#100kreasons Ashley's 12 week transformation to a bikini bum

[AsheTuff]

Hello everyone! This is my first time making a journal. I am hoping it will keep me motivated during my 12 week transportation.

About Me:
I am a full-time university student studying engineering at UBC. I am in my third year right now. Up until now, I have never made any time for improving my health; I was always "too busy" because of school. I have never been truly happy with my body; however, this 2014 Transformation Challenge has motivated me. I am excited to participate in this challenge and am excited to see results from myself and others too !

The Plan:
Because I am new to weight-lifting, I decided to follow a pre-built program. I am following Jim Stoppani's Six-Week Shortcut to Shred program. I am planning to repeat it twice to make 12 weeks. I am following his diet program too: 1-1.5 gram of protein per gram of body weight and .5 grams of fat per gram of body weight. For supplementation, I am taking: multi-vitamin morning and night; fish oil morning and night; vitamin D morning and night; calcium morning and night; matcha tea pre-workout, creatine pre-workout; BCAA pre and post-workout; L-carnitine pre-workout; glutamine morning, pre, and post workout; whey protien post-workout; gummy bears post workout (Stoppani reccomends this, crazy!). It's a lot of supplementation, but I want to follow his program as close as possible.

Yesterday was Day 1:
My energy levels were very high, even though I just finished 7 hours of school. In addition to Stoppani's program, I did a light 15 minutes of plyometrics in the morning to jump start my day; it felt good to sweat out all of those gross toxins I have been consuming before today. Overall, the workout went well, I enjoy doing Stoppani's accelerated cardio options instead of resting. I hope to be stronger next week! I have attached my workout log and diet log below.

[AsheTuff]

My biggest challenge thus far has been consuming enough fat. I found on the forums that I need at least 0.5 grams per body weight (that's a lot!). My body doesn't react well to nuts I find, so I have been struggling to find alternatives. I had a glass of coconut milk yesterday and it did the job! I also had avocados + cooking oils.

I am still motivated; however, I had a big "oops!" yesterday. I forgot that my gym closed at 8pm on weekends, leaving me with only 40 minutes to do Shoulders/Legs/ Calves on Jim'a Shortcut-to-Shred program ! I cut out 30% of his workouts because I was short in time. Overall, I did good. I feel it in my glutes and shoulders today

Attached is a list of foods I ate yesterday and my weights and reps from my workout

[AsheTuff]

Did 20 minutes of cardio this morning! I have been doing my morning cardio in my living room. I usually just do 20 minutes of Sean T's Insanity CD: 10 min warmup + 10 min of extremeness~

Still haven't broken my diet yet! It's starting to get easier managing all my meals. I was hard wieghing everything out at first, but I have started to develop a system.

Day 3 I did Shoulders/Legs/Calves. It's still really crowded at the gym. I wanted to use the squat rack, but it was in very high demand, so i opted for the smith machine. I wish i could get lower in my squats. Even without weight, I fall over on my bum :/ Flexibility maybe? Not sure.

[AsheTuff]

Gummy Bears for post workout?! Jim Stoppani says to take them because it spikes your insulin levels faster than fruit. Strangest thing I have ever heard, but they do taste so good after an hour at the gym !

Day 4 was Chest/Tri/Abs. He switches the week from low reps to high reps, and today I was doing high reps. The exercises were mostly isolated movements, so i had a hard time getting my heart rate high. It was also REALLY busy at the gym. I had a hard time finding a space for myself to lift. I am definitely going to go earlier for Day 5's workout.

In terms of diet, I did really well. I ate too many fats in the morning by accident, however; it left no room for many carbs after my workout :'(. I won't make the same mistake again.

[AsheTuff]

Day 5 was shoulders/Legs/Calves. Overall I had a pretty good workout. I managed to burn 551 calories during my workout and feasted on homemade tomato soup with rice afterwards! I have to share this recipe because it was absolutely delicious. I roasted 5 tomatoes, 2 red peppers, and 1 onion. I blended it all together and heated it together on the stove big some basic seasoning (salt, garlic, lemon pepper). I had 1/3 cup of coconut milk to top it off ! SOO GOOD!

I also made a macro in excel to auto fill my macro-nutrients for me when I add the given quantity. It makes recording so much easier (more time for studying).

[AsheTuff]

Day 6 was supposed to be back and bi. The morning after my shoulder exercise, I woke up with a soreness in what felt like my lungs whenever I took a deep breath. It gradually got worse throughout the day. I think its my chest muscle? It does not hurt so much to breath, but it hurts when I stretch out my chest, bend over, or look over to the side. What do you think it is? How long should I take off from the gym? Is it safe to work my back even though it hurts when I contract it? Also, I should mention, I did not feel any pain during the workout. I woke up in the morning with this sharp pain.

Day 7 a scheduled rest day, so hopefully it feels better after two days of rest. I am definitely going to be taking it easy on chest/ shoulder days for now on, possibly skipping them altogether for the next couple weeks :P Bad timing.

I ate 300 calories less on Day 6 for skipping the workout.

[AsheTuff]

Day 7 was another rest day. My chest still hurt. It is definitely not a strain or a tear. I did some research and, I guess, if I had a strain or a tear I would have felt it instantly instead of just suddenly waking up with it the next day. 50 % better. Good to go for Day 8. I stayed below maintenance level calorie wise since I did not workout for two days in a row.

[AsheTuff]

Week 1 over ! Already I feel so much better! One week ago I felt like a giant blob. I didn't want to leave the house because I felt so gross and unhappy. Overall I lost 9 pounds this week (I know most of that loss is water weight from the gross food that would sit in my intestines for days).

My goal so far has been to eat 2000 calories a day. According to my body fat% and activity level, my body burns around 2400 calories a day; thus, I am able to maintain a calories deficit with this plan. However, I am trying to gain muscle at the same time by timing most of my calorie intake after my workouts. This, in theory, will provide enough energy for my body to build muscle. I am planning on sticking to this plan for Week Two since I had good success with my fat loss in Week One. With respect to supplementation, I have been taking two calcium, vit D, multi-vit, joint supports, fishoils, BCAAs, glutamine, and just recently, L-cartinine. I also take whey protein and gummy bears right after my workouts (love love the gummy bears)!

I also took my weekly measurements. I lost inches everywhere! I am really happy with my results; however, my before and after pictures look almost identical. Hopefully I will be able to see some noticeable difference next week !

#feelingpumped

[AsheTuff]

My chest was 95% better. I still don't know how I hurt my chest/rib area or what exactly hurt. I tested out a few chest exercises at home and I felt fine. It seems that only front raises were causing me pain (I think I must have hurt myself doing this exercise on my most recent workout). Deep breaths still hurt so I decided to ease up on my cardio and focus on lifting heavy. Overall, I am happy with the workout. I increased my weight significantly; it was really shocking. Not sure if this program is THAT good or if supplements really do make a difference ;p I skipped my ab workout because my stomach started growling near the end of the workout and my body could not bare to workout abs on an empty stomach.

Motivation: 10/10!

[AsheTuff]

I have been super busy and neglecting my journal ! But I have been keeping up the good work and tracking everything. I finished week 2, and am on my third day of week 3!

[AsheTuff]

only room for 6 pictures at a time it seem~

[AsheTuff]

Completing week two was absolutely incredible. I was able to increase my weight in every exercise! This is my first time taking supplements during my workouts and I am wondering if these achievements are from the supplementation. I have strength trained in the past and have never made gains such like these before. Can't wait to workout in week 3!

I am doing Jim Stoppani's Shortcut-to-Shred program. He does cardio acceleration during his rest breaks. I am finding it easier and easier to perform his cardio recommendations and harder to get my heart rate high. One of my goals for this week is to much myself harder on the cardio acceleration, so my avg heart rate is ~125 bpm.

I am really happy with my diet for week three. I am still aiming for 2000 calories a day, and eating around 1700 on my rest days. Except for vegetables, I eat all my carbs after my workout (saving the carbs so i can spike up my insulin levels after my workout); I think it's working;p

Unfortunately, I only lost 0.5 pounds this week; BUT, I lost over 2 cm of fat ! Yeah, overall a good week. I am starting to see a difference in my before and after picture.

[AsheTuff]

I bought a 2x2.5 pounds for the barbells at my gym. I got to use them during my Chest workout! Again, I increased my weight and lifted 80 POUNDS! Ahh! That is my all time record. I tried lifter that much last summer and the barbell fell on top of me ;'P I saw an increase in my legs day too. I squated two 45 plates with two 10 plates ;'P (another new record even though it was only for 5 reps).

Diet is clean and I am still going strong ! Back and Bi later tonight, Lifting heavy!