Building Muscle - My Diet and Exercise Plan

Saturday:
Breakfast - almond butter on toast (2 slices), skim milk and an apple
Snack - banana
Lunch - 2 fried eggs, 2 slices of rye toast with butter, grilled potatoes, coffee
Snack - cheesecake
Dinner - soba noodles with spinach, red peppers, onions and mushrooms
Workout - 30 minutes of step aerobics followed by a 30 minute boot camp style workout -- I can't remember exactly what we did, but off the top of my head there were push ups, jumping jacks, planks, squat jumps, bar bell bent over rows, weighted plie squats and some pilates back stuff. We also learned a new move where you start out in a plank and jump into a squat, then back down into a plank and so on. I really struggled through this workout (didn't sleep too well the night before) but I got through it. I was wiped though and had to take a looong afternoon nap lol.
 
Sunday:
Breakfast - almond butter on toast (2), skim milk, apple
Snack - banana with peanut butter
Lunch - leftover soba noodles
Snack - Greek yogurt and blueberries
Dinner - a healthy version of butter chicken that uses yogurt instead of cream and butter for the sauce; served with brown rice and chickpeas.
Workout - Body Pump. Up to 15kg for squat weight... short term goal is 20kg. I need to work on my push ups at home... we do push ups in BP and some of my other classes, but usually in the middle or at the end so I'm too tired to really give them 110%. If I do some sets at home, I'm hoping I'll see some improvement.
 
Monday:
Breakfast - PB and banana on toast (2), milk, apple
Snack - almond butter on rye crackers
Lunch - leftover "butter" chicken, chickpeas and rice
Snack - small slice of cheesecake (that was the last of it... I'm all cheesecake'd out now!)
Dinner - shrimp, bok choy and carrots with egg noodles in a peanut sauce
Workout - Body Step; was going to do a yoga class with my sister in the evening but we ended up going for a half hour walk around her neighbourhood instead.
 
Tuesday:
Breakfast - almond butter on toast (2), milk, apple
Snack - Greek yogurt and blueberries
Lunch - more leftover no-butter chicken with chikpeas and brown rice
Snack - carrots and baba ghanoush
Dinner - pasta and bean soup
Snack - banana with peanut butter
Workout - 50 minutes RPM

Here's what the abs are looking like these days.
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It'd be cool if they were slightly more visible, but I can live with them as they are... if the difference between a flat stomach and a ripped stomach is giving up my weekly restaurant food/dessert/alcohol indulgence, then I'll settle for a flat stomach.

As for my arm muscles, I'd show pictures of them but they have yet to make an appearance... womp, womp.
 

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Wednesday:
Breakfast - peanut butter and banana on toast (2), skim milk
Lunch - egg, spinach and cheese in a whole wheat wrap (2)
Snacks - carrots and baba ghanoush; almond butter on rye crackers
Dinner - beef, broccoli, carrot and onion stir fry with brown rice
Snack - mini-bag of popcorn
Workout - Body Pump, same weights as Sunday... started to get a migraine near the end of class but was able to finish.
 
Thursday:
Breakfast - peanut butter and banana on toast (2), skim milk
Snack - Laughing Cow cheese dippers
Lunch - leftover beef and vegetable stir fry with brown rice
Snack - Greek yogurt and blueberries
Dinner - Chicken Caesar whole wheat pita
Snack - almond butter on rye crackers
Rest day from the gym. Overall, diet and workouts have been pretty good this week. I like that I'm mixing up my workouts a bit from week to week... for awhile I was doing the exact same workouts on the exact same days every week and it was starting to get tedious.
 
Friday:
Breakfast - almond butter on toast (2), skim milk
Snack - chocolate milk (500 mL)
Lunch - whole wheat pita with turkey slices, spinach, tomato and avocado; apple
Snacks - banana with peanut butter; carrots and baba ghanoush
Dinner - went out for sushi; had seaweed salad, 1 red dragon roll, a bit of sushi and sashimi (I think like 2-3 pieces?), 1/2 grilled Japanese eggplant
Workout - Body Attack. We did the new release yesterday (four times a year, all Les Mills fitness classes come out with new music and choreography) which always makes for a fun class. Tough workout though, with lots of plyometric movements.
 
Saturday:
Breakfast - almond butter on toast (2), skim milk, banana
Snack - Greek yogurt and blueberries
Lunch - turkey, avocado, baba ghanoush, spinach and tomato in a whole wheat pita; apple
Snack - peanut butter on rye crackers; coffee with milk
Dinner - my sister and I cooked a massive four course dinner of traditional Bulgarian food (her husband is Bulgarian so we decided to cook a few of his favourite recipes -- check 'em out ) I had shopska salad, 1 stuffed pepper, two pieces of Banitsa and some fried eggplant with yogurt sauce.
Treats - 2 two-bite brownies; handful of Skittles
Workout - Body Pump. I did really well on the squat and lunge tracks yesterday - kept good form and felt strong and steady throughout (I used to especially suck at lunges); I'm also improving on biceps. I'm still only using 5kg on the bar for biceps but it's getting easier to finish the track -- I'll probably be able to add soon.
 
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Sunday:
Breakfast - PB & banana on toast (2), skim milk
Lunch - two whole wheat tortillas filled with scrambled eggs, spinach, avocado and cheese; apple
Snacks - peanut butter on rye crackers; pita bread with baba ghanoush
Dinner - home made pizza (I even made the dough from scratch! It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and it was sooo much better than take out or store bought pizza) with green peppers and mushrooms
Workout - Boot Camp

Warm up: dynamic stretching, jumping jacks, planks and lunges

Combination 1:
Skaters
Alternating side planks
Jumping jacks

Combination 2:
Clean and press
Bicep curls
Side kicks

Combination 3:
Tricep dips
Plank to squat jumps
Running up and down on the step

Combination 4:
High knee runs
Push ups
Jump squats

I felt really good throughout this workout. There's usually a point in boot camp where I really, really want to give up and have to push myself to keep going; that didn't happen yesterday.
 
Monday:
Breakfast - almond butter on toast (2), skim milk, apple
Lunch - leftover pizza
Snack - banana with peanut butter
Dinner - no-butter chicken with zucchini and brown rice
Snack - pita bread with hummus
Workout - Body Pump 77. This was my first time doing the latest release... the back track is very different in this one. Instead of the usual clean and press, we do one clean and three presses, which gets your heart rate going a lot faster. Our instructor advised us to go lower than our usual weight for the back track, so I went down to 9kg. I used the same weights as usual for the rest and was shaking by the end of each track, especially the chest track, so that's good. I think my current weights are good for the next week or so.
 
Tuesday:
Breakfast - almond butter on toast (2), skim milk, apple
Snack - yogurt and blueberries
Lunch - leftover pizza
Snack - carrots and baba ghanoush
Dinner - leftover no-butter chicken with zucchini and brown rice
Snacks - banana with almond butter (I ran out of peanut butter! The horror!); mini bag of popcorn
Workout - RPM
 
Wednesday:
Breakfast - almond butter on toast (2), skim milk, apple
Lunch - whole wheat pita and carrots with hummus, home made chicken soup
Snacks - mini bag of popcorn, banana
Dinner - chicken cacciatore with whole wheat pasta
Snack - almond butter on rye crackers
Workout - Body Pump. Afterwards, out of sheer curiosity, I tried one of the new Flexi-Bar classes... it's a half workout involving this thin, lightweight bar that you hold in the middle and make vibrate and it's supposed to activate your deeper core and back muscles...it was silly. lol.

Today (rest day from the gym):
Breakfast - almond butter on toast (2), skim milk, banana
Snack - yogurt and blueberries
Lunch - leftover chicken cacciatore and whole wheat pasta
Snack - carrots, celery and hummus
Dinner - chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, jalapenos, onions, cheddar cheese and sauce in a whole wheat pita
Snack - fruit and nut bar
 
Friday:
Breakfast - almond butter on toast (2), banana, skim milk
Snack - sweet potato hummus on rye crackers
Lunch - omelette with ham, cheese and vegetables; celery and edamame hummus
Snack - blueberries
Dinner - a bit of palak paneer and chana masala, naan bread and rice
Dessert - chocolate mousse; glass of white wine
Workout - 5K run

Saturday:
Breakfast - almond butter on toast (2), skim milk
Snack - chocolate milk
Lunch - salmon fillet on focaccia bread with mango and avocado salsa; side garden salad
Dinner - glass of white wine; bread and hummus; half a crab cake; cheese and thyme stuffed chicken supreme with vegetable risotto
Dessert - 1/2 bread pudding; 2 chocolates
Workout - Body Pump

I'll have to clean up my diet a bit after the long weekend's over... too much wine and dessert :p
 
BurningItOff said:
Wednesday:
Breakfast - almond butter on toast (2), skim milk, apple
Lunch - whole wheat pita and carrots with hummus, home made chicken soup
Snacks - mini bag of popcorn, banana
Dinner - chicken cacciatore with whole wheat pasta
Snack - almond butter on rye crackers
Workout - Body Pump. Afterwards, out of sheer curiosity, I tried one of the new Flexi-Bar classes... it's a half workout involving this thin, lightweight bar that you hold in the middle and make vibrate and it's supposed to activate your deeper core and back muscles...it was silly. lol.

Today (rest day from the gym):
Breakfast - almond butter on toast (2), skim milk, banana
Snack - yogurt and blueberries
Lunch - leftover chicken cacciatore and whole wheat pasta
Snack - carrots, celery and hummus
Dinner - chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, jalapenos, onions, cheddar cheese and sauce in a whole wheat pita
Snack - fruit and nut bar
Click to expand...

Sounds like a ShakeWeight class. Good lulz.
 
Goldfish said:
Sounds like a ShakeWeight class. Good lulz.
Click to expand...

Yeah, basically... even the instructor seemed kind of sheepish about the whole thing... I predict FlexiBar's days on the class schedule are numbered lol...

Sunday:
Breakfast -- almond butter on toast (2), tea
Snack -- chocolate milk
Lunch -- salad w/ oil and vinegar, roast vegetables, pork tenderloin, 1/2 stuffed eggplant, 1/2 chicken schnitzel
Dessert -- chocolate brownie cheesecake
Dinner -- went for dinner at an all you can eat Thai restaurant for my boyfriend's birthday; we shared a cold shrimp roll and appetizer-sized servings of green curry chicken, peanut chicken and chicken pad thai.
Dessert #2 -- 1/2 slice of cheesecake... this is what happens when Easter and a birthday fall on the same day :S
Workout - 6km run
 
So my weight is almost up to 120 but my BF% has also increased... it works out to about 2 lbs of muscle gain, 3 pounds of fat gain. Not great. Time to change a few things, namely:
1. Stop eating like a heifer on weekends... just because I'm trying to create a calorie surplus doesn't mean I should be consuming massive meals, cake and wine every weekend.
2. Try some new workouts; I'm trying a new class today taught by the instructor who teaches my weekend classes; she does lots of strength training (higher weight, lower rep) in her classes mixed in with bursts of intense cardio.
3. Do some more reading/research about muscle building. If anyone has any good books on this subject to recommend, that'd be much appreciated.

Okay, so now that I've gotten that reality check out of the way.

Monday:
Breakfast - almond butter on toast (2)
Snack - chocolate milk
Lunch - avocado, spinach, egg and cheese in a whole wheat tortilla
Snacks - Vita muffin, apple
Dinner - soba noodles with vegetables
Snacks - carrots and edamame hummus, greek yogurt and blueberries
Workout - Body Pump

Tuesday:
Breakfast - almond butter on toast (2), apple
Snack - Greek yogurt and blueberries
Lunch - leftover soba noodles
Snack - carrots and edamame hummus
Dinner - bean pasta with parmesan cheese
Snack - banana and skim milk
Workout - RPM
 
Look into static and isometric strength training exercises. They are great for short term explosive strength and muscle gain. Also look up pre-fatigue, post-fatigue and balistic isometrics. Those are ways to use isometrics with dynamic exercises.
 
Clinton said:
Look into static and isometric strength training exercises. They are great for short term explosive strength and muscle gain. Also look up pre-fatigue, post-fatigue and balistic isometrics. Those are ways to use isometrics with dynamic exercises.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip... from what I've read so far, it seems like the kind of exercise that requires minimal or no equipment and can be done at home, which is good because I'm still at a point where I'm intimidated/overwhelmed by the free weights section of my gym. I'll definitely look into it some more.

The class I went to today turned out to be basically the same as my boot camp class; nothing new but I got a great work out:

Combination #1 (repeat x2)
Squats - pulse for twenty seconds, hold for ten, repeat x3
Push ups - pulse for twenty seconds, hold in high plank for ten, repeat x3
Power taps using the bench (30 seconds)
Jumping jacks (30 seconds)
Squat jumps (30 seconds)
Shuffles (30 seconds)

Combination #2 (repeat x2)
Plie squat with weighted shoulder press (1 minute)
Dynamic lunges or scissor jumps (1 minute; I did a mix of both moves -- the scissor jumps get my heart rate up really high but my form suffers)
Jumping jacks with hand weights (1 minute)

Combination #3 (repeat x2)
Plank sliders (1 minute)
Weighted side lunges (1 minute)
Mountain runners (1 minute)

Combination #4
Sit ups with weighted overhead extension (1 minute)
Reverse crunches (1 minute)
Crunch with leg extensions (1 minute)
Hold plank position, touch right hand to left arm and switch while keeping hips in place, then switch (70 seconds)
 
Wednesday Food:
Breakfast - almond butter on toast, apple
Snack - chocolate milk
Lunch - egg, avocado, spinach and cheese in a whole wheat tortilla
Snack - banana and peanut butter
Dinner - beef stir fry with broccoli, carrots, onions, mushrooms and brown rice
Snack - Vita muffin
Workout - see above

Thursday:
Breakfast - peanut butter and banana on toast, skim milk, apple
Snack - greek yogurt and blueberries
Lunch - leftover stir fry
Snack - carrots and edamame hummus
Dinner - chicken shawarma pita
Snack - vita muffin
Rest day
 
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