Eating healthy but using supplements

This post is partially rant and my own view so feel free to disagree with me.

I had couple days ago chat with a person who contacted me and we talked about nutrition when bodybuilding. I know that person but he didn't know before that I was into lifting weights and eating healthy. So eventually we ended up disagreeing with each others views.

I mainly eat healthy. I don't follow restrictive diet so if I want a chocolate, I'll have it. I keep my treats in low quantities but bad days may happen and what happens then isn't so pretty to look at. The point still remains that my diet is 95% healthy with little sins to keep me sane. A cup of coffee every day keeps me jolly thought it contains sugar. Many may disagree on my view of healthy eating. Many say I restrict myself too much and my diet is quite plain. This basically happens at school during lunch. Others take more rice, potatoes, sauces and creamy things, while my plate consists of 70% salad without vinegar, oils or dressing and rest on the plate is meat with possible 1 potato or few tbsp of rice. Instead of oils or dressings on salad I just add lots of seeds. Well truth behind my choice there is because I dislike taste of oils and vinegar. I add seeds to get fats to my diet. I rather eat more of salad than potatoes or rice because I like it more tastewise. Reason why I take so little meat at school is because it's always in creamy sauce. I balance out the low amount of protein on my plate with drinking 2 cups of buttermilk.

Here's one example of school meal. Salads that day weren't that tempting so I had only one of them, that's why there's less of it on plate. As you can see meat is kebab sauce if I remember correctly. I had more than usually rice and had some cottage cheese with pineapple to have more protein in my meal.

At home I eat more meat and less salads. Instead at home I eat eggs, porridges, few vegetables and mainly fruits. Occassionally I ofcourse eat berries, yogurts and much more. Unfortunately at home I'm more restricted with my diet, partially because of student budget but partially because I only eat tuna, pollock, turkey and chicken. I dislike taste of red meat. Beef is okayish. Unfortunately if the choice is to eat meat I enjoy greatly or something I rather keep in fridge for days till I'm in the mood for it, the choice is obviously skipping beef. Once a week I visit my family, where I eat whatever they have. Even if they are offering the worst red meat aka pork. I believe in constantly having ready meals, all meals calculated and never eating anything else is mentally unhealthy. If you have such huge fear to eat out with your boyfriend at times without calculating every little spoonfuls nutrional value, you need help. It's not normal! Make better treat choices and make them rare. So in conclusion I think my diet isn't that bad.

Meal of my choice at parents. Bowlful of strawberries, other bowl has oatmeal made with milk topped with peaches and a pear. Those chicken thighs in picture aren't part of the meal.

I have tried many different kind of diets in my life and I believe this what I'm currently following is the one for me. I eat more than anyone else I hangout with but my calories are never too high because I eat so much low calorie foods. Incomparison to rice (1 cup = 110 kcal) my big lettuce pile (1 cup = 15 kcal) is quite small caloriewise thought it looks massive. So my meals often look bigger than most mens meals. I eat more than my boyfriend who is very tall and almost twice heavier than me. Afterall I'm not big and I'm often told when met in real life that I'm actually quite tiny. Apparently I look on pictures like big strong amazons warrior. No idea what pictures of me they been looking at? My mealsizes to me don't matter because I feel good with my meals and that's all what matters. I also get more musclemass and my bodyfat remains the same so I must be doing something right. I believe in IIFYM like thinking that aslong as you get all nutrients your body needs, it really doesn't matter what you need. I eat some days more and some less, completly depending on how my body feels. Some days I eat even 400 calories more than I should. Some other days I eat 200 less. For me aslong its 100 kcal more or less to goal.

I try my best as much as possible to avoid eating supplements and get instead all necessary from my diet. I get daily all necessary vitamins without any worries but some I can't get.

• Fiber I often lack because I don't eat much of high in fiber foods. I get 60-70% daily from food and rest of it I get from supplement. Having that extra 5g of fiber daily makes a big difference in my body. It works better and I feel better. 
• Creatine I lack because I don't eat red meat and fish that often. Mainly because of heavy training having creatine would help nicely.
• Omega 3 and 6 again because of my own preferances. For example salmon I can't stand at all. Fish I eat approx once or twice a week. Sometimes less than that.
• Calcium. I almost reach daily calcium but it would be nice to have more of it to get full 100%. I do believe thought that I calculate something wrong in this case. Maybe forgot to enter calcium amount to some of my daily food.
• BCAA's. I do get quite a lot of my daily BCAA's in my meals but not enough incomparison to my workouts.
• Glutamine has same issue as above one. 
• Probiotics. I barely eat any yogurts or anything fermented so I don't really get these. 

I don't eat all of the supplements I lack. For example when my skin gets dry and I been eating too little fish, I start eating omega's again. D-vitamins I consume during winter every few days if I feel tiredish. Calcium I never take as supplement, I just eat more high on calcium foods and believe in it being enough. So far been eating fiber and probiotics daily at times because I have noticed that they make a big difference in how my body works. Extra biotin I been eating at times when my hair badly suffered from bad diet and stress, but mainly I do get enough of it from my diet. So far I been only consuming omegas, biotin, fiber and probiotics as supplements occassionally.

The reason why I lack so much in my body is all because of what I prefer to eat. If I were to add all the missing things into my diet, I think eating would become too complicated and I wouldn't enjoy it anymore. In other words it kills the meaning of eating well to feel well when all you do is stress if you get everything daily in your diet.

Back to the disagreeing part I had. Lately I have hit plateau in my workouts. I simply can't progress and I believe that now is a good time for first time ever to try eating creatine, glutamine and bcaa's to improve my working out. Working out while feeling too sore often causes more harm than good. I noticed my posture suffers then and instead of focus being on my back it switches to forearm which can't handle such heavy load. In his opinion having any kind of supplements is comparable to steroids. In other words he claims that if I take something I won't get any better and I'll end up just filling my body with unnecassary crap. I on other hand believe that having something that I lack in my diet is only good myself. He believes in eating well is all you need to be healthy and strong. I disagree that his diet is so healthy aswell because it lacks important nutrients. My view is that eating as well as you can is important but there's no such thing as eating so well that there's never anything you can improve on.

What's your thoughts on eating well and still using supplements? How's your diet and do you take any extra supplements?

PS. Boyfriend read this and asked me to add that he infact does eat less than me, more like his eating reminds a little anorectic girls daily eating. Thought he doesn't look like one.

Why working out and eating wrong won't get you results? part 2

This is post is part 2 for Why working out and eating wrong won't get you results? part 1

Also giving in to this kind of thinking will make you more likely to continue doing so. This your own minds lie that tricks you into just having quick boost of energy. I know the temptation to have a quick energyboost is sometimes hard to resist. This is why it's good carry your meals with you or have a fruit after workout for a boost till you get home. Most carry with them fitbars or workout shakes, which are way better way to replenish your energy after a workout. But not all of those are nutrionally good so make sure you check what they contain. Some are actually quite high on sugar and fat. So don't let the word fit/healthy/sports on them fool you. Sure it is told to eat every 2-3 hrs but I believe in rather eat every 5 hrs than make bad meal choices. Your body will thank you for that choice. Every 2-3 hrs is basically just so you don't feel hungry and give in to temptations. Many may argue about this but I didn't state that you should always eat every 5 hrs but incase you are in a hurry then rather have a quick snack in form of a fruit or skip a meal if your only options are unhealthy. I would still recommend having healthy little snack rather.

The most common mistake our mind does to us is miscalculation of calories. This is slightly related to what I told in earlier post when I mentioned that I been often told by some that they don't want to eat healthy or healthier because it doesn't remove hunger. Well this is all caused by often switching to healthier meals with smaller portion size which doesn't work just like above picture tells. Oil, beef and vegetables all equal 400 calories but which one you can eat more to actually make you feel full? Instead of switching portion sizes when you start eating healthy, stick to the old portion size and fill it with more vegetables. Below is picture that visually explains it better. Now you can see more clearly what happens when you switch from full plate of burgers into smaller plate with salad, a huge difference in calories. Let's say you used to eat 2500 calories a day of unhealthy foods and then you change to smaller amount of healthy, it can drop to 1500 calories a day which no wonder will make you feel hungry. So with constant miscalculation that workout which burned 500 calories and that small burger equal of 500 calories you had after workout won't get your body any closer to your goals.

Unhealthy meals affect your progress a lot. Not seeing results after working out hard disappoints you. Constant disappointment will lead to losing motivation. Why bother working out if past months you spend working out hasn't made any difference? Worst is that, this all can be changed with little change in diet. I hate using word diet. Diet is often related to eating too little and for short period to get quick weightloss that won't last for long. Basically just having little focus on what you eat, you can get healthier, fitter and look better.

Addiction. The picture itself explains a lot, but let's get to the point. The more you give into the addiction the harder it will be for you to get rid of it. Your rare treats after workout will become a habit and that habit will not let you progress. Not saying to fully quit sugar, fat and salt. Salt and sugar can be consumed in moderation. Eat good fats such as nuts, avocado etc are and also in moderation. Moderation is the key in all related to eating. Like I mentioned in very beginning of the post that unhealthy foods are usually high on sugar, fat and salt, here you see reason why avoiding unhealthy choices is so important and why they often make you overeat. Your addiction will make you feel more hungry, a fake hunger and to end it you must eat. Unfortunately not many understand that sometimes hunger can be a fake and not real need for extra energy, so you end up eating extra calories.

Insulin spikes are your enemies when it comes to getting fit and losing weight. As we see in above when you eat unhealthy fats you get fat. That's commonly known, but we often forget that there are 2 types of carbohydrates, good(natural) and bad(refined) ones.
Carbs consist of sugar and fiber, so if:

•  it's high on fiber it makes you feel fuller for longer
•  it's high on sugar it will give you insulin spikes, also known as quick energy boost

Easy way to remember which is which, is that good carbs are plant based and bad ones are sugars and refined "white" bread, pasta and rice.
Eating carbs basically works like this: you eat carbs that makes blood glucose that splits into producing energy and insulin. This is why often many quit eating carbs, but isn't the best option. It's all about carbs GI (glycemic index). High GI foods are the bad carbs and they cause a rapid rise of glucose. That's why you get fast energy boost but you also lose it fast. Insulins job is to stop burning fat and store it. Rapid rise of glucose means insulin spikes which means you will drop them faster aswell which means you need replenish sooner.

In conclusion eat well and workout! Stop wasting your time doing only one of them.

Why working out and eating wrong won't get you results? part 1

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It's quite common for people to think that if they workout they can eat anything. I'm not talking about occassional treats or daily cookie. But replacing daily a meal or few meals with unhealthy option. Sometimes it can be something you consider healthy but it really isn't. That's why I believe into making all meals myself right from the beginning. I barely ever buy anything ready made or already flavored. Those things are often packed with hidden calories which is often extra fat, sodium or sugar. Afterall for example salad dressings are quite easy to make and if you make them yourself you choose what it contains!

Replacing healthy meal with unhealthy one means you end up eating most likely more calories, fat, sugars and sodium daily than you should. This leads to gaining weight or stopping your progress. You will most likely lack the necessary amount of nutrients for the day aswell. Sure skipping on some vitamins daily doesn't seem like a problem, because you can always replace the missing nutrients with supplements. But it is a problem. No supplement can ever replace getting same nutrient from food. More about it on another post. 

Many have also complained to me how healthy eating keeps them hungry. That means you should check out what you are doing wrong. Some don't consume enough calories, some lack fiber but some eat too little of protein, carbs and fats. So most likely you are doing something wrong. Eating unhealthy meals keep you feeling full because you tend to overeat! Unhealthy meals are high on fat and sugar just so they give us quick boost of energy but quick energy is literally quick. You will feel hungry faster and most likely you will feel tired aswell. A picture on right may explain my point better.

Eating healthy replenished your body better after workout. You will notice this in many ways. A day after workout you have energy and strenght to workout again. You will have more strenght and you will feel way better both mentally and physically. Feeling good mentally is also a key to successful weightloss and getting fit. So eating something that brings your mood down onto ground is completly pointless. You won't get any closer to your goal so rewarding yourself after good workout with unhealthy meal is like erasing the workout you just had. Working out increases the loss of nutrients so that's why it is important to eat well. Your muscles and brains need specific vitamins to perform well. So if you feel you lack strenght and the mood for working out, the reason is on your plate. Sure stress and not sleeping well causes you to feel like that aswell. But even those are fixeable with eating well.

This post continues as Why working out and eating wrong won't get you results? part 2

Personal trainer study materials

So as I have mentioned in my profile, I'm starting personal trainer studies soon, in January to be exact. After for awhile checking out all available places where I could learn becoming personal trainer, I ended up with choosing Tsemppari koulu . First is because of the feedback I read from people who have studied it, second I think it teaches more about being entrepreneur personal trainer which is more to what I'm looking for and third reason is I have more trust in this one than the many more popular ones.
My gym I currently unfortunately go to has their own trainings too for same price but unfortunately because I workout there I have quite few times seen their lessons and heard students talking which really concerned me.
I overheard some of the students going through their studies and they didn't remember muscles by location and name nor how to properly do basic workouts such as deadlifts, bicep curls etc. If I were new to working out, would I want my trainer to be such? I know they will learn them but I believe personal trainer should know a lot of basic things before they even go to study it. Afterall there are so much to remember and know that it will take you long time before you can start training other people and if you know so little of basics you are useless for next first few years after getting the studies done and will you learn new things on your own, based on experience, after studies if you haven't read anything before you started studies? Not to forget lack of experience on basic exercises...
Few times I saw different group having their lesson with customer and they didn't fix postures at all... Neither did their teacher. Aslong it's somewhat to what it's supposed to be right? Well unfortunately if you do it wrong you risk yourself in getting an injury. The purpose of working out is to get better not worse. I broke my own knees out of stupidity and not questioning my trainers. This is why I don't like this trend of everyone wanting to be a personal trainer. Luckily such people will quit at some but they will cause a lot of damage before they quit.
My gyms personal trainers that are already working are lacking knowledge often when it comes to a person who is old or has past injury. I was quited to use smiths machine and leg curls with my bad knees. After telling that to a proper physiotherapist, she was worried why I was guided to do so. Well then I started paying attention more to how personal trainers work at my gym and they give exact same routine to everyone. No matter how old you are and if you have some injury. You can do this!
I'm not saying all the other places that teach to become personal trainer are bad but take your time and research before you make your choice. I'm not saying name of the above one because this is just my experience and maybe some other teacher does the job better. Afterall it is a big company with plenty of teachers. This is my personal view and that's why I chose this one.

This week I have received from them study materials such as 3 dvds (nutrition, basic training and extra training) and a book. I'll be going through them weekly so I might get write about some topic to discuss here for you others aswell.
Afterall there's a lot of things I already know and lots of things I probably didn't know AND probably lots of things I have second opinion on so will do researches and look for others opinion on it too. Nobody is perfect so nobody can really know absolutely everything. There's always a lot to learn and improve on.

Share your thoughts and experiences!

My goals and thoughts

It's about 3 months since I started studying to become massage therapist. What really got me into studying it is because when I do train other people and give them advices when it comes to eating, working out or injuries I always try to give accurate real answer for that. When I injured my knees nobody was there to help me. Nobody gave me answers. And the pain was unbareable and I was really scared because I was afraid if I use my legs I might make it all worse. All those times I went to doctor all I got was just rest it off. So I did, I rested them for years and I was overcautious with them because I was never given  answer what it is and why pain doesn't go away.

Well the pain did eventually go away as I got used to it. I still have days when the pain kicks in harder and that I do feel. But the daily pain became something I learned to ignore. The biggest issue I have with this is not the pain that much but more what it did to my lifestyle and to me on mental level. I became from sporty and healthy into depressed and avoiding exercising. I was always worried if I do anything it will make it worse. So it also affected my mind in a way that I was stress-eating. I felt sad for not working out so instead I ate. Not good.

So now that I'm better and defeated my ownself and got back to eating healthy and working out, I decided to aim for helping others. I believe everyone deserves to eat healthy, be strong and happy. When your body performs at it's finest and you get all the nutrients your body needs you are happy. And that's what we all want. I believe the world as it is right now is quite confusing. We want to be happy and we believe that once I earn enough, I'll have money to workout and eat well and then I won't be stressed so I'll be happy. We believe in having money as key to happiness. Or some believe that if they have sixpack they will be happy but forget to actually enjoy their workouts because they are too focused on achieving dream body.

To me being fit really means enjoying your healthy meals and having the love for your workouts. Being fit doesn't mean looking shredded, but being better version of yourself both mentally and physically without any stress. Accepting your body the way it is and if you do want to make changes in it, never make it a chore. To me happiness is when you sleep well, you eat healthy but enjoying your meals, doing workouts you love, not stressing and accepting yourself for what you are. Some would say I'm not fit but we all have right to have our own opinion. I think I'm fit because I perform better than before and I'm doing my best to keep getting better at it. Ofcourse just like anyone else I'm not perfect and I have my bad days. We all have them, even if we hide it from other people. My bad days ruin my progress but aslong I keep moving forward and learn from my mistakes I can only progress more. The worst I could do is quit. Also to me this is more of a emotional journey, to grow stronger shell on inside and outside.

Massage therapy hasn't really ever helped me but as I don't believe in medicines nor doctors I believe this has a lot more to offer. I have always survived with everything in more traditional ways so I put all my trust in that. Ofcourse if someone else believes in medicines and all that, I'm not against it. I just offer to deal with issue first on mental or physical way before going for pills. I ate so many pills for my knees and they did nothing for me. I had all my belief in them, but instead starting to strenghtening my muscles and giving my body what it needed to feel well I got better. I could always remove the occassional pain with surgery but it isn't 100% sure to fix it and has a risk of making it way worse. Physiotherapist told me that jumps aren't allowed for me anymore but otherwise surgery isnt't really necessary. Neither are jumps necessary for me. Never been fan of burpees, I doubt anyone is!

My goal is to help people get past their mental obstacles, get better from eating disorders, get healthy, get stronger body and not let their injuries ruin their lives. Ill be writing separate post about eating disorder, mental obstacles and injuries. The main point is that everyone deserves to enjoy their life and get rid of selfhate/selfdisgust/insecurity. There's no point to admire someone else when you can just be better version of your ownself.

So what being fit means to you? What's your thoughts about being happy and how to achieve it?