Payne

... your gym closes and clears out over night without prior warning!

FUN!

So now I'm looking around for a new gym now so I can keep up my weights and general fitness. It's ashame as the gym I was with was quiet enough when I went for me to just get on with what I wanted to do without being in anyones way and it had a mass of functional equipment as opposed to weight machines which just seems to be the norm around here.

Looking round a brand new council run gym tonight though on a recommendation from a fried so i guess we'll see what they have there. It's just to bloody frustrating as I was realy getting into my routine again after the forced xmas break!

When i last checked my body fat with my PT i was 20.4%. Still a bit on the 'comfy' side you see!

Changing around my lunch at the moment. Moving away from a jacket potato and beans to spinach, kale, cous cous, tomatoes, peppers, just more salad orientated.

I kickbox a couple of times a week and am a couple of belts off of going for my black belt.

I've been a veggie for 14 years now and am reducing my dairy intake whilst trying to get fitter and slim down. I don't find I do anything different on days I train to days where I'm not training or just at the gym. I try and eat cleanly as much as possible and take on a sensible amount of water.

Just thinking, is it worth me chaning my lunch plans?! I tend to have a jacket potato with beans most days (no spread). I'm toying with changing back to cous cous and salad or making falafel to add to salad, but a jacket with beans is quite in expensive from the working canteen!

Cool. I find the biggest frustration, like last night, is never being able to gete on what I need to at the gym unless I go at silly hours which are just not feasible to sustain. So just ended up doing a load of bag lifts and runs and then some rounds on the heavy bag just to keep working.

It's good to know that they're the last places to lose fat from as I think they're the only places I really have fat left! That's not to say im all ripped and toned, just my gut and boobs are what's left! Tend to already do a few different variations on my press ups at kickboxing so need to keep them up.

Thanks for the pointers.

Oh, I am sorry about visiting Peterborough! Ha. It's not the nicest of places.

And they've got a ton of awesome bands themselves, needless to say KNUCKLEDUST!

Hi

Apologies if this has been asked elsewhere, if so, just point me in the right direction as I had a quick scan and couldn't see anything.

I'm really wanting to finally get rid of my belly and chest fat (boobs, moobs, whatever other term you wish to use for them). Any tips of things to maybe avoid, or things to do more of? I squat, bench press and dead lift twice a week and am starting to vary my sets and reps every 3 or 4 weeks. I'm also starting to do pull ups (my 2014 challenge!), but other than this I don't really do anything too consistent in the gym. The gym I'm a member of doesn't have any weights machines, it's all free weights and functional stuff so I've got access to core bags, bulgarian bags, vipers, etc so I tend to do a mix of different exercises with this when I have the space. Otherwise I just do several rounds on a heavy bag. I don't mind building my chest up a ittle, but I don't want it too big as my frame is already quite large (if that makes sense!).

I also kickbox a couple of times a week so do try to keep active, but any other tips would be really appreciated.

The Rucktion guys were always good fun when I was at any of their shows. None of the 'scene' attitudes, etc. Just a bunch of people who loved the music and wanted to have a good time.

I've been out of the hardcore scene over here in the UK for a while now but used to go all over to watch and play. Always preferred mainly NY and Boston hardcore over most of the other stuff that seemed to do the rounds. A good rule of thumb I found was the angrier and more heavy it was, the more chance there was that I'd dig it! I really love The Hope Conspiracy and from that All Pigs Must Die.

Managed to play with bands like H2O, Madball and Agnostic Front of the years and all the talk about them being real nice dudes and living what they preach is very true. Toby Morse is a real top guy and the couple of times an old band supported them we ended up having some great chats about rap, hip hop and NYHC.

Rucktion tend to put on shows every so often at the 12 Bar down Denmark Street.

Apart from that, I'm so out of 'the scene' these days that I haven't got a clue! Sorry about that!

I don't usually like peas on their own anyway, so wasn't sure if I'd be too keen on pea protein!

To be honest I'm into a lot of music but Metal and hardcore was what I loved growing up. Played in bands and stuff but as I got older, I've gotten into more older metal. This week I've been listening to Dio's solo stuff and his era Sabbath.

Thanks for the tips. I've used myfitnesspal on and off for the last couple of years or so and my current eating habits are pretty much in there already so I can have a look back at that and try and use that as a base to build on.

I'm going to start snacking again on nuts and I'm looking at a new protein shake, but I'm interested in looking at a pea protein or something instead as I do try to eat cleanly where possible.

New UK member over here too!

I've been starting back into my routine this week after an enforced xmas break and yeah, the getting back into it is the struggle! But so far I've had a PT session and a gym session and tonight my muay thai/kickboxing starts back up so I'm getting there!

My PT last night was hobbling around a little last night after having some time off and starting back into his programme. I found that very reassuring that no matter how fit you are, you still get the aches and pains after a break!

Afternoon!

I'm new and I'm looking for some advice, so apologies if this is in the wrong place!

To start with, a little about myself! My name's Payne and I live in the UK and I'm vegetarian (but try and consume as littlle dairy as possible). I train muay thai/kickboxing a couple of times a week and then go to the gym a couple of times a week, time allowing as this is more to supplement my kickboxing. My kickboxing sessions are pretty intense so always consider this a very good work out. When I'm at the gym I tend to mainly focus on bench presses, squats and deadlifts. I'm starting to work on being able to do pull ups (this is this year's challenge) and then i usually do a three or a four set circuit with various different exercises. I have PT sessions once a month with a great trainer, but last night we started the new year by taking some measurements and doing some tests and from that it doesn't look like I eat enough.

A typical day food wise for me:

Breakfast: Bowl of oats, small handful or pumpkin seeds and a small handful of sultanas soaked over ngiht in soya milk.

Lunch: Medium to large jacket potato with beans (no spread). Medium sized apple.

Mid afternoon snack: medium sized apple.

Dinner: Scrambled egg (3 eggs) with soya milk on two slices of multigrain bread. Otherwise it's a few new potatoes, some veg and a quorn fillet or some variety.

I want to try and find a way to increase my calorie intake (should be consuming about 3,900 ideally) without eating a lot of crap. I'm going to up the amount of veg I eat in the evenings (the scrambled egg is usually after an evening gym session) and try and start snakcing a bit more through day on nuts.

I don't want to spend all my time counting calories and nutritional content (because I know that I'll start obsessing over it and I don't want that). I'm not interested in bulking up loads and being a body builder, but I want to make sure I'm eating enough to lose the fat I have and keep fit and healthy. I'm looking at starting to have a soy protein shake after training to stop the hunger after a good session.

I'm just a bit lost and overwhelmed by all of the information around. I don't want to spend my time calorie counting or tied to meal plans, etc. I like my three meals a day and they fit well with when i start feeling hungry, but I need ways to get more calories.

Any advice would be greatly apreciated.