“Get Lean” Challenge: Check-in #1

It has been three 4 weeks since I’ve started my mission to get lean for the summer. This is my first physique check for the challenge…

It has been 4 weeks since I started my 12 Week “Get Lean” Summer Challenge but this physique check is for 3 weeks of work. I ended up having to take this past week off because I wasn’t feeling well. I am happy that I have lost some size in my waist while keeping my muscle mass. That was my biggest concern, losing that hard earned muscle I worked so hard to get. These past 3 weeks have been a new experience for me, some good, some bad, and some things I feel in love with.

One of the things I’ve started doing is lifting heavy weights and really pushing my limits. I can honestly say that I LOVE lifting weights this way. It challenges my muscles and my body in a way that is new. It allows me to keep my muscle despite upping my cardio.

Speaking of cardio, I’ve added steady state cardio back into my routine. I’ve actually grown quite fond of it, but adding it onto certain weight training days (like legs) has me in the gym sometimes for up to 2 hours. I have a very busy life so I have to plan ahead on these days. I like my workouts quick, intense, and efficient, but steady state cardio takes time.

Another change that I’ve made that’s time consuming is tracking my macros. I have a love/hate relationship to tracking. On one hand, its great because it allows you to better prep your meals for the day, to monitor your daily macro goals, and to see what needs to change in your diet. But honestly, tracking macros can be soooo annoying sometimes. I cook a lot and it gets on my nerves to have to scan every item in, to measure it, to split the servings, etc. Do I think tracking is beneficial? Yes Will I continue to track after I hit my goal? No. When I switch back to maintaining my weight, I will just go back to clean eating, which I love because it allows you to be healthy without the pressure of meeting certain numbers.

The last thing I changed was carb cycling, which was hard at first. I would find that on my heavy carb days, sometimes I wouldn’t eat enough carbs, and on my low carb days I would consume too much. It took me (and is still taking me) a while to get used to cycling my carbs, but I do like it. All those excess carbs (that break down into sugars) aren’t sitting idly in my body, storing as fat on days where I do not exercise and when I do go into the gym with a heavy workout in mind, the carbs I get to consume give me enough energy to push through my workouts.

I’m excited for the next weeks to come and to see what progress I can make!

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