11 April 2014 ~ 0 Comments

5 Tricks To Drop The Pesky Vanity Pounds

By admin

Oh, those pesty vanity pounds. Some fitness pros and health coaches may be embarrassed to announce that they have a few vanity pounds that they would like to loose out of fear of criticism of not truly loving their body.

I think that’s silly. We all want to look and feel the best in our skin. I’ll gladly stand up and shout:

“My name is Taylor and I have a few vanity pounds I want to get rid of, asap!”

You see, I have a pretty big trip coming up in a few weeks, and damn if I don’t want to look the best I possibly can.

I’ve worked really hard over the past few months to add muscle to my frame and now that the hard work is paying off, it’s time to get rid of the extra fat that came along with it.

No shame. No secrets. Pure honesty.

I announced on Wednesday that I was watching my food intake and several of you asked for my lean out tricks.

To be honest, I’m still working on putting together my complete plan but here’s the rough draft that I’ve got going on…

Tricks To Drop The Vanity Pounds For Good

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These are the tricks that work for me, that I’ve used over the past few years when I feel myself getting a bit relaxed with me nutrition and workout. So, since they’ve worked in the past, I’m sticking to them this time around too. After all, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

Water, Water Everywhere!

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I am the queen of dehydration. A day rarely goes by when I actually drink enough water for my activity levels. So when I go into “lean out mode”, my water is the first thing I turn to.

I drink 3-4 liters each day to help flush my body of bloating, to help my body run efficiently, and to help curve cravings and hunger. Most of the time when I think I’m hungry, I’m really just thirsty! As is true with most people.

Increase Speed, Not Distance

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When it comes to cardio workouts that burn fat, intervals is where it’s at.

The change severe changes in intensity over the course of a single workout puts your body into a huge state of calorie burn. In fact, you can burn the same amount of calories in 2 hours of intervals that you would in 10 hours of steady state cardio (running the same speed).

And there is also that whole muscle thing… long steady cardio workouts can have a detrimental affect on the muscle mass I’ve worked hard to build by breaking it down for fuel.

Best example I can give… compare a sprinter with a marathoner. Right now, I’m going for the look of a sprinter.

The No-No Foods

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Anytime you’re trying to change your body, it comes down to food choices. I hate to use the stupid cliche “Abs are made in the kitchen” but they really are.

It’s time to evaluate the foods that you know are holding you back, and cutting them out until the lean out is complete.

For me that includes: sugar, fruit (I limit myself to just 1 piece/day due to sugar), carbs (good-bye bread/pasta/rice), and wine (I have limited myself to just 2 glasses on the weekends).  Of course keeping salt intake low is important too, but I don’t harp on it as I am not a big salt eater in the first place.

Because these are those pest vanity pounds they can be harder to drop, so it’s important to me that I stick to limitations I’ve set.

Track Everything! 

How do you know how your nutrition is going if you don’t track your food? Yes, it’s a pain in the butt but it’s important. Using MyFitnessPal I can see how my calories are, where my carbs are, how many grams of protein I’m getting and then change things around if I need to.

Plus it helps accountability. For too long, I’ve had the idea of “oh, one little bite won’t hurt”, but those little bites add up!

For me personally, I am aiming 30:35:35 ratio with my macro-nutrients. That’s 30% of daily calories coming from carbs, 35% coming from fat and 35% coming fro protein. I might increase the protein in the next few days but I’ll see how this ratio works.

Don’t Think About What You Can’t Eat

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Like I talked about with Dilia, if you are told not to do something, what happens? It’s all you can think about!

So instead of thinking about the foods that I’m removing during this lean out phase, I am thinking about the success I’ll feel at the end. The goals I am working towards and keeping my thoughts positive.

And it also leads to some creativity in the kitchen! I refuse to “give up” anything… instead I am having fun finding alternative methods for creating my favorite foods. For example, instead of my normal pancakes, I’ve been using my SunWarrior Blend (natural flavoring) with an egg white, cinnamon, baking soda, and water to create amazing pancakes.

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I’ve even used the protein for making pizza crust. If there is a will, there is a way.

Last Minute Tips

Here are a few other tips to keep in mind during a vanity lean-out

–> Continue to lift weights to keep your muscles happy! Make sure you’re getting sufficient protein to keep them from breaking down during decreased calorie intake.

–> Take pictures to track your progress! Forget the scale, go with results that you can see.

–> Have an accountability friend/partner. For me, I have my friend Jeanette and my SIL, Julie. Both of these ladies have similar goals so we are able to connect and check in.

Food Staples While I Lean Out:

    • Eggs
    • Salmon and other fish
    • Chicken
    • Lots of Greens: Spinach, Brussel Sprouts, Broccoli
    • Sweet potatoes
    • Garlic
    • Sunwarrior Protein
    • Homemade nut butter
    • Quest Bars (so easy and less than 200 calories)
    • Apples

And that’s all I have to say about that. All of us are different which is why I have left off details such as my daily calorie allowances. But I will say that I am eating about 300 calories less per day to accomplish a 1-2 pound weight loss per week when combined with my workouts.

Weekly Workout Check-In

Several of you have asked for me to share my weekly workouts so what better way to end a Friday? My week starts Sundays, so that’s where we will kick off.

Sunday:

–> Filmed a Fit Womens Weekly body weight workout (killer legs)

–> Filmed a Fit Womens Weekly kettlebell workout

Monday: 

–> Super sore from Sunday, so kept things light with 3 mile jog. Ran a mile, did some core work, and repeated 2 more times.

Tuesday: 

–> Treadmill speed workout. Completed 400m repeats at 6.30 minute/mile paces or faster. Finished with an incline tabata to test out how high the ‘mill would go… got it to 18 and wanted to die.

Wednesday: 

–> Started the morning 3 mile run at 7.5 min/mile pace. Later that day I did this kettlebell workout from my friend Kim, followed by KB swings and get-ups. And because of an odd number of people at boot camp, did boot camp with my class (it was a partner workout). Felt great!

Thursday: 

–> Met up with Jeanette for strength training session using sleds! So much fun!

Friday: 

–> REST DAY!

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