Stephanielynn's Journal: Finding the beauty in the beast

[cmg1976]

Looks like you packed on a good 9 pounds of muscle in the last year Steph I've missed you while you were away but I knew you'd be back with awesomeness. Thanks for showing all of us what steady lifting and a willingness to eat can do. It helps me more than you know. I think you hair looks beautiful. But you are lucky in that it's always cute no matter what you do.

[krissagray]

Love those progress pictures! You are my idol! One day, I shall have that lean muscle!

[pastorpritch]

In

[stephanielynn76]

I think we have exactly the same haircut now, Steph : ) I just re-cut my bangs exactly like yours and took a couple-three inches off the rest. And holy chit, you put so much mass on your quads judging from those comparison pics! Also your delts look way bigger.

Kinda discouraged that your awesome obliques just came naturally ; ) When will it be my turn?

Same haircut!?!? Well then it's totally a keeper! The other day I went with my two gym friends out to the parking lot of a church to push her truck for exercise (put it in neutral, hands on the bumper and move that sucker). Well one of them (who is 52 years old) says.... "Stephanie, I didn't realize you had so much gray hair. Now that you have it up I can see it. You have more than me!" I have a color scheduled for Wednesday... LOL And......Yaaaaaaaaaaay! I'm glad you can see the progress!

Looooove the hair : ).

Looking at your picture, you look more cut and have more mass in the most recent picture, IMO. You look amazing.

Awwwww thank you! I'm glad others are chiming in. I have a hard time being objective when looking at myself. It seems I have more mass but I think I look a bit leaner on the left...

Hey Steph!!! You look absolutely incredible, as always : ) There's a huge difference between last years pics and this years! You are an excellent example of how well bulking works when you do it right Always inspires me to do another one!!! : D

Love the hair!!!

Thanks Lori! I hope I DO inspire women to eat up!

CUTE haircut!! I tried growing out fried hair for years (used to straighten a lot) and finally got fed up and did a big chop. So much healthier and happier after that.

Your quads and delts look fantastic in your recent cut - bulking done right!!

Ugh so glad I'm not the only one with this problem. I suppose you have to come to a point when you'd rather have healthy hair than long hair. I am so very happy that I went ahead and cut mine.

That last pic from the 11th just graduated me into full on creeper mode. That is an AWESOME back half, very sexy.

So much for only being clinically interested in your progress. :\

Congrats on doing so well for yourself the last couple of years. The results really are outstanding and the differences are quite visible, despite what you may sometimes think.

LMAO... you're post totally made my day. No really... it did. I will readily admit to "creeping" on others on here so no shame in that.

[stephanielynn76]

Looks like you packed on a good 9 pounds of muscle in the last year Steph : ) I've missed you while you were away but I knew you'd be back with awesomeness. Thanks for showing all of us what steady lifting and a willingness to eat can do. It helps me more than you know. I think you hair looks beautiful. But you are lucky in that it's always cute no matter what you do.

Haha... don't know about 9lbs. I'd have been good with 4-5. I've missed you too my friend. I really have so much respect for you. You are both brilliant and motivated... you will do well. Your new hair is fabulous too!

Love those progress pictures! You are my idol! One day, I shall have that lean muscle!

Of course you will. You just need to EAT!

In

Awesome! Welcome!!!

[thehobbes]

Whoa, you are looking great girl, so lean with some nice muscles popping out there! Love that bikini with the RARW cats on there. Also mirin' the hair, kinda hate you guys who can get it to be all nice and straight like that, I need a gallon of hair gel to get anywhere close to that lol!

[pastorpritch]

Thanks
Log moves fast! Love that you are a roller skater. I spent three solid years at a rink without missing a Friday or Saturday night . I miss it!

[stephanielynn76]

So I decided to do some measurements of myself the other night just to see where things stand. I had my husband measure me with a tape measure and compare those values with the measurements I took 2 years ago back when I was really lean (122lbs).


Date / Weight / Arms / Chest / Waist / Quads / Calves / Hips
07.29.11 / 122 / 11.000 / 36 / 26.5 / 19.25 / 12.25 / 35
05.16.13 / 138 / 12.375 / 37 / 27.75 / 21.0 / 13.75 / 36

Interesting! I weigh 16lbs more right now. My quads have gained the most inches. Once I get lean enough I will do some comparison shots!

[stephanielynn76]

Whoa, you are looking great girl, so lean with some nice muscles popping out there! Love that bikini with the RARW cats on there. Also mirin' the hair, kinda hate you guys who can get it to be all nice and straight like that, I need a gallon of hair gel to get anywhere close to that lol!

Lol.... my leopard bikini is quite weird and unique ain't it? Girl you have NO IDEA how much effort it takes to get my hair "smooth." It's really a long and arduous process. I've gotten to where I only actually fix it straight on special occasions. The rest of the time I just rock a white-girl fro...

Thanks
Log moves fast! Love that you are a roller skater. I spent three solid years at a rink without missing a Friday or Saturday night . I miss it!

I LOVE to skate and I'm pretty dang good at it too! I can dance on skates like nobody's business! I haven't actually been in a while and I really miss it. :'( I used to skate around my driveway in high school and college every afternoon!

[pastorpritch]

Yeah I got pretty good dancing around on them. My wife rolls her eyes at me when I talk about it
I've still got the skates and thought about getting some outdoor wheels for them. I'd need all new bearings too, might be worth the expense!

[stephanielynn76]

Yeah I got pretty good dancing around on them. My wife rolls her eyes at me when I talk about it
I've still got the skates and thought about getting some outdoor wheels for them. I'd need all new bearings too, might be worth the expense!

LOL... my husband rolls his eyes at my skating too! He actually got me a new pair for my b-day last year and I'm still breaking them in. I can't quite dance in them the way I could in the old ones (which I had from high school but they fell apart AT THE RINK). I went out to the park the other day and skated around the tennis wall while the kids played on the equipment. Those wheels were probably not meant for outdoors though. I wish there were some way to speed up the break-in process. They are just too stiff. I did loosen the wheels/bearings though.

[stephanielynn76]

Btw... I'm 8 weeks out today. A pic from the locker room after my cardio....

[LHarwood]

Wow. Not sure if you should lose much more tbh, I think I saw somewhere you want to lose another 10#?..I personally wouldn't go that far, maybe a 3-5# at the most but that's JMO. You look REALLY good.


Oh and as for the other picture I commented on-I think you think that you look leaner in the left one because your smaller? But trust me-your leaner in the right but with more mass.

[rachelily]

I love the gray hair comment .. my sister swore for YEARS I had a chunk of gray somewhere, but I could never find it so I thought she was just teasing. Then one day I put my hair up in a bun and got the angle just right... bam there it was.

My mom went gray in her 20s, and I'm 22, and they're sprouting.

[pharty]

Ok... an update...

Training is... training. It's pretty much the same crap I always do. I haven't hit any new PR's or done anything exciting lately. I am pretty much just trying not to lose mass at this point. I see a distinct difference in my strength based on how I am eating and how much rest I get. I have awful insomnia to boot. My epic DL PR a few weeks ago happened after a cheat meal and a 9-hour night's sleep. I have been struggling just to get through my training most days.

As for my progress... the scale is still being a PITA. I go down to 139 and back up to 140.5... then down to 138.5 and back up to 140... then down to 138 and back up to 141.5. It's ridiculous. Even with all this back and forth... I continue to look leaner. My BFF asked me today how I compared to my cut last year. Good question. I pulled up some pictures...



^^9 weeks out last year on the left and this year on the right. What do yall think? This is also a good comparison for how much muscle I have potentially gained over the bulk.

In other news... I have been trying to let my fried hair grow out for quite a while now. Well I got so fed up with it that I went and got some cut off. I got no regrets. It's cute and a LOT healthier. I'm now on the fence as to what to do about the show. I had every intention of using my clip-in extensions. Now I'm wondering if I should just flat-iron it and wear it down. I don't know. Here is a pic...

I'm late but I love these! You don't even look like the same person

[stephanielynn76]

8 weeks out... back



... scale still acting crazy... 139.5 today. :/

[pastorpritch]

Great work!!! Hard to believe you're 8 weeks out, seems like you're ready now

[BubsNBean]

You're my hero

[rachelily]

8 weeks out... back



... scale still acting crazy... 139.5 today. :/

the shoulderrrrrr

your back already looks incredible, don't worry about the scale! i cant believe you've still got 8 weeks to go too!