Tag Archives: bulky

Fitness, Uncategorized

Poochy tummies and big thighs

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 How do I get lean but small legs?  How do I lose stomach fat? What do I eat to lose weight? How do I slim my calves? My quads? How much do you weigh? How many calories do you eat? How many hours do you workout? What types of exercises do you recommend? 

Initially, this post was going to consist of me answering your frequently asked questions. However, as I got to thinking about the FAQs from all of you, I was hit with a glaring reality: the most requested blog posts/questions are usually regarding fitness. Getting even more specific, most of the questions within the fitness field are about how to change one’s appearance. 

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On the surface, this interest seems like admirable curiosity and dedicated ambition to improving oneself, however, the magnitude and fierceness behind the need for fitness “answers” is unsettling. Why is there such FEROCITY behind girls wanting to get rid of that problem spot, or fix their appearance? And do that all in the least amount of time?

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Don’t get me wrong! The desire to improve upon oneself is certainly commendable and praiseworthy, however, the panicked INTENSITY behind changing who we CURRENTLY are is troubling and abnormal. I am not trying to isolate the girls who have asked me questions, as I am one of you! I am guilty of doing the same exact thing! I have spent hours upon hours researching how to “slim down bulky quads” or “lose baby fat”, or get rid of acne scars. I am guilty of the same deed. The reason for this post is to address this dangerous and critical epidemic that has infected so many women, including myself.

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We have become contaminated with inaccurate information that tells us that we are not good enough. Turn on the TV and look at our commercials. There are ads trying to persuade us to get that cream and cleanser to fix our skin so that we can “gain confidence”; there are companies pushing us to invest in the newest supplements or body wraps so that we can jump-start our weight loss journey; because clearly, there is a scientific correlation between decreasing weight and increased happiness. Right? WRONG.

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The entire realm of commercialism invests billions of dollars in attempting to brainwash us into believing that happiness can be bought. If we just had that perfect cream to cure our skin,the perfect supplement to help us lose weight, or the perfect book to change our lives, we would be happy! And, look at our companies. They are bent on trying to convince us that THEY have magically formulated  the “perfect” item that is going to give us everything we have ever wanted. 

Its absolutely heartbreaking. 

It is truly unfortunate to comprehend how deeply these elusive expectations have infected my life. It’s the same sentence OVER AND OVER again, : “I will be good enough when…” …when I get my Ph.d, when the children I don’t even have yet tell me I’m a good mother, when I’m able to complete a marathon, when I have the perfect body, clear skin, etc. 

What about now? Why am I not valuable enough to be loved now? I am a work in progress and I will always remain a work in progress. Does that make me invaluable or unlovable?—No, that makes me human.

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This brings me back to the numerous questions about fitness—particularly, using fitness to change something that we don’t like about ourselves. We get so stuck in trying to fix what’s wrong with us that we never even stop to figure out why we feel unhappy.  What do we not like about ourselves? What makes us unlovable?

We may not like the way we look–we may despise something about our physique or appearance. Some of us may loathe our tendencies–the way we feel, the negative thinking patterns we’ve acquired. Others of us may not be at peace with our behaviors–the things we have done in our lives, the things we may still be doing, the hurt we have caused to ourselves and others. Futhermore, we may be dissatisfed with our circumstances–our career situations, and our relationships. 

I get it. It’s not always easy to like yourself. But, when did “being yourself” become such a taboo? Who decreed that we must be in constant competition with one another? So often, I feel as if my life is lost in trying to “conform” to societal norms better than everyone else. Sure, society thinks that helping people is great, but I want to be better than you at making other people feel better. HUH?!?!

And so commences, the dangerously fickle competition.

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What if you could love yourself, exactly as you are? Without changing even one thing? 

What is holding you back from doing that? 

If you really trace it back, it is not the thing you’re bent on changing about yourself. Those muscular quads, the pimples, receding hairlines, odd-shaped noses, the “fat rolls”–these are not the things that are TRULY holding you back. What is, however, holding you back is the self-defeating BELIEF that YOU HAVE TO BE PERFECT to be LOVABLE, HAPPY and OKAY. 

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You don’t.

You can be comfortable with who you are, even if you have imperfections. And even more so, other people can be happy with you too, despite your various imperfections! We are all imperfect. We are all insecure about one thing or the other. Though we may struggle differently, we struggle nonetheless. We know what it feels like to be ashamed, scared of judgement, unhappy, dissatisfied and isolated. Whether we want to be or not, we are connected with one another. 

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I want us to ACCEPT ourselves exactly as we are. Will you do something with me? Will you aid me in putting a hiatus in the endless cycle of panicked “fixing” “picking” “prodding” “calculating”? 

“I love and accept myself exactly as I am, and in doing so, I accept the world and other people exactly as they are.” 

Repeat that to yourself, as many times as necessary. Repeat it, even if you don’t believe it yet. 

Accept it. You’ve got a lumpy tummy, a big nose, horrible acne, noticeable hyperpigmentation, panic attacks, a stress disorder, a mental illness, a physical illness, thighs that touch, clothes that don’t fit, a list of people you’ve hurt, things that you regret. Accept all of it. 

Accept it. And, now, stop looking at it.

It is really the looking, relooking, and oh–that one more look that is killing you. Hush. End it. It is there. Yes, you have an odd-shaped nose. Yes, you are overweight. Yes, your face has pimples. Yes, you really did let that partner get away. Recognize it. See it. And let it be. It is there.

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Chances are, it is still going to be there the next 50 times you check too. In conducting this neverending recalculating, looking, remeasuring, and re-analyzing, we all inadvertently MAGNIFY our imperfections and insecurities. Some of us magnify them to the point that when we look in the mirrors that is ALL we see. And, we begin to fearfully fret that THAT is all others see too. 

It’s okay. Let them see it.

Accept it all.

It is there.

Let it BE.

And, shift your focus to something else.

By accepting and letting things “be”, you are releasing the WORRY associated with your imperfections, not the imperfection itself. It is all okay. You are not going to become a lazy slug and not get anything done. You are not going to turn into a failing student because you’ve “accepted” that your grades are a certain way. You are not going to gain 300 lbs overnight because you’ve “accepted” that you are currently overweight.  You are not going to end up in a mental asylum because you’ve “accepted” that you are currently suffering from clinical depression.

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KNOW and BELIEVE that you are going to work from this place. “Rock bottom” is going to become a SOLID and DURABLE foundation to build the rest of your beautiful life upon. You are not going to slip into mediocrity. You don’t have to be uncomfortable with who you are to improve on the person you want to be! Contrary to popular belief, those things are not mutually exclusive. They CAN and DO work together. You CAN be comfortable with what you have, while working towards something better. 

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You are freaking awesome, but you are going to keep becoming even more awesome-er with each passing day! 

❤

Fitness

Kayla Itsines BBG: Slimming bulky legs

10 Comments

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As most of you know, I completed Kayla Itsines’ Bikini Body Guide program. I’ve gotten tons of direct messages, as well as questions embedded in comments regarding my sentiments on the guide. Do I recommend it?

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In short, the answer is YES. I do. It is a wonderful guide that includes tons of new innovative fitness ideas. I can easily say that my approach towards fitness has been changed forever, because of it.

So, the million dollar question: how did my body change?

Well first,  I did take pictures along my journey, however the reason you haven’t seen these progress photos is because it is against my religion to show my bare stomach/legs. I can tell you that after completing the guide, I had more tone in my arms, abs and back than I have ever had in my entire life. The muscle tone I’m referring to is the lean, petite, defined look, as opposed to the bulky muscular look.

I truly think that when Kayla released her guides, she called them a “GUIDE” for a reason. It is simply a set of her recommendations that could be helpful in attaining a certain body type. HOWEVER, YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO YOUR OWN BODY, because it should be the primary reference and teacher in showing you whether or not something is working. So although, I recommend the guide, I do NOT recommend it as a replacement for trust in your body and your own experience.

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This leads me to talk about something so many of you have questioned me about: slimming down muscular legs. A few weeks into her guide, I found that my thighs/quads were gaining more muscle than I preferred. So, I tweaked a few details, to help reshape my legs to the way I desire.

I have to say this one more time! I don’t think that Kayla’s intent for creating the guide was to provide a “foolproof” way to get the body you want; there is no ONE way that can work for every single girl in the world. Her guides are lavished with helpful guidelines and tidbits of knowledge, so please don’t doubt the validity of your own experience with another’s suggestions–not even mine!

In my journey, I discovered that I’m an ecto/mesomorph breed, which means I tend to pack on muscle like no tomorrow. I can see it, and I can feel it. This works in my favor when it comes to abs/arms and back definition. However, my legs tend to become disproportionately bulky. What do I mean by that? Well, my calves/lower half of my legs do not budge in size, whereas the upper half of my legs start bulking, and it looks a little strange to me haha.

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A few blog posts ago, I gave you general tips regarding slimming bulky legs. But so many of you have been questioning me about how to incorporate these tips into Kayla’s guide. In short, the question seems to be: what types of changes did I make to ensure my leg size did not increase while I was doing Kayla’s guide? 

Now, as far as the SPECIFIC guide…

On M,W,F

  • AM: I’ll do LISS in the morning (power-walking) for 45-60 minutes.
  • PM: I’ll do the desginated workout from Kayla’s guide

On T, Th

  • AM: I’ll do moderate intensity cardio (jogging/ellipitcal) for 30-45 minutes.
  • PM: I will stretch or do vinyasa flow yoga for an hour.

Saturdays: LISS only

Sunday: Rest day

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FIRST AND FOREMOST, I had to incorporate more LISS-MISS to for longer bouts of time. Why? Because the only time that there may ever a need for your body to turn to your muscles for fuel is in the late stages of extreme endurance running. When glycogen or carbohydrate stores are depleted, your body will turn to the only fuel source left — amino acid proteins in your skeletal muscles. Only then, will it turn these into glucose for fuel.

So please note that losing muscle is HARD. Our bodies do not, naturally, want to do this. So  be patient with yourself during this process.

An example of my favorite/most effective workouts that I did on Tuesdays and Thursdays is this one:  I would start by jogging at 5 mph on a treadmill. I would then increase the spped in increments of 0.3 mph every minute. So, each proceeding minute, I would jog at 5.3 mph, 5.6 mph, 5.9 mph, etc. I would continue doing this for a total of 5 minutes.

Minute 1: 5.0 mph

Minute 2: 5.3 mph

Minute 3: 5.6 mph

Minute 4: 5.9 mph

Minute 5: 6.2 mph

Once I reached 6.2 mph, I would start coming back down in 1 minute increments. So…

Minute 6: 6.2 mph

Minute 7: 5.9 mph

Minute 8: 5.6 mph

Minute 9: 5.3 mph

Minute 10: 5.0 mph

I would keep repeating this circuit for a total of 30-45 minutes.

This is ONE example of training at a moderate-high intensity. Remember, in order to train at a moderate intensity, you must determine your heart rate training zones. Working at a “low” or “mod” or “high” intensity is not defined by the specific workout you do. It’s defined by how “hard” your heart has to work to maintain the workout. I could simply be doing the elliptical for 30 minutes at a speed of 9.0 mph and this would still constitute as moderate intensity training for me, as my heart rate falls in between the moderate training zones.

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I also incorporated yoga into my regimen. I cannot emphasize how much yoga helped with elongating contracted muscles! It’s counterintuitive because it’s generally a low impact/low intensity activity, and consequently, does not burn as many calories. However, it has really worked wonders for helping me stay lean and long.

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Now, as far as the specific “LEG day” circuit, I made a few adjustments

  1. I only did 1 round of the entire circuit! So I did Circuit 1, and Circuit 2. Each circuit is 7 minutes, so I only did 14 total minutes, and stopped. I did NOT repeat both circuits a second time around. Instead, what I did were these excercises: 
  2. I replaced all weighted squats/weighted lunges. Whenever the guide instructed me to do jump squats/weighted squats, i would turn them into plie jump squats. plies
  3. Whenever the guide instructed me to do weighted lunges/jump lunges, I would replace them with the lunges shown in this video. Please fast forward to 5:26 to watch the move! 
  4. NOTE: if you find that your legs are still remaining “bulky” even with the above-mentioned replacements, start replacing those exercises high intensity full-body plyometric movements. This way, you are incorporating more of the entire body and therefore, no longer targeting quads and hams. Some replacements you can try include:  jumping jacks, star jumps, plank jacks, skaters, tuck jumps, hurdles, leap frogs, 180 jumps etc. Here is a video of common plyometric exercises you can browse through and choose: 

In summary, the above-mentioned recommendations are what helped me return less muscular-looking legs. You know the famous saying: “if you don’t use it, you lose it.” Well, remember it and use it to your favor. If you’re not using the muscle, while eating at a deficit, you WILL start losing muscle (the time it takes each person varies, but I promise you, that it will occur). The reason I made these replacements is because I did not want to target the leg muscles. Full-body plyo movements cause power to be generated across a larger surface area, and therefore allow the entire body to become more evenly engaged. Whereas, squatting and doing lunges unevenly distribute power to target the legs. Think about it, if someone is doing lunges and squats in the “proper form”, their upper body is as close to still as possible. As mesomorph ladies trying to lose muscle, we do not want to overwork our leg muscles, causing them to hypertrophy.

yehwala

 

Fitness

Slimming down bulky, muscular legs

16 Comments

 

These are both pictures of my legs at different times
These are both pictures of my legs at different times

I feel like this deserved a blog post on its own because this is probably my most FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION.

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Okay, so by “rarely” I mean that I do not do repetitive leg exercises that target isolated leg muscles such as lunges/squats/calf raises. I may do a set here and there, however that’s really it. If I do decide to do the above mentioned isolated exercises, I tend to make them plyometric movements. What does this mean? In simple terms, this means: “ADD A JUMP”. Jump lunges, jump squats, jumping calf raises. I do these as fast as possible without causing fatigue. As soon as I feel the burn coming on, I STOP and rest before repeating.

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As a mesomorph with a relatively low body fat percentage, I TEND TO GAIN MUSCLE LIKE NO TOMORROW. Even slight increases in muscle size look quite noticeable, as there isn’t a substantial amount of subcutaneous adipose tissue (fat) covering them.

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So MIIT/MISS is my ARESNAL for training my legs! I’ve found that, personally, I cannot go wrong with this type of training. So, what is this?

MISS: moderate intensity steady state cardio: stay at a moderate heart rate zone for > 25 minutes.

MIIT: moderate intensity interval training cardio: train at a moderate-higher intensity heart rate zones, step off to the side/slow down to allow your heart rate zone to drop into the moderate/low training heart rate zones. Speed up again to push heart rate back up. Make sure you are not staying at your high intensity zone for too long. You should barely be entering it.

These are my heart rate zones. To figure out YOUR heartrate training zones, visit this page, and follow the directions: http://www.runningforfitness.org/calc/heart-rate-calculators/hrzone

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This post is about actively losing MUSCLE. So this post is mainly geared towards lovely people who feel that that their legs feel excessively “hard”/lack cellulite/feel bulky. If you find that you have more fatty tissue, you must do all types of cardio/eat at a greater deficit to decrease your overall body fat percentage and weight.

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I recommend doing cardio with a very light meal prior to it. I, personally, can’t do fasted cardio, as I feel faint, and dI have passed out from it before. So why a light meal? Well, the only time that there may ever a need for your body to turn to your muscles for fuel is in the late stages of extreme endurance running. When glycogen or carbohydrate stores are depleted, your body will turn to the only fuel source left — amino acid proteins in your skeletal muscles. Only then, will it turn these into glucose for fuel.

So please note that losing muscle is HARD. Our bodies do not, naturally, want to do this. So please be patient with yourself during this process.

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By the same token as above^^, we don’t want to rebuild this muscle, as we are looking to LOSE some bulk. I recommend simply having a carb instead of protein so that you can refuel your glycogen stores. Snack on these carbs in moderation, as once your stores are replenished, the excess will be stored as fat.

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The cardio i do is usually my mixed cardio routine posted a few slides ago. Sometimes it’s purely MISS/MIIT depending on my body, energy level, and lethargy. I want to quote something I read on wayofgray’s profile yesterday

Actually enjoy the foods you’re eating and workouts you’re doing. I love HIIT and my predominantly plant based diet, and that’s why I stick to it. If you hate running on a treadmill, try something else! I promise that you’ll find something you enjoy!

It is so important to LISTEN to your own body. So, if you get anything out of this post at all, please let it be the following: DO NOT KILL YOURSELF TRYING TO ADAPT TO THIS PROGRAM. This is what worked for my particular body type. You are SO wholeheartedly encouraged to tweak my recommendations to help YOU achieve what you desire.

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You got this 😉 Please remember to stretch! This will be key!

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❤ yourself. Because I love you!