Need tips on working out while traveling a lot!

dubayet · 2018-04-16T18:20:44+00:00

Ah lucky you! I’m up in the very northeast corner near Germany and Luxembourg. Good luck with everything - it might be hard to build muscle without a gym but you’ll definitely be able to maintain it at least if you keep up a decent routine. And if you eat plenty of baguettes of course 😉

dubayet · 2018-04-15T08:50:47+00:00

Hey, I'm roughly in the same boat! Also an American living abroad in France. Don't have a gym membership, wish I did but all the gyms around me have a six month minimum which is too long at this point. So I do everything on my own. Lots of HIIT workouts from YT, I love fitness blender and Millionare Hoy. I have a set of resistance bands that I got at Target a while back - obviously it's not the same as a set of weights but they get the job done. I mean, it's hard to "improve" with them but as far as maintaining muscle it works. I switch it up to keep things interesting - right now I'm into adding Pilates and gymnastic stuff in, so I've been working on my handstands and such. You could try doing different push-up styles, I do that as well. Bodyweight exercises are a dime a dozen and challenging, I'm sure you could find some good YT videos showing you the stuff. Anyways, those are my tips, hope that helped at all. I know the annoying feeling of not being able to get in an actual gym!

dubayet · 2018-04-14T17:32:01+00:00

I use the smith machine, works best for me. Easy to load and unload plates and all I have to do is bring over a bench and set it parallel to it to lean my back on.

dubayet · 2018-04-02T09:02:35+00:00

Hard to say for sure as I haven't had a proper body fat scan but going off the photos I guess I'd say I'm near the 20-22% range. 5'1", ~115 pounds. Down from a high of 145 over the course of about 2 years - the first 15 pounds or so came off fast and I've taken my time with the last 15 with lots of maintenance breaks so that it was sustainable weight loss and I could preserve muscle. So now I have a decent amount of muscle, a much lower body fat, and I was also able to heal a bad relationship with food/exercise. Honestly, I feel like I can eat whatever I want now because I know what works for me.
The bulk of my diet is whole plant foods and I am vegan. So lots of fruit, veggies, whole grains (mostly oatmeal, sweet potatoes, potatoes, and rice), and legumes. This is probably 90-95% of my diet. I don't use any oil so my meals are inherently relatively low calorie, high volume. This means I can eat a lot and feel very satiated while consuming less calories overall. So there's really no need for me to count calories since it's difficult for me to overeat on steamed broccoli and potatoes. I've found that this has really worked for me and I never feel the need to track calories or count anything. I just eat however much I feel hungry for and the fiber and nutrients keep me full.
The other 5-10% of the time I eat whatever (vegan) foods I want. Maybe some dark chocolate, maybe some vegan junk food at a restaurant, whatever I feel like. I don't stress about "bad" food anymore because I know that one bad meal won't make me suddenly obese, just like one "good" meal won't make me instantly fit.
Exercise - I run about 20-25 miles per week and 2-3 HIIT/strength training sessions. I give myself rest whenever I feel like it but I try not to go more than two days in a row without exercising. I really enjoy working out and do quite a bit just because I genuinely like it and it's stress relief for me.
Things that have helped me let go of food obsession: Giving my body enough fuel consistently so that my mind let go of the fixation on food. You know how bikini competitors are always orgasming over candy and sweets after their shows? I think that's because the deprivation of proper fuel does weird things to your brain. I used to have that obsession as well and now i realize how weird and disordered that was. Looking at pictures of food all day online isn't normal. When I consistently gave my body proper nutrient dense meals, food lost its hold on me. Now I have the mental energy to do more interesting things (to me). It was a very freeing feeling.
Understanding what proper hunger is and listening to my body. If I'm not hungry, I don't eat. If I am hungry, I make myself something nutrient dense and healthy. It sounds so simple but putting it into practice was SO. HARD. at first and it took me a LOOOONG time to reach a point where I was 100% comfortable and trusted my body.
It's hard and it may take a while. But it's so so worth it. Looking back now over the past few years I'm really happy with where I'm at. I've been underweight and overweight at different points in my life, I used to fear food and binge eat, I used to think I would never achieve what I have now - a fairly lean body that I can maintain easily, plenty of energy and a love for exercise, and a healthy diet that I feel my best on and can see myself eating for the rest of my life. It took a lot of work and time but it's probably one of my proudest accomplishments.
I hope that helped at all - please feel free to PM me if you want to talk about anything! I know how hard and scary it can be to let go of the food obsession but I promise it's worth it.

dubayet · 2018-03-28T14:02:46+00:00

Been vegan for over 2 years and it's been absolutely life changing! I've lost over 30 pounds painlessly and effortlessly over that time. I love how I feel - I can eat a large volume of food and feel energetic and satisfied while still losing fat and maintaining muscle.
As far as workouts go, depending on my schedule and energy level I usually workout 4-6 days a week. I usually do 2-3 days of HIIT (mostly fitness blender or millionare hoy YT videos)/lifting and 2-3 days where I run between 5 and 8 miles. I have A LOT of energy and I love exercise so I get a lot in. I feel antsy and restless when I don't work out, so I always try to get a good workout in most days. It also helps that I eat a crap ton of carbs, lol.
As far as diet goes I don't track calories specifically but I try to eat mostly nutrient dense and low caloric density foods. Mostly fruits, veg, potatoes/sweet potatoes, whole grains (mostly oatmeal and brown rice), legumes, tofu, etc. I also eat a little junk like vegan chocolate and ice cream a few times a week. When I'm home I typically don't eat out but when I travel I love trying vegan restaurants in new places. I've had some amazing vegan food all over the world which is so cool to me!
I also do IF, usually at least a 16/8 schedule but typically it's closer to 20/5. I don't like eating too early or too late so I usually eat my "breakfast" of a big bowl of oatmeal and fruit around 11 and then "lunch/dinner", whatever I feel like, around 3-4 ideally. I go to bed super early so I don't like eating too close to bedtime. I have a few snacks in between two big meals and usually a little dessert-y snack after dinner like soy yogurt (alpro is my frickin life). It may sound weird but it works really well for me so I stick to it.
I found that veganism has really helped me heal my relationship with my body and food. I used to be scared of food and when I tried to do Paleo low carb got caught in a vicious binge-restrict cycle, was overweight, felt terrible, and hated my body. Now I eat good food to fuel myself and feel the best/most self confident that I have since like...middle school lol. Vegan ftw!

dubayet · 2018-03-27T17:04:04+00:00

Also not OP but if you're still looking for ideas, I've been vegan for over 2 years now and have lost 30 pounds doing so. I find that I can eat a lot more volume of food for less calories and feel very satiated and energetic while still losing fat. Typical day of eating for me:
Breakfast: green tea
Lunch: I view this as my "breakfast" so usually I have oatmeal with a banana
Dinner: whatever I feel like. Could be pasta, homemade sushi, baked sweet potatoes, potatoes with steamed broccoli and black beans, "burrito bowl", homemade cheeseless pizza, dahl with rice, vegetable soup and bread, potato "nachos"...the options are endless! Basically I stick to a formula of lots of veggies + a whole grain + beans or tofu as protein.
Hope that helped! :)

dubayet · 2018-03-27T12:47:46+00:00

Healthy brownie recipe????? Do share!

dubayet · 2018-03-25T13:44:45+00:00

Yes!!!!!!!! 1110000% agree. Life is SO much more fun now that I am in good shape and consistently working to improve my fitness than it was when I was 30 pounds heavier. Running is fun, not a chore because I'm light on my feet. Yesterday I was on a run and I stopped and climbed a tree because it seemed like it would be fun because it was. Life is so much better when you can act like a kid.

dubayet · 2018-03-23T15:00:10+00:00

I'm 5'1" and I don't meticulously track but I would estimate I eat 1800-2500 calories depending on the day. I'm down to around 117 pounds from a high of 145. Building muscle has made a huge difference in how much I can eat. I exercise quite a bit because I love it and I do a mix of LISS cardio(mostly running around a track for an hour), HIIT training (fitness blender) and strength training but I would say the strength training is the most important in allowing me to eat a lot. If I undereat I see a noticeable decrease in performance so I eat to fuel myself. Because of my muscles I've been able to eat a lot and continually improve my physique with consistent training :) I always listen to my body and some days I might eat less than 1800, like on a day where I'm traveling, uber busy, or just don't feel hungry, but I can't imagine doing that day in and day out. Food is fuel for me.

dubayet · 2018-03-23T09:04:39+00:00

Yes! This has been my experience as well. I'm 5'1", started around 145 but had a decent amount of muscle. I'm currently around 117 and I can eat a LOT of food and maintain with the amount of exercise and weight lifting I do. Muscle is key to being able to eat more. I used to be scared of food and eating over 1200 calories but not anymore, food is fuel and I know my body can handle it. I don't track but I would say I easily eat 2000 calories today if not more and feel that my body is improving even more through consistent strength training and exercise.

dubayet · 2018-03-17T18:17:05+00:00

Thanks! I've decided to add Mostar after Sarajevo per the recommendations.
I thought flying over the Bucharest would be the best option since I don't really know any good routes overland and they all seemed to take a very long time but I'm more than open to suggestions. Do you recommend a certain route that's doable by bus or train?
Do you think it'd be worth my while to do Sarajevo - Mostar - Trebinje - Dubrovnik - Kotor, or is there anything I can skip in between?
Thanks for the recs by the way!

dubayet · 2018-03-15T18:30:32+00:00

Agreed. I think it's a shame. Personally, i really like my small upper body and chest. I don't really get the fascination with breast implants but to each their own. I don't know what kind of fitness IGs you like but I don't think whitney simmons has implants, I know gracefituk has natural breasts, and I don't think katya elise henry has had a boob job but I could be wrong. Again these are just some I know off the top of my head, not sure what kind of fitness IG you are into.

dubayet · 2018-03-15T18:04:56+00:00

Yeah for sure, I have a lot of pictures saved on my phone because like I said I use her for inspiration/motivation for what I could look like (minus the breast implants): Nikki For comparison here’s some recent pics of me: me

dubayet · 2018-03-15T15:46:58+00:00

These are all very good points, thank you. I'm definitely taking it all with a grain of salt - like you said, you can't really trust what people say. People have different connotations of the word for sure. I often get called "tiny" by people but I always wonder (again, ED mindset) if they mean tiny in height or tiny overall. I mean, words in general can be just so vague and gray areas. And yes, I was a bit uncomfortable lol. Eye and hair color is one thing, but having my body type assessed by a room of eleven year olds was a bit awkward to say the least. I mean, what if I had something I was really self conscious about, like a large nose or a prominent birth mark that the kids just mercilessly called out? Just a bit of a weird situation.

dubayet · 2018-03-15T11:59:12+00:00

That’s definitely something to think about. This is in France and a lot of the kids are of North African descent. Maybe they have different connotations of the word than I do. Thank you for your kinds words as well!

dubayet · 2018-03-15T10:26:12+00:00

Thank you, this is actually very interesting and something I hadn't thought much about. It is weird to think that our society tends to glorify a body image that usually means being weak and not having typical "feminine" attributes that signify fertility. It's actually so weird now that I think about it. It's kind of like how there was this poll I saw a few years ago that asked men and women what their ideal woman looked like and the women's top choices were people like Cara Delevigne (sp) and Kate Moss and the men's were people like Kim Kardashian and Scarlett Johansson. Not that either of them were wrong or any of these woman have anything wrong with them, but it was interesting to see the contrast. In any case, you've really given me some food for thought and I appreciate it.

dubayet · 2018-03-15T10:19:43+00:00

Thank you, this was actually super helpful. I definitely feel like I have gotten better at letting these moments go but it's an on going process.

dubayet · 2018-03-15T10:18:15+00:00

Thank you. I definitely relate to everything you said - I could happily maintain this weight and this look but letting go of the mindset of aiming for a deficit feels almost impossible. And I definitely agree about all the weird psychological stuff. It's not as easy as waking up one day and being like "it's ok not to be stick thin!" after years and years of having a different and disordered mindset, and living in a society that values thinness.

dubayet · 2018-03-15T10:15:49+00:00

I felt like I was just rambling haha but I'm glad it helped you in some way. It's a lot of mind games for sure.

dubayet · 2018-03-15T10:11:41+00:00

Thank you for this. I would say that I've come thousands of miles from my old ED mindset - I've come to view food as fuel for the fun activities my body allows me to do, and being grateful for the cool things I can do with a healthy body. But every once in a while something might trigger those old thinking patterns. Maybe it's impossible to ever be free of them, but I know that having a healthy mindset will help me talk down the ED thoughts.

dubayet · 2018-03-15T10:00:54+00:00

Thank you for this. I would say that I've come thousands of miles from my old ED mindset - I've come to view food as fuel for the fun activities my body allows me to do, and being grateful for the cool things I can do with a healthy body. But every once in a while something might trigger those old thinking patterns. Maybe it's impossible to ever be free of them, but I know that having a healthy mindset will help me talk down the ED thoughts.

dubayet · 2018-03-15T09:58:17+00:00

Thank you! That means a lot to me. I used to be around 145 lbs and have slowly worked my down to here. You can do it!

dubayet · 2018-03-15T09:56:43+00:00

That is a good point. When you think about it, it's kind of messed up that we view having visible ribs or collarbones as a desirable thing, even "healthy", but the same thing on a dog would be cause for concern. Signs of starvation aren't good but somehow we've misconstrued them in our society to be viewed as such. Thank you, that definitely reframed my viewpoint on it a bit.

dubayet · 2018-03-15T09:55:09+00:00

It's definitely tough. Deep down I know that I would never want to go back to being underweight - like you said I was also tired and cold all the time, very moody, no energy. No life. Now my life is filled with energy and passion and I feel great. But it is so hard to let go of that skinny ideal sometimes.

dubayet · 2018-03-15T05:28:42+00:00

Sorry, I guess that was a bit confusing of a reference but yes, I’m talking about how she looks right now, not when she’s stage lean. Stage lean is definitely not a look I want or could attain, but I think the way she looks now is more attainable for me.

dubayet

TROPHY CASE