Progress update and happy holidays!

I gotta say that winter and especially the holiday season is the perfect time to do a “bulk”. Being able to eat as much as I want with no guilt has been amazing. Not that I really feel guilty; I always make conscious choices when I eat, but eating treats or stuffing yourself around the holidays is often looked upon as “bad”. I want to talk about food-shaming and policing in another blog! I say this holiday season enjoy yourself!

This blog is meant to show you my progress! I’m happy to say at 10 weeks I’m starting to see some changes. I’m up to 112 from 105 pounds and my body fat has gone up 2%. No big deal because allowing myself to eat way more than usual has built up my metabolism. This will make the “cutting” phase easier!

I’m seeing the most progress in my upper body, particularly my shoulders (see photo above for 10 week progress). One day is dedicated just to them in the gym and then I add a few moves in on arm day (biceps/triceps). I’m officially working with a coach to help me track progress, design workouts for me and help me with my meal planning. Since I’m bulking I haven’t followed the meal plan to a tee, but I am eating less junk food and pastries than I was the first 5 weeks! That caught up with me and raised my body fat by 2%. If I had eaten well the whole time I probably could have had less fat gain, but it was good for my state of mind to just eat and eat. I’ve stayed relatively lean even though I’m up seven pounds (or at least that is what my coach says!).

My lower body is building slower than my upper but I’m definitely seeing progress there as well. Sadly my left leg is developing faster than my right so I need to make some tweaks in my training to make sure the right leg catches up before my show in April. I have chosen a competition in April but since it’s outside of Houston if I don’t have support while I am there I may skip it and just continue to train like I’m doing a show in April. Another friend at Beyond Fit might do it with me and then I will do it. A competition is so stressful I don’t think I could handle it without some support. Competing with the PlantBuilt team and having Yolanda by my side throughout the process back in July was the only way I made it through the Natural Fit Supershow!

My back probably has the craziest amount of progress. It has become so large that all my tops are too tight and even my pajamas are snug. As you can see from the photo above I have come a long way! April is when I first started lifting 5x a week then I took a two month break while training for my triathlon and picked it up again about 10 weeks ago.

I added some cardio back in last week to help me prepare for the Spartan Beast Race next week! It’s a 12-mile obstacle course that is said to be the hardest amongst all obstacle races of it’s size. I’m not that nervous about this race since I did the Tough Mudder last year and wasn’t even in shape then. But it is going to be freezing cold so I hope I don’t freeze my toes off!

Hope you’ve been hitting the gym hard. Tell me about your progress in the gym! Any questions you have about anything lifting or fitness related let me know! And if you are a lady be sure to join my Vegan Ladies Who Lift group on Facebook!