beast | Limitless

This Year

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Priyasha

This year was amazing for fitness. I may have completely neglected studying, but oh well.

I made strength gains this year, got some solid fitness knowledge (At least I learnt something) and became mentally stronger.

I was doubted a lot. People base my strength on arm-wrestling matches and tug-of-wars, which is why they think i’m weak (I’m terrible at those things so I don’t blame them.) I call myself strong based on lifting and my willingness to move past peoples doubts and comments. You are going to come across so many obstacles in your life. You can either come out weaker from their wounds or much stronger. I choose stronger.

I learnt something else this year.

No body is the same. Even if society puts you into one category (Curvy, skinny, pear shaped, hourglass, whatever it is) your body will never be the same as someone else’s. Knowing this, it makes no sense to compare yourself to someone else. Use your traits to your advantage. Let’s take me for example. I have more mass on my legs, and because of that It’s easier for me to make quad, hamstring and glute gains. Embrace your differences.

I hope your goals for 2015 scare you a little and excite you a lot. That’s how you know they’re good goals.

Have an amazing New Years Eve and an even better New Year.

Pri

I’m just going to leave you with some last bits of motivation.

Posted on December 25, 2014 by Priyasha

Where to begin? My reverse diet has been going pretty well. I am now at 180 carbs and i’m dropping some weight (not my intention). Remember my final resolution of getting abs like Jillian Michaels? well, let’s just say I don’t look like her, but I have made some good progress with my abs and i’m happy with it’s definition. I don’t have abs like her, I have abs like me. And i’m happy with it. I have been so amped up about my goals for 2015.

currents stats:
30kg dead lift
20kg bent over row
15kg upright row
20kg squat
15kg shoulder press

goal:

60kg dead lift
30kg bent over row
30kg upright row
30kg squat
30kg shoulder press

I’m ready to slay these goals one at a time. Finally, I am done with making goals related to appearance. I just want some strength gains. I’m still going to keep making progress on my physique though, it’s just that isn’t my only priority anymore.

I especially can’t wait till I nail the 60kg dead lift. Just imagine. I’m getting chills even thinking about it.

Have a Merry Christmas

Pri

IIFYM while travelling

Posted on December 8, 2014 by Priyasha

I’ve been ‘properly’ tracking macros for about a week and a half now and I really notice the difference between tracking macros without a scale and with. The more accurate I am, the more progress I make.

Anyways, while I was lifting today the thought hit me: How do I track while travelling? I’m definitely not bringing my food scale with me (I don’t want anything to happen to my baby. I’ve become some-what attached to it) so how do I do it?

I hope I figured it out because this is what I came up with:
– pre-pack meals for the day you’re travelling. You don’t have to settle for a McDonalds and assume the macros if you have a packed macro-friendly box.

– When you eat out (We tend to eat out more when we’re travelling) plan what you’re going to eat by looking at an online-menu so you can be sure your meal fits your macros

– Get used to the fact that for a couple of days you will not be 100% with your macros. It’s okay. Take a breath.

These tips may help. Or they’re completely useless. Either way, I will be attempting IIFYM while travelling this month and we’ll see how it goes.

Happy Monday 🙂
Pri

Getting Serious

Posted on November 22, 2014 by Priyasha

One thing I never mentioned on my blog when it comes to IIFYM is that I don’t strictly track macros. I don’t have a food scale which means I am not accurately measuring my food intake.

The reason I never got around to buying a food scale was because I wanted to casually test out this diet first. I didn’t want to be the person who keenly buys a food scale and then realises a week later that she hates this way of eating. I have done a very casual version of IIFYM for a few months now, and now I am ready to start strictly tracking. My food scale will come in a week or two and then I can start ‘properly’ tracking.

I’m excited.

In other news, I am still attempting a new PR for squats (20kg). I’m going to eat a big pre-workout and hopefully have a better shot at it. Also, my exams start in 2 days. I am so happy. (That was my attempt of sounding sarcastic through words. Hope it worked)

I am still going to be lifting (Can’t study all the time) so I don’t lose my sanity to books and definitions that i’ll only remember for a week. Sure, I could use a bunch of excuses and stop lifting but you know what’s been motivating me? Jillian Michaels. I watch her yelling at The Biggest Loser contestants and I feel the need to push myself harder.

She isn’t the only thing motivating me, though. I’ve gotten the habit of telling myself to keep grinding, keep pushing, keep lifting even when I’m covered in tears and distress (this is what exams do to you). Merrily lifting along. I got this mindset from the amazing Esther Suzuki (her Instagram account is ‘fightingforfit’). She lifts heavy, counts macros and never stops working. Check her page out 🙂

http://instagram.com/fightingforfit

Keep grinding.

Pri

My Journey So Far

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Priyasha

I realised i’ve never written about how I got into fitness and how I got to where I am now.

Where to begin?

Ah, yes. When I was younger (12 years old, I think) my family pushed me to lose weight. They would attempt to sign me up for tennis classes or push me towards playing more sports but me being me, I shot down every suggestion they made. I hated and still to this day hate sports. But I had to do something to lose the weight. I was fat, sad and felt completely worthless. Then one day my mother bought me a workout DvD. It was Jane Fonda’s 25 minute aerobics workout. I did it every single day 6 times a week till every exercise was imprinted on my brain. Then I bought more cardio DvD’s but I never once changed me diet.

Then when I was around 13 or 14 I came across ‘clean eating.’ It helped me lose a portion of the weight but I didn’t realise the more I ate clean the more I was scared of junk food. I paired this with endless amounts of cardio and some light weight training. I was eating around 1000 calories I think? So yes, I was totally healthy. Barely eating and always on the elliptical, that is what health is all about, right? WRONG. I didn’t notice my mistakes till last summer. That was during my 30 day junk free challenge (My very first blog post) where I lost 4 kg and also lost a healthy relationship with food. The moment someone mentioned eating KFC or brownies I got anxious.

‘Oh no, if I eat KFC i’ll get fat. No KFC for me, just water.’

I carried on the clean eating but I slowly stopped doing so much cardio and started lifting much more. I cancelled my gym membership (The trainers there told women to stick to cardio and light weights. Like I was going to listen to that) and started doing HIIT for 15-20 minutes just 3x a week. But i’ll remind you, I was still clean eating and not consuming enough calories.

Now we come to Summer 14′ where I discovered IIFYM. I started counting macros and stopped fearing junk food. I felt amazing in an instant. Inches dropped, I gained 5kg and got into a healthy weight and I gained my sanity back. I started lifting much heavier and started making gains. I became happy. I also found my passion.

And here I am now, counting macros, merrily lifting and thanking my family for pushing me towards fitness. Without them I would be an obese teenager hating her life.

Knots

Posted on November 3, 2014 by Priyasha

It’s Day 3 of whatever the hell I’m doing.

But before I write about anything, here’s todays motivational picture:

lift those weights, ladies.

Today I was one of those days where I was super pumped for my workout. Okay, that may be because I had a few sips of Monster (the energy drink) as my pre-workout and some mashed potatoes (Carbs = energy to slay workouts), but still. Today I did 15 minutes of HIIT followed by chest, triceps, shoulders and 15 minutes of abs. I can’t believe I did HIIT today. I must be dreaming.

I’ve been hitting my macros so far and i’ve just been feeling positive lately.

Here’s a random thought that came to me: your goals and dreams are in a knot. In order to accomplish your goals you have to keep tugging at the knot, keep finding new ways to loosen the grip. What loosens the knot finally is persistence. When I was younger I vowed that I would lose the weight and not turn into a case of teenage obesity. I vowed that once I lost the weight I would make a website called Fit Like Pri (Yes, I thought of the name when I was 12) and I would stick to what I was passionate about: fitness. I kept tugging at the knot and now here I am.

Just a thought.

Pri

Finish This Year Strong

Posted on November 1, 2014 by Priyasha

I swear I am not titling this post as “I’m Back”.

So, I took a break for 10 days. Usually when people take breaks they come back enlightened and inspired. None of those things happened to me though.

While on break I realised my hate for carb cycling (Low carb days make me feel like death) and how eating 50g of carbs will result to a very crappy workout. So now i’m back to eating 150g of carbs and I feel pretty great. What’s next? Oh yes, I realised that there’s 8 weeks left in 2014 and all of us should finish this year strong. I don’t want to find myself writing the same resolutions as this year on New Years Eve just because I didn’t complete them. I have one goal left. Get abs like Jillian Michaels’.

I wrote a post about completing my resolutions a few months ago and I am much closer to this physique now than I was then. I know incorporating HIIT and ab workouts back into my regime will get me closer but 80% of the challenge will be consistently hitting my macros. If I don’t look like her by the end of this year I will write an apology letter to my readers. That’s a promise.

Today is Day 1 of the 8 weeks so i’m doing legs and HIIT (I do abs thrice a week and short HIIT workouts 4 times a week).

I’ve also started incorporating drop sets into my workouts and I can honestly say I have never felt so much pain. Here’s an example of a drop set for bicep curls: Take 3 sets of weights (10kg, 5kg and 2.5kg). Make sure the next set of weights are lighter than the previous set. I will perform 8 reps with the 10kg, 10 reps with the 5kg and 12 reps with the 2.5kg, not taking a single break after performing each set. Then I’ll repeat the torture 2 more times. Your arms will feel like falling off but It’s worth it. You can use drop sets for any exercise.

Todays workout:

28 method squat (15kg)

*drop sets* walking lunges (10/6/5← these numbers are the different weights i’ll be using) 10+15+20 (these are the number of reps) 2 rounds

Bulgarian split squat 10×3

sumo dead-lifts (35kg) 6×3

10 minutes HIIT

Good luck with completing your resolutions 🙂
Pri

It’s Going Good

Posted on October 19, 2014 by Priyasha

Here are some updates on carb cycling and my workouts: I’m being very consistent! Carb cycling can get somewhat tiring though. After 3 days of going low-carb your body craves some bread and potatoes so the high-carb day acts as a saviour. Carb cycling really helped me with my October goals (losing 1/2 an inch on my lower abs) but i’ve made some changes to the cycle.

Monday: Chest, Triceps, Shoulders (Low carb) – 75c/35f/100p

Tuesday: Back, Biceps, HIIT (low carb)

Wednesday: Legs, Abs (high carb) 150c/35/100p

Thursday: Chest, triceps, shoulders, HIIT (low carbs)

Friday: Back, Biceps, HIIT (low carb)

Saturday: Legs, abs (high carb)

Sunday: non-tracking day

I’m having a non-tracking day because I don’t want to obsess over macros (trust me, it’ll happen) so i’m giving myself a break for a day.

Have a lovely Sunday,

Pri

October

Posted on October 4, 2014 by Priyasha

I am a very laid-back, casual person. I hate taking anything seriously and this includes IIFYM. But now I’ve hit a rut and am feeling very sloppy (this is why having a laid-back nature all the time isn’t the best). For the first 4 days of October I went over my macros and I didn’t workout. I would eat when I was bored and found myself saying “I’ll start tomorrow” a lot.

It’s tomorrow.

Tracking macros can be stressful. I am used to having one cheat meal per week from my ‘clean eating’ days, but with IIFYM you’re not allowed to do that. That burger fits your macros? Eat it. It doesn’t? Don’t even think about eating it. I know my problems. I need to work on moderation and I need to stop losing motivation so fast.

It’s October. I’ve made goals and i’m going to slay them. To get results i’ve never had, I need to do things i’ve never done.

This post is very random (I’m just noticing) but also therapeutic. Writing down your stream of thought can really do wonders. This month i’m going to post my workouts for the day, my meals and wether I hit my macros. I need to hold myself accountable.
Next time I think of skipping Leg Day or going off my macros by a 100, i’ll think of you. How I can’t fail myself or my readers.

Very intense, isn’t it?

Happy Saturday,

Pri

Carb Cycling

Posted on September 28, 2014 by Priyasha

I’ve been sick. Which means listening to my mothers commands to stay away from workouts and calculating macros.

Anyways, i’m better now and i’m ready to slay October. My September goals (I never posted them) was to lose half a kg and half an inch on my lower belly. Mission accomplished. Now what? Carb cycling. That’s my current mission. Carb cycling is brilliant for fat loss and muscle gain. That sounds like a killer combination to me.

Here’s carb cycling in a nut shell:

In a week you will have high-carb days, medium-carb days and low-carb days. Typically when you train legs or other big muscles you go high-carb. When you train a moderate sized muscle group you go low carb and when you don’t train anything, just train arms or are just doing cardio you go low-carb. Since your macros need to be balanced, when you go high-carb, naturally you will go low fat so your macro ratio is balanced. When you go low carb your fats get increased. You get where i’m going with this, I hope? Also your calories will remain the same. Ah, I hope i’ve covered the basics to this.

Here’s how you find what your macros would look like for the different days:

High carb days: 2-2.5g carbs per pound of body weight. 1g of protein per pound and 0-0.15g fat per pound
Moderate-carb days: 1.5g carbs per pound, 1-1.2g protein per pound, .2g fat per pound
Low-carb days: .5g carbs per pound, 1.5g protein per pound, .35g fat per pound

I’ll be going low-carb 4 times a week (some carb cycles offer no-carb days but i’m not that desperate to look, um, chiseled), high-carb once a week and moderate-carb twice week.

Let’s see how this goes 🙂

Pri