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protein!
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I don’t like meat so I have to boost my protein by adding a low-calorie protein powder shake. I mix it with water, I don’t need the extra calories by mixing it with milk or soy milk, etc. egg whites are a good, low calorie high protein food. You can eat them boiled or sometimes I will mix 3 egg whites with one whole egg and scramble them. Fat free cottage cheese has a lot of protein , you can flavor it with cinnamon and stevia if you don’t like it plain. There is an app called my fitness pal. It helps to log what you are currently eating and see how the macros are already. This app breaks down your carbs, proteins and fat. You just journal your food. Even if you don’t continue to use it all the time it is good to maybe use it for a week and evaluate what you eat so you know where to make changes . If you don’t even know how many grams of protein you eat now then you won’t know how much you really need to add, or if you need to add any at all. I was terrified when I saw how little protein and how much sugar I was consuming and I thought I was eating healthy. Had to make some changes. But I wouldn’t have know if I didn’t track what I was eating for a little while so I could take an honest look and evaluate . Or you might already be on the right track and not need to make changes.
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I’ve been doing aerial fitness for over five years now (primarily silks), and I cannot stress adequate protein intake enough. It took doubling my protein to really start seeing progress in my strength and muscle tone. I average around 100 grams a day, and to be honest, I’m questioning whether that is enough for my current work out load.
I get my protein primarily from whole food, but I have supplemented with protein powder. Powders often don’t agree with my stomach, but its a relatively cheap source.
If $$ isn’t a huge concern, I do recommend creatine and bcaa’s. As someone who often works out twice a day, weights/aerial(silks,lyra, or pole)/running or mountain biking, I haven’t found the perfect macro/nutrition balance, but all of the above has helped tremendously. I’m Def open to suggestions tho. 🙂
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I’m also going to second phoenix and recommend myfitnesspal. At min, take a few days and track your food intake. I’m neurotic and weigh my food(most of the time), but simply entering what you eat should give you a good idea of your macros. People are often surprised by their nutrition when they start tracking. I know I was.
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Will Def give that app a try! Thanks so much ladies.
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Again, personally speaking, I’m a recovered anorexic (binge/purge subtype) with pretty shitty body dysmorphia, so things like tracking my food quickly becomes obsessive and incredibly unhealthy for me. That’s why I no longer have a scale either.
I know I eat too much sugar, it’s my main vice after quitting smoking 6 years ago (I started smoking when I was 12, so I although I wasn’t a heavy smoker I had been doing so for over 20 years) and I should cut back but I have so many different medications and other health stuff atm it’s just not at the top of my list priority-wise.
I ate paleo for a while and loved it, after the initial low carb blues, but it’s simply too cost prohibitive for me as I’m a single mum currently living on disability.
That’s why I do buy protein powder when I can afford it because I don’t get enough protein in my diet, but if you can afford whole foods then they’re definitely the better option. -
If your looking to build lean muscle. You will have to use resistance training from weight training. To dispel a myth weight training WON’T MAKE YOU BULKY.
Quite the opposite, women are more likely to build lean muscle.
I suggest going to body http://www.bodybuilding.com . As there is a lot of diet information there and a great resource for supplements. I can also suggest kettlebell training as its cardio and weight training in 1. Once you get the proper training on to do a correct kettlebell swing, you can do it in the comfort of your own home, workouts take about 15-20 mins and it will save you a fortune in gym fees.
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@Nina we get this comparison all the time for shakeology! I love the beachbody company but for the price on a regular basis I get where you are coming from. One of the best alternatives based on a nutrient dense profile would be the RAW meal from garden of life. With the main difference being SO is derived from whey (unless you use the vegan version) while RAW products are plant based and also has a nicer price tag.
If you are interested in specifically a lean whey protein look for one with low sugar that is not toooo high in calories or fat…Dymatize is a good option here. A lot of bikini competitors use this for a lean physique to get in more protein while balancing their remaining nutrients through whole foods (cooking/meal prep).
There are def a few other good options out there if you have any specific needs I am happy to help further I feel like I’ve tried them all through trying to find my ideal nutrition over the years!
@jivet I have recently doubled my protein intake as well it can be hard to get it all in without stomach irritation for some (me included). Aside from a few plant based proteins that I don’t notice any upset, there are some unflavored proteins you can cook with or mix into foods during the day in smaller portions that will help with that. Again everyone has specific wants/needs but one of my favorite unflavored is vege fuel by twin labs. I don’t use it daily since it is soy based but it’s great if I just need to hit my protein goal for the day I can cook it with eggs to make them fluffy or add to yogurt etc with no stomach upset since there is other substance with it in the digestion process.
There is a relatively new protein available on the market I believe it’s humapro “for humans” that is apparently used in hospitals due to ease of digest. My only personal issue with it was one extra ingredient similar to an aspartame that “may” trigger headaches but I don’t know if it’s even enough to worry since it wasn’t enough to even list the amount. This one is more like the consistency of the bcaa water drinks.I love the Myfitnesspal app it is so helpful to actually see your daily nutrition percentages and what changes you can make throughout the day to be healthier. Another way to learn portion control in a healthy visual way without calculations is the containers provided in beachbody’s 21 day fix program. Even if you don’t do the workouts (which I think are great) the investment is worth it for those containers and the knowledge of how to use them. It really puts things in perspective once you fill the containers and then dump them on your regular plate or daily tupperware. You can really see which areas to tweak to be healthy overall (some you can enjoy more and some you’ll learn to use at the right times to satisfy). Eventually the goal is to stop using the containers because you will know what is good/bad too much/too little in daily situations.
But strawberry is so right that a protein supplement alone won’t build or tone unless it’s used the right way in daily nutrition and with some activity that makes your muscles hungry for the fuel you are putting in! -
Aye. Good to know there are so many “experts” out there.
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Everyone knows that big muscles are not the sign of absolute health. Restorative function of internal organs, detoxifying function of liver, digestive and absorptive ability of intestinal tract play the most important role in how you will perform on daily basis. The quality of proteins ingested though should be in amount that needed, in density that will support high caloric output by the body. The most nutritionally sound proteins unfortunately come from the animal sources. I was vegan for 6 years and vegetarian for 16 years within the same period of time. My pole progress needed more then I was getting. Not in amount of protein but the quality of it and density. My main protein source is food. I also abide by the rule that your have to replenish on hi protein intake after workout within 20 minutes. I try if I can to prepare a hi protein meal, sometimes I have it prepared ahead of a time. In my family we all exercise and do sports so we take care of each other. So if it’s my time to workout my hubby will throw something together and he knows nutritional requirements. But if Im alone and nothing ready or travelling my protein shake is UltraInflamX plus360 by Metagenics. Its based on rice protein and no digestive issues. But it is expensive even at the practitioners cost it’s a “fancy stuff” I rather have a meal
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If that was directed at me, Sabina Rex, I never claimed to be an expert. What I did was provide a link to a page where someone who is an expert on vegan nutrition wrote about protein in vegan diets and provided current, research-based information (complete with citations to peer-reviewed journal articles). The statements I made are consistent with the information on that page, you are free to check that yourself. If you like, I have additional sources that are consistent with the statements I made–all from nutrition professionals and professional organizations for nutrition professionals.
I also referenced a book by two long-time vegans who are also Registered Dieticians in which there is a chapter devoted to protein in vegan diets, and another on nutrition for vegan athletes. Anyone who is sufficiently interested can find a copy of Vegan for Life and read it themselves.
I don’t know what you personally eat, your diet may not contain enough protein without the supplements you consume, but that is not inherently true of all vegan diets, even for vegan athletes, and I wanted to be sure that no one walked away with the impression that it was.
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I’d like to point out that pole itself is a resistance workout. Since Veena is thorough enough to include the muscles worked by different moves and exercises, it is easy to make sure that all the major muscle group are being worked. If one is regularly practicing pole, I don’t think they *need* to add an additional type of resistance workout to their routine in order to see increases in strength and muscle mass throughout their body. If someone is new to exercise, starting pole and a more traditional resistance exercise program at the same time seems like it might actually be too much and could lead to injury or giving up because they find it overwhelming. Even for people who perform resistance exercise regularly, the American College of Sports Medicine recommends waiting at least 48 hours between resistance training sessions for a given major muscle group (see http://www.acsm.org/about-acsm/media-room/news-releases/2011/08/01/acsm-issues-new-recommendations-on-quantity-and-quality-of-exercise ). I’m not saying its wrong to do pole and other forms of resistance training, it can be beneficial, but one probably wants to be conscious of the necessary recovery and rest time their body needs (this is important even if you’re just doing pole). I made this mistake myself because I enjoy lifting weights, and I also love pole. I thought I was helping myself by doing a lot of cross-training for pole, but over time I got weaker because I wasn’t giving my body the recovery time it needed.
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You ladies have been so helpful. Thank you so much for all the info. I’ve learned a lot 🙂 love my new pole fam!
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