BFL - Some answers to your Q's
Hi LadyBelle!
I had great success when I was on BFL. My husband and I did it together twice, the first time was Jan-April 2002 and the second time Jan-April 2003. We didn't ever really "stop" doing it either, just had less time to spend at the gym and didn't restrict ourselves as much. Also, each time we finished the 12 week program we had a tropical all-inclusive vacation planned, so we would thoroughly enjoy our holiday in every way and then come back and get back into a mainly BFL regime.
To answer your first question about when you're supposed to eat in relation to your workout - Bill Phillips recommends working out first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. I would never in a million years be able to make it to the gym before work, so hubby and I met at the gym after work, around 5/5:30 ish. So, I would arrive at work (with a breakfast I would bring with me), eat my breakfast around 8 a.m.; Eat a snack at 10:00 a.m. (almost always a lower carb protein bar - I started having shakes but soon got sick of them, and I crave biting into something and chewing, so drinking a shake often didn't satisfy that); at noon I'd have my lunch which usually consisted of leftovers from dinner; then at 2:30/3:00 I'd have another protein bar; I'd have my workout at 5/5:30 (which is 2-3 hours after the latest meal/snack); then we'd come home and have dinner. So, the distance between my late afternoon snack and dinner would be slightly longer than recommended, but it's all my schedule would allow so what can you do. The best part...it didn't seem to hinder me at all. I had awesome results. After dinner, we usually wouldn't have that last 6th meal because our dinner wouldn't usually be until 7:00 p.m. and I never really felt like having anything late in the evening. Sometimes we'd make a chocolate protein smoothie with some decaff coffee crystals and split it, or warm it and put some SF irish cream syrup in it and have a "hot chocolate" in the hot tub because it was winter then, so I always liked our tradition of hot chocolate with irish cream in the hot tub.
So, I guess I could have made that shorter by just saying...do what works with you, as long as you aren't waiting TOO long between your meals (I think 3 hours is ideal) and you don't work out right after a meal/snack (otherwise you are working off your available energy source you just ate, not the stores you want to burn).
To answer the question about Pilates, you couldn't count that as either a cardio day or a workout day, so you'd have to count it as your abdominal portion of your routine. We always changed our routine to be Lower body on one day, Cardio AND abs the next, Upper body the next day, another Cardio and ab day, Lower again then that blessed free day!! So, we didn't do Lower body and abs together (we found we were in the gym too long when we did this) so we combined it with the short 20 minute cardio day.
To make your life easier for preparing for dinners, can I suggest you poach (nice way of saying "boil") a dozen chicken breasts on Sunday night till they're nearly done and store them in a tupperware container in the fridge. That way when you come home after work or workout, you just need to slice the chicken and toss it in a stir fry, or put some sauce on it and throw it on the BBQ, or simmer it with mushrooms and juices, etc. I'd put the centre "root" part of the onion that never gets used, a bay leaf, a piece of ginger root, other spices, etc. to infuse into the chicken to give it a great flavour. Doing the chicken this way also makes it SOOOO tender. I still like doing this. We also would put the rice cooker on and do 6 cups of brown rice on Sundays and put that in tupperware in the fridge too. I'd slice some green onion and mix that in to give it some extra flavour (or use some chic. broth instead of all water). Just a couple of tips I found to save time when we'd be ready to eat as soon as we got back from the gym (otherwise I'd want to pick at nibblies while I cooked!)
As far as having small snacks for class, definitely that would work. Remember, the 6 meals are supposed to be fairly small (but surprisingly, you get used to what is probably closer to the portion sizes that we should always eat!) Atkins bars, Protein Diet bars, Detour bars, etc. were all staples for me. I don't know many other snacks to recommend because I only ate bars for snacks. For breakfast I'd use my braun hand blender and blend a few frozen strawberries with some splenda and 1/2 cup of cottage cheese. You'd honestly think it was cheesecake especially because it was blended smooth. I'd cook a bunch of slow cooking oatmeal on Sunday nights as well and put them in little single serving containers to take to work for breakfasts and put my "cheesecake" overtop of the oatmeal - oooh, I miss that now that I'm on Atkins. You can also pack an apple for one carbohydrate serving. OMG, I totally miss apples!!! Maybe I should go back to BFL!!
Good luck! Trust me, it'll work for you. OH, be sure to take your before pictures. Each time I didn't think I'd come nearly as far as I had so thank goodness for those pictures to really see my results and feel proud of myself!
Lily
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