Morning Tea

What is you current eat for morning tea? A muffin with your coffee just before you step into work? Donuts that someone brought for a morning meeting? Or a packet of chips that you bought from the vending machine to reward yourself for your 2 hours of hard work (talking :)) that morning?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not having a go at you. I too have worked in an office and have had the temptations coming at me from all angles. There’s nothing like having a big cookie with your tea or coffee as you sit reading your emails in the morning, but you have to ask yourself ‘is this worth ruining my fitness goals for?’

Instead of a cookie or donuts try eating a muesli bar and a banana. Both are high in carbohydrates to fuel you until lunch time. Eating regularly is also important in keeping yourself satiated until you next main meal. If muscle building is your main priority try having a protein shake or a small amount of leftovers from last night.

Try to make it a healthy option, I will cover these later. For now just ask yourself ‘is this food high in sugar or fat?’ if it is, eat something else. I like to have half a chicken/turkey salad sandwich and a homemade protein bar.

Lunch

Lunch is one of your 3 big meals for the day and in our fast paced lives is often overlooked or forgotten. The biggest key to keeping lunch healthy is to be prepared! Nothing like looking at the clock at 2pm and realising your hungry and then going to the nearest fast food outlet and stuffing you face.

Instead you should try to set out a time to have lunch in the morning. Look at your meetings and other agendas for the day and pick a time that you can fit in 30 minutes for lunch. If you have  a fridge and a microwave at work, bring a sandwich or leftovers in and heat them up. Sandwich toasters can also be good. If you only have access to a cooler, pack your favourite fruit and favourite sandwich. Take away food for lunch really isn’t doing you any favours. Pack your favourite Buy some good containers that keep food nice and fresh so that it still tastes good at lunch time. If you’re on a low calorie diet like the cabbage soup diet make sure you bring what you need from home.

I like to keep salad items, bread and some lean meat at work. I usually bring in the meat each day. I use them to make fresh sandwiches everyday, much to the jealousy of my colleagues.

View other parts in this series:

Part I – Breakfast

Part II – Morning Tea and Lunch

Part III – Afternoon Tea and Dinner

That is why it can be good to invest in some home gym equipment for those cold months in which we dread the trip to the gym and the icy barbells. Simply pick a spare room (guests can sleep on the couch, they’ll be fine :-) ) or the garage (with a heater of course) and start filling it with one piece of equipment at a time.

I recommend a treadmill, bench (preferably with incline and decline options though a flat one will do), a power rack with a pull up bar on it and a few adjustable dumbbells and barbells with 100kgs assorted weights to start with. With this equipment you can basically do any workout that you could do at a gym. Additionally you can add a yoga mat and light preset dumbbells for more variety in core work. A secret fitness fact is that a TV or cd player can also be handy if you train alone for cardio sessions.

The internet is the easiest place to buy equipment. There are many websites out there that sell high quality discount treadmills and weight equipment. Below is a simple full body weights routine to do 2 times a week. Add 2-3 sessions of cardio on top of that.

Warm up on Treadmill 10 mins. You should be breathing heavily.

Upper:

1 Arm DB Row 2-3 x 12

Pushups 2-3 x 12

Bent Over BB Row 2-3 x 12

Standing DB Shoulder Press 2-3 x 12

*Ensure scapula control on rowing exercises. Superset pushes and pulls for a more challanging upperbody workout.

Lower and Torso:

Power DB Lunges 3 x 10 each leg

BB Back Squats 3 x 12

Supine holds 3 x 30s

Prone Holds 3 x 30s

Alternate beginning the upper and lower parts each workout.