calories: 236
Total fat: 17.8g (only 3.3g saturated fats)
Total carbs: 6.3g
Sugar: 1.9g
Protein: 13.6g
Meal 5/Dinner:
I cooked my Slow Cooker Thai Chicken again, but instead of almond butter I used peanut butter (left over from the cookies). The nutritional info is almost identical.
Meal 6:
Chocolate Protein Mousse + Peanut Butter 🙂
🙂 xx
