The Tip of the Iceberg

I'm sorry, this is going to be a boring read unless you really want to know what we did. We've had a lot of questions about what we ate, supplements we took, and what our workout plans were. So I'm writing this as a reference for people with questions.

Also, I just want to say that I love all people, and all body sizes and shapes. I have shopped plus sizes and size small. I wish I had been better at loving my body in every size.  I am currently loving pushing my body to see how fit I can get. I know there are so many other priorities that take precedence, and I 100% support everyone in focusing on what they feel are their top priorities. I know that working out often can't be a top priority. For me, I have found that fitness is my best therapy and my whole soul wakes up and lives my whole day better. Working out, eating clean, and feeling strong benefit every other part of my life and most of all my family. That is why I do it.

Workouts.

I love the free programs on bodybuilding.com! I LOVE THEM. I am terrible with motivation to work out, and my hardest hurdle is deciding what to do. However, if someone else is telling me what to do, I can push extremely hard to finish even when it feels impossible. I'm stubborn like that. Getting a personal trainer is SO expensive, but seriously, the bodybuilding.com programs are like a free personal trainer.

To the women who are afraid of getting "bulky." This will not happen. You don't make enough testosterone. You will build lean muscle which will burn more fat all day long even when sleeping. You will not lose your curves. You will gain lots and lots of curves. Small  muscle definition curves. Big awesome curves. Working to build muscle will tighten your whole body, Your waist will shrink and your glutes will grow and shape themselves. LIFT HEAVY. Then LIFT HEAVIER!

You can't Tone what you Don't Have!!! Build Muscle!

My favorite programs so far:
Jamie Eason's Livefit 12 Week Trainer I did the first 8 weeks of this program over and over for months before I tried anything else. It is the best beginner program for men or women I've seen.
Jim Stoppani's 6 week Shortcut to Shred I did this one for the last 6 weeks of our Transformation Challenge. It is brutally awesome. In a 'I may not make it out alive' kind of way. I wouldn't try this one if you are just starting out.
Blueprint to Cut I'm currently using this plan, and man it burns!!!
12 Week Shortcut to Size I plan to do this one next, I'm excited to start my first "bulking" program, instead of shredding/cutting programs. This is where I will really build the muscle to get lean!


With the BodySpace app from bodybuilding.com I just pick a program based on my goals (lose fat, gain muscle, transform) and fitness level (beginner to expert), add the program to my calendar and then every day when I go to the gym it tells me what exercises to do, how many sets/reps, and so much more! Along the menu at the bottom I can see what my previous stats were for that specific exercise so I can continually increase weight. I can click on the Exercise Guide and read a description of proper form for the exercise, see pictures, and watch a video showing how to do it. This was SO HELPFUL at the beginning when I had no idea what I was doing. The night before I'd go through my workout for the next day and watch all the videos so I knew what I was supposed to do.

On the website I can track my max weight lifted for different exercises, my body measurements, my goals, weight gain and loss, body fat percentage, workouts, how much total weight I've lifted. (Tomorrow I will hit 200 workouts tracked and about 1.5 million pounds lifted)

On the app there is also a social aspect where you can be friends with other people and encourage each other etc. I also look at it for fitness memes, which I LOVE!

The only thing to be careful of is too much skin...a lot of people post pictures of themselves or others that I really wish they wouldn't. That is pretty much the only downside of the website/app, but if you don't look at the Fitboard and are careful of who you accept as a friend, it's easy to avoid.

Food.

If you workout, and eat pretty well, you can feel awesome and look good. If you want to see lots of muscle definition and get in great shape, there is no way around it, you will have to eat consciously. I don't think of it as dieting, but having a nutrition plan, eating to achieve your goals. I'd recommend doing some research, deciding on a plan, and tracking every tiny thing you eat with a food scale for at least a week or two until you can eyeball portion sizes and mentally keep track of eating the right amounts of the right stuff.

I'd start with the If It Fits Your Macros Calculator

Enter your stats. If at all possible get your body fat tested by someone who knows what they are doing so it will give you an accurate calorie projection. The pinching of the fat sucks, but put your pride on the shelf and know you are going to succeed.
Using this calculator, you can find out what your calorie goal should be every day. You can enter how much activity you do every week and what your goal is (either lose fat or gain muscle).

Once you have your daily calorie count it's time to think about macros.
Macronutrients are protein, carbs, fat. The percentage of each that you eat every day definitely matters.

I would go to bodybuilding.com's Female Training Bible.

This is an awesome reference, read the whole thing if you have time.

Or scroll down about two thirds of the way to the heading that says Your Body Type and Your Nutrition. It talks bout the different body types and what their macros should be.

I would pick one, use it for awhile, adjust it, feel it out, and see what works best for you. I don't use their exact macros, because I'm a little in between two of the body types. You will have to experiment to see what works for you.

If you read the next section on that page called portion control, it teaches you how to roughly estimate your portions. It also has some meal plan suggestions and links to other helpful pages.

I use the MyFitnessPal app to track my food. it takes a little time but it gets easier and faster the longer you do it. If you go to the menu and scroll down to "Goals" you can enter your own calories and macro percentages. Then as you enter your food in the Diary section, check in with the Nutrition section to see how you are measuring up against your macro goals. I do this all at the beginning of the day so I can plan what I will eat and know that it will fit in my macros.

Also, for those of us who hold on to fat, the fat macro percentage is really high. Don't flip out. We need a lot of healthy fats (salmon, avocado, almonds) so that our bodies become convinced that we DON'T need to hold on to any extra fat. We need less carbs, because excess carbs get converted into fat, and for some reason our bodies think that is the preferred thing to do. For the lucky people with metabolisms that burn up carbs as heat or laughter or whatever magical way they do it, they get to eat more carbs. No matter what your body type is, if you are weight lifting, you should be eating 80% to 100%  of your bodyweight in grams of protein. You want to build muscle.

The idea behind eating in macros is that you can eat cheat foods. They just have to fit in your macro counts. However, if you want to look your best, 80% or more of your food should be clean, whole food and then you can fit in some cheat food.

I am here to tell you this works. If you eat 100% clean whole foods while meeting your macro counts, it works even better. Within the first week or two the fat starts melting off like the butter you wish you were eating.

It isn't easy. But it works.

If you really want to torch some fat, carb cycle.
Carb cycling just means that some days you have high calorie, high carb days followed by lower calorie/carb days.

For example:
I'm a 30 year old female weighing about 140 lbs. I weight lift 6 days a week and do HIIT cardio 4 days a week.
My weight maintenance or TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) calorie count is a little over 2100. 
So two days in a row I'll eat 1,700 calories, with my macros as follows.
25% Carbs, 106 grams
35% Protein, 149g
40% Fats, 76g

Then two days in a row I'll eat 2,000 calories, with the following macros.
45% Carbs, 225g
30% Protein, 150g
25% Fats, 56g

I wish I could tweak MyFitnessPal so that I could be more specific in my macros so that I could aim to eat only my bodyweight in grams of protein, but it will only calculate in percentage increments of 5. Ah well.

But the goal in carb cycling is to alternate total calorie count up and down by 300. You can do as much as 600 if you want, but I like food, so I don't like to go too low. You also want to cut your grams of carbs by about half on the low days.
We tried doing a no carb diet for a couple of weeks and I don't recommend it. You need carbs for energy and your workouts are crap with no carbs. The only time I would do no carbs is if you are in the final week or two before a body competition or photo shoot.

The idea behind carb cycling is that your metabolism never adjusts down like it would if you were only eating a low calorie diet. It also keeps your body guessing as to where to get energy so it really starts burning your fat stores. Carb cycling = high, fat burning metabolism.

All of this is hard to do, and harder to keep up. But with a food scale (Our Food Scale) you can do it. Even if you scan food into MyFitnessPal, it is pretty inaccurate, you've got to weigh it! 

It takes planning and persistence.

This is a reference list of foods I keep on hand and use to fill gaps in my macros.
Foods high in protein, low in carbs and fat: lean meats, low-fat cottage cheese, beef jerky, non-fat plain greek yogurt

High carbs, low fat and protein: granola (Bear Naked granola is our favorite, it's super clean and low sodium) white and sweet potatoes, quinoa, oatmeal, brown rice, fruit and veggies

High in Healthy Fat: almonds, peanuts, avocados, salmon, olive oil

Supplements.

We do take supplements. It isn't necessary to get totally shredded, but it can help. This is getting long, so I'll just list them here along with some favorite recipes we've tried. if you have any questions I'd love to answer them if I can.

Protein Powder: whey protein isolate is the leanest and cleanest. Look at ingredient lists, go for the shortest list with items that you recognize. Also, look at cost per serving, instead of total cost if you can.
These are my favorites. This protein is fast absorbing. Take within 30 minutes to an hour of working out to help your muscles recover and build.

About Time Whey Protein Isolate My favorite. Clean. No carbs, no fat, no filler, no artificial sugar, and low sodium.

Now Sports Whey Protein Isolate 2nd favorite, Pretty clean, cheaper per serving. I alternate between the two.

I took CLA and Fish Oils to help promote fat burning and inhibit fat storage.
Tonalin CLA

Our fish oil is the Costco brand.

We take a daily multivitamin.

Creatine HCL, it supplies your muscles with energy. It also retains water, however, Creatine HCL draws water into your muscle but not subcutaneously whereas Creatine Monohydrate does both, so if you want more muscle definition go with HCL instead of Monohydrate.
Creatine HCL

We also use Casein protein before bed because it is slow absorbing and will help repair and build muscle all night while you sleep. We take it about an hour before bedtime.

Dymatize Elite Casein We get the Vanilla, it has by far the least sodium, and Evan gets heartburn, so he can't have chocolate close to bedtime.

Now Sports ZMA This helps repair muscles all night as well, take it right before bedtime.

Yummy, Yummy, Favorite Recipes

Italian Turkey Burgers
Creamy Avocado Chicken Pasta
Beef Veggie Stir Fry (I add sugar snap peas too)
Turkey Taco Lettuce Wraps (We eat these for breakfast---weird habits of high protein eaters)
Protein Mug Brownie An awesome substitute for the same old protein shake every morning! Eat with milk and it is SO GOOD!!!! (Maybe not as good as I think it is, but when you don't eat much processed sugar, everything tastes better)

I am not an expert, but I hope this helps! Experiment and Do Research, there are a lot of ways to get to the same result.

Good luck!

The Before and the After

In January I started a 12 Week Body Transformation Challenge. I needed a change of pace, a new beginning.
Also....we didn't have much extra money and I didn't fit into most of my clothes.
So there's some motivation.

I decided to go all in. Act as if I would win. Work like I knew I would win. $80,000 is nothing to sniff at so why not?

I weight lifted every morning 6 days a week, spin classes 3 days a week, Insanity and yoga in the afternoons, I ate cleaner than I have ever eaten for longer than I ever wanted to. TWO entire months of weighing and tracking all my food and not eating even one tiny cheat food.

I must be crazy. Totally crazy.

I changed a lot. The before and after pictures blow my mind. First of all, I never really thought it was in the realm of possibility that I would see my abs. Secondly, somewhere along the 12 weeks, I forgot about the importance of my appearance.

The first few weeks I got up extra early and went to the gym. I lifted weights and ate pretty clean. I tried to control portions and think positively. Somewhere around Week 3 I had my first of many meltdowns. I wasn't seeing much progress and the consistent effort and sacrifice were HARD!
I almost gave up, but right around that time Bodybuilding.com sent me an email saying that most people give up in Week 3. There are few things that motivate me more than telling me I'm average, that I can't do something, that it is too hard.

I started researching. I wanted to work harder. And Smarter! I learned a LOT and made a plan.
Then I did more research. I changed plans and got more specific.
The only real constant was the weights. Every morning at 6am I'd leave my house to KILL another workout. I made all the ugly faces. I pushed to failure, paused for a second, then pushed out a couple more reps. Then added some weight and did a couple more for good measure.
Every day. Every day.

By Week 8 or so it was a habit. One Saturday Evan suggested that I not go work out......I almost cried. He saw the look on my face and immediately reconsidered.

Cliche, I know. But really, lifting weights has changed my life. First thing every morning I do something hard. Really, really hard. I steel myself, grit my teeth and lift heavier. I sweat. I struggle. When I fail, I mentally size up what I'm made of, then decide that I am made of more and I push harder.

I do that every morning.

I can't express the internal miracle that has happened. I love my body. I am amazed by what I can do. I am impressed by the miracle of the body God blessed me with. Long before I saw my abs, I began feeling wonder and awe at this incredible temple that is my mortal shape.

This is a crazy, new feeling that I am unaccustomed to. I desperately wish I could give everyone I know the overwhelmingly transcendent high of feeling this way. I still have love handles and stretch marks, plenty of things that aren't aesthetically pleasing, but I. Love. My. Body. It is incredible in its imperfection.

I don't really agree with all of this meme--it is hard to workout.

However, the eating clean part. Yeeeeeees. Yes. Hard, hard, brutal. Saying no to cookies, cakes, ice cream, the stuff people give you. You don't even have to BUY stuff, people show up places and WANT you to EAT their delicious goodies! It is inescapable.
All I can say is, it did get easier. I know people say that, and I know it is true. The truth of that statement in no way diminishes the superhuman effort of the first few weeks. And the periodic moments even after the habit is established that hit you hard and fast and powerful.
When you've been good for weeks and then you smell the freshly baked something or other and your knees buckle.
Or when you are staring down a mountain of cauliflower and spinach and egg whites and the tears run down your face. And you eat it anyway.

The last couple of weeks we went totally without carbs. Except the carbs in vegetables. The last week we had no carbs and as little sodium as possible. Almost every day for lunch I fed my children peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. With my fingers.
Hard.
I wouldn't even lick my fingers because I knew I would cave and eat every baked good in sight.

For me, this felt like an achievement comparable to climbing Mt. Everest.

WEEKS!! MONTHS!!

It didn't happen overnight. It grew slowly, the choices picked up steam as I went. The inner strength and determination I found while weight lifting created the momentum I needed to make hard nutritional choices all day.

In the end. I don't think I'll win the $80,000. I never took any fat burners, I didn't have a personal trainer, and I definitely learned as I went.

I don't even mind.
I lost 15 lbs.
I lost 10.75% body fat.

I gained a pound of muscle.

I am 15 lbs. heavier than I was when I got married, but I fit into those same clothes.

I came right up against the bedrock of who I am. I conquered fears. I struggled and persevered.

I learned something in a real, physical, tangible way: The way to growth is straight through the pain.
Society today wants everything easy and immediate. Happiness Now!
It just doesn't work that way.
Real lasting happiness is earned. You cry, and grunt, and burn. Push. Heave. Strain. Collapse.

Sometimes no one even notices the sacrifices, the effort. And the option to quit is always so easy and so present.

The joy of a job well done, of hard effort, of struggle, of growth. I have missed out on so much of that joy, because I didn't want it. And the easy road only has so much shallow, repetitive pleasure to offer.

I guess in the end, this 12 week challenge gave me two lasting things.

One.
The joy of the pain. I learned to appreciate, to actually enjoy and recognize the beauty of the failed effort. Effort at all, for that matter. Life throws heavy punches. We all feel them. The times that strike you to your knees with the weight of pain, sorrow, guilt, anger, loss, or monotony. If only somehow in the moment we can feel the joy of soul stretching growth, life would never be able to keep us down. And maybe not always joy-- for some punches, there is just the pain. But we can have satisfaction, pride even, knowing that we will survive. Knowing we can conquer, change. It is a choice, but the pain and the failure can be used to steel our resolve to improve.
The pain IS our improvement.
And we don't have to wait for the results to come to feel happy! We can be happy IN the struggle. Find a deeper, stronger, subtler kind of joy in the dead center of our hardest times.
The craziest, possibly questionable idea.....is that we can choose to make life hard.
To attack our weaknesses.
To aim painfully high and seek out our limits.
To set goals so big you set yourself up to fail majestically.
Over and over again. It's a brand new idea for me, terrifying and exhilarating.

To be happier I need to make my life harder.....It sounds so wrong.
But in practice it feels like Freedom. Adventure. Adrenaline. Alive. 

(Just so you know I am taking this idea seriously: In January I set a goal to get totally shredded and see all my abs and obliques in 12 weeks. I failed, but I can see my top 4 abs pretty well.
I failed.
Period.
But I SMASHED straight through all previous fitness goal successes in my life.
The day that challenge was over, I decided that by July 1st I am going to deep clean our entire house. Every closet and corner and the garage. I am going to work like I will accomplish this even though I have no idea if it is really possible. Also...I've already entered another body transformation challenge. My mother told me I wasn't built to do pull-ups. That I shouldn't even try. I love you, Mom. Thanks for handing me my next goal.)

Two.
You. All of the "you"s in my life. It is overwhelming to me how incredible people are. The family, friends, and even acquaintances in my life brim over the top with their excellence. As I have looked with different eyes the last couple of months, I have seen people conquering personal demons, persevering through real tragedies, and, sometimes the hardest of all, living with love, grace, and real daily strength. Those tiny unobserved moments of every day life. Those are the ones that have brought me to tears recently. To the people in my life who I see making those tough daily choices to be cheerful, to be kind, to be honest, to be patient, to be vulnerable, to be good, to endure, Thank you. Thank you so much for your life and your example.

You are not average. You are not ordinary. You were never meant to be.


For the people who asked:

Disclaimer: Bikini top was purchased solely for these pictures.

For the record. I could never have done this without the unfailing support of the naturally leanest person I know, who still managed to lose 5% body fat.