How I Transformed My Body in Lockdown
The 7 home-fitness secrets (Part Two)
This is the second part of the 7 Home-Fitness Secrets article. If you haven’t read the first part which includes interesting takes about training in a way you like, having an early lunch and others, you can read them on my profile (HealthyFreddy or https://medium.com/@healthyfreddy/how-i-transformed-my-body-in-lockdown-9c3d514fc9ac).
In this article, I will share with you the other 3 Home-Fitness Secrets that have kept me in shape while in lockdown. These “Secrets” can be easily implemented in your daily routine; they bring instant benefits to your health and help you lose weight.
When I started working from home (because of the confinement) my fitness goal was to reduce to a minimum my muscle loss and embrace a low-calorie diet that could match my limited physical activity. After having gone through all possible expert PT suggestions on the web I narrowed down to 7 the list of Home-Fitness Secrets that actually seemed to bring some significant results in my body.
Here are the last 3 you need to know of.
5. Take a power nap
Scientists have measured the average time of a sleep cycle to be around 90 minutes. Reaching the end of each cycle enhances your mind capabilities, while waking up in the middle of it can cause you to be in a bad mood. The best way to recover and boost your cognitive skills is to sleep 7hr30 at night and take a smaller power nap in the afternoon.
Your power nap should last between 15 and 25 minutes, this way you will improve your cognitive functions without entering a deeper sleeping phase. If you have less than 15 minutes at your disposal even just closing your eyes and meditating can help you relax.
I usually take power naps to restore energy lost in the morning and have a more productive afternoon. Over a long time, power naps will reduce your consumption of caffeine (if you drink it regularly) as well as stress and tiredness making you enjoy more the second half of your day.
6. Flexible dieting on lower calories
During the summer holiday it’s not polite to decline an ice cream or beer with friends and (let’s be honest) you wouldn’t dare to do so anyway. If you don’t want to deprive yourself of these sweet little moments without any consequences for your belly fat you should implement the so-called flexible dieting regime.
Its concept is simple: you can eat anything you want… as long as you don’t exceed your daily caloric intake. You can set up your daily caloric intake between 1300kcal and 1700kcal, average Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) for females and males. Then whatever amount of food you eat throughout the day can not cause you to gain any weight.
This is because the BMR represents the number of calories that your body burns daily while performing its vital activities (breathing, pumping blood, etc.).
Flexible dieting, no matter how easy it seems, requires that you really follow a few rules.
First of all, is the need of tracking what you eat. On average people underestimate the amount of calories eaten per day by 40%. This can be caused by misinformation in your food diary, eyeballing your portions or forgetting to account for condiments. These are all factors that will cause you to eat more than you think.
Second, eat more fruits and veggies. When reducing your caloric intake it’s essential that you still provide your body with the right vitamins and minerals. Vegetables and fruits are also rich in fibres that will keep you satiated for a long time and very low in calories, making them a key food to stay in shape throughout summer.
Third, drink water, not drinks. Calories can be found in both foods and beverages. The advantage of drinking water is that it quenches thirst and at the same time has no calories. Some other drinks and juices sometimes containing more vitamins than water. However, they will be way more likely to contain extra sugars and calories that could be avoided by eating fruit (in general a fruit has as many calories as half a glass/100ml of fruit juice). Drink over 2 litres of water per day: remember that 70% of our weight is made of water and that through sweat, urine and other vital activities we consume it. Drinking water is a non-negotiable feature for any flexible diet.
7. Evening Stroll
A study made in 2018 by the George Washington University (Milken Institute of Public Health) showed that post-dinner walks are the most efficient way of lowering blood sugars. This is because walking after eating increases your heartbeat, creates faster blood flow to the organs and therefore speeds up the process to get the food from the stomach to the small intestine, giving a feeling of satiety.
However, an intense post-meal physical activity (lifting weights, running, sport, etc.) might have a negative impact as it draws too much blood away from the digestive organs.
Walking after dinner will burn sugars that otherwise would clot for many hours overnight in your body causing you to gain weight; moreover, walking decreases the glucose level in your blood and will help you prevent strokes, heart and kidney diseases.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, I am still training at home and will continue to do so probably until September. I found these 7 Home-Fitness Secrets to be beneficial and will keep them in place for as long as possible throughout winter too.
I reckon that there must be some other habits that I am not aware of, that can bring similar results, so if you know of something as powerful you can share it below.
Also, let me know if you will make time for any of the 7 Home-Fitness Secrets in the future and how you plan to stay in shape without gym.
You can find the other 4 Home-Fitness Secret on my Medium profile (medium.com/@healthyfreddy).
