The real 'super' noodles

I know alot of people who eat noodles for lunch, but alot of the noodles we can buy in the supermarket are full of salt and almost nutritionally useless. So I've got a  new lunch recipe that will help improve your noodles and help you towards your training needs.

Ingredients:

1 packet of chicken super noodles

half a pint of boiling water

100 grams of chicken

some roasted peppers

These noodles are packed with 25 grams of protein and yet are only 450 calories.

The chicken will provide you with a great source of lean protein and is one of the lowest calorie meats around. It is also packed with witamins B6 and B12 which help you get energy out of food and of course help with muscle building.

The roasted peppers come in a jar and are preserved in sunflower seed oil, this is good for two reasons. Firstly it removes the need for the company ot add salt and so you are reducing yuor overall salt intake, and second because it contains monounsaturated fats which help to boost our metabolism and so leads to our bodies burning more calories. They also contain many vital vitamins and count as 1 of our 5 a day so its s great thing to add to the dish.

The noodles themselves contain low GI carbs suprisingly and have the lowest saturated fat content of all pre-prepared noodles. They are also quick and easy to make so it saves you time for other things in your day.

Push Yourself!

We all know that to see results and improve on our fitness we need to push ourselves harder and harder every time we train. Well I've got a great tip that is easy to do that will help you monitor your training so that you are constantly pushing yourself.

Alot of people who train regularly fall victim to comfortable workouts. They stop pushing themselves and soon stop getting good results.

Well to make it easier to see your improvements other than spending hours staring at your reflection trying to see tiny changes that just ain't there, try this:

Make a work out book. A small book (like a school homework book or vocab book) that you record your workouts in. Write down everything you did after each workout and put a star in the margin beside what you improved on in that session. This helps you see the results and also keeps you motivated, that you are improving even if you can't quite see it yet.

Lean muscle fast!

By combining cardio and weights training you can build lean muscle quickly and still keep control of your weight. By following 3 simple steps you can get rapid results towards your lean muscle goals.

1. Take your protein shake before your workout, preferably 1hour - 30 mins before you enter the gym. This will allow the protein to get to work throughout the workout instead of after it ad will give a leaner body as it reduces the muscle damage and so leads to strength gains without the extra bulk.

2. Train with the weights first and to get optimum results focus on only one muscle group e.g arms or chest, per day this allows you to train more often and will give you more results faster.

3. Finally you want to complete each workout with a short, but intense cardio session. This will drastically increase your metabolic rate and burn of an extra 200- 300 calories leaving you with a more defined figure. Also it is scientifically proven that cardio after weights training will improve your muscle gains as it increases the blood flow to all of your body and so will carry more oxygen and necessary nurients to the muscles, leading to more muscle gains.

All of this will not only help to build muscle, but will keep you lean and defined especially when you consider the cardio at the end. This will increase your metabolic rate so that even for a few hours after the gym you will still be burning of some extra calories.

Day 20

I've been having this new breakfast - Porridge Oats, for a while now and it really does help you keep an eye on your diet. The porridge combines protein and fibre as well as having low GI carbs. This is brilliant for helping yuo to maintain your energy levels throughout the morning and also fills you up so you are less likely to snack throughout the day.

I have been adding a few almonds and raisins to give it some flavour and extra protein and monounsaturated fats.

TIP: if you want to watch the calories then avoid adding sugar or honey to the porridge. Or else you will drastically increase the sugar levels and this leads to faster fat storage (if not all burnt off).

Ingredients:

Porridge oats - 30 grams

Skimmed milk - 250 ml

Chopped almonds - 8

A small handfull of raisins

(optional add 1 banana to the meal this will add further fibre and gets you on your way to your 5 a day. It should also fill you up especially if you are used to eating a bigger breakfast.)

Day 19

So just heading off for MMA training but I decided to share some more training tips with you before I go. To be a great MMA fighter you need to work on all three fitness areas. Strength, Stamina and of course Skill. Or the three S's. You need to be strong for your weight class or else you'll get bullied in the octagon, so being muscular is of great benifit to any fighter, but you don't want to be to big. Instead lean muscle is what I aim for, allowing me to be strong and light. As Georges Saint Peirre's trainer says, "it is a fighters size but their ability to transfer mental strength into athletic force that makes a fighter a champion." So try working on explosive power in your routines.

Skill is also vital, hence why I train twice a week in Kickboxing and BBJ. The skills you learn outside the ring in sparing matches and general training make all the difference when you step into the octagon. If you haven't learnt enough you WILL be punished. You also want to work on agility to help give you more control on the ground and help yuo dodge those K.O blows.

Fibally stamina is essential. You can't expect to win a fight in the first round, so if you arn't prepared to go the distance, then yuo will not succeed. Two great ways to build this up are doing short, high intensity cardio sessions with little brek in between to mirror the time you have in the octagon. Or try doing the following cardio workout.

3 TEIR;

10 press ups, 10 sit ups 10 burpies (squat thust  then jump up knees to chest)

20 press ups, 20 sit ups 20 burpies

30 press ups, 30 sit ups 30 burpies

You should be finishing this in under 3 minutes if you are ready to step into the ring, otherwise, you gota try to get under 4 mins. Fighters must be FIT.

Day 13

I have accepted an MMA bout on the 10th of November in The British Legion Gym in Antrim. The fight is a D- class MMA fight, so unfortunately that means no head shots. So the aim of my training will be based mainly on my groundwork and fitness game.

 But I will be posting more information about the fight night and my training for the fight on this blog and under the MMA page above. I will be fighting out of Steelheel MMA club and aim to win.

Lunch Salad

This salad is a great way to get close to your recomemded 5 a day and is packed with lots of vitamins and minerals that are essential to keeping you fit and healthy. It is also packed with protein having around 25-30 grams of protein depending on the brand of chicken you use.

= 350 kcals (approx)  + 25-30 grams of protein + 2-3 of your five a day

Ingredients:

100 grams of chicken / turkey (packed with protein and vitamins B3 B6 and B12)

60grams of spinach ( packed with iron to help reduce muscle fatigue + goes towards your 5 a day)

60 grams of lettuce (towards your five a day)

1/4 red pepper sliced ( adds colour to the salad + goes towards your 5 a day)

1 Carrot peeled or sliced ( adds colour to the salad + goes towards your 5 a day)

1 boiled egg ( adds protein, monounsaturated fats and packed with vitamin D - linked with fat burning)

The 5 'Best' chest moves

According to Men's fitness - september edition the following five exercises are the best ways to train your chest.

1.Bench Press: simply it is the best exercise for building your upperbody strength that is available. It cocentrates on the chest and front of your shoulders helping to give your the doomsday pecs you always wanted.

2. Dumbell-flye: This move when performed correctly takes your arms out of the equation so it consentrates all of the force into the chest.

3. Cable crossovers: This move is performed just like the dumb bell flyes but is done standing up. This alos activates the core muscles but is great for working the chest. Best to bring your hands out and down to your waist height to get the best shape for your chest.

4. Incline dumb-bell chest press: Tilting the bench places more of a focus on the upper chest and allows a greater range of motion due to the dumbells. This allows your to build you more muscle quickly and helps to really rip your chest appart.

5. Clap press ups: This means you have to generate more force to lift your body off the floor to clap and generate explosive power in your chest muscles. Also as it is a body weight exercise it can be performed anywhere and at any time. It also helps to increase your other chest exercise lifts due to the explosive power you will build.

Day 6

Okay so today I'm trying a new abs exercise that according to mens fitness is the new "best abs exercise". Its called the Gym Ball jackknife. To do this you will need an open floor space and a large exercise ball.

Simply get into a press up position with your feet resting ontop of the exercise ball towards to back. Now keeping your arms straight, contract your abs and bend your knees to drag the ball towards your chest, without raising your backside in the air.(Ignore the picture) Stop once your toes are the only thing touching the ball and are on the ball. Now extend your legs slowly back into the starting position.

This exercise is a great way to work all of the abdominal muscles at once and helps strengthen your core too.

Day 3

So far the new diet plan is working well. I'm sticking to it and using
Most of the tips on this blog for lean muscle building. Below is the recipe for another smoothie. A banana and nut smoothie which is packed with over 50grams of protein and less than 5 grams of fat.

Banana and nut smoothie;

2 bananas

10 almonds

150 mms of natural organic yoghurt

2 scoops of whey protein

1 cup of water

Facebook

I have created a facebook page for this blog. If you want an easy way of checking out any blog updates without having to check the blog every other day then check out at 'fitness teen blog' on facebook.
I'll update the facebook page to let you all know when any changes or new posts have been added to the blog.
Thanks.

Day 1

Okay, so being the 1st of August today, I've decided to start a new nutritional guide and attempt to improve my fitness through nutrition and solid training. I'm making a summer berry protein smoothie for breakfast.

Being a high protein and low carb breakfast it should keep me full for longer and keep my blood sugar levels constant for my training. Also by having the protein first thing in the morning it will support more lean muscle growth. I'm also keeping an older training routine but attempting to cut my rest times down to rev up my metabolism and fat burning. I'll keep you up to date on how it goes.

Summer berrie smoothie:

80g of blackberries

80g of rasberries

50g of strawberries

2 scoops of whey protein

1 cup of water (add more if you like it less thick)