A couple weeks ago I was feeling frustrated about my fitness goals/progress. I reached out to some fitness and nutrition savvy friends for help. And they generously came back with an abundance of it! A new eating plan, still vegan of course and a new workout plan. I am focusing more on strength training and less cardio and taking more rest days to all ow for muscle recovery. Working muscle groups in rotation instead of whole body all the time. And I get to eat more!!! 1600 calories a day! It feels like a million calories after eating 1200-1400 for years. I am focusing on increasing my protein intake and cutting back on grain and carbs. Not cutting entirely, everything in moderation. I am not eating wheat bread at all any more as I discovered it really makes me bloat, my body just doesn't digest it well. But switching to rye was no big deal, I have always liked it. And I am drinking protein shakes after my workout. Thank goodness since I was getting really tired of bananas and peanut butter everyday. It was a struggle to find a vegan one local and I am not super happy with what we got but it is a good starting point.
I was warned that my body would go thru an adjustment period during this change, I would see bloating, might gain weight, and it would totally mess with my head but if I just stayed strong and followed the plan I would see big changes by week 3 or 4. And I would/could see leaning out, muscle definition and hopefully fat percentage dropping. My goal is to drop from 21 to 18% so I can see ab definition. But ultimately my goal is to be fit, strong, healthy and to make a bikini look good!
I am 14ish days in and I am still bloated but I think it is starting to go down a bit. I can see my abs peeking thru and the workouts are totally kicking my butt which is pretty awesome. I committed to a month long process with weekly progress photos, tomorrow is picture day #2. I was really disturbed by pic day #1 as I looked squishy all over! But am getting great support from a group of friends in my online fitness group. Thank goodness to because they weren't kidding when they said it would mess with your mind. When you feel like you are going backwards in a journey like this it is devastating! I am working hard on staying off the scale and focusing on the plan and the end game.
Speaking of that it is time for today's workout!
Have any of you had experience with the eat more to lose fat and gain muscle process? It seems so backwards to me after years of living on 1200 calories a day to be slim. Tell me about it if you have, I could use the encouragement!
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