My Gaining Phase UPdate

A little over a month ago I wrote a blog post giving you all an update on where I was currently at with my own nutrition and fitness goals (If you did not get a chance to read it, go check it out. It is titled “What am I up to now”). Regarding my physical appearance, I reached the top end of the weight (gaining a total of 21 pounds from my stage weight) that I wanted to gain during this phase, so I have stopped increasing my macros. I never thought I’d say this, but I was actually sick of eating so much food! I just felt full all the time, which was becoming uncomfortable. Since I was feeling so full, I did decide to go ahead and reduce my macros just a little bit to give my body a break from all the food, which has felt good. I do not plan to make any changes to my macros again until I start my cut on August 1st.

My workouts though have been going great! I’ve PR’d on several of my lifts, which has felt AMAZING. It is such a great feeling to be getting stronger in the gym each week. In addition to my lifts, I have added in a step goal of 10,000 steps each day. I had stopped all cardio and tracking steps while I was working to gain weight, but now that I have reached my goal weight, I wanted to slowly add in some purposeful movement during the day. Even though I have that step goal, if I don’t hit it every day, I’m not too worried. When I start my cut, that’s when I will focus on hitting that goal each day.

Mentally, I am feeling better about where things are at. I still have my moments, but they are not as frequent as they used to be. Probably the most difficult moment I had recently regarding my weight gain was when we went to Water World with some friends. When we started discussing going, I began freaking out in my head because all I could think about was how that would require me to be in a bathing suit and I was NOT excited about that idea. Then my second thought was how ridiculous it was that I was freaking out about being in a bathing suit, rather than being excited about doing something fun with my family. So I worked on changing my focus to what a great experience this would be rather than what I would look like in a bathing suit (I did go out and buy a new bathing suit that fit me well and I felt more comfortable in, which did help my mindset). And you know what, while we were at Water World, I did not stress over my body. I enjoyed the time with my family!

I have around three weeks left of this gaining phase. My plan is to continue this path and take the lessons of this phase as I move forward.