fitness – DIONNELIFTS

As of September I officially became a university student. This meant I could no longer rely on my mother buying me Marks and Spencer’s superfood salads or ready cooked salmon fillets which would literally blow my budget for the…well…year. I needed my food to be cheap, quick and of course healthy.

So, first things first, the DO NOT’S of student eating.

Ready Meals: Yes they may be at the height of convenience but they will be about three times the price of any meal you could make yourself. And if they are cheap, I can pretty much guarantee the ‘chicken pieces’ have probably never seen a chicken before. See: horse meat scandal of 2013.

Pre-Prepared Vegetables: You will often see ready sliced mushrooms or ready cooked microwaveable vegetables in supermarkets. These may be convenient, but you will definitely be paying more for the privilege. Whenever I buy vegetables I take them out of the packet, wash them, slice them and re-bag them. This makes it much easier and quicker when it comes to cooking and saves money.

Lighter/Fat-Free Options: This may seem like a slight contradiction, but if fat, sugar or salt has been removed from an item, it has more than likely been replaced with chemicals or some other nasty things. I’m not saying opt for full fat milk or full fat cream, but instead of having 15g of Lurpak Lightest just have 5g of normal Lurpak.

White Pasta, White Bread, White Rice: I’m sure many people reading this will already have knowledge of clean eating, but if you don’t, and insist on eating pasta 7/7 meals a week, just swap it for whole wheat pasta. Same goes for brown rice and brown bread. There can be up to 3g sugar in each slice of white bread!

…I know it’s obvious, lord I hope it’s obvious, but Super Noodles, Pot Noodles, Rustlers Burgers, Cup-a-Soup. Just no.

Here are the DO’s of student eating.

It is essential for almost every meal you eat to contain protein. Even from a ‘non-fitness’ perspective protein is an important building block of bones, muscles, cartilage, skin, and blood. Not only that, but it fills you up for longer. I make sure I eat eggs every morning or a scoop of protein. An egg costs about 20p and you can make up scrambled egg in the microwave in less than a minute, so no excuses. If you are opting for scrambled eggs or an omelette, use all the whites and only one yolk, as whilst being high in nutrients the yolk is also high in cholesterol.

Vegetables are a perfect way of filling out any meal, especially when on a budget. I like to incorporate a lot of vegetables into my breakfast because it really helps to fill me up. If you are a fan of smoothies, ditch the high sugar fruit and have a kale, beetroot and apple smoothie!

Forget cheap alcohol and baked beans, stir fries are a students best friend. A perfect way to get in your protein and carbohydrates, as well as those micros, and they only take about 10 minutes to cook. Most supermarkets offer deals where you can buy a sauce, noodles and vegetables for about £3. Just watch out for high sugar contents in your sauces!

Whilst rice packets are slightly more expensive than buying rice in bulk I would say it is 100% worth it for the convenience. You can buy a packet of brown rice from Sainsbury’s for 50p which you bang in the microwave for 2 minutes.

Bake-in-the-bag seasoning sachets are literally the best things in the world, as far as meat seasonings go. You simply open up the cooking bag provided, pop in your meat of choice, vegetables and seasoning provided and give it a shake. Then oven bake for 30-40 minutes. The best part, each bag is about 50p and does for a whole chicken.

The holy grail of the carbohydrates the sweet potato. I put mine in the microwave for 10 minutes, then t
op it with some tuna mixed with Total 0% yoghurt and a sprinkling of cheese. That is a filling, healthy meal for about £1.50.

Finally a little shopping tip i’ve picked up is to shop late or on Sundays. I’m a bit of reduced counter junkie. Last week I bought two pieces of Salmon for just £2 as well as packets of kale and spinach for just 69p. As well as this, check if your local supermarket does a student discount. My local co-op has 10% off with an NUS card which really adds up over a few shops.

So that is my ‘brief’ guide to student eating, I hope it was somewhat informative! Follow my instagram @dionnelifts for more ashteically pleasing meals. Next post will be a dummy’s guide to IIFYM. Bye for now X

With the massive growth of fitspo on social media there are tons of images online urging girls to get building a perfect peach. You may glance at these and sigh wishing you were the love child of Kim Kardashian and Beyoncé. But newsflash, glutes are a muscle, and muscles can be built and sculpted regardless of genetics.

First thing’s first, food.

Just like any muscle group the glutes need to be fed with protein and carbs- yes that’s right, carbs. Contrary to the media preaching carbs are the devil, carbs in fact have a huge part to play in building lean muscle.

To be building muscle you need to be eating at a calorie surplus (more than your TDEE) or at least your TDEE if you are wanting to lose fat and gain muscle.

To work out your TDEE (amount of calories you must eat to maintain weight) head over to IIFYM.

Now for the fun part, booty building exercises.

Squats and deadlifts are great for building up glutes, however whilst completing these exercises you are also working your quads, hamstrings, lower back etc.

To really build your glutes it is SO important to do exercises which really activate and isolate the glutes. Personally I would avoid doing body weight exercises unless it is for a warm up or superset. If you are worried about heading into the weights room (not that you need to be) you can use light dumbbells in place of barbells.

I have seen a ton of these online from some of my favourite YouTube channels Robin Gallant and Heidi Somers and others so I will put some of my favourites here!

Barbell Hip Thrust

This exercise is very simple. Using either the leg extension machine, or barbell, thrust upwards using your hips, keeping your back straight and squeezing your glutes at the top.

2. Abductor Squat

Pretty straightforward, squat down whilst pushing out with legs and keeping your core held tight (and trying not to look like a porn star).

3. Bulgarian Split Squat

These can be done using a barbell, smith machine or using dumbells in each hand. Place one leg on a bench behind and lunge keeping your back straight.

4. Sideways Leg Press

Again, this is a very straight forward exercise which targets the outer glutes creating a nice round booty *heart eye emoji*.

5. Cable Kickback

Place one leg onto a step and hold onto the cable machine. Attach the strap to your ankle and kick your leg backwards.

6. Smith Machine Donkey Kick

Bend down on a bench and place the bar level with your foot. Kick your leg back and upwards in a donkey kick motion.

7. Romanian Deadlift

Similar to a normal deadlift, keep your legs straight-ish (not locked out but not fully bent) and drop the weight to your ankles really pushing your glutes out and keeping your chest up.

8. Barbell Lunge

As easy as it sounds, lunge backwards alternating each leg. Again, you can use a barbell or the smith machine.

9. Barbell Curtsey Lunge

Using a barbell or the smith machine, hold the bar on your back and simply place one leg behind the other in a curtsy movement.

10. Assisted Pull Up Machine Push Downs (?)

That long-winded title is the last way I could describe this last exercise. Simply push down on the machine with your leg and *voila*

Hope you enjoyed this post or at least found it helpful. As I said none of this will be new to anyone but I just wanted to put all the great stuff I’d seen other people post into one place! Next post will be on eating clean at university. Bye for now X

Tag: fitness

Eating Healthy At University.

10 Exercises to Build a Booty.