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Nutrition and 4 RM Week

It is an absolutely beauuuuutiful day here in Kentucky! Tomorrow we're supposed to have snow flurries, so I have been soaking up as much sun as I possibly can today and have done nothing productive whatsoever! Practiced handstands and broke out the roller blades, then read for the rest of the day on my front porch. I LOVE being outside!
 
Sooo I thought I'd do a little update on my training and nutrition lately. My in-laws were in town visiting last week, and we ate out quite a few times. In the course of about 10 days, I had pizza, ice cream, steaks, mashed potatoes, more ice cream...and yet I feel tighter and leaner!


It just goes to show that when you have built up your metabolism through years of lifting weights and eating ENOUGH food, you can have a few treats here and there, and it won't ruin your physique because your body can handle the calories. You don't have to obsess and eat out of Tupperware for every single meal, and if you have a not so strict week of eating, it's okay. Just have to be careful not to let it spiral out of control and make sure that you are on track with all of your other meals for the day and then you're getting your workouts in.

I still sometimes can't believe I spent a couple years of my life fearing carbs and seriously thinking that eating carbs at night would make me fat. Now I'd be so sad if I had to take out my potatoes and rice for dinner!  And sometimes with my bedtime snack I have rice cakes or a handful of cereal, or even an oreo every now and then...like last night... ;)

I actually feel that I'm more muscular and leaner now than I've ever been. I think it's due to eating more the past couple years, increasing my carbs, and the way I train, which is lifting heavy. Of course, I have my "tighter" days and my more bloated days....So many people think that to "tone" or lose fat, you should lift light weights for high reps, which is just so not true. If you want to lose fat, tone up, whatever, LIFT HEAVY. I feel like every time I go on a heavy lifting plan(less than 5 reps), I always get leaner!

Speaking of training, this week is my 4 rep max week. I got PRs on both my push press and bench press from when I did this program last year, so I was happy about that! Gotta love getting stronger! I got 120lbs(bodyweight) for 4 on push press and 125lbs on bench! I'm nervous about squats tomorrow though...I feel like for some reason I'm not getting stronger on those like I seem to be on everything else. But we'll see how it goes. Have to remind myself that it's not the end of the world if I don't set a PR!! I'm doing a different rep program for deadlifts, so this is a deload week for them, which is good because my back has been super tight lately.

So anyways, I've had a few people ask me what my off day nutrition looks like. It's pretty similar to my workout days, minus my post workout meal, and I keep my carbs slightly lower and fats a little higher. I don't track regularly, but when I do I'm usually between 2100 and 2300 calories, which is right where I want to be.

As I've mentioned before I don't like to track because it makes me obsess over food too much, but I do like to use the scale to know if I should be eating more. I'm not obsessively trying to gain weight right now, but I do want to make sure that I'm NOT losing either . So if my weight goes down, I know I gotta up my calories. If it stays the same, I know I'm where I need to be. That works for me right now, but just remember than different things work for different people. Some people love counting macros, or having a structured meal plan to follow, while others(like me!) don't. Of course, when I post about my nutrition I have to remind everyone not to copy exactly what I do, because what works for me, may not work for you!

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