Fit Heads

01/10/2022

Is not an easy job, but did anyway! Breaking through a plateau just with home workouts while working 6 days a week. We didn’t even got the nutrition in place yet 👏

23/08/2022

15/08/2022

12/08/2022

A lot can happen in just few months. Unfortunately, there is no trick, secret or wonder supplement to lose weight.

Simple things work best! The math behind my personal won’t work for most people but the principles I use and constantly reinforce within my will work for any individual, regarding of age or s*x:

• Keep it simple and start small. Small changes are the key. Following diet plans 100% works better in movies than real life. Eat food you are familiar with and aim for “healthier” rather than perfection. Building the habits to improve your food choices is a process.

• Eating too less doesn’t mean more progress in long term. It may mean injury or else!

• If you don’t enjoy your training anymore, you are either overtraining or eating too less.

• Nothing is off limits! Portion size really work wonders when is about treats or foods that are packed with fat or kcals.

• Cheating day…makes no sense. Portion size does!

The geeky part:

• Fat: Limit the deep-fried foods. A big portion of chips can easily become a small portion of chips + a portion of spicy beans for start, next to your steak. Healthy fats are great for you, but energy intake still matters.

• Protein: Eating 6 times a day to maximize protein intake is for elite athletes. You will be just fine with 2-3 meals and a snack or two as long you are getting your protein with your meals.

• Carbohydrate: Protein is key in recovery and repairing your muscle, but carbohydrates are also required in the process plus they are key in immune system after you work out. Complex carbs are great for meals and snacks, but simple ones are better for straight after your session.

• Fruits & Veggies: beside vitamins and antioxidants, they also pack fibers and they will help you feel full for longer. Less hungry you are, less cravings you will have!

• Supplements: Save your money! Most of them are based on health claims and most of you get almost all minerals and vitamins you need from your normal diet.

P.S. these photos weren’t meant for social media 🤣

17/06/2022

Before even considering a career in , I learnt on my own that is not a “one nail” problem. Taking on any body image is a multidisciplinary mission where nutrition, physical activity and psychology all come into play.

When is about weight loss, Nutrition is extremely important as here is where the problem started in the first place. You still need a certain amount of nutrients to preserve your health and quality of life. How to fuel to recover faster can be paramount when paired with any type of training or goal. Less miserable you feel, more action you take! And you don’t need to starve yourself or “diet” to lose weight.

Even if you can lose weight just by manipulating your nutrition, Physical Activity can make things smoother and improve your health and mood. How? Exercising 3-5 times a week can literally improve your health, s*x drive, and body image. The hormones released after exercise will just make you feel better. Plus… YOU CAN EAT MORE AND STILL ACHIEVE YOUR GOAL!

Progress is not always linear, and you won’t feel great every day. You will have good days and you gonna have bad days. Here is where comes into play. A clear vision of your goal and seeing the bigger picture will take you through the rough patches and keep you on track.

Is as simple as this: If you don’t see finish line in your mind, the pressure of the race will make you doubt yourself and overthink until you find something negative to hang on to and lose focus.

16/06/2022

The food record or diary requires the participant to record all beverages and food consumed daily(Trabulsi, 2001).

However, it has been reported previously that periods longer than 4 days may lead to increased underreporting due respondent fatigue and the task of recording the food intake may become retrospective rather than concurrent (Ortega, 2015). Additionally, athletic population may underreport due potentially increased food intakes and portion size, irregular snacking and meals times or additional intake from sport supplements (Magkos, 2003).

Another widely used dietary assessment method is the 24-hour recall. The 24 hours recall requires the participant to report all the foods and beverages consumed past 24 hours during an interview. Even if 24-hour recall may avoid the respondent fatigue it was indicated by Capling et al. (2017) that the method is also susceptible to error mainly caused of recall bias or difficulty in estimating portion size. Furthermore Capling et al. (2017) indicated self-reporting dietary assessment methods to underreport the energy intake by 19%.

A more technology-based approach in assessing the dietary intake involves combining an electronic real time assessment tool combined with a comprehensive behavior change framework (Costello et al., 2017).

“Snap-n-Send” involves participants to record their dietary intake by using a photograph-based method combined with a behavior change framework. Costelo et al. (2017) reported a small bias for "Snap-and-send" compared with a moderate one for estimated food records or 24 hours recalls. Beside increased accuracy, the presented method has the advantage of being able to transmit feedback to athletes in real time. However, the method is reliant on the ability of the practitioner to accurately estimate portion size, therefore still involving a degree of error (Braakhuis et al., 2003)

15/06/2022

14/06/2022

Is not uncommon to see or hear that people are using protein shakes as pre-workouts or even during. Despite being an essential nutrient to muscle tissue building and repairing, among other roles, protein shakes won’t magically kickstart your workout or turn you on.

Wherever this happens, it may be because of other substances mixed with the protein powder such as caffeine or other heart pumping stimulants. Stimulants that may be safe for you or not.

As long is just protein without nothing else, you won’t get any magical energy boost. But if it works for you, is not the powder/shake. Placebo and the ritual itself may actually be the factor that gives you that extra energy boost because it “brings you in the zone”.

• you have your shake

• you anticipate the effort or “the challenge”

• then adrenaline kicks in.

A mistimed protein shake may as easy just make you feel bloated and prevent you from getting the best out of your workout or run.

13/06/2022

Do you have a gym membership, but you aren’t sure that what you do is right for you? Or maybe you thought about joining a gym for a while now, you got there but what to do next still overwhelms you?

Then this may be for you! At the moment I am offering 2 weeks free tasters into my remote/hybrid Personal Training and Nutrition Coaching Program:

• A complete service designed to make you more confident around gym floor by educating and giving you structure with the maximum support that is available. From videos to personal inductions, feedback and more!!!!

• Your programs and nutrition are particularly developed for you according to your goals. This is not the group training “eat less move & pray more” approach.

• You get a professional nutritional analysis and a clear and concise action plan to align your nutrition with your personal body goals and ambitions.

• Your nutrition coaching is based on what you eat and doesn’t include meal ideas you have to search on google or ask a friend about.

• I use and promote wherever possible a “FOOD FIRST APPROACH”. No supplements!

• Lifestyle is important and even if there will be some coaching on this, you can literally still have your cake and eat it too! There is no need to starve yourself or miss socials to achieve your goals.

So how it goes? Do you want to learn to boss your nutrition and your gym program while achieving your body & fitness goals?
Then join me for a free consultation at PureGym Leeds City Centre North. We have a friendly chat where I can find more about your past sport/gym activities and what you tried in the past. After I will personally show you how to use your coaching app and work with you for free for next 2 weeks.

You are happy with the service; you stay in the program. If not, you bag yourself a professional nutritional analysis, gym program and an action plan for you to use alone for FREE.

What is to lose?

24/05/2022

Behind the Scenes:

Where are your meal plans coming from and how are they made?

Keep in Mind:

• We all have different nutritional needs, personal preferences, and circumstances, therefore what is recommended for X may not be suitable for Y from way too many reasons to mention them here.

• In most cases, meal plans are meant to inspire, suggest, put in perspective, and educate rather than be a set menu you must follow blindly. A top nutritionist will help you develop a wide range of nutritional choices and help you become confident in your choices, rather than give you a PDF and a pat on your back.

19/04/2022

What is the problem with “healthy eating?” The term itself can be intimidating to average person whose diet may not even actually be extremely unhealthy. When faced with the term and concept some of us may feel intimidated by the effort WE BELIEVE it takes to change our dietary habits and achieve the so coveted “healthy eating” status. Therefore, the term can easily become a barrier against our dietary or lifestyle goals because it may feel out of reach and overwhelming, not mentioning the misbelief that "healthy eating" is more expensive. It can be! But not necessarily.

How can we address this? We just change the perspective, and we aim to EAT HEALTHIER and improve ourselves systematically. How do we put this in a real-world setting?

You can easily break down your daily diet in several key elements:
• breakfast
• lunch
• dinner
• snacks
• and hydration

*This is just an example. There are different ways of breaking down your daily diet. You can literally get creative with this such as “home”, “office”, “socials “, snacks” and “hydration” etc.

Then just benchmark one or two elements at time and set goals.
E.Q: “at the moment I am having sugary processed cereals for breakfast with a chocolate cupcake every day before I go to work”.

From here aim for 3-5 days in a week where your breakfast is made of wholegrain cereals and 1 banana (or any other fruit).

Special attention should be given to the fact that is nothing wrong with failing when you set nutritional goals. Keep in mind that your dietary habits, choices, and preferences are developed over a very long period. Eating healthier is a process that takes time to adopt and to make it your own. Failure and trying again is part of the process and as long you hit some of the goals, you still have a HEALTHIER DIET than last week.

Literally, THE HARDEST PART IS TO GET STARTED!

If you don’t know where to start, text me and I will set your first goals for you!

14/04/2022

Hey! 👋🤝

I am Alin! Briefly, I started working in gyms 7-8 years ago as a fitness instructor for a local gym.
Shortly after, I started looking into Personal Training gigs while doing my Undergraduate in Sport and Exercise Sciences.

As a passionate (to be read stubborn & curious) lifter and recreational runner myself I was always aware the impact nutrition has on my recovery after heavy training or on performance readiness.

A Masters in Sport and Exercise Nutrition was not just the natural progression from my Bsc in Sport and Exercise Sciences. It was also following a passion and strong interest I always had in:

• How can nutrition improve performance?

• How to use nutrition to recover faster or prevent injury & overtraining?

• How can nutrition improve and maintain health in long term?

• And many other questions I had throughout my years spent lifting weights or trying to run just a bit further than last time.

At the moment, I am a self employed PT and Sport Nutritionist at

&

I CAN guarantee that to reach your goal you don't have to spend endless hours in gym TO GAIN MUSCLE neither starve yourself TO GET SLIMMER!!

Never been to a gym before? I am more than happy to show you around and help you explore what option is best for you!

Would You like to find out more? 👇

Get in touch to arrange a FREE 45 mins consultation. 👨‍🔬🍎👏💪 🏋️