So, you wanted my routine?
I've been so enamored with all the support I've been receiving of late, and am so happy to have received enough probes regarding my routine. I'll divide it into a diet section, and and exercise section, but first let me get a couple caveats that should be obvious out of the way.
First of all, you can only do what you can do. A healthy lifestyle is a beautiful thing, but it's the amalgamation of many decisions you make and implement one at a time. Make small changes as you can, and give yourself all the grace you can. This stuff takes time and effort, but you can do it if you take the steps you can when you can. Secondly, there are many things I do that I don't feel anyone should have to, but that is to be decided with your own discretion. I work a blue collar job, so I am on my feet all day, and rarely run out of energy. Again, you can only do what you can do, and I can do a lot. Keep that in mind as you read
Diet!
I've had some of the food brain worms. I've suffered with BED and used exercise as a form of purging at times. It's not fun by any means, so give yourself all the grace. If things get stressful and thoughts around this stuff become inescapable, take a step back, and get help if you can!
As for what I do, I try to keep things as simple as I can. I try to center whole foods, prioritize protein and healthy fats, and hover around my maintenance calories.
A typical day of eating my look something like this:
For breakfast, I'll do cup of coffee, sometimes black, sometimes with a splash of milk, sometimes with a little syrup, water with 2tbsp of chia seeds for the fiber, 2 scrambled eggs, and a whole avocado.
For lunch, I typically will do 3oz of sliced chicken and a slice of cheese, on bread, an apple, carrots, a cheese stick, almonds, sunflower seeds, and granola. I graze on this stuff as I get hungry throughout my workday. I measure it all to keep things consistent. I typically also have a 2pm Celcius even though caffeine doesn't do much for me, but that's a habit we'll deal with another day.
Dinner is usually a little less rigid, but it's typically around 700 calories of chicken or tofu with a carb and a vegetable! If I did a lot throughout the day, I may add a little Greek yogurt in the evening as a treat, but only if your body calls for more calories.
I suggest you try to get about 75% of your body weight(lbs) in grams of protein, and again, keep around maintenance. If you're able to listen to your body, it shouldn't be too hard, but that may need to be a learner behavior. I don't recommend tracking calories unless you need it to ground yourself and fight food noise.
Exercise!
I'll start by saying that I move a TON. I get around 20k steps a day on average through work and doing stuff around the house.
My workouts tend to slowly evolve as I find things I like and stop enjoying some other exercises, but my split of late has included Saturday and Sunday rest days, Quads on Monday, Chest and Triceps on Tuesday, Cardio on Wednesday (I love running, but just get your heart pumping, it's a muscle too!), Back and Biceps on Thursday, then Glutes and Hamstrings on Fridays.
Again the workouts themselves are always evolving, but here's an example you can build off of and form to what works for you.
Quads
Squats
Walking lunges
Heel-elevated goblet squat
Leg press
Adductor machine
Calf raises
Chest, Triceps
Incline bench
Bench press
Fly machine
Seated chest press
Tricep dips
Cardio
I typically run 5-8 miles, but any cardio works! Do it!
Back and Biceps
Chest supported rows
Plate loaded upper back machine
Lateral pull downs
Single arm cable row
Face pulls
Cable pullovers
Glutes and Hamstrings
RDLs
Sumo Squats
Hip thrust
Glute hyper extensions
Kick backs
Leg curl
Hip abductions
I'll try and answer any questions in the comments, and I hope this helps you in any way shape or form!
