I was very glad yesterday was a rest day, as I woke up feeling quite stiff and sore from my efforts on Saturday. My husband was still recovering from a very nasty cold which had kept him in bed all week, so we slept in, had a leisurely breakfast, caught up on a couple of TV shows we had recorded . . . and managed to not leave the house all day. A proper restful Sunday!
Oddly enough, having rest days is just as important as the actual exercise when you are trying to improve your fitness and lose weight. The reason is that exercise itself does not grow your muscles or make you fitter – it actually damages your muscles. It is when your body repairs this damage and decides to add just a bit more muscle to prevent further damage (whether it’s your leg muscles or your heart) that you improve your muscle tone and get fitter. In order to do these repairs your body needs good food and enough rest time to get the job done. That’s why you should avoid exercising the same muscle groups on consecutive days, and should space harder workouts with easier ones. You also need more sleep, for two reasons: First this is a prime muscle repair time as your body doesn’t have to focus on doing anything else. Second, while you sleep the body produces a hormone called leptin, which is responsible for telling your brain when you are full. If you are sleep deprived, there is less leptin in your system so you have a harder time knowing when you are full and are more likely to feel hungry and overeat.
So as part of my training plan I try to have two rest days a week and to get at least 8 hours of sleep per night. Not only does this appear to be working on the weight loss front, but I have managed to avoid my husband’s cold (so far anyway)!
The Score:
Calories: | Protein: | Carbs: | Fat: | Alcohol: | Fibre: |
1589.18 | 96.04g | 187.13g | 49.96g | 0 | 31.70g |
24% | 47% | 28% | |||
Calories burned through exercise: | Rest Day |
What I ate:
Time | Item | Amount |
10:15 | Vitamins - Centrum Advance A to Zinc, 400iu of Vitamin E, 1000iu Vitamin D3 and 500mg Glucosamine sulphate | 1 each |
Cold water | 200mL | |
Whole Scrambled egg with 2 egg whites | 3 eggs | |
Heinz Beanz, reduced sugar and salt | 185g | |
Raw tomato | 85g | |
Mushrooms | 110g | |
in butter | 5g | |
Sainsbury's pure squeezed orange juice | 200mL | |
11:00 | Black tea | 500mL |
12:15 | Raspberry and Echinacea tea | 250mL |
13:45 | Leon's Chicken, Pumpkin and Borlotti bean stew | 298g |
with extra roasted pumpkin | 75g | |
Alpro Soya Original | 200mL | |
Sainsbury's Freefrom iced rich fruit cake slice | 1 slice | |
17:15 | Seedless Red Grapes | 100g |
Butterkist salted microwave popcorn | 25g popped | |
M&S Dried fruit, nuts and seeds | 25g | |
16:15 | Blackcurrant, vanilla and ginseng tea | 250mL |
20:00 | Homemade chilli | 250g |
Merchant Gourmet tinned puy lentils | 100g | |
21:45 | Ellactiva Chocolate Calcium Chew | 1 chew |
500mg Glucosamine sulphate | 1 pill | |
Camomile, honey and vanilla tea | 250mL |
Plus 500 to 1500mL of cold water sipped from a water bottle throughout the day.
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