Fan questions answered
We love to receive feedback and questions from our community! So a while ago Fitgirlcode fan Priscilla had some questions for us and Annegeke, Anna, Lisa and Shelley sat down to answer them. Here it goes!
What kind of oil do you use to cook and why?
Annegeke: I use coconut oil. Coconut oil has a lot of health benefits (can't remember which haha:p) and does not oxidate like olive oil when you heat it.
Anna: I use coconut oil because olive oil has a lower smoke point than coconut oil. Thus olive oil is not ideal for higher temperatures (baking). I do use it for salads though.
Lisa: Coconut oil, because of its health benefits, because it’s stable at high temperatures, and because I like the subtle flavor of it.
Shelley: I still use olive oil, it's not the best I know, but planning to change to coconut oil too. Just have to buy it first, haha.
Who uses a protein shake after a work out? And do you do this after every work out?
Annegeke: I use a protein shake if I've had a tough evening workout as evening snack. During the day I mostly just make sure my post workout meal has a natural protein source.
Anna: I only started using protein shakes for a week now. I asked the other fit girls why using protein shakes could be beneficial for me. They told me protein shakes help build up your muscles (instead of breaking down your muscles after an intense workout) The more muscles you have the more fat you burn. And since I wanna lose some more weight it seemed like a good thing to try.
Lisa: Usually I do, and almost always after lifting weights. Otherwise, gimme those nanas!
Shelley: I use protein shakes after every work out, but mainly take one with my breakfast every day too. It helps me lessen the pain of sore muscles after an intense workout and in the morning it makes me start up faster, because you immediately replenish the protein shortage your body has created while you were sleeping. Although on the other hand it could also be that I'm starting up faster because of my fitter lifestyle nowadays.
What are the most important things to stop eating/ eat less of?
Annegeke: Depends on where you are at and what you want to achieve. In general I would say eat less processed food (also no 'sugar free' and 'low fat' products).
Anna: Artificial sugars, pre-packaged food (try to make everything yourself, for example sauces), soft drinks, less bread, less alcohol.
Lisa: Processed foods, especially the products with the ‘low fat’/’diet’ type of claims. Not all of those are bad, but you should always check the ingredient list; if it’s too long or full of abracadabra, I think it’s better to skip it.
Shelley: For me the main thing to stop eating was artificial sugars. I am a huge sweet tooth so I started by cutting down on sugary juices and then sugary foods like chocolate, cookies, donuts, well basically any sugary snack that I devoured on a daily basis before. I used to eat icecream after every dinner but changed that to 1,5% fat yogurt etc. And I try to look at the ingredients of a product and see whether there are a lot of E-numbers in it. At the moment, I still find it too difficult to completely ban processed foods and all, but I do try to look at the ingredients to see how 'natural' they are.
What kind of sports/ exercises do you do besides Elevator? How many times do you train and for how long?
Annegeke: Besides Elevator I run about 1 or 2 times a week and go to the gym also once or twice a week to do about 30 mins of cardio and 20 mins of weight lifting. Hope this helps!:)
Anna: I train 3 or 4 times a week at Sixforty. The workouts (1 hour) I do there are a combination of bootcamp exercises, HIIT and crossfit. If I go there three times I also go for a 8k run (approx.)
Lisa: I teach BodyCombat 3 times a week (3 hours), PowerPilates 2 times (2 hours), I run for about 1 - 1 ½ hour per week and I lift weights for about one to two hours per week. I always have one rest day per week, sometimes two.
Shelley: I go to Elevator Sports every Wednesday and try to go running twice a week. Running I mostly do for 45/65 minutes (7-10km)
So Priscilla, we hope this answers a lot of your questions! And if anybody else has questions for us, let us know in the comments below or contact us!
