Ask Away Wednesday: How Much Weight Should You Be Lifting? {And More}
By admin
Happy Hump Day! Half way through the week, which means 3 more days until my friends and I tackle this bad boy:
They have a really cool video up on the race page, watch it here!
Unfortunately, one of our teammates broke his toe a few weeks agi an won’t be able to join in on the torture fun. But on the flip side, my friend Cassie stepped up to fill his shoes! I know with her on our team we’re going to do awesome.
Today is another amazing “Ask Away Wednesday” post. Keep the questions coming! I love hearing from you, it makes my day. Remember, nothing is off limits! Just ask away in the comments below, on Facebook or email me (Taylorryan0406@gmail.com).
Okay, but for now let’s concentrate on this week’s questions.
Q: From the pictures you post of the meals you eat, plus running as much as you do, how do you not look like a skeleton? Don’t you burn way more calories than you take in? I’m feeling as if I have to workout 24/7 to make a difference in my body!
I try to post a lot of my dinners, and being that they are vegan means that they aren’t very calorie dense. And considering that I workout right now around 4-5 times per week, I guess it might appear sometimes hard to believe that I take in the calories that I need for the calories that I am burning. But I do make a conscious effort to make sure I am taking in calories, and to be honest this is something I am still working on.
Since training for the 1/2 marathon, I’ve dropped about 5 lbs and now I am trying to figure out exactly what I need to be eating to make sure I don’t lose any more.
Dinners past 2 nights: Left – Vegan Lasagna Right – Barley Mexican Salad with steamed asparagus
Right now I eat 3 square meals and 2-3 snacks each day. I also make sure that all meals are balanced with protein, fats and healthy carbs. 95% of our meals are prepared and cooked in our house (very rarely do we ever eat out), so I am in control of what goes into our food. Having this power over the meal makes it easy to create what we need.
And this isn’t all I eat in a day. I don’t post nearly everything… like how I went back for seconds for dinner, ate a small {vegan} blueberry chocolate bread, had a scoop of sunflower butter straight from the jar… well you get it. I all adds up to what I need. And on the weekends, I cheat… especially if I am in the kitchen baking away (I think cheat days are super important, especially after 10 mile runs)!
So NO DON’T workout 24/7! You’re doing great, just take on the path of making smart decisions in the kitchen and in the gym. You’ll see results.
Q: Taylor, I know you have a lot of races going on this month, what’s your night before the race ritual? Do you carb load?
This is a great question. I can remember back in the day when I used to think every race deserved a huge spaghetti dinner production the night before. To be honest, I am not a big carb loader, research shows it’s not really beneficial.
My body has adjusted to the carb load it gets now, which is comprised of all natural grains, veggies and fruits. Very rarely do I eat pasta and so I don’t really believe in chowing down no a huge Italian style dinner the night before. I don’t think my stomach will like it too much. Not to say that I won’t make some homemade pasta with a side salad though!
Now a days before I race, I normally drink a coconut water at night, a home cooked dinner that is balanced with protein, fat and carbs; and work on hydrating all day long. Drinking water is my weakness so starting TODAY, I will work on drinking 3 liters up until Saturday.
I won’t exercise on Friday, but I will probably foam roll to get the muscles loosened up and any kinks broken up.
Q: How many reps of 2, 3, and 5 kg weights (dumbbells) do you recommend I do? I feel I always under-do it, for fear of over-doing it.
Unfortunately, I can’t give an exact amount of weight that each person should be doing. Everyone is different in the strength abilities. What I tell my clients is that if you think that you’re under doing it, then you are. Whatever rep goal you have, if you get there but know you could do more than that’s a sign that you need to up the weight.
If your goal is to do 12 reps, but at 12 you think you could have done 3+ more, then grab the next weight up!
On the flip side, if your goal is 12 reps and you only get to 8, then lower your weight down. For this example, you should aim to keep all your sets in the 10-14 rep count.
Q: I workout 7, sometimes 9 times per week. Is this too much, too little or just enough? I am aiming to lose 13 stubborn pounds.
This is an issue that a lot of women walk into, working out TOO MUCH. We all have this idea that the more we workout, the more calories we burn and the faster we’ll lose weight. Right?
Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. Exercise is very taxing on the body and every time you workout you cause stress. The body doesn’t just “pounce back”, it takes time to recover. This recovery phase is when you see results, when your muscle tone up and the fat gets burned off.
Everyone needs to make sure to have at least 1 complete rest day during the week, preferable at least 2. Never work the same muscle groups back to back, and if doing high intensity intervals, only do them 2-3 days per week.
On off days, it doesn’t mean to sit on your tush… you can get up go for a walk, jog, play tag football with the family. Just don’t push yourself to the max.
Also make sure to sleep. Sleep is SO important for recovery, metabolism and overall results. 7-8 hours of course.
Q: What is best to eat after work out? If you have healthy breakfast, dinner at lunch time, & two snacks between meals . I go straight to work out . By the time I get home its quite late, I can be really hungry some days but other days I might not be . I don’t want to undo all my work & eat the wrong things, but I also don’t want to starve either .
I didn’t post the ENTIRE question, but her general food diary was posted as well, which looked very clean!
You definitely don’t want to skip out on dinner post workout. The idea that you shouldn’t eat anything after 9 is an old wive’s tale. Calories at 6 are the same as calories at 9. Just eat when you can. As far as specifics you want to try and eat within 30 minutes of finishing up your workout because this is the time period when the flood gates to your muscles are open and they’re needed protein to help recovery.
On nights when you’re hungry, go for chicken breast and veggies. Nothing too dense so that you’ll be able to get to bed on time. On the nights when you’re not that hungry but know you need to eat something egg white omelets, protein shakes and even cottage cheese with fruit are good options.
So there you have it! You asked, I answered away. Have a great Wednesday, I am actually heading to a health fair today, so fingers crossed it goes well!
We are passing out Cliff bars, so who can resist those? EXACTLY!
- What question do you have on your mind?
- Have you ever been to a health fair?
- Favorite granola/protein/health bar?