Background: The day was Wednesday 2nd January 2019 - I purchased my first ever gym membership and attended the gym for the first time in my entire life, walking into this unknown with zero knowledge. Prior to this, I had been suffering from severe depression throughout my entire life for multiple reasons such as being bullied, being skinny, experiencing racism and all the rest of the insults that I had received. This almost lead me to try and commit suicide because I just thought life wasn't worth living, so basically the gym/nutrition has give me hope in my life. I had no ambition or drive in my life to want to become a better version of myself, but I won't bog you down too much with that as you're not here for that, right?
I work a full-time job for 40 hours per week, so I was always that person who thought I never had time for the gym because I worked a full-time job. I was infact mistaken, I just had to find the determination and dedication to put into the gym to make it work out for me, I had to find ways and solutions to be able to eat all the food I eat whilst working, and also attending the gym and getting a good nights sleep.
I decided that it was time to change everything, it was time to change how I viewed the world, how I viewed myself as a person and how I viewed my life. I wanted to make something of myself and I wanted to be the reason that many more people that are/have been in the same situation as me can also change themselves for the better and improve little tiny things in their lifestyles - I will be making my Instagram account dedicated to fitness, healthy nutrition, exercises and overall having a healthy lifestyle and keeping away from depression.
My Journey: Weighing in at a staggering VERY unhealthy weight of 49kg (108 lbs). To put this into perspective, my BMI calculation was at the very end of the red zone, suggesting I was very underweight and baring in mind I don't have any eating disorders. The healthy weight for someone of my height started from 56.7kg (125 lbs).
I walked into the gym having absolutely zero exercise, nutrition or gym knowledge. I didn't have any friends who went to the gym, I didn't have any family who I knew went to the gym so all I had was myself and the internet. A personal trainer was out of the question to get me started because I couldn't afford it. I remember it was also a very intimidating experience for me as there was a lot of fairly muscular people working out, and it always felt like everyone was watching me, the usual gym beginners problems - of course no one was watching me, they were in the gym for the same reason as myself.
After my first ever workout, I had DOMs for at least 5 days afterwards and that put me off going back. Another thing that put me off was the amount of eating I was doing (the only knowledge I had was to eat as much as possible), I went from eating a packet of Doritos for my 8pm tea to eating about 2500 calories. The diet seemed much harder than going the actual gym itself because I wasn't use to eating so much food. I would probably eat 2500 calories spread out across 2-3 days before I went to the gym.
Fast forward to attending the gym for a whole month, and I started to see that the scales where going up, so whatever I was doing was working. This was when I was becoming serious about the gym and from that month onwards, I always set myself targets to reach for all my exercises.
Fast forward 2-3 months into my journey and it was a weird feeling, I started to become more comfortable in my own skin. I started to not care what people thought about me out in public or inside the gym. One major problem for me was my ego, I wanted to make it seem like I was lifting heavy weight for people to see rather than for my own personal benefit, which sacrificed my form on a lot of my exercises, but I eventually overcome this problem after 6 months of my journey.
My breakfast included the likes of sausages, egg, bacon, tomatoes and beans (I can't remember the exact macros as I never use to track my food). For my lunch, I would eat a massive bowl(I mean massive, to the point I kept gagging because I was so full) of egg fried rice. For my tea (dinner, whatever you refer to it as) I would eat cooked chicken thighs and I ate a lot of them, approx 800-1000 calories worth. For snacks throughout the day, I would prepare sandwiches with ham and turkey slices to eat. I also bought USN Anabolic Mass weight gainer about 3-4 months in and had 1 shake per day. I was eating approx. 2500 calores. I use to prepare my food the day before so I was able to eat them in work and then go to the gym in the evening.
6 months in, I started learning so much more about the gym, exercises and nutrition from all the time I put into researching. I changed my breakfast from a full English to Lasagne (I'm not kidding about this, I ate Lasagne for breakfast for at least another 7 months). Although Lasagne isn't that healthy, I found it was much better than eating sausage and bacon every day. About 1 month into eating Lasagne, I changed the beef mince to 2% fat turkey mince because that was healthier, so the only unhealthy thing about it at this point was the industrialised cream sauce and fatty cheese. For my snack, I use to eat a little salad box including Kiwifruit. Lunch, I had 200g (dry) pasta with Dolmio sauce. For another snack, I had 2 x pizza subs (not the healthiest). For my tea I had chicken thighs still.
Breakfast: 816.15 cal Lunch: 1149 cal Dinner: 855 cal Shake: 564 cal Total Calories: 3384.15 Protein: 267g The exercise I have struggled most with has definitely been bench press. My ectomorph bodytype and long arms don't help in this exercise so it has definitely been a struggled to get it where it is today. I'm really striving for that 2 plate bench press though by the end of this year, at least.
Unfortunately I injured my right bicep after a few months of training and that meant I couldn't do arm workouts for approx. 6 months. I used the easy curl bar and sat down on the bench/stool provided. I must of been squeezing my hands too hard for my grip, whilst trying to straighten my arm out as much as possible with a heavy weight. I must of trapped something or tear something, but it took months to heal. I only just started training my arms towards the beginning of this year so I feel as if they're very underdeveloped at the moment. I also injuried my right knee area from doing deadlifts a few months in, I've put that down to the fact I wasn't very good with squats so my knee joint was very weak. It seemed to subside after a few weeks, but it's still comes back occasionally so I'm just careful with my weight.
I changed my diet up coming up to my 1 year gym anniversary. I cut out my pizza subs and chicken thighs and replaced them with Quorn products. They're meat-free processed foods, but I thought they were a little healthier at least.
After my first year, I completely changed my diet and now my diet is super healthy and contains as much unprocessed food as possible and easy digesting food.
New 2020 Diet: Breakfast - Oat Protein Pancakes = 675.90 calories
Lunch - Roast vegetables with rice inc olive oil = 812.14 calories
Pre-workout Meal - Healthy Protein Smootie and a bowl of rice = 446.28 calories
Dinner - Turkey Mince 2% fat with a gravy type liquid = 410.60 calories
Macros per day: Calories: 2344.92
Protein: 171.40g
Fat: 67.6g
Carbs: 202.65g
Sugar: 63.4g - mainly comes from the vegetables and fruit
Water: 3.5 Litre
Sleep: 8-9 hours
Food Cost £50-70 per week
Routine: Currently doing a 4-5 day workout week, although I know I need a new routine. Lockdown has currently stopped that!
Monday: Bench Press - 5 sets of 10 reps
Incline Bench Press - 5 sets of 10 reps
Barbell Shoulder Press - 3 sets of 8-10 reps
Side Lateral Raise - 4 sets of 10 reps
Delt Raise - 4 sets of 10 reps
Tricep Pushdown - 4 sets of 10 reps
Tricep Overhead - 4 sets of 10 reps
Tuesday: Deadlift - 5 sets of 6-8 reps
Pull Ups - 7 sets of 10 reps (weighted pull ups, overload with weight and finish remaining reps without weight)
Trap Raises - 7 sets of 10 reps
Standing Bicep Curl - 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps
Incline Bicep Curl - 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps
Wednesday: Squat - 5 sets of 10 reps
Leg Press - 3 sets of 10-12 reps
Calf Raise - 5-7 sets of 10 reps
Leg Curl - 3 sets of 10 reps
Ab Pull Ups - 3 sets of 15 reps
Ab Bench Sit Up - 3 sets of 15 reps
Thursday: Bench Press - 3 sets of 10 reps
Incline Bench Press 5 sets of 10 reps
Barbell Shoulder Press - 5 sets of 10 reps
The rest as Monday
Friday: Deadlift - 5 sets of 6-8 reps
Barbell Bent Over Rows - 5 sets of 10 reps
Standing Bicep Curl - 5 sets of 10-12 reps
Incline Bicep Curl - 5 sets of 10-12 reps
Bench Dumbbell Preacher Curl 5 sets of 10 reps
Lift Progress: Starting Point: Bench Press - 20kg (44 lbs)
Squat - 25kg (55 lbs)
Deadlift - 35kg (77 lbs)
Overhead Press - Unknown as I don't ever remember doing it....
1 Rep Max Progress (No Belt): Bench Press - 1x85kg (187.4 lbs)
Squat - 2x120kg (264.5 lbs)
Deadlift - 1x155kg (341.7 lbs)
Overhead Press - 1x50kg (110.2 lbs)
Progress Picture: https://imgur.com/mYcPw9a Results as of now: I'm very happy with my progress and I'm happy I've achieved everything I have in just 1 year 6 months. I've gone from feeling/looking loose inside my x-small t-shirts to filling them out and now they actually look good on me for once. However, I now need medium t-shirts depending on the shop they're purchased from. Having this healthy lifestyle has definitely provided me with a better mindset. This is just the beginning for me and I probably won't stop working out until I drop dead!
Thanks for reading - hit me up if you need help.
EDIT: If you want me to provide a more in depth workout and meal plan, please let me know!
TLDR: Suffered from depression throughout all my childhood, being a teenager and into my 20s. Decided to do something about it and change myself. Starting weight of 49kg (108 lbs) of January 2019 to 79.5kg (175lbs) as of now. Wanted to post my journey to inspire others who have been in a similar situation, the same situation or whatever situation they're in that if the effort gets put into something, it can be achieved.
Comparison:
https://imgur.com/mYcPw9a submitted by To make your lasagne preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF, gas mark 4). Heat a large non-stick pan, and dry-fry the onions and garlic until soft. Add the Quorn mince, and cook until brown. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer gently for 20 mins to allow the flavours to combine while you make the topping. Heat the milk and mustard powder in a saucepan. Add in the Quorn Mince and cook until lightly browned on all sides. Remove the Quorn Mince from the pan using a slotted spoon and transfer to a bowl. Add the diced onion, carrots and celery to the skillet or pan and cook for 4 - 5 minutes until the onions are translucent and the carrots and celery have softened. If you’re keen to try Quorn but aren’t sure where to start, you can’t go wrong with lasagne. Just swap your beef mince for Quorn mince – everything else stays the same! An easy way to cut down on meat without altering your regular meal routine! Prep Time: 30 mins ; Cook Time: 45 mins ; Total Time: 1 hour 15 mins; Serves: 4-6 Stir in the Quorn mince and then the tomatoes, vegetarian red pesto, oregano, wine and vegetable stock cube. Increase the heat and simmer gently for 5 minutes. Stir in the basil, season to taste then remove from the heat. Make the white sauce by melting the butter, stir in the flour and cook gently for a minute stirring constantly. In a big saucepan, fry the carrot, butternut squash, onion and celery until soft. Then add the garlic and smoked paprika. Add the tomato paste and cook for a minute, before adding the Quorn Mince. Again cook for a further couple of minutes, then add the tinned tomatoes and vegetable stock. Bring to the boil, then leave to simmer for an hour. Stir in the Quorn mince and bubble for 5 minutes. Taste the mixture- add sugar if required. Remove the pan from the heat. Cut or tear the lasagne sheets to size ensuring the sheets cover the whole surface of the pan. Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the onion and garlic for 5 minutes until softened. Add the mushrooms and cook for a couple of minutes. Stir in the Quorn mince and then the tomatoes, vegetarian red pesto, oregano, wine and vegetable stock cube. Increase the heat and simmer gently for 5 minutes. Easy homemade Quorn lasagne is delicious. This vegetarian Quorn mince recipe serves up to six people. Making it a great meat free meal for entertaining. Click to Tweet. Watch the short video I made to show you how to make this delicious easy homemade quorn lasagne. It shows you how easy it really is! Love My Homemade Quorn Lasagne? This healthy and easy to make veggie Quorn mince lasagne is packed with veg peppers, courgettes and tomatoes, this vegetarian lasagne with soya mince is healthy and tasty. This recipe serves 6 people – making it perfect for feeding the whole family in one go, plus any unexpected guests too! Directions. Heat 1tbsp of the oil in a large pan and fry the onion for 10min until softened. Turn up the heat, add the Quorn and fry for 5min until golden. Add the wine and simmer for 5min. Stir
Lasagna-1 tablespoon olive oil-1 onion diced-salt and pepper to taste-1 pound ground beef-1 pound hot Italian Sausage-4 cloves garlic minced -1 tablespoon dr... Homemade Lasagna is better than resturents and it feeds a crowd at dinner for way less than going out to eat.Thank you for watching. For the full Vegetable Lasagna Recipe with ingredient amounts and instructions, please visit our recipe page on Inspired Taste: https://www.inspiredtaste.ne... Vlog Title : How to Cook a Perfect Lasagne - Lasagne Recipe Easy step by step Make sure the pan is in low heat while cooking the mince .. In the video I d... Quorn. Helping the planet, one bite at a time. #Onebiteatatime Quorn Mince, Pieces & Fillets achieved 'Reducing CO2' certification by the Carbon Trust for the full life cycle of the product. Find me:Instagram: makeup_byfatimaSnapchat: fatima012Blog: fatimasbeautyblog.wordpress.comContact me: [email protected] In the video I don’t add garlic but you can add and carrots .. No need to add olive oil while cooking the mince beef because the beef is too oily . Make sure... Find out how to make a delicious Courgette and Quorn Mince Lasagne, using our easy recipe to enjoy meat free alternatives with Quorn. Get inspired by our man... Lasagne is firm favourite in the Oliver household and this is my delicious, simple and nutritious recipe that will never let you down. It starts with my easy... This weeks meat free meal idea is this vegetarian mince lasagne. This is a really lovely one to enjoy as a treat on an Autumn/Winter evening or to share with...
